Three acrobats - vaudeville film

Vaudeville stage act of two male and one female clown-acrobats who make use of a constructed "break-away" wall of spring-hinged windows and doors. Begins with a male clown in dark tights and leotard with a white clown collar tumbling through the set's upper window, as a second male in a light suitcoat over dark tights and leotard tumbles out the bottom window. Both men have painted faces and wild clown hair. As they chase each other in and around the wall's doors, a dark-haired woman in light tights and leotard, without greasepaint, surreptitiously hits one of the male clowns with a board. That man thinks it is the other male who has struck him, and the chase continues. This business is repeated with a bucket. As the first male clown kicks the other, however, the woman is spotted and blamed for the incident, resulting in a chase between all three "acrobats" in and out of the set's doors.
"The Buffons are artists in their line. They tumble in and out of trick doors, disappear and reappear in unexpected places in most unexpected ways. Sure to amuse the children. 50 feet"--Edison films catalog, no. 105.
20772 U.S. Copyright Office
Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 20Mar1899; 20772.
Original main title lacking.
Performers: The Three Buffons.
Duration: 0:34 at 22 fps.
Photographed in March, 1899 in Edison's Black Maria studio, West Orange, New Jersey.
Part of summary from Early motion pictures.
Paper print shelf number (LC 0844) was changed when the paper prints were re-housed.
Additional holdings for this title may be available. Contact reference librarian.
Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as digital files.
Sources used: Copyright catalog, motion pictures, 1894-1912; Niver, K. Early motion pictures, p. 327; Musser, C. Edison motion pictures 1890-1900, p. 494; Edison films catalog, no. 105, July 1901, p. 49; Gilbert, D. American vaudeville, 1940, p. 397; AFI catalog: film beginnings, 1893-1910, 1063.
Early motion pictures : the Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress / by Kemp R. Niver. Library of Congress. 1985.
35 mm viewing print renumbered: FEC 2273 to FYA 3742.
Paper print roll lacking suffix.