'Those Awful Hats' (1909)

Directed by D.W. Griffith
Cinematographer: G.W. Bitzer
Released January 25, 1909 by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company
Features an early use of what would become the Williams Process of traveling matte photography.
Featured Players: Mack Sennett (in checkered coat), Flora Finch (in largest hat) and Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl (in audience).
Some history about the first "star", Florence Lawrence.
Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl, was fired from Biograph when it was learned that she was negotiating with Carl Laemmle.
Carl Laemmle started IMP (Independent Motion Picture Company) in late 1909, and refused to join the monopolistic Motion Picture Trust (D.W. Griffith, Thomas Edison and others). The Trust took action, both legal and otherwise, to discourage Carl Laemmle from producing films on his own. Florence Lawrence and her husband, director Harry Solter, signed on as IMP's first featured players. In 1910 Carl Laemmle, partly out of anger over the Trust's actions, such as hiring thugs to attack his film crews and wreck his equipment, decided to advertise the fact that he had Miss Lawrence. This was the first time a motion picture player was billed by name and the beginning of the "star system".

[@mitchellalexander9162]

The Original Ye Olde 'Please Silence Your Cell Phones'

[@lindapapatopoli2736]

Wish they could do that with backpacks in buses.

[@johncantwell8216]

That hat-removal device was great. Just like the ones in amusement machines where you try to grab a prize.

[@larryaldrich4351]

Like the giant hats worn by the "Titanic" women. A few years later they went the other way with the little, tight- fitting cloche.

[@caroltenge5147]

This is a total laff riot. Front page stuff!

[@jeffrey8959]

Any idea if an original score was written for it? What score are you using?

[@KenHoranUniversal]

I don't know if an original score was written for this film. This UA-cam video is a transfer of a 16mm print Blackhawk Films sold in the mid-1970's. The score they used is from their library of generic silent era music.

[@altair227]

1909 feels ancient even though it was just 114 years ago.