''2 A. M. in the Subway'' is a one shot, 53 second-long

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

filmed, and probably directed, by

Billy Bitzer Gottfried Wilhelm Bitzer (April 21, 1872 – April 29, 1944) was an American cinematographer, notable for his close association and pioneering work with D. W. Griffith. Biography Prior to his career as a cameraman, working as a motion picture pr ...

on June 5, 1905 at the

American Mutoscope and Biograph Company The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, ...

's (AM&B) studio on 14th Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Likely intended as a slightly racy, and therefore rather typical, subject for AM&B's peepshow machine, The Mutoscope, ''2 A. M. in the Subway'' is a

vignette Vignette may refer to: * Vignette (entertainment), a sketch in a sketch comedy * Vignette (graphic design), decorative designs in books (originally in the form of leaves and vines) to separate sections or chapters * Vignette (literature), short, i ...

of New York City's

night life Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...

that still resonates with New Yorkers more than a century later.

Plot summary

A tired cop and a subway conductor are seen waiting at a subway platform, late at night. The conductor opens the doors to the train at left, and out steps an obviously

drunk Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ps ...

man, played by

Sidney Olcott Sidney Olcott (born John Sidney Allcott, September 20, 1872 – December 16, 1949) was a Canadian-born film producer, director, actor and screenwriter. Biography Born John Sidney Allcott in Toronto, he became one of the first great direc ...

, carried between two women in

fancy dress A costume party (American English) or fancy dress party (other varieties of English) is a type of party, common in contemporary Western culture, in which many of the guests are dressed in costume, usually depicting a fictional or stock chara ...

. The cop begins to mix it up with the three of them, and they are interrupted by another man in a

bowler hat The bowler hat, also known as a billycock, bob hat, bombín (Spanish) or derby (United States), is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849. It has traditionally been worn ...

; he is carrying a large package and steps onto the train to the right after greeting the two women and the drunk man. One of the women steps forward into the frame and lifts up her skirt so that the drunk man can tie her

shoe A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture t ...

. This gets the attention of the cop, who hustles the three of them onto the train; meanwhile what appears to be a pair of bare legs stick out from a window of a train car and are quickly withdrawn. The cop just manages to notice this, and calls all parties back out to the platform where it is revealed that the man in the bowler hat has a pair of

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

mannequin's legs with him.

Historical background

On May 21, 1905,

had made his film ''Interior N.Y. subway, 14th St. to 42nd St.'' from the front of a New York City Subway car; at that point the Subway itself had been open only seven months. The very day that subject was submitted for

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

, this one was made at the Biograph studio; it was copyrighted on 20 June. Although the six

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

s involved are unidentified, aside from

, the action is obviously tightly coordinated in order to get all of the action into such a short subject. AM&B sent two

paper print Paper prints of films were an early mechanism to establish the copyright of motion pictures by depositing them with the Library of Congress. Thomas Alva Edison’s company was first to register each frame of motion-picture film onto a positive pape ...

s of this film for copyright, and the better of the two copies was rephotographed for

preservation Preservation may refer to: Heritage and conservation * Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible * ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2 A. M. In The Subway 1905 films 1905 comedy films 1905 short films 1900s American films 1900s English-language films American black-and-white films American silent short films Biograph Company films One-shot short films Silent American comedy films Surviving American silent films