Found in the Library of Congress collection at YouTube when I was looking for some film of Annie Oakley, to use in the previous post. I did find an Annie Oakley clip — from 1894 — but I just didn't think it was interesting enough. But here.
Maybe you think that's more interesting than 4 young ladies, in their nightgowns, having a romp in 1897." To me, it's more interesting that, in the first decade of movie-making, the idea of girls pillow-fighting came up. Filming a famous performer is obviously something you'd want to do.
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28 comments:
I wasn't sure what to expect but that was adorable.
Wholesome.
Didn’t they plagiarize this in Animal House?
The film camera was invented specifically to document girls pillowfighting (and what comes next.)
And jumping on trampolines in bikinis.
"IF they say, why? why? Tell 'em that it's human nature... why? why? Do they do it that way?"
FLC kind of beat me to it, but I will state the proposition more generally: The need for more and better porn is responsible for every technological advance.
RR
JSM
You're so sweet and naive for all those years you've got on ya, miss...
Did the foot porn recordings survive??
This. This is the origin story for one of those TV-only tropes I grew up with, like fathers looking earnestly at their grown boy and saying “You are my son.” Just doesn’t happen in real life. I’ve never met anyone who admits being in pillow fight but I’ve seen it 1000 times in films and TV shows.
And Mosby is 100% correct.
If my mother had seen us kids busting up the pillows, bought with hard-earned money, we'd have had a real fight on our hands.
Girls having a gay old time.
Regarding the Annie Oakley clip, perhaps part of your problem. Althouse, is that she makes the very difficult appear to be ridiculously easy. As a former competitive shooter myself I note several things that are easy to overlook, such as using her left arm to keep the rifle in her shoulder and her eye on her sights as she cocks the lever action rifle. That takes a lot of practice and a fair amount of strength in your non-dominant arm.
As part of her act Annie Oakley used to shoot coins out of the air and that is probably what she’s doing doing in the second half of the clip. Anybody here think that’s easy? You’re welcome to try it! (Assuming you can find someone willing to kneel down range of you to toss the coins into the air.)
Watching that clip I was struck by the thought that 1894 Annie Oakley would be pretty competitive against 2025 professional female shooters like Randi Rogers..
The Annie Oakley clip was great, and even better, YouTube then provided me with a list of other Library of Congress films. I had no idea we were spending tax money on this.
That was the porn of 1897.
I guess someday I will figure out what other man find so sexy about young women having a pillow fight. The shapeless 19th century nightgowns are scarcely lascivious, but one must remember that in the 19th century the sight of a “well turned ankle” was supposed to be very exciting for the average man.
The pillow fight in Jean Vigo's Zéro de conduite was classic ... or epic ... or both ...
I don't recall any pillow fights in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven but he was able to do remarkable things with dust or locust in the air at the "magic hour" or "golden hour" between sunset and night.
The LOC is worried about Trump trying to take them over. They should really publicize themselves as a porn archive. That will cause internecine warfare between the MAGA libertarian-libertines and the MAGA social conservatives.
RR
JSM
This is contrived and scripted film. It's meant to be visual art to show the views. The one girl leaping off the bed, then with her back to the viewers switches ends of the pillow which isn't sewn shut. It's a cotton sack of feathers. Clever gage.
I'm surprised Bondi released this footage.
A history of feather beds in America. https://usbirdhistory.com/feather-bed/
Per Bob B, they should superimpose John Belushi over the film, turning and snidely looking back at the camera.
As others have said, that would've made for a mighty racy picture back in 1897.
I wanted more Annie Oakley.
"Her most famous trick was to split a playing card, edge-on, and shoot several more holes in it before it hit the ground, using a . 22 caliber at 90 feet." That's impressive. I couldn't even see the edge at 90 feet.
Annie Oakley was my family's first brush with fame:
The great-grandmother was a seamstress near Asbury Park, NJ. Annie Oakley was performing in town and one of her costumes got torn, so she came to my great-grandmother's house/business to get it mended. All I know from family lore is that Mrs. Oakley was very polite, but while she was waiting she smoked a cigarette (!) in the front room.
"All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun." Jean-Luc Godard.
Or four girls and four pillows!
The following 3:45 requires a credit card and proof of age.
We have a single recording of Brahm's voice from this era. He introduces and plays one of his own compositions on a Victrola recording. It's a bit haunting.
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