In compare with other Edison (Dickson) installaments, this footage for me is poorest (eventually better than Monkeyshines). Quality is bad and in comparison with Men's Boxing it doesn't show any progress, quite to the contrary. Good things that film brings to me is increasing of my general knowledge. Until now I have no idea what Indian clubs are and what is their purpose. Second thing about that movie is that this movie was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is currently the oldest film chosen to be in this Registry.

. . . one giant leap toward ESPN. What is truly amazing is not the fact that one of the world's first dozen movies is a sports feature, but the fact that this "NEWARK ATHLETE" has his less than scintillating routine with two wooden exercise clubs (think mini bowling pins) shown FOUR TIMES IN RAPID SUCCESSION. Exhibited with a total running time of just 5.11 seconds, close examination proves that the initial slow-motion view of 1.97 seconds is followed up BY THE SAME THING being shown over and over and over again at successively faster speeds. No wonder guys can sit through endless replays of the least little fumble or failed catch on a Sunday afternoon--they've had long enough since this 1891 flick to BECOME GENETICALLY MUTATED against boredom, reversing what evolution took tens of thousands of years to accomplish! Who knew subliminal messaging conducted FROM THE START of motion pictures would have such a powerful AND RAPID effect in transforming the male brain! For countless centuries the world depended on men. Thanks to Edison Manufacturing Company, about all we have left nowadays is game boys!!

Newark Athlete (1891) Men Boxing (1891) Newark Athlete is just a brief fragment from the Edison studio, which was apparently just a set up test to check the conditions on the camera. The thing only lasts a few seconds so needless to say the studio wasn't trying to make anything special out of it but thankfully the thing survives so film buffs such as myself can view the early history of film. Men Boxing on the other hand seems to be the studio actually trying to put something fun on film. Two men, both wearing boxing gloves, throw a few punches at one another while smiling for the camera. Some think this once again was just testing the camera but since it contains a tad bit more I'm going to guess the men making it thought this could be something real.

This movie is a very short and simple experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film. Guess it sounds more complex than it really was.Basically all it shows is an 'athelete', who to me just seemed to be a random young boy, swinging a couple of Indian Clubs.The movie doesn't have the best visual quality and it seems to end perhaps just a second before it was really supposed to. It doesn't even have a halve swing now but more of a quarter swing. Also judging by the quality I'm not sure of it if this was a good successful experiment from Edison and workers but then again at that time of course all experiments were useful and contributed to the development of future movie making, this one included.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/