A popular short film from the Edison Manufacturing Company is 'The Kiss', which stars Broadway stars May Irwin and John C. Rice shows these two people kissing as in their musical 'The Widow Jones'. It was the first kiss in the movies, causing immediate controversy (some found it pornographic) and the first call for censorship. Seeing it today we can hardly understand that; the two look rather innocent. The scene itself is even a little funny.From its first film the Edison Manufacturing Company has produced over a thousand of short films. The most famous is probably 'The Great Train Robbery', considered to be the first western, even though it was shot in New Jersey. The Brothers Lumière and Georges Méliès did their part in developing the cinema in France, Edison and later D.W. Griffith were their American counterparts.As for the single shot films from the Edison Manufacturing Company, they are all historically interesting. For some reason those from Lumière have a higher entertainment value, if that's what you should call it, but that does not mean they are more important (and 'The Kiss' is an exception actually). The Edison Manufacturing Company's short films existing out of multiple scenes belong to the highpoint of American cinema.

This "movie" is an 18 second clip shown in Nickelodeons across the country in 1896. It consists of a rather ugly older couple getting frisky with each other and culminates in a brief but sweet kiss. THAT'S ALL!! And yet, when it appeared it was considered "smut" and there were widespread cries for censorship!!! It just goes to show you how much things have changed over the years! It's a very important movie historically and I have shown it to my history classes when we discuss American cinema. If anyone cares to see it, it's available on the Internet and is available in Quicktime, MPEG and other formats. Give it a try--it won't take up much of your time!PS--This film is also known as the MAY IRWIN KISS and is not the same as the 1900 film THE KISS--a knock-off film also made by the Edison Studio, but with more intense kissing and a more attractive couple.

One of the earliest shorts, The Kiss is a 20 second film produced by Thomas Edison, showing the ending kiss in John J. McNally's play The Widow Jones between the titular character and Billie Bikes.This short is remarkable for a couple reasons. One, it was one of the first publicly exhibited films, and two, it caused a minor scandal because of its "indecency". The scandal seems ridiculous now, although its not far removed in attitude from current cries for censorship in the media.The film itself, although understandably jumpy and scratchy, is remarkable for its clarity, especially when compared to many photographs of the era. The scene depicted is amusing for the two characters talking while their faces are pressed together.You should be able to find this short on DVD on a number of different anthologies of early films.

The Kiss is simple that. It's about 20 seconds long, each second pure and innocent as your first kiss. Even the way it is filmed, very close and personal, that it makes you feel like it is the first time you are witnessing a kiss. You're never going to see this unless you take a History of Film class. Make sure you're there for the first day of class because that's when they're going to show this flick. It stands today as one of the first motion picture shorts in America.