Treloar and Miss Marshall, prize winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden

Opens with a woman posing on a pedestal, dressed in a white body leotard with a sash tied at her hips. Marshall continues with various feminine poses, reminiscent of classic Greek statuary, to accentuate her figure. Film cuts to Treloar posed on the bare stage without a pedestal. He wears brief leopard-skin trunks or short tunic, wrist bands, and Roman-looking laced sandals. His poses accentuate the muscular development of his upper body, particularly that of his arms, and include movements that make the muscles jump. Treloar finishes with a slight nod to the camera.
H40945 U.S. Copyright Office
Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 16Jan1904; H40945.
Original main title lacking.
Performers: Treloar, Beatrice Marshall.
Camera, Edwin S. Porter.
Duration: 2:10 at 16 fps.
Filmed January 4, 1904, in the Edison New York City studio.
From an advertisement in the New York clipper: "The Example Par Excellence of 20th Century Athleticism -- TRELOAR (A.T. Jennings) -- Ex-Harvard varsity oarsman and athlete. Winner of $1,000 prize for Most Perfectly Developed Man in the World, at Madison Sq. Garden, week of Dec. 29, '03, against competitors from all parts of the world, by Popular Vote, corroborated by Jury of Sculptors and Physicians, assisted by Mlle. Edna Tempest. The Best Equipped and Most Elegantly Costumed Athletic Act in Vaudeville, a Pronounced Success this Season on the Keith and Proctor Circuits".
According to the New York times, the $500 first prize for the best-developed man at the Madison Square Garden physical culture exhibition went to Hugh Jennings of New York City. Third prize in the best-developed woman competition went to Miss Beatrice Marshall of New York City.
Paper print shelf number (LC 1905) was changed when the paper prints were re-housed.
Additional holdings for this title may be available. Contact reference librarian.
Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as digital files.
Sources used: Copyright catalog, motion pictures, 1894-1912; Niver, K. Early motion pictures, p. 335; AFI catalog: film beginnings, 1893-1910, p. 1092-1093; New York times, January 3, 1904, p. 21, col. 6; Edison films catalog, no. 225, July 1904, p. 61; New York clipper, January 9, 1904, p. 1105.
Early motion pictures : the Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress / by Kemp R. Niver. Library of Congress. 1985.