Earliest motion picture of uilleann piper? Edison 1906

[nwhitmer]

This is new to me. "Kathleen Mavourneen" a movie produced by the Edison studio, 1906. Scene with piper about 12 minutes in. A YouTube version here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYCB2J5mkBw

It is also on DVD, to my eye perhaps a slightly clearer image, in the set "Edison The Invention of the Movies" published by KINO International, 2005. It is on DVD 2.

Enjoy!

Nick Whitmer

[dunnp]

Any ideas who it might be?
They seem to love the regs. Wish there was audio.
Great find Nick

[kathaleenypoopa]

Do you suppose the piper is left-handed?

K

[tommykleen]

...Pat C 2 E?

[PJ]

It's hard to make out the pipes, but the reg keys look big. I'd wager that they're tayloresque, which, with the left-handed piper, would push the vote towards Tuohey as the piper.

The IMDB link has very little information.

[NicoMoreno]

Direct link: https://youtu.be/nYCB2J5mkBw?t=711

Also some interesting commentary http://www.screeningthepast.com/2012/02 ... can-press/

[NicoMoreno]

One more link with a bit more info, but nothing on the piper:
http://www.tcd.ie/irishfilm/print.php?e ... arch=title

I'll just say that while it certainly could be Touhey, there were a lot more "vaudeville" and stage pipers out there, and this might be something that Charles McNurney would have gotten into. Or it could have been someone else entirely.

[Mr.Gumby]

One more link with a bit more info, but nothing on the piper:
http://www.tcd.ie/irishfilm/print.php?e ... arch=title

They do, interesting in itself, list another Kathleen Mavourneen. With an identified piper:

Title KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN
KATHLEEN
Production company Argyle Talking Pictures
Country of origin Great Britain
Producer ARGYLE, John F.
Director LEE, Norman
Script/Adaptation DEANS, Majorie
Photography LANGLEY, Brian
Sound recording MIDGLEY, Frank
Editing DICKERTON, F.H.
Songs 'Kathleen Mavouneen' sung by Tom Burke.
Cast Sally O'Neil (Kathleen O'Moore), Jack Daly (Dennis O'Dwyer), Tom Burke (Michael Rooney), Sara Allgood (Mary Ellen O'Dwyer), Jeanne Stuart (Barbara Fitzpatrick), Pat Noonan (Sean O'Dwyer), Ethel Griffies agg (Hannah O'Dwyer), Baby Brenda (Sheila O'Moore), John Forbes-Robertson (Pat O'Moore), Denis O'Neil (Matt Cooney), Fred Duprez (Walter Bryant), Talbot O'Farrell (Dan Milligan), J A O'Rourke (Tim Maloney), Mark Stone (dock worker), Terry Conlin (stage announcer), Frank Crawshaw (Brian Slattery), Fred Withers (Joe O'Flanagan), - specialities - Arthur Lucan and Kitty McShane, Rory 0'Connor (champion Irish step-dancer), Sean Dempsey (Irish piper), Frank Lee's Tara Ceilidh Band, the Tara Troupe of Irish Dancers

Watching the 1906 clip for the first time I couldn't help thinking he was doing Touhey's reg run for Miss McLeod with his free hand but I didn't try watch long enough to see if finger movements on the chanter could fit the tune. The film was shot in New York, that could be significant-ish.

The film is much earlier than the footage we know of, for example: Billy Andrews, James Ennis (1928), or R.O' Mealy (1938) and obviously Leo Rowsome (1959)

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Amazing. I don't think Touhey would take his hand off the chanter like that, though. Seems sacrilegious given how he was Mr. Staccato. It would be impressive to his audiences though, important as he was Mr. Showman too.

Anyway it could be truly anybody. Great find, Nick! Just in time for its centennial, too.

[NicoMoreno]

Personally I'm not sure how he'd have done this without taking his hand off the chanter:
https://youtu.be/farsgGiPx5M?t=113

Also, its centennial was a decade ago

[tompipes]

That regulator line that Touhey plays in McClouds has been miss - transcribed over the years and the big chords that he played are GD - Bg - Dg - Bg - Bg -- Bg.

So, technically, he could play it without moving the bottom hand even though that might be easier than not moving the hand.

More than likely Touhey kept his bottom hand on the chanter because the tone and tuning of the B and back D notes are consistent with the rest of the tune.

As for the chap in the footage, who knows! There were over 20 professional pipers in the US when that film was made and who's to say it was a full time musician anyway.

Great to see though!


Tommy

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

I noticed Mitchell and Small didn't quite get that right, too. They seem to have adapted the chanter work to fit what he would have played too, more legato than necessary. Going by memory here, I used to pore over that book constantly. My copy of has an almost rust colored cover, it's so dog eared.

Joe Shannon lifted the chanter up for that sequence of notes: Johnny McGreevy & Joe Shannon play The Steampacket, Morning Star and Miss McLeod's Reel - YouTube That sounds like how Joe's chanter always sounded like in tunes of that sort, maybe due to some peculiarity in how it worked; my P Brown chanter needs to be humoured on the back D here and there too.

[PJ]

Mike Carney was a leftie, played a Taylor set and lived in N Y in the late 19th /early 20th century. Could be another candidate for the first filmed piper.

[balkanut]

My sean nos dance friend tells me it is a jig step. He added a jig recorded from our local session (without piping!).

https://youtu.be/LYRuXvzcugE

[m4malious]

It's a film titled Kathleen Mavourneen. It was shot in New York in 1906. The piper featured is Sean Dempsey.

It ain't going to be the well known Sean Dempsey (of Berlin 1936 fame) as he was born in 1910....