Edison Newsreels: San Francisco Earthquake aftermath (1906)

★★★★★ · A must see education piece if I ever saw one - for historical, anthropological, philosophical, and technical reasons · RobertReese · 2011-07-31

Wow.. on so many levels. Shot, apparently by HAND by Edison himself, in the aftermath of the 1906 SF earthquake. The historical value of this footage cannot be stressed. Anthropologically, to glimpse what life and lifestyle was like at the turn of the century is eye-opening. It really didn't sink in that horses were still the primary mode of transportation, and that ALL of the roads were dirt - yet the advent of the motor carriage and the motion picture camera are clearly objects of interest due to their obvious rarity. Even somthing as mundane as clothing of the era is interesting and has…

★★★★★ · SanFranEarthquake · wizard100 · 2007-01-24

Just a note on a film relating to this. The 1936 b/w film "San Francisco" with Clark Gable had a one channel optical soundtrack that incorporated into it the actual seismograph of the 1906 earthquake so the rumbling that shook the theatre was the same rumbling that shook SanFran. This in contrast to the 1974 film "Earthquake" that merely had the soundtrack 'trigger' a device that produced pseudo-quake rumbling. regarding the 1936 film, aside from one theatre showing it in the mid 1970s which i was involved with, it was only shown at it's premiere in 1936 with a sound system that would…

★★★★★ · soio8a9fsa get lost! · GapOkie · 2012-11-10

this ain't no sales site. zero stars for you; five for the film.

★★ · Only a fire.. keep moving. · Spuzz · 2005-12-17

Fairly faint footage that features the aftermath of the quake and fire in San Fransisco in 1906. Fairly surreal of course is that this film is almost exactly 100 years old, and here I am, watching it now! Anyways, a heck of a lot doesnÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂt really happen in this, just a lot of people wandering around. WhatÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs left of the buildings looks eerily like Ground Zero in 2001.