The Deonzo Brothers

1901
Silent
1m

The fabulous Deonzo Brothers in a spectacular barrel-jumping stage act

The Deonzo (or sometimes Deonza) Brothers were American, all the way from Hamilton Ohio. They were touring when RW Paul took the opportunity to film their act, which is shot on a stage in front of a painted rural backdrop. The brothers are just about to go into the big finale when... the film stops.

It is a frustrating fact of life that old pieces of films often lose their beginnings and ends, hence the abrupt ending. You can probably guess what happened next with the Deonzo Brothers' famous act, but if you're really keen to know, the Feb-Jul 1901 of the Harmsworth Magazine helpfully shows you in a series of illustrations.

Robert Paul: Giant of Early Film

The most prolific filmmaker of the pioneer period of British film

The multi-talented Robert Paul (1869-1943) was the first British filmmaker to project film for a paying audience, in 1896. A contemporary of the Lumiere brothers, Paul had been producing film, in partnership with Birt Acres, for his own brand of Kinetoscope viewer since April 1895. Shortly after, he began producing for his Theatrograph and Animatographe machines, enjoying a long run at the Alhambra in Leicester Square. As an engineer, Paul made a number of significant innovations - such as an intermittent mechanism for efficiently projecting film. But he also made key innovations in film language, such as the first two-shot fiction film, Come Along Do! (1898). To cap it all, he was a shrewd businessman, with an instinctive grasp of audience tastes.