1894 FIRST FILM Chinese Laundry (or the Pursuit of Hop Lee by an irate policeman). (1894). Edison Kinetoscope Film. Directors: William K.L. Dickson, William Heise. Cast: Robetta, Doretto.The title appears in the Maguire and Baucus catalog of 1897, where it is described as the "Pursuit of Hop Lee by an irate policeman", an old vaudeville act. Maguire and Baucus were the London agents for the Kinetoscope. While "Chinese Laundry" is their first silent film, William Heise first filmed/Takes/Shots include "Monkey Shines, No. 1 in 1890 and William K.L. Dickson's "Newark Athlete" in 1891.Reference: Iris Barry, Eileen Bowser, Gary Carey, Alistair Cooke, Richard Griffith, Arthur Knight, & Donald Richie. (n. d.). Silent Films. NY: Museum of Modern Art and the United States Information Agency.

It only runs for around 15 seconds and is among the shortest works of Dickson and Heise. There's quite a lot action in it though, much more than in their films that show artists, dancers or athletes. One guy chases another. Revolving door hilarity ensues and the hunted, who seems to be quite athletic, climbs up. In order to hide? Nope. He provokes the other further by throwing an unknown object at him and he succeeds as it hits him. There's no further story about the two, if it's serious or all fun and if it's worth watching, then for being so different compared to the directors' other works. Beyond that, it's only a good choice for silent film enthusiasts.

. . . and Native Americans and Jewish folks anymore, as "chinamen" get skewered in pieces such as this, as well (even if the actors' names sound as Italian as pizza pie). Reared in that racist hotbed the U.S. Congress lumped in with the Confederate South for Voting Rights Act remediation (due to bombed-out school buses)--that is, Southeast Michigan--Thomas Alva Edison had a little warning light bulb go off in his brain whenever he saw, thought of, or got on an elevator with American minority people. So even if this tawdry CH!NESE LAUNDRY SCENE played in other more fleeting venues, no one held a gun to old Tom E.'s head, forcing his henchmen to film such despicable fare for all posterity. T. Alva could have had them out recording Queen Victoria's tea parties, the invention of automobiles, or major league baseball games BEFORE the steroids era. He could have documented early BASKETball games, when the ball was shot into an actual basket by 5' 4" guys. But no, he had to beat Fatty Arbuckle, Lenny Bruce, Andrew Dice Clay, Adam Sandler, and the Jackass crew to the punch below America's belt, always aiming for the cheap laugh and the quick buck, no matter how low and dirty!

. . . and the people Edison was filming were supposed to be the vaudeville hotshots of their day. So either these guys got stage fright, or their schtick did not translate to the new medium of the movies. The historical record indicates that they enjoyed about 45 seconds of fame--the running time of three 50-foot kinetographs--which was most likely 40 seconds more than necessary. The actual title of this short in its heyday was ROBETTA AND DORETO, No. 2, which will perhaps help out those of you losing sleep at night over the apparent absence of this flick from IMDb. (This duo's other two shorts ARE listed under their original tiles of "No. 1" and "No. 3," but IMDb is not as hack proof as Wikipedia, meaning that if you want to change their GONE WITH THE WIND listing to BORING WHITE PEOPLE MAKE TROUBLE, you'll probably be able to if you have high school level hacker skills!