Silent Photoplay Forum

Skyscrapers, aka Skyscrapers of New York - 1906

This little short, just 10 minutes in length, is just OK. The most interesting part in it for me is seeing the old business signs on the buildings in the background. There is some nice footage of the skyscrapers, and one gets a good idea of how dangerous this job was (and still is for that matter).
The plot is a simple one: A man is fired for starting a fight on a skyscraper construction site. To exact revenge, he stages a robbery of the contractor, and frames the foreman. After a trial, there is a happy ending, and the crook is found out for what he really is.
I watched it because Gene Gauntier is sited to be in this Biograph film. Since the only females in the entire film are the foreman’s wife and little daughter, I am guessing that the wife is Gene Gauntier. The print is worn, but we get a few shots of her from far away, which was the normal cinematography style of the times.
Rating 5/10

Just watched this—it's a pretty interesting film, and pretty well-made for 1906. Man, it took nerves of steel to make that one. I wish there was a sharper print (and a score would be nice, too).

It's fascinating to me that that many buildings that tall had been erected by 1906, when the traffic in the streets below was almost entirely still horse and buggy. Was there electrical wiring and plumbing in those things? I guess there would have had to be, but it must have been pretty primitive. Almost no homes would have had it at that time.

I'm glad you liked this! Those are good questions.