The Boxing Cats (1894)

Original title

Prof. Welton's Boxing Cats

Directed by

William Heise, William Kennedy Dickson

Genre

documentary film, silent film, boxing film, animals documentary

Country

United States

Runtime

23 min

Rating

5.9 of 10 from 66 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This silent short from 1894 shows two cats wearing tiny boxing gloves and gently sparring with each other. The cats were part of a traveling cat circus that also had cats riding bicycles.

historicallightheartedcuriouswhimsicalplayfulshortsilentobservational

What happens

The Boxing Cats (Prof. Welton's), or simply Boxing Cats, is an 1894 American short silent film directed by William K.L. Dickson and William Heise, and starring Henry Welton. It depicts a boxing match between two cats, each wearing a pair of boxing gloves. The two cats were members of Welton's touring "cat circus", which reportedly also featured cats riding bicycles. The Boxing Cats was filmed in Thomas Edison's Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey, on 35 mm. The film has been described as a precursor to cat videos popular on the Internet. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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