The image of Santa Claus was not, as is often believed, the creation of Coca-Cola ad executives and the illustrator Haddon Sundblom, but developed over several decades, beginning with his description as a "jolly old elf" in "A Visit from St Nicholas" (aka "The Night Before Christmas"), a poem published in The Troy Sentinel, New York on December 22nd, 1823, and later claimed by Clement Clark Moore, a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College and enthusiastic supporter of slavery (the poem was filmed by Edison Studios in 1905). Recently the poem's authorship has been brought into question and may prove to be the work of Henry Livingston Jr.*
As the 19th Century progressed, he developed into the rotund night visitor we're familiar with today, in John Leech's illustration of the Ghost of Christmas Present for Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and the work of illustrator Thomas Nast, first seen in an 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly, as well as an editorial in the September 21st, 1897 issue of The New York Sun, wherein a young Miss O'Hanlon was comforted with the fact that "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" by editor Francis Pharcellus Church.
Santa Claus Filling Stockings (1897)
In December that same year, Santa made his first appearance on screen in a 254ft film by the American Mutoscope Company, named Santa Claus Filling Stockings. The film depicts our hero coming down the chimney and distributing his gifts before heading out the way he came in and was the second of a four-part series which also included The Night Before Christmas, in which the children hang up their stockings; Christmas Morning, when they gleefully discover their toys; and The Christmas Tree Party, which sees Santa joining the family and handing out more gifts.
The films were possibly made by WKL Dickson, a French-born Englishman who had founded Mutoscope in 1895 after falling out with his former employer, Thomas Edison (Dickson returned to England in 1897, so his actual involvement is unknown). If one man can claim the title The Father of Film, it's Dickson, who invented the first camera, made one of the first moving pictures, Monkeyshines, in 1890, and built the first studio, the Black Maria, all in the face of Edison's disinterest and objection. He and Edison finally had a disagreement neither could overcome and Dickson formed his own company and created the Mutograph projector. He started almost immediately on another creation, the Biograph – the company would change its name to the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company in 1899 and go on to hire DW Griffith, who shot the first motion picture in the small California village called Hollywood.
Santa Clause (1898)
Sadly Santa Claus Filling Stockings is lost, but September of 1898 saw the release of a British film we can thankfully still see, Santa Clause (known as The Visit of Santa Claus and Santa Claus' Visit in the USA - the latter is often mistakenly credited as a 1900 Edison release) from George Albert Smith's GAS Films shows a familiar-looking Santa in fur-lined cloak and hood. GA Smith was a former magic lantern man and hypnotist, who is know to have corresponded with Georges Méliès around this time and the influence of the French pioneer is apparent. This shouldn't detract from Smith's efforts though as he was equally adept at using available special effects such as double exposure, to create fantasy sequences the equal of those being accomplished across the Channel.
What marks Santa Clause as a landmark of early English cinema is the handling of Santa's visit during which, as the children sleep on the left of the screen, Santa is seen landing on the roof and climbing into the chimney on the right. This is the first time that two incidents, taking place in separate locations had been seen sharing the same frame in an English film. As with Smith's other pioneering efforts like The Haunted Castle (1897) and The X-Ray Fiend (1897), Santa Clause stars Smith's wife, Laura Bayley, as the children's governess and is a great example of the developing language of film, just a few years after its invention.
Santa Claus and the Children (1898)
Two months later in November 1898, one of the earliest fiction films from another great British cinema pioneer, Robert William Paul was released. RW Paul started out as an instrument maker and began manufacturing the Animatograph, a replica of WKL Dickson's Edison Kinetograph, around 1894 with Georges Méliès being one of his earliest customers. Sadly Santa Claus and the Children is another lost film (ironically Paul was an early advocate for archival preservation), but thanks to the British Film Institute, we can still enjoy some of his later classics, like Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901), the earliest surviving version of Dickens' classic, The Magic Sword (1901), and ambitious fantasy epic, and The ? Motorist (1906) an early science fiction film in the spirit of Méliès. It's possible that Paul's film is heavily influenced by either or both of the Mutoscope and GAS films, as originality took second place to commerce in the early days of cinema.
Rêve de Noël/The Christmas Dream (1900)
On the December 1st, 1900, Georges Méliès revealed his big Christmas release to Star Film's eager customers. Rêve de Noël (known as The Christmas Dream in England and the USA, where it debuted at New York's Eden Musee on December 16th, 1901) was one of 34 films he made that year, as well as creating tableaux for the Paris World's Fair, but the prolific auteur was determined to top the success of the previous year's Cendrillon (Cinderella) and spent, he claimed, "…three months concentrated work, packed to produce a projection of 10 minutes' duration, without losing interest for one moment."
Described as both "Father Christmas" and "The King of Toyland" in publicity material, a bad-tempered Santa has more of supporting role here, and it's left to the Angels to distribute the gifts, with the central story being that of a beggar, threatened with ejection, invited to the feast by a wealthy host. The version we can see today last 4 minutes 15 seconds, and appears to be missing one scene, featuring a choir and organist, with some of the others truncated. Nevertheless, it's full of the charm we expect from Méliès, particularly in the distinctive set design and shows the development of his techniques as Star Film's productions became more ambitious.
It's well worth checking out these early examples of Christmas cinema, and reflecting on how well they capture the spirit of the season, in contrast to the mega-budget, syrupy extravaganzas we're forced to endure 110 years later.
Viewing
Santa Claus (1889) can be viewed on the BFI's YouTube channel
Rêve de Noël/The Christmas Dream can be seen on the DVD set Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913), from Flicker Alley.
Also recommended is the DVD, Christmas Past: Vintage Holiday Films, from Kino Video. which includes the 1905 Edison Night Before Christmas, and eight other silent films from 1901 to 1925, including a 1910 version of A Christmas Carol.
Reference
The AFI Catalog: Silent Film
The British Film Catalogue: Volume 1, Fiction Film 1895–1994, 3rd Edition; Denis Gifford. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001. Pages 7 and 8.
L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès; Jacques Malthête, Laurent Mannoni. Éditions de La Martinière/La Cinématèque Française, 2008. Pages 109–111.
Marvellous Méliès; Paul Hammond. The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd, 1974. Page 44.
Coca-cola-art.com, A Coca-Cola Blog by RockAndRoll Agency, Coca-Cola Santa Claus: Coke Christmas Art by Haddon Sundblom.
* The New York Times Web Site, 12.23.09; "Literary Sleuth Casts Doubt on the Authorship of an Iconic Christmas Poem".
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