| The Kiss | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | William Heise |
| Based on | The Widow Jones 1895 Broadway musical byJohn J. McNally |
| Starring | May Irwin John Rice |
| Distributed by | Thomas A. Edison, Inc. |
Release date |
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Running time | 18 seconds |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English (silent) |
The Kiss (also known asThe May Irwin Kiss,The Rice-Irwin Kiss andThe Widow Jones) is an 1896short film, and was one of the first films ever shown commercially to the public. Around 18 seconds long, it depicts a re-enactment of the kiss betweenMay Irwin andJohn Rice from the final scene of the stage musicalThe Widow Jones. The film was directed byWilliam Heise forThomas Edison. The film was produced in April 1896 at theEdison Studios of Edison, the firstfilm studio in the United States. At the time, Edison was working at theBlack Maria studios inWest Orange, New Jersey.
In 1999, the short was deemed "culturally significant" by the United StatesLibrary of Congress and selected for preservation in theNational Film Registry.[1][2]
The film was one of the last shot atEdison's Black Maria.[3]
According toCharles Musser the film was released in either April or May 1896,[4] and was publicized in a sponsored article in theNew York World about actors kissing on stage. The article discussed the controversy surrounding onstage kissing and, along with an illustration of the Irwin and Rice kiss, referred readers toThe Widow Jones and the Edison film. The campaign sought to bring attention to the newspaper, play, and movie all at once.[3] The film was shown during demonstrations of theVitascope.[5]
Charles Frohman was initially against the film, stating that "I shall have to consider replacing Miss Irwin" inThe Widow Jones, but then asked for Edson Raff to have advertising for the short include that Irwin was the star ofThe Widow Jones.[6]
The film was sold to exhibitors for $7.50 ($232 in 2020) and it was being shown at the end of almost every show by the fall of 1896.[3]
The film contained the very first kiss on film, with a close-up of a nuzzling duo followed by a short peck on the lips ("the mysteries of the kiss revealed"). The kissing scene was denounced as shocking and obscene to early moviegoers and caused theRoman Catholic Church to call for censorship and moral reform, as kissing in public at the time could lead to prosecution.[7][better source needed]
The film caused a scandalized uproar and occasioned disapproving newspaper editorials and calls for police action in many places where it was shown. One contemporary critic wrote, "The spectacle of the prolonged pasturing on each other's lips was beastly enough in life size on the stage but magnified to gargantuan proportions and repeated three times over it is absolutely disgusting."[8]
However, according to Dengler (1979) in theJournal of Popular Film and Television, the shocked reaction of the general public is a myth.[9]
The Edison catalogue advertised it this way: "They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss and kiss and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time."
Perhaps in defiance, and "to spice up a film", this was followed by many kiss imitators and take-offs, includingSomething Good – Negro Kiss (1898),[10]The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899) andThe Kiss (1900).
For a number of years, it was believed that a showing ofThe Kiss was the first film publicly shown inCanada, projected in West End Park,Ottawa, on July 21, 1896. It has since been learned that the competingLumière BrothersCinematograph had already exhibited different films inMontreal 24 days earlier, on June 27, 1896.[11]
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