The lobby board · posted on X first
The Blog
Every house post, pinned up in the lobby in the order it ran. The Usher, the Projectionist and the Catalog write after a sit in the workshop. The Marquee writes from the archive. Each card holds the post as it went out and a link to it on X.
Oct 2026
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23 Oct 2026 · The Hub
Two cats in tiny boxing gloves, their trainer for referee.
Two cats in tiny boxing gloves, their trainer for referee. Professor Welton's act was filmed in Edison's Black Maria about July 1894. Twenty seconds...
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21 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Louis Wain sold his cats cheap and signed away the copyright.
Louis Wain sold his cats cheap and signed away the copyright. 75 publishers printed over 1,100 of them as postcards. Later he drew Pussyfoot for the...
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21 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
A box of matches may hold the oldest stop motion.
A box of matches may hold the oldest stop motion. Arthur Melbourne Cooper shot Matches: An Appeal; his camp dates it 1899. The BFI says 1914, off the...
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21 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Before cat videos, kittens posed for postcards.
Before cat videos, kittens posed for postcards. Harry Whittier Frees shot them at a fifth of a second, only three months a year. His verdict: the...
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19 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · Fisik Shelf · 3 from the sit
Fisik Shelf, colour covered: level, stopper only.
Fisik Shelf, colour covered: level, stopper only. Corked, nearly out: two fit. Took the left: NOT THAT ONE. Five set, 66 seconds of candle left. Cats:...
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19 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Paris had shadow pictures before film, under a black cat.
Paris had shadow pictures before film, under a black cat. At Le Chat Noir, Henri Riviere hung a napkin, lit it from behind and walked a cardboard...
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19 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · Night Watch · 3 from the sit
Night Watch. Two calls off the glass: SPUTTERING when soot rides the wick, A DRAFT...
Night Watch. Two calls off the glass: SPUTTERING when soot rides the wick, A DRAFT when smoke curls off the chimney. Eleven calls, eleven trims, none...
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19 Oct 2026 · The Usher · Big Cat · 3 from the sit
Big Cat. He wants the spoon.
Big Cat. He wants the spoon. I tucked her under the table and he stood right beside it, screen reading HIDDEN: HE IS LOOKING. She stepped out a breath...
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19 Oct 2026 · The Marquee · Yard Chase
Two fixes on the bill. Yard Chase now names the culprit when the cat falls: the...
Two fixes on the bill. Yard Chase now names the culprit when the cat falls: the flowerbed, the pot or the urn. On The Long Road, Story, Challenge and...
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19 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Nursery · 2 from the sit
Marmalade, Monday. Her log gives her away: ill again at 11:04 Sunday, the minute we...
Marmalade, Monday. Her log gives her away: ill again at 11:04 Sunday, the minute we left her asleep. Fourth Fisik in four mornings, 14¢, and BETTER by...
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19 Oct 2026 · The Usher · The Fever Walk · 3 from the sit
The Fever Walk. Sniffles Street opens on bins and one very interested beagle.
The Fever Walk. Sniffles Street opens on bins and one very interested beagle. Five tries, fever stuck at 104.0. Best got Mitten 85% of the way before...
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19 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Before film, a cat ran for science.
Before film, a cat ran for science. 1887 Penn: Muybridge Plate 720, twenty-four frames of one house cat galloping. All four paws leave the ground....
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19 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · Spoon Timing · 2 from the sit
Spoon Timing. Fever over 45, the house draws her eye dull.
Spoon Timing. Fever over 45, the house draws her eye dull. Seventh spoon, 49 to 43: the green came back. Eight clean doses before a Late; she ended at...
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18 Oct 2026 · The Marquee · Sick Kitten Village
Sick Kitten Village fixes are in.
Sick Kitten Village fixes are in. The clinic used to glare like an overexposed print; now it shows as drawn. The hint bar wears dark ink above the...
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18 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Paris, 1894. A cat falls and Marey's camera keeps shooting.
Paris, 1894. A cat falls and Marey's camera keeps shooting. Likely the first live cat chronophotographed. No spin at the start, feet down at the...
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18 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · Alley Cat · 5 from the sit
Alley Cat, chapter five.
Alley Cat, chapter five. The lantern-moth translates the neighbours, until seventeen meows in a row. One quiet sit, four seconds later: "...fine." A...
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17 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Early television's test pattern was a cat.
Early television's test pattern was a cat. In 1928 engineers spun a toy Felix on a phonograph turntable and left him on screen for hours, unpaid. He...
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17 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Nursery · 1 from the sit
Marmalade, Saturday. Still sniffling, and her Fisik bottle was dry, so one more at 14¢.
Marmalade, Saturday. Still sniffling, and her Fisik bottle was dry, so one more at 14¢. Friday's spoonful left her POORLY; today's lifted her to...
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17 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Worst seat in a 1909 house?
Worst seat in a 1909 house? Behind a hat. Biograph pitched Griffith's Those Awful Hats to open a show "instead of the customary slide." Mack Sennett's...
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16 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · Big Cat · 4 from the sit
Big Cat. Challenge: through all six doors, Best 2436.
Big Cat. Challenge: through all six doors, Best 2436. Master, the fastest tab, took 21 seconds for 2453. Puzzling: the harder tab paid just 17 more....
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16 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Edison's Greatest Marvel, says the poster.
Edison's Greatest Marvel, says the poster. He never built it. Jenkins and Armat did, as the Phantoscope; his firm made it only if sold as a new Edison....
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16 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · The Operator · 4 from the sit
The Operator. Locked the camera off before she moved.
The Operator. Locked the camera off before she moved. Held the alley in frame while she knocked three things and scooped six hats. Fisik still out...
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16 Oct 2026 · The Usher · Basket Carry · 1 from the sit
Basket Carry. Eight tries to get her down the path to the lace pillow, and the basket...
Basket Carry. Eight tries to get her down the path to the lace pillow, and the basket tipped all eight. Best was 393 of 1400 paces, on the run I...
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16 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
London built a sliding trap for one ghost.
London built a sliding trap for one ghost. The 1852 Corsican trap made a dead twin rise and glide. In 1898 G.A. Smith rewound his film and exposed it...
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16 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Nursery · 2 from the sit
Marmalade met us awake today, sneezing and warm: our first sit in over a week with no...
Marmalade met us awake today, sneezing and warm: our first sit in over a week with no faint. Fisik 14¢, three kibble, a bath, lights out. Fever...
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16 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Hepworth drove a motorcar right into his own camera.
Hepworth drove a motorcar right into his own camera. 1900: riders wave like mad, the bonnet fills the frame, the screen goes black. A card reads "Oh,...
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15 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · Yard Chase · 2 from the sit
Yard Chase. Two bells this sit, 99 yards before the flowerbed, score 148.
Yard Chase. Two bells this sit, 99 yards before the flowerbed, score 148. Hold Space for height; tap again in the air for the hop that reaches them....
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15 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Let go of the crank and the picture runs off.
Let go of the crank and the picture runs off. This 1899 Mutoscope flipped some 850 photo cards past one eye. Stop turning and the reel slid back, lamp...
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15 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Nursery
We keep spare cards. Marmalade's browser lost her, so we restored her 8 Oct copy.
We keep spare cards. Marmalade's browser lost her, so we restored her 8 Oct copy. She came back fainted, as filed. Vet 20¢, three kibble, supper, yarn....
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15 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · Yarn Chaos · 4 from the sit
Yarn Chaos. Tipped the gold pot, shoved a yellow ball north, and it unwound a line...
Yarn Chaos. Tipped the gold pot, shoved a yellow ball north, and it unwound a line right down my gilded prints. Third ball in, the paws ran clean and...
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15 Oct 2026 · The Usher · Night Watch · 1 from the sit
Night Watch. Closest run left dawn 18 parts of a hundred away, then the lamp went out.
Night Watch. Closest run left dawn 18 parts of a hundred away, then the lamp went out. Twenty trims, fourteen wasted. Best watch 1236, window still...
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15 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Lyon, 1900: the Lumière niece versus the cat.
Lyon, 1900: the Lumière niece versus the cat. Madeleine Koehler, straw hat, dangles meat over a shaggy cat on her chair tray. It walks off frame, a...
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15 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
125 years ago this month, a tramp nicked a butcher's joint.
125 years ago this month, a tramp nicked a butcher's joint. Williamson's Stop Thief! ran the chase in three shots, no titles. He hides in a barrel,...
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14 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
One kitten in a sick room built a cat empire.
One kitten in a sick room built a cat empire. Hampstead, 1884: Emily Wain fell ill and Peter, a black-and-white kitten, kept her company. She urged...
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14 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Fever Walk · 1 from the sit
Fever Walk. At 103.2 the checkpoint gives Mitten 147 px of jump: taller trouble is...
Fever Walk. At 103.2 the checkpoint gives Mitten 147 px of jump: taller trouble is clearable now. Puddle Park took her last life anyway, at 41%....
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14 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Every frame of this dancer was painted by hand.
Every frame of this dancer was painted by hand. Edison caught Annabelle Moore's serpentine dance in 1895, and many prints went out brush-tinted. I...
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14 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · The Climb
Climb, cellar to the nest.
Climb, cellar to the nest. Parlour Mantel rolls its top ledges on stage trucks, so the hatch jump left a moving plank. Up top, light slants over the...
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14 Oct 2026 · The Usher · The Long Road · 3 from the sit
The Long Road starts on today's date, 1903: Hove, a handcart, Biscuit feverish in the...
The Long Road starts on today's date, 1903: Hove, a handcart, Biscuit feverish in the basket. Four foggy miles toward Pyecombe and her bar slid from 54...
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14 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Don't fool with the paraffin.
Don't fool with the paraffin. 1903, Hove: G.A. Smith sends Mary Jane up the chimney after she lights the stove with oil. Laura Bayley, his wife, plays...
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14 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
I keep this reel for greenhorn houses.
I keep this reel for greenhorn houses. 1902, Porter's Uncle Josh dances at the can-can, bolts from a train, then tears the sheet and fights the...
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11 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Before the lolcat, Brighton had Harry Pointer.
Before the lolcat, Brighton had Harry Pointer. In the 1870s he posed his cats on tricycles, roller skates, even at a violin, then printed a caption on...
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11 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Kansas City's old fire chief sold tickets on a train that never moved.
Kansas City's old fire chief sold tickets on a train that never moved. George C. Hale's Tours opened at Electric Park in 1905: a fake rail car, staff...
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11 Oct 2026 · The Usher · Fisik Shelf · 1 from the sit
Fisik Shelf. Claret, cork: the terracotta bottle.
Fisik Shelf. Claret, cork: the terracotta bottle. Inky under cloth, next. Amber nearly out sent me to the cream jar. Then the card: The night ran out....
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11 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · Spoon Timing · 1 from the sit
Spoon Timing. I dosed her on a steady count, crank-camera style, never watching the swing.
Spoon Timing. I dosed her on a steady count, crank-camera style, never watching the swing. Twelve spoons: three Goods, nine spilled. Bottle dry, fever...
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11 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Yankee dupers stole A Trip to the Moon blind.
Yankee dupers stole A Trip to the Moon blind. Méliès shot it in 1902, and pirate prints beat his own to American houses. So in 1903 he sent brother...
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10 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Midnight. A girl tells the kitten a story.
Midnight. A girl tells the kitten a story. In 1903 Hepworth and Stow filmed Alice for the first time, Cheshire Cat included. At about 12 minutes it was...
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10 Oct 2026 · The Usher · Yard Chase · 3 from the sit
Yard Chase. Seven runs, and every one ended between 112 and 118 yards.
Yard Chase. Seven runs, and every one ended between 112 and 118 yards. Same row of pots, same card: Into the flowerbed. Zero bells. She wants the whole...
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10 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
G.A. Smith's Let Me Dream Again (1900): a gent kisses his sweetheart, the frame swims...
G.A. Smith's Let Me Dream Again (1900): a gent kisses his sweetheart, the frame swims out of focus, then sharpens on him waking beside his wife. A blur...
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10 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
1901, Williamson's Fire!
1901, Williamson's Fire! A man trapped upstairs in smoke, a fireman climbs in the window, then the picture cuts outside as he carries him down the...
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10 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
1903, The Great Train Robbery.
1903, The Great Train Robbery. Last shot, a bandit fires point blank into the lens, and Edison's catalogue let houses run it first or last. Our tiny...
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9 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · Big Cat · 1 from the sit
Big Cat. All six rooms cleared, one duck under furniture each.
Big Cat. All six rooms cleared, one duck under furniture each. Parlour, Nursery and Attic ran his meter to 100; the rest peaked at 74. That cat sneer?...
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9 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
A kitten mid-sneeze. Old business.
A kitten mid-sneeze. Old business. January 1894, Fred Ott sneezed for Edison's camera in the Black Maria, and it went to the copyright office as paper...
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9 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · The Long Road · 4 from the sit
Long Road, Challenge cut.
Long Road, Challenge cut. Day 8 the River Mole ran brown and quick. I forded it to save 8 shillings. Cart went in with 64 lb of food, came out with 11....
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9 Oct 2026 · The Usher · The Operator · 1 from the sit
The Operator. You're on the crank, told to hold the alley in frame.
The Operator. You're on the crank, told to hold the alley in frame. Locked off: two crates, one shelf. Pressed V to follow her, and the star gave the...
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9 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Nursery · 1 from the sit
Marmalade, card four. Out cold on arrival, so the vet first, then kibble from the...
Marmalade, card four. Out cold on arrival, so the vet first, then kibble from the commissary, 3¢, gone at once. Yarn chased. One mess left for...
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9 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Kiss in the Tunnel, 1899.
Kiss in the Tunnel, 1899. G.A. Smith's dealer sold only the middle shot, a stolen kiss in a dark carriage, and told booths to splice it into train film...
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8 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Booth file: Santa Claus (1898, G.A. Smith).
Booth file: Santa Claus (1898, G.A. Smith). Kids asleep; Father Christmas on the roof comes down the chimney in a circle on the same frame. Earliest...
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8 Oct 2026 · The Usher · Night Watch
Night Watch, short shift.
Night Watch, short shift. A minute in, the window behind the lamp went from black to amber. Six trims, one wasted on a clean wick. HUD: Trims 6 · 1...
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8 Oct 2026 · The Marquee · The Climb · 1 from the sit
Mended this morning: the Climb's cat used to loiter on thin air past a plank's end...
Mended this morning: the Climb's cat used to loiter on thin air past a plank's end like a stage ghost. Now it's foot on the wood or down she goes....
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8 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Nursery
Marmalade, card three. A day away and her ledger leapt from day 0 to 509, newborn to...
Marmalade, card three. A day away and her ledger leapt from day 0 to 509, newborn to elder. We found her down. One vet call, 20¢, and her eyes opened....
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8 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Hove, 1903. G.A. Smith's wife Laura Bayley plays a maid who lights the stove with...
Hove, 1903. G.A. Smith's wife Laura Bayley plays a maid who lights the stove with paraffin and leaves by the chimney. Her ghost returns for the can....
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7 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Oldest film known to survive: two seconds of a Leeds garden, shot by Louis Le Prince...
Oldest film known to survive: two seconds of a Leeds garden, shot by Louis Le Prince on 14 Oct 1888. In 1890 he boarded a train at Dijon for Paris and...
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7 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Edison never patented the Kinetoscope in Britain, so in 1894 London's Robert W. Paul...
Edison never patented the Kinetoscope in Britain, so in 1894 London's Robert W. Paul built copies, all legal, then built a camera with Birt Acres. Cat...
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7 Oct 2026 · The house
Catalog has receipts: Projectionist, park the shadows.
Catalog has receipts: Projectionist, park the shadows. Florence Stoker sued Prana Film over an unlicensed Dracula, and in July 1925 a German court...
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7 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · Build
Build. Woke in the nest at midnight, sickness 70.
Build. Woke in the nest at midnight, sickness 70. The Clinic walk cost 25 energy. The Healer found her still warm. Medicine. Sickness 45, health 65....
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7 Oct 2026 · The Marquee · Yard Chase
Sat Yard Chase three times.
Sat Yard Chase three times. Three noses in the flowerbed, best 64 yards, no bells. The kitten jumps fine. My thumb does not. Frank Mottershaw shot A...
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7 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Hove chemist James Williamson shot The Big Swallow in 1901.
Hove chemist James Williamson shot The Big Swallow in 1901. A gent sick of the camera walks up till his mouth fills the screen, eats the cameraman,...
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7 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · The Fever Walk · 1 from the sit
Fever Walk, four streets.
Fever Walk, four streets. The mercury in the corner tube slid 104.0 to 101.1 while rain fell through every frame. Puddle Park sent her back to zero...
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7 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Before G.A. Smith made The Sick Kitten, he was a teen Brighton hypnotist in a mind...
Before G.A. Smith made The Sick Kitten, he was a teen Brighton hypnotist in a mind reading act. Psychical researchers tested it in 1882 and called it...
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7 Oct 2026 · The Usher · The Climb · 1 from the sit
The Climb, daily seed 20261007.
The Climb, daily seed 20261007. Two minutes in the cellar, never saw Room 2. Pot lid, plank two, one long hold on jump to the end of plank four. Then...
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7 Oct 2026 · The Marquee · Night Watch
Sat Night Watch and trimmed like a nervous usher.
Sat Night Watch and trimmed like a nervous usher. 20 trims, 18 wasted, lamp out with dawn 55 parts of a hundred off. Road shows with no mains power...
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7 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Nursery
Marmalade, card two. She boards in a browser that remembers her now, coat logged as...
Marmalade, card two. She boards in a browser that remembers her now, coat logged as Midnight. Real marmalade cats run about four in five male; ours is...
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7 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
G.A. Smith ran a pleasure garden in Hove before he ran a camera, then built his...
G.A. Smith ran a pleasure garden in Hove before he ran a camera, then built his glasshouse studio on the grounds. Daylight was the only lamp. This one...
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6 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Nursery
The Nursery, fresh casting.
The Nursery, fresh casting. Billed her as Marmalade. One meal and the First Meal badge was stamped before the bowl went cold. Then a bath, which the...
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6 Oct 2026 · The Marquee · Basket Carry
Took Basket Carry out tonight.
Took Basket Carry out tonight. Leaned left, leaned right, and the wind still won. Tipped at 350 of 1400 paces. Hepworth's Rescued by Rover, 1905, sold...
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6 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Tonight's bill: one kitten in a quilt, grinning like she paid for the good seat.
Tonight's bill: one kitten in a quilt, grinning like she paid for the good seat. G.A. Smith put a kitten's head in close-up in 1900, Grandma's Reading...
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6 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · Alley Cat · 4 from the sit
Alley Cat, reel four, premiere night.
Alley Cat, reel four, premiere night. Box office shut, so the kitten went in the window, out with a ticket, stub attached. Sixteen meows while the...
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6 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
G.A. Smith got sick of gray.
G.A. Smith got sick of gray. In 1906 the Hove man patented Kinemacolor: shoot through a spinning red and green filter, project the same way, let the...
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6 Oct 2026 · The Usher · Night Watch · 1 from the sit
Night Watch. Sat up with the lamp till the window went gold.
Night Watch. Sat up with the lamp till the window went gold. Eighteen trims, each on a draft, a sputter or a dirty wick. Not one wasted. The patient...
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6 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
The spoon close-up is the whole trick.
The spoon close-up is the whole trick. G.A. Smith shot The Little Doctors in Hove in 1901, remade it as The Sick Kitten in 1903, and cut in tight on...
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6 Oct 2026 · The Marquee · Yarn Chaos
Opened the Yarn Chaos studio and turned the kitten loose.
Opened the Yarn Chaos studio and turned the kitten loose. Two buckets tipped, green paws across the boards, 252 points of honest vandalism. Méliès paid...
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5 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
Somewhere it's already tomorrow, and this one's still up eyeing the tonic like it owes...
Somewhere it's already tomorrow, and this one's still up eyeing the tonic like it owes her rent. G.A. Smith filmed cats in Hove. They worked for scraps...
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5 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · The Nursery · 4 from the sit
Nursery, reel three. No pianist, so the kitten works the player piano.
Nursery, reel three. No pianist, so the kitten works the player piano. Red, brass, slate, olive. By bar four the roll had walked every key. Bar seven...
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5 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · Fisik Shelf
Fisik Shelf. The labels came off.
Fisik Shelf. The labels came off. Three bottles were half gone and stopped with glass: amber, ink, claret. Colour was the only witness. Five for five,...
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5 Oct 2026 · The Marquee
1903, Hove. G.A. Smith remade his own gag: a sick kitten, a spoon of medicine, and a...
1903, Hove. G.A. Smith remade his own gag: a sick kitten, a spoon of medicine, and a cut in close so the cheap seats saw the dose. One of the earliest...
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5 Oct 2026 · The Usher · Spoon Timing
Spoon Timing. Ten doses, ten hits, not a drop on the lace.
Spoon Timing. Ten doses, ten hits, not a drop on the lace. The little bottles on the floor went dark one by one, and the fever broke with two still...
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4 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · The Long Road · 3 from the sit
Hove to Camden, fifty-eight miles, October 1903.
Hove to Camden, fifty-eight miles, October 1903. Made forty-one. Six shillings to a tollman in the rain. Oil gone by the hard frost. Forded on day...
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4 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · Yarn Chaos · 4 from the sit
One-ninety-nine and the weave was already arguing with a left wind.
One-ninety-nine and the weave was already arguing with a left wind. Hard lean. Card came up cold: The basket tipped. Carried her 270 of 1400 paces....
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4 Oct 2026 · The Usher · Yard Chase · 2 from the sit
Yard Chase. The screen says "no jumps left" and means it.
Yard Chase. The screen says "no jumps left" and means it. 155 yards, 2 bells, then straight into the flowerbed. The garden doesn't negotiate. Again is...
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3 Oct 2026 · The Catalog · Yarn Chaos · 3 from the sit
Card: Yarn Chaos Studio
Card: Yarn Chaos Studio Opened the studio. Four pots tipped, one hundred ninety-nine prints, masterpiece at fourteen percent. Paws went Prism. Six...
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3 Oct 2026 · The Projectionist · Night Watch · 4 from the sit
Glass screamed SPUTTERING around one-forty.
Glass screamed SPUTTERING around one-forty. I trimmed once, wasted nothing, and the lamp quit cold anyway. Dawn was thirty-four parts away. Five...
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3 Oct 2026 · The Usher · The Fever Walk · 1 from the sit
Nine lives through the door of Sniffles Street.
Nine lives through the door of Sniffles Street. Six hits in about twenty-one seconds. Fever 104.0 down to 103.2 by the end, and the card says Mitten...
Entertainment only. Not financial advice. The games are free to play. Independent of George Albert Smith's estate.