Edison Studios' "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" (1914)

This film, produced by Edison Studios in October of 1914, is the earliest known film featuring Paul Revere as a character. It was directed by Charles Brabin, and stars Augustus Phillips as Paul Revere. This one-reel film was originally screened with an Edison kinetoscope projector in early movie theaters and nickelodeons, along with live musical accompaniment. The film's narrative is heavily modeled on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Paul Revere's Ride" and features several stanzas of that poem quoted as inter-titles. Our recording of the film is copied from a reel from the archives of the Thomas Edison National Historic Park. The film was copied to VHS tape in 1988 for our museum collections, and later digitized in 2025. We believe that this copy of the film is mostly complete, but may be missing several shots at the beginning and end of the film. Based on a description of the film from the Edison Kinetogram, the original film may also have including a scene at the beginning showing Paul Revere's house, and a shot of a patriotic statue at the end during which the live accompanist would have played The Star Spangled Banner. To learn more about this film, please check out our post about it on the Revere Express blog: https://www.paulreverehouse.org/thoma...