Tom Old Boot

Tom Old Boot
Directed byGeorges Méliès
StarringTom Old Boot
Production
company
Release date
  • 1896 (1896)
CountryFrance
LanguageSilent

Tom Old Boot (a grotesque dwarf) (French: Tom Old Boot (nain grotesque)) was an 1896 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is film #75 in its catalogues.

Though no synopsis survives, the film appears to have captured a performance by Tom Old Boot, a small-sized entertainer, who played at Méliès's stage venue, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, as an "American dwarf" ("nain americain"). The magazine La Vie Parisienne reported that Tom Old Boot was playing at the Robert-Houdin Theatre in late December 1895, at Thursday and Sunday matinées. The reports claimed that the performances were a great success, getting many laughs, especially from the children in the audiences. The newspaper Le Petit Parisien reported on the March 1896 performances at the Robert-Houdin and called Tom Old Boot a "joyful, eccentric, dwarf comedian" ("joyeux nain comic excentric").

The film Tom Old Boot is presumed lost.

References

  1. 1 2 Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 337, ISBN 9782732437323
  2. ↑ Malthête, Jacques (1996), Méliès: images et illusions, Paris: Exporégie, p. 203
  3. ↑ Guido, Laurent (2014), "De la performance scénique à la ciné-chorégraphie: Les avatars de la danse chez Georges Méliès", in Malthête, Jacques; Gaudreault, André; Le Forestier, Laurent (eds.), Méliès, carrefour des attractions; suivi de Correspondances de Georges Méliès (1904-1937), Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, pp. 63–72 (here 63)
  4. ↑ Pitt (1895-12-21), "Paris-Partout", La Vie Parisienne, 33 (51): 742
  5. ↑ "Courrier des Théâtres", Le Petit Parisien, 21 (7079): 3, 1896-03-15