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William HeiseAdmiral Cigarette (1897)

Early advertising film from the Edison Manufacturing Co.

Copied at 26fps from a 35mm print preserved by the Library of Congress.


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: William Heise
Sponsor: Edison Mfg. Co.
Audio/Visual: silent, black & white

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: dubldeka - - August 3, 2009
Subject: Edison despised Cigarettes
Whilst he permitted Cigars and pipes Edison Expressly forbade his workers to smoke Cigarettes.
He believed that the paper that wrapped the cigarette was toxic and should not be inhaled with the tobacco.
He would have been grinding his teeth in the wings while this was being filmed.
Also the lady just puffs the smoke not inhaling it

Reviewer: DiamondPaul - - November 12, 2008
Subject: Hey yall
Weelll I foind this veerry offensive! Just funing with you. Loved it even though I'm and ex smoker. Smoke em if ya got em. I'm thankfull for IA that things like this are being preserved.

Reviewer: bread - - September 14, 2006
Subject: intersting
I found this ad very interesting. Considering how old it is, it's amazing it still exists. Well worth the download, one of the best films in the archive.

Reviewer: Paul Wicks - - March 19, 2006
Subject: Talk About Legacy Media!
Beside being simultaneously ad hoc and elaborately staged, this is (unintentionally) surreal.

Previous reviewers seem to have been too stunned by the clear vision of living, [smoke] breathing people, walking around during the Grover Cleveland adminstration, to notice something that will seem obvious, once it's pointed-out: That's no man, throwing money around; that's a woman... dropping handfuls of cigarettes.

This little s[p]lice of history also contains a conspicuous white guy in an ersatz American Indian headdress. A member of the Heckowee tribe, perhaps?

Students of market segmentation will notice the use of representational profiles, depicted using the product, as examples to be emulated. I wonder if this was as ineffective, 112 years ago, as we recognize it to be, today.

Will we appear any less misguided than the actors in Edison's commercial, to the people of 2108, assuming they're able to view our media?

Reviewer: jammer_g - - December 28, 2005
Subject: WE ALL SMOKEÃÂADMIRAL CIGARETTES
ÃÂWE ALL SMOKEÃÂADMIRAL CIGARETTESÃÂ is the slogan, as the actors unfurl a banner that says ÃÂwe all smokeÃÂ and then all point to the backdrop depicting this brand of cigarettes. Rather an early commercial that may have been filmed from the moving picture peep show machine patented by Samuel Goodale in 1861. Interesting nevertheless.

Reviewer: Christine Hennig - - September 2, 2005
Subject: Hello, Folks! Smoking Is Good for You!
Made in 1897, this is most likely the first commercial ever filmed. It features a group of strangely-dressed characters (one of them looks like Uncle Sam) sitting next to a giant package of Admiral Cigarettes. Suddenly a guy dressed like Napoleon pops out of the giant cigarette package and starts throwing money around (literally). The characters unroll a banner that says, "WE ALL SMOKE'. OK. An 1897 Edison film.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.

Reviewer: Wilford B. Wolf - - July 21, 2005
Subject: We all smoke
Probably the oldest film available on the archive.org website, here is a very early film advertisment for Admiral Cigarettes. A group of men are sitting down, when a man in a admiral costume emerges from a box, prances around, and seems to scatter cigarettes. Then the men reveal a sign saying "We all smoke." The framing and staging are still in their primative state, only begining to move from the stage idea to creating a language specific for film.

An important example of early film making and a welcome addition to the digital age.