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Inexhaustible Cab

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Title	Inexhaustible Cab
Creator	Lubin
Description	This one-shot comedy was taken on a city street with a white shuttered, two-story building in the background, a fire-plug and police call-box on the corner in mid-ground, and a horse-drawn wagon parked at the curb around the corner. As passersby cross in the street, a cab pulled by two white horses enters from screen-right, and a Clown gets out. In a reversal of the familiar circus trick, the Clown pulls people off the street and stuffs an impossible number into the cab. A woman with an infant is pushed in and the youngster tossed on top. He finally slaps one woman on the behind with a flat board to drive her in. The trick effect is smoothly accomplished through the stop-camera technique discernible by the slight up and down rocking of the carriage on its springs as a result of people entering and exiting between each pause in filming. Though an embossed Lubin logo heads the print, the February, 1903 Edison catalog also lists a similar film called Inexhaustible Cab with this description: A cab is driven up to a palatial mansion after being hailed by a gentleman who wishes to have a score of people conveyed to another part of the city. Immediately upon the stopping of the cab a clown jumps out. A satisfactory agreement is effected between the clown and the gentleman... [a woman] who is carrying a child...After caressing it for a short time he tosses it on top of the cab. [He]...picks up a board.... (emphases added)(6)While certain elements in the print match the Edison description, many are different: No gentleman hails the cab to begin the action; no group is waiting when it arrives; the location of a busy street corner is not 'a palatial mansion', but the 'prominent thoroughfare' of the 1902 Lubin catalog account (7) These important differences suggest there were two similar but distinct films with the same title. Unfortunately, the SWFVA print stops shortly before the end, neither showing the Clown's trick disappearance (Lubin description) nor the cab simply driving away (Edison version). A British release of the same title and basic description was produced by George A. Smith in 1899. (Gifford, 00237). Still, the marked discrepancies between the American producers' descriptions lends weight to the possibility of at least one additional variation, whether by Lubin or Edison(8). (Worland, 1995: http://www.fiafnet.org/pdf/uk/fiaf51.pdf)
Contributors	Worland, Rick
Original Date	1901
Original Format	35 mm nitrate film
Related Resources	Worland, R. 1995. The Sulphur Springs, Texas early films discovery. Journal of Film Preservation 51: 54-64. http://www.fiafnet.org/pdf/uk/fiaf51.pdf (Note: go to page 56 in the.pdf file)
Item Number	SSM19
Type	Video
Digitization Date	Digitized for web: 2011
Digital Format	TRT 00:00:56.72; Archival File: Video: DV-NTSC, 640 x 480; Streaming File: Presented in Vimeo as 480 x 360
Digitization Process	Files were ripped from source DVD to create NTSC .mov master file. Utilized reverse-telecine using standard 2s3w pattern to create a 640x480, 23.98fps, square pixel master file. Uploaded .mp4 derivative to Vimeo.
Web Page	http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/cul/ssm/stream/SSM19_Stream.html
Movie File	ssm19_cab_up.mp4
SMU File Path	ARCHIVE\ContentDM\Hamon\SSM_SulphurSpringsMovies\SSM_Stream
Related SMU Files	DIGITAL MASTERS: ARCHIVE\ContentDM\ Hamon\SSM_SulphurSpringsMovies\SSM_Masters. PROJECT FILES: PROJECT\Libraries\DigitalCollections\ Hamon\SSM_SulphurSpringsMovies
Digital Collection	Sulphur Springs Collection of Pre-Nickelodeon Films
Part of	Sulphur Springs
Library	Hamon Library
Publisher	Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University
Rights	This movie has been determined to be in the public domain. Under this copyright status, it may be freely used. Please cite Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, G. William Jones Film and Video Collection as the source of this file. For more information, contact filmarchive@smu.edu.

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Inexhaustible Cab

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