Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre (1901)
A fixed camera watches Manhattan's Star Theatre come apart piece by piece, its time-lapse photography compressing roughly a month of demolition work into just under two minutes of screen time.
Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre is among the earliest surviving American uses of time-lapse cinematography, turning the routine business of urban teardown into a small marvel of trick photography for audiences still new to the moving image.
Background
Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre was made in 1901 by Edison’s company and directed by Frederick S. Armitage. The film records the demolition of the Star Theatre in New York and the construction of its replacement, using time-lapse photography. The Edison company was a major producer of early actuality films, and this one is among the earliest surviving American uses of time-lapse. It was made at a time when cinema was still new and audiences were fascinated by the visible results of photographic trickery.
What to watch for
The film is a fixed-camera record, so its interest lies in watching a building come apart within a very short running time. Time-lapse compresses weeks of work into minutes of film, which turns the crew’s progress into a series of visible changes. Watch the way the structure falls away section by section, and then the new construction that replaces it. The camera does not move, so attention goes to the changing outline of the building and the figures working on it. For viewers today, the film is a document of urban change as well as an early experiment in trick photography.
