''The Kiss'' (also known as ''The May Irwin Kiss'', ''The Rice-Irwin Kiss'' and ''The Widow Jones'') is an 1896 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 between

May Irwin May Irwin (born Georgina May Campbell; June 27, 1862 – October 22, 1938) was an actress, singer and star of vaudeville. Originally from Canada, she and her sister Flo Irwin found theater work after their father died. She was known for her per ...

and John Rice from the final scene of the stage musical ''

The Widow Jones ''The Widow Jones'' was an 1895 New York City stage musical comedy. Thomas Edison hired the play's stars, May Irwin and John Rice, to recreate the kiss seen in act 1 of the play for the 1896 short film, '' The Kiss'', made in Edison's Kinetoscop ...

.'' The film was directed by

William Heise William Heise (1847–1910) was a German-born American film cinematographer and director, active in the 1890s and credited for more than 175 short silent films. Heise filmed a "We All Smoke" skit promoting Admiral Cigarettes in 1897. Heise is be ...

for

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

. The film was produced in April 1896 at the

Edison Studios Edison Studios was an American film production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then Thom ...

of Edison, the first

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

in the United States. At the time, Edison was working at the

Black Maria Black Maria may refer to: Art and literature * Black Mariah (comics), a character in the Luke Cage comics series * Black Maria, a character in the manga series ''One Piece'' * ''Black Maria'' (novel), a 1991 novel by Diana Wynne Jones *''Blac ...

studios in

West Orange, New Jersey West Orange is a suburban township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 48,843, an increase of 2,636 (+5.7%) from the 46,207 counted in the 2010 Census.

. In 1999, the short was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

and selected for preservation in the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...

Cast

as Widow Jones * John Rice as Billie Bikes

Production

The film was one of the last shot at

Edison's Black Maria The Black Maria ( ) was Thomas Edison's film production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. It was the world's first film studio. History In 1893, the world's first film production studio, the Black Maria, or the cinematographic Theater, wa ...

Release

According to

Charles Musser Charles John Musser (born 16 January 1951) is a film historian and documentary film maker. Since 1992 he has taught at Yale University, where he is currently a professor of Film and Media Studies as well as American Studies and Theater Studies. H ...

the film was released in either April or May 1896, and was publicized in a sponsored article in the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...

'' 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 to ''The Widow Jones'' and the Edison film. The campaign sought to bring attention to the newspaper, play, and movie all at once. The film was shown during demonstrations of the

Vitascope Vitascope was an early film projector first demonstrated in 1895 by Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat. They had made modifications to Jenkins' patented Phantoscope, which cast images via film and electric light onto a wall or screen. The ...

Charles Frohman Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Notably, he produced ''Peter Pan'', both in London and the US, the latter production ...

was initially against the film, stating that "I shall have to consider replacing Miss Irwin" in ''

'', but then asked for Edson Raff to have advertising for the short include that Irwin was the star of ''The Widow Jones''. 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.

Reaction

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 the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

to call for censorship and moral reform, as kissing in public at the time could lead to prosecution.Sex in Cinema: Pre-1920s
/ref> 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." However, according to Dengler (1979) in the ''Journal of Popular Film and Television'', the shocked reaction of the general public is a myth. 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, including ''

Something Good – Negro Kiss ''Something Good – Negro Kiss'' is a short silent film from 1898 of a couple kissing and holding hands. It is believed to depict the earliest on-screen kiss involving African Americans and is known for departing from the prevalent and purely ste ...

'' (1898), ''

The Kiss in the Tunnel ''The Kiss in the Tunnel'', also known as ''A Kiss in the Tunnel'', is a 1899 in film, 1899 film UK, British Short subject, short silent film, silent comedy film, produced and directed by George Albert Smith (inventor), George Albert Smith, sh ...

'' (1899) and ''The Kiss'' (1900).

Public exposure

For a number of years, it was believed that a showing of ''The Kiss'' was the first film publicly shown in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, projected in West End Park,

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, on July 21, 1896. It has since been learned that the competing

Lumière Brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: * Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People *Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV * Institut Lumière, ...

Cinematograph Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the Cin ...

had already exhibited different films in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

24 days earlier, on June 27, 1896.Gaudreault, André and Lacasse, Germain (1996). "The Introduction of the Lumière Cinematograph in Canada", ''Canadian Journal of Film Studies'', Volume 5, No. 2.

References

Works cited

* * *

External links

*
''The Kiss''
at

''The Kiss''
video and biography of

''The Kiss''
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

*''The Kiss'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, Bloomsbury Academic, 2010 , pages 4–

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiss, The 1896 films 1890s American films American silent short films United States National Film Registry films American black-and-white films Films shot in New Jersey Kissing Films directed by William Heise Articles containing video clips Edison Manufacturing Company films 1890s romance films American romance films 1896 short films Obscenity controversies in film