At the foot of the Flatiron
K: A.E. Weed. P: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. USA 1903
Print: Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

“This street level view is of the Broadway side of the Flatiron, or Fuller Building, near the narrow north corner. Filmed on a very windy day, pedestrians of various descriptions are seen passing by the camera, clutching hats and skirts against the wind. According to some New York City historians, this corner was known as the windiest corner of the city, and in the era of the long skirt, standing on it was considered a good vantage point for a glimpse of a lady’s ankle. Policemen would chase away such loungers from the 23rd Street corner, giving rise to the expression ‘twenty-three skidoo.'”
Library of Congress

“But outside of a few slapstick moments – a man’s hat flies from his head off screen, and a woman’s skirt blows dangerously high –  the moving people, seemingly propelled by the wind, are no more than moving objects. This film is a cacophony of visual images, drawing the viewer’s attention to lines and angles more than the specifity of human form.”
Eric Gordon: The Urban Spectator: American Concept Cities from Kodak to Google. UPNE 2010, p. 69

Guido Covents, Domitor: International Society for the Study of Early Cinema, Facebook, August 2021:
“It is fascinating watching a simple ‘street view’ with people passing by, people with their live and stories – the filming makes them very present and even makes one curious who they were – a fraction of live – a glance of eternity, something what made and makes cinema and recordings of images so attractive.”

>>> more films by A.E. Weed on this site: The Suburbanite, Subject for the Rogue’s Gallery, From Show Girl to Burlesque Queen

What happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City
R: George S. Fleming, Edwin S. Porter. D: A.C. Abadie, Florence Georgie. P: Edison Manufacturing Company. USA 1901
Print: Library of Congress

“In What Happened on Twenty-Third Street, New York City (Edison, 1901), a woman in a light ankle-length dress passes over a subway grate during a stroll down the city sidewalk; predictably, a burst of air blows her skirt up around her knees. This little film is unusual because it starts out as a bit of actuality footage: it’s shot on location, where passing pedestrians glance occasionally at the camera. Oddly, when her bit is finished, the young woman — an actress — also casts an ambiguous look at the camera. According to the Edison catalogue, the spectacle of her predicament occurs ‘greatly to her horror and much to the amusement of the newsboys, bootblacks, and passersby,’ but her glance at the camera not only imposes a certain distance between the actress and her character but suggests some level of collusion between her and the audience.”
Cinematheque Froncaise

“This 1901 short, shot from the Thomas Edison company is quite literally titled. It was filmed on 23rd street and 6th avenue (There’s a Best Buy on that corner today) and shows a simple street scene, but with one bit of staged action acting as a sort of punchline to the film.
Apart from the man and the woman who walk toward the camera and across the grate, it’s obvious that everyone else are just ordinary pedestrians. You can see many of them openly staring at the camera as they pass and some of them change direction so suddenly that you have to wonder if they were told to move out of the way by the director.
The finale of the film, when the actress’s skirt is blown up (almost to her knees!), seems silly and mild today, but was quite risque for the time. Only a year after this movie was filmed and the Flatiron building was completed (also on 23rd street), legend has it that men and boys would loiter around the base of the building (where due to its unique shape, strong winds were generated) in the hopes of catching a glimpse of a young woman’s shapely ankle. Police officers of the time would tell the men to, ‘Skiddoo’, thus creating the popular phrase of the time, ’23 Skiddoo’.”
Scott Nash
Three Movie Buffs

“Skidoo is a virtual ghost town located in Death Valley National Park. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. (…) The name Skidoo comes from the expression 23 skidoo, a slang expression of the time, for which various origins have been suggested.”
Wikipedia

A Street Arab
P: Thomas A. Edison, Inc. USA 1898
Location: New York, N.Y.
Print: Library of Congress (Paper Print Collection)

“Arab (n.)
late 14c. (Arabes, a plural form), from Old French Arabi, from Latin Arabs (accusative Arabem), from Greek Araps (genitive Arabos), from Arabic ‘arab, indigenous name of the people, perhaps literally “inhabitant of the desert” and related to Hebrew arabha “desert.” Meaning “homeless little wanderer, child of the street” is from 1848 (originally Arab of the city), in reference to nomadic ways. Arab League formed in Cairo, March 22, 1945.”
ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY

>>> Modern New York