Boarding School Girls Coney Island Outing
July-August 1905
Thomas Edison Manufacturing co.
Camera: Edwin S. Porter
BOARDING SCHOOL GIRLS
☛ [0:15] Miss Knapp's young ladies from the Select School are taking a trip to Coney Island. Here they come out of their Posh Brooklyn Brownstone dorm. Miss Knapp looks like she runs a tight ship. She's hired a charabang to get them there. Who ever would have thought that people getting into a vehicle could be entertaining? Look at the size of that thing, not to mention those dresses! Its like the ever classic 'Clown Car' in reverse. I'll bet all of those open parasols put some serious drag on that automobile.
☛ [1:40] Ahh! Here we are.....the main strip, Surf Avenue...Coney Island! The girls depart the tank like embroidered paratroopers.
DREAMLAND
☛ [2:35] OH! The sun and the salty air.....rented bathing suits, lots of sand, a sneaky prank, poor Miss Knapp. We should all go and get wet.....Hotcha.....''Sodom by the Sea''! And another edit takes us to.....
STEEPLECHASE PARK ''The Funny Place''
☛ [4:05] Some girls go for an exotic ride on a genuine Arabian camel. There goes Miss Knapp, performing her dour duty. Suddenly we're in William Reynolds's Dreamland. There's Henry Roltair's magnificent thirty foot tall bare breasted statue ''Creation'' which fronts the entrance to the show of the same name. The show consisted of life-sized moving multimedia dioramas presenting an edifying elocution of pertinent truth. ''Morally instructive and uplifting'' unlike the tawdry and far more popular thrill ride ''Trip to the Moon'' that Luna Park offers. After probably fidgeting and giggling through Miss Knapp's choice of fig leaf covered entertainment, the girls make a mad dash for some tawdry thrills as some of them brave a ''roll the barrel'' ride, one of Steeplechase Park's surefire lunch eliminators. Miss Knapp just can't keep up, and neither did the editor on this thing. A quick ham fisted splice of the bamboo Helter-Skelter and we're smack back in Steeplechase watching the race track. Here come the girls, two on a horse. There's Miss Knapp way behind. She certainly is consistent. Ghasp! Apparently ''side saddle'' was not permitted. Wow! Coney Island seems to have recognized woman's suffrage before everyone else! Bet that same move would've gotten any woman arrested in Central Park.
☛ [7:10] Meanwhile out of sequence and back on the sand the fair sex promenade on the beach without need of sun screen or leg shaving. Two fellas ever the Victorian Gentlemen, bring up the rear. These guys are waiting for the 1920s when women's bare legs will become an industry and permissible on the beach. The girls will have to wait till the 1930s before men can bare their chests!
In the meantime the only way to keep cool besides a swim was to ride something breezy like swing boats. Guaranteed to keep any chaperon at a frantic but safe distance. Those staid Victorian sensibilities ain't nothin' but trouble for a pack of teens. Not to worry though, because the 'Gilded Age' is drawing to a close and the Jazz Age will soon be here. The devil himself is gonna spin that "noise", raise those hems and help some of these young ladies skirt prohibition. Thank goodness.
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