Mark Twain | Edison Film | Digitally Restored

The iconic film is of Mark Twain walking in front of Stormfield, the name given to his house in Redding Connecticut, where he would later die.
TFG Film & Tape has performed a digital restoration to the 1909 Edison film of Mark Twain. The image has been flipped left to right to correct the camera-to-subject orientation. It has had it's speed corrected from the camera frame rate of the day. The detail has been enhanced dramatically bringing out visuals never before seen. The fluctuations in the exposure have been reduced markedly making the image much more pleasing to watch.
We hope you enjoy the results!
According to Mark Twain researcher Robert Slotta, who has studied the origins of this film for several years, it all began as a simple intro to a feature film Thomas Edison wanted to make based on Twain's 1881 novel, "The Prince and the Pauper" (published in America in 1882). Twain reluctantly agreed as long as the material was never used for any other purpose. The intro consisted of an edited version of the first three scenes of this film. Scenes included: Twain standing in the doorway and Twain walking around the house. The second walk around was another "take" to cover a late camera start on the part of the cinematographer.
Since there was still unexposed film left over, it was at the film crew’s urging that the scenes with Twain and his daughters, Clara and Jean, be photographed as a gift with the promise that footage was strictly for their own private enjoyment.
One copy of the raw 35mm footage shot that day was given to Twain. Upon his death, that print fell into in the possession of his daughter, Clara. Fast forward to 1954 and Mark Twain historian Caroline Harnsberger, who had become good friends with Clara. It was she who, along with shooting new color movies of Clara, was able to have a 16mm reduction print made from the 35mm nitrate print. It is a copy of that reduction print that you see here, today. This particular print was in the hands of the Mark Twain museum in Hartford, Connecticut. Other 16mm prints do exist at various museums around the country including the George Eastman House but all are due to the unheralded efforts of one, Caroline Harnsberger.
Contact us for help with your film restoration projects.
TFG Film & Tape 860-529-1877

[@KurtRex1453]

Fascinating. He ambles along , smoking his cigar, in a self-satisfied fashion. Also love the huge hat pins his daughter uses.

[@fidelcatsro6948]

and the idiots today still claim smoking is bad for the health, what bullshit of utter non sensible claim they make....

[@kamareedwards5422]

I don't know why, but things like this freak me out. What freaks me out the most is how much it's like now. The tiny movements and the way they look around when they aren't speaking. At 2:16, when they switch teacups for whatever reason, the way she takes it and looks at it, and fumbles slightly, the way that guy runs in smiling and hands the daughter in the middle her hat, the way the daughter on the left laughs at something Mark Twain said, the way they fidget and fix their clothes absentmindedly. I could honestly go on forever, but it's just so weird because it's so long ago in a time where even my great grandparents weren't alive and my brain is telling me to expect something completely different from these people because it's from a much earlier time and yet, nope, it's almost exactly like what a woman having coffee with her father would look like now. And it's so cool and it saddens me that we don't have recordings from even farther back.

[@a.a.1245]

Kamare Edwards I know what you mean. I feel that too. Wanna go even further? Watching this, a time before you and me were born, is like watching the future, in a time way after we die.

[@haroldfarthington7492]

Audio recordings? Oh yeah they had tons of em’. The shellac Record was only starting to be used, while most recordings were on cylidner

[@EGarrett01]

Yeah. Vermeer's paintings were essentially photographs of real things and people done by painting an image from a mirror. There's one from 1659 called "The Girl with the Wine Glass" where the girl is turning to shyly look at the painter. She's a real person, from the past, trying to hold still and look nice for the painting. It freaks me out.

[@frankphelps9281]

Exactly...I have post cards and letters written by my great grand mothers in their own hand, of course. It is odd to muse on them sitting to write a letter all those years ago, on every day subjects a hundred years ago, just as we would today. Except today we very rarely write things by hand, it is mostly written on a key pad where the personal touch is lost. But on the other hand we now have videos of our selves and our families which, if they survive, will show future generations how we were in great detail....

[@MrAdvance2go]

@@EGarrett01 Caravaggio as well.

[@Poisonnachos]

It's always interesting to see historical figures moving, it adds a new depth of realism to me.

[@crmay72]

Absolutely! Very well-stated.

[@000SMITH000]

"When I was younger, I could remember everything. Even if it never happened."

[@daverenick5830]

I find this remarkable. Its like a window into the past looking at one of the greatest literary artists of all time.

[@deborahbaratti7683]

So grateful that there is at least one moving image of Samuel L. Clemens for us to cherish. If only there was a recording of his voice. As a student of the life of Mark Twain and his impressively massive body of work, I've always longed to hear his voice, his defining Midwestern drawl and what his mother called, "Sammy's long talk". I believe that is Jean on the left and Clara with the hat.

[@paganwulff]

Thank you, Thomas Edison, for capturing the motion and imagery of this great man.

[@nickgarcia3319]

Man fuck edison. World would be way more ahead if he didnt meddle in tesla

[@richardblayneamerican8149]

Thanks for this. Gone are the 'herky-jerky' movements seen in silent films. Makes you realize that these are real people who lived life just as we do today, minus our modern 'conveniences'. Just to think- Twain lived to see motion pictures- and flight! Amazing.

[@crmay72]

Exactly! And he was born 26 years before the Civil War!

[@SpaceRajan]

Mark Twain - the embodiment of Wit and Wisdom!

[@jessiehaislet3625]

I love this so much! Casually having tea in a wind storm, I laughed and it looked like they were laughing too. Thank you so much for sharing this with the world!

[@stlmopoet]

I disagree with the person who said there was too much cleanup. The point of film is to record the people and objects not the defects that accumulate in the film over time. The original will always be there if you want to see it.

[@crazyoldbuzzard]

I worked with two different local museums scanning old photos and negatives. The first insisted on preservation of every scratch, stain and fingerprint. The second was comfortable with my view that it was OK to try to restore the image to its original condition. A raw scan can be saved for future reference.

[@mathieuclement8011]

I spent some time working on aluminum discs (about 1930, think of a vinyl record but made of metal) and I've never met any person telling me they prefer the low quality version with cracks and saturation and weird noises. You want to hear the music and listen to the stories people tell, because that's what matters. In fact you probably want to physically remove the "bad stuff" or stop the damaging processes if you can, so that you can keep the original as long as possible. If you leave it to decay, then eventually there won't be anything to see or hear from the record.

[@hatfieldrick]

Seriously, what's the point of a 'restoration' that still looks like crap? I want to see a LOT more done to clean up this footage.

[@Sutterjack]

Great footage of an American Icon! I've read that Edison possibly did some audio of Twain that was destroyed in a fire. Too bad the technology wasn't quite there in Twain's time! It would be so incredible to hear the actual voice of Twain--

[@pappassmurfett1888]

Jus reposting my opinion 😊 As Far As Missing His Voice AS I SO DO TOO LIKE YOU Please Don’t Ask Me Why Or What Ever Okay But I Feel If It Should Interest Any One I Just Have A Feeling His Words Were At Most Times TOO FEW , At Times It Could Command Your Attention Almost Frightening You His Voice Was Genius Very Knowing ALREADY & Literally So @ the Same Time Very Much Genuine As Well or He Wouldn’t Give You the Time of Day He Reminds Me of The Voice on the WB Cartoon Rooster Character By the Name of FOG HORN LEG HORN (he too also a favorite of mine) Although With Slightly More Draw Possibly & Entirely WITHOUT a STUTTER at All , Slowed Down to a Very Sincere Speed Of Speech & Possibly Still Tho Quite Cynical ☺️ as Well IF That Should Help You In Your Reflections As Well w/ Me & Mine

[@TheStockwell]

The technology to record voice existed in Twain's time, but no-one ever thought to record him, alas. BUT! One of his neighbors was the actor William Gillette. Gillette was known to do a good impression of Twain. Gillette was interviewed and recorded doing his impression of Twain. It's not Twain, but it's as close as we might ever get. 🐧

[@smadaf]

So, if you write something on paper and then I burn that paper, "the technology wasn't quite there" in your time to record information on paper? Mark Twain died in 1910. Sound waves had been recorded since 1859 (phonautograph). Edison's phonograph had been around for thirty-four years. The Phonograph, the Graphophone, and the Gramophone were big industries. Magnetic recording had been around for years. A recording of Mark Twain's voice was made; and it has been missing for many decades. An autochrome of him lying in bed was made, and it's still around. I think it's pretty cool that both a movie and a color photo of Mark Twain exist. Now if only that sound-recording would come to light! At least there are many verbatim transcripts of his extemporaneous speech, taken in shorthand for newspaper interviews and such. To me it's still hard, in a way, to believe that his lifetime overlapped sound-recording, color photography, movies, the telephone (of which he was a fan), radio, stereophonic electrical sound-transmission, electric lamps, vacuum cleaners, electric cars, and airplanes.

[@Sutterjack]

@@smadaf OK I'll rephrase - the tech was there, but just sad that, with as famous as Twain was, there aren't hundreds of hours of audio recordings of his voice. Really surprised that someone didn't see the importance of documenting more of this American legend. I find it hard to believe that not one audio recording exists of his actual voice.

[@smadaf]

@@Sutterjack , I've a vague recollection of reading that sometime did see the importance and that there were several takes, but that Twain was unhappy with each one and so they all are scrapped. It's an uncertain memory; even if I remember it right, I don't know whether it's true. If there is a heaven, maybe one day we'll all get to meet him.

[@PhantomPirate1776]

Thank you so much for restoring this! I just found this footage tonight, and I have greatly enjoyed getting a chance to see Twain and his family. I greatly appreciate the efforts & technology that exist to restore and treasure these films for the ages and years to come!

[@thetriumphofthethrill2457]

Fascinating, what a marvel of history and technology. Never knew he was filmed and I'm glad to see this.

[@bigeyejim]

One can only imagine what they are talking about. Amazing piece of history not only from Mark Twain, but shot by Thomas Edison. Awe.

[@a.kayeford4325]

Windy day! And the hat pin!! Love this!

[@kelli217]

This is excellent work in 'normalizing' the film to a consistent exposure, speed, and orientation, and using that to bring out detail. I can only imagine what could be done by, say, sampling the better areas from one frame of film and using them to repair damage on other frames. Or the level of detail that might be possible using the same time-based techniques that NASA used to create high-resolution images from the standard-definition tracking cameras in the Shuttle missions. (Of course, the techniques I've just mentioned may be prohibitively expensive for ordinary customers.)

[@davidnicholson6680]

Jean was tragically dead within months of filming this. Clemens himself died the next year. Clara lived until 1962.

[@jessiejames7492]

do they have any living descendants?

[@marianoguy]

Only Shania Twain

[@lydiatheys9394]

Jessie, there is a woman who claims to be able to show she is the illegitimate daughter of Twain's granddaughter Nina Gabrilowitsch.

[@JamesMilliganJr]

Seems incredible that Clara was alive till 1962! She saw so much history!

[@fidelcatsro6948]

yeah she saw steam engines to Honda 120mph 4 cylinder bikes! 88yrs old

[@MunnaSam]

Thank you. Great job restoring a piece of our history for the generations to come.

[@NiecieB65]

This is amazing to me. Excellent work.

[@damiansupafly]

Amazing piece of history, Thomas Edison and Mark Twain, Wonderful

[@rickshafer3730]

To have such a house, the somewhat defiant yet questioning face, the tea party with his daughters, this is the man who gave us the immortal Huckleberry Finn; considered to be the first great American Author--he truly wrote the Great American Novel. Notice the lifted fingers of the right hand as he drinks his tea. Huckleberry, Tom, Injun Joe, The Jumping Frog came from another man at another time in his life. I suspect that his Journel writing, autobiogrpahy, were lasting gifts to us to explain the man and discover how much he did love Livy, missed her, and then show us his darkening side as Halley's got nearer.

[@Gaia_Gaistar]

I can't believe some of his books are banned in school libraries now.

[@jamesaritchie1]

@@Gaia_Gaistar Only one to any degree, and even it has largely been restored to almost every school library. But it doesn't matter. "Banned" is a stupid word for a book anyone in the country can buy, or borrow from a public library. When you say a book is "banned" from a school library, you're making light of real book banning. There are far better, and far more accurate words and phrases to use, but kneejerk, unthinking people always grab the wrong ones.

[@georgial6398]

He was a great author but not the first great American author, no. The New Englanders were there first, Hawthorne, Melville, Thoreau, Emerson etc.

[@deniaridley]

@@georgial6398 Hear, hear. This literature major and diehard "Twainiac", as someone called themselves earlier, came here to say the same thing.

[@jessiejames7492]

he , churchill and chaplin met once . they were talking for almost 2 hours. churchill emerged later and quippped' I didnt get a word in edgewise. '' ha ha. all witty , brilliant men. i would have given anything to listen to their conversations

[@warrenpierce5542]

How about the meeting of Tesla, Einstein and Sam Clemmons that occurred around 1907.

[@jessiejames7492]

@@warrenpierce5542 that too!

[@jessiejames7492]

@@warrenpierce5542 churchill meeting richard burton in his dressing room after his Hamlet performnce at the Old Vic. Richard Burton recalled it so eloquently. Lovely voice. V funny meeting.

[@EgbertWilliams]

Seeing some real puffs from Mark Twain's cigar is pretty damn cool. It's as hard to imagine America without Twain, as it is without Jefferson or Adams.

[@nancysobin3056]

Great footage of a great man. too bad we couldn't hear what he had to say.

[@snakey319]

He probably was talking about how he kept his hair so lush and soft, because he was worth it. Original Silver Fox

[@davebarron5939]

This reminds me of a recent video i watched where a lip reading specialist was able to review ww1 soldiers speaking and bring their words back to life. In the beginning of this, Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain, is speaking. It would be neat to find out what he is saying. Thanks

[@winstonmarlowe5254]

the mouser hides his upper lip

[@bodiend8033]

Filmed on a Windsday, no doubt.

[@thranx11111]

Note that some of what Clemens is saying makes his daughter laugh. An honest, human laugh; not one ordered up by a director in an early silent film. Beautiful stuff. And we need a lip reader.

[@susaninmaine]

I know...that's my favorite part of this footage.

[@nathanosgood4959]

You get the feeling they love being with him.

[@TedBronson1918]

They did, Unfortunately all of his daughters and his wife preceded him in death, and he said he was happy to go be with them all together again in his last illness

[@tonyperone3242]

There hasn't been a true humorist in America since then. IMO.

[@TedBronson1918]

Tony Perone - I take a daily dose of Mark Twain. It helps to keep me balanced when some shit would drive me right around the bend. I can count the number of men I respect as much as him on one hand.

[@tmac8892]

"Dont believe everything you read on the internet"--mark twain. 1902.

[@jessiejames7492]

Ha ha. Good one 😏😏😏😏

[@barbarabaldwin7120]

not a Twain quote

[@jessiejames7492]

@@barbarabaldwin7120 i know. ! Thats why i said good one. Witty

[@luzthedivine9719]

woah, genius.

[@mikelheron20]

@@barbarabaldwin7120 Please tell me that you're trying to be funny.

[@MichaelLeBlanc-p4f]

What a visual treat to an old ghost, I've liked all my life and come to genuinely respect more and more the older I get. Know for an absolute certainty 'Mark ain't dead yet, because he has too many people in the world that love the way he talks, so keep company with that wonderfully wise gentleman.

[@13thcentury]

Lacking in plot - needs a fight scene

[@13thcentury]

But thank fuck there was no love scene

[@CariagaXIII]

Needs Michel bay

[@13thcentury]

Nothing needs Michael Bay!

[@belaglik]

And nudity.

[@bwworld]

And a soundtrack. I think "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones would go well here.

[@bcgrote]

That room was so well lit! What a fabulous piece of film; thanks for sharing it!

[@MilciadesAndrion]

This is an important piece of History. Great video.

[@Blahzay-m84]

"Im an old man now and have known many troubles, most of which never happened." Mark Twain

[@Titanic45_klelk]

Would love to hear what he's saying, even if they're just cusses. Lol! I bet I'm not the only one.

[@frankphelps9281]

Perhaps a good "lip reader" could tell us what he is saying....

[@DMBall]

The great tragedy is that Edison didn't also record Twain's voice, despite the fact that the former had invented the phonograph 35 years earlier. Not a single sound recording of Twain is known to exist.

[@mrfox5780]

@@DMBall If I recall a friend of his (an East Coast actor) tried to replicate it for an audio recording, this sadly will be the closest we get.

[@samsum3738]

I am sure there is a recording somewhere . In a garden shed , an attic an old cupboard . It will be on a disc , for sale in a flea market , among other old recordings . It seems to be that is how things happen .

[@TFGFilmandTape]

This was made from a 16mm copy of what was probably a 35mm print of the paper print on file with the Library of Congress. If you compare this version with the others on KZbin you will see we have made great strides in reducing the exposure variances. Anything more would probably require manual correction frame by frame. Actually, one viewer here said we went too far!

[@DavidDiegoRodriguez]

Multitasking at its finest. Mark Twain walking for exercise AND smoking a cigar!

[@jamesaritchie1]

I do exactly this every day. Sometimes I even smoke Mark Twain cigars while doing so.

[@donclark4685]

Great Upload. I'm pleased that this film excists of my favorite Author.

[@bryansheehan9672]

This is a wonderful piece of history. Samuel Clemons is an American icon. Kudos!

[@JaneB0112]

i love the hat pins

[@santomenon3689]

Super . I thank Edison for the timely capture of Mark Twain on camera

[@PerpetualWalkerJoe]

Masterpiece. You can tell he was no different then than when he was a miner. Thanks for the post. MAR 21 FL USA

[@securi-t]

At around 2:20 there's something weird in the upper left of the frame. Looks like normal noise, but then looks like a head and shoulders around 2:24, then a hand around 2:29. Weird exposure glitches, I'm sure. But still weird. Maybe something with the optics picking up something just out of frame?

[@michaelmblog]

At this time in life, Twain was quite lonely. His wife had just died and his daughter Jean would die soon after from a seizure. Beautiful villa that he built in Redding though.

[@uslines]

Yes, very sad.

[@uslines]

His essay on the death of Jean is heartbreaking.

[@mmedeuxchevaux]

If I could spend my time with any person in history, Mark Twain would be at the top of my list - though I seriously doubt he would say the same about me.

[@87Marilia]

For the time of record i think quality is very good .. look so perfect that behavior of them take a cup coffee just like movie

[@bandicoot5412]

Made my week plus time, thanks!

[@Literatura_Latinoamericana]

Excelente! Muchas gracias por compartirlo con todos nosotros :)

[@KaBoomChannel]

Why isn't it colorized? They should put CGI in it of a dinosaur coming and eating him

[@mausermananderson3397]

Not funny.

[@joeshmoe9233]

the sound doesn't work, either.

[@williameason5795]

Yo. Kaboom. Gul...! Dont. you ever forget about Race? Like Dr King did and just live? Cause when we did we shonuf all.white. ever see a black bone. an in heaven we all.same color. Jewish. Boycheck. !

[@zakinaab]

Clara is the big sister sitting in the middle, she is the one serving the tea I guess with creme at 1:56, and finally handing it to her father Mark Twain at 1:59. He is pouring a sugar from the sugar bowl at 2:13 while Clara is making new cup of tea. He was not diabetic from my understanding. Jean the little sister is patiently waiting, holding an empty cup on her lap. Jean wanted to make her own cup of tea, but instead, her big sister Clara sacrificed the newly mixed cup of tea that she made for herself to her little sister Jean handing it to her at 2:16. She told her sister at 2:16 something like take this cup, and give me the empty cup. Clara started filling from the empty cup she took from her sister at 2:22 mixing with creme and sugar, and finally drinking at 2:28. A handsome man appeared on the corner of the screen at 2:42 handing Clara a hat, he may not be husband or husband to be. I am wondering who that man is?

[@GrantTarredus]

This is wonderful! Thanks for sharing it.

[@billgobaggins]

Now we need to unearth the only recording of Twain's voice made by Edison. Thanks for this. Signed, a Twainiac

[@susanlovejoy6131]

My all time favorite writer!

[@EightTrackBass]

Looks like it was very windy that day. Check out the trees in the background when they are seated at the table.

[@486hj]

So glad there was a need for her hatpin. I love hatpins.

[@Ultracity6060]

So windy!

[@Мирич-з4е]

*Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain were best friends. I'm upset that Nikola Tesla died 33 years(1943) after Mark Twain and there's no footage or audio recording of Tesla.*

[@user-wk4iw8gt8r]

Мирич yea shame

[@jacksonholiman6230]

deliberate movements

[@jerrygottlick4614]

Daughter Clara lived until the mid-1960s. surely there must be interviews with her including on television. If not Prior on film or radio.

[@BradleyTayloe]

What a historic film :) Thank you for sharing with us!

[@fidelcatsro6948]

beautiful job thank you for this, now I can locate them positively on my time travel journey device once I dial back to 1909 !

[@Alan-lv9rw]

In Redding, CT ... my hometown! He established our Mark Twain Library.

[@TedBronson1918]

When they do an old silent film like this they should try to have a lip reader fill in the conversation where possible. I loved this restored film, just felt it was incomplete when they could have given this an entirely new dimension by filling in the conversation. I challenge any lip readers out there to add their dialogue to this film ! You'll be doing history a solid worth remembering !

[@jamesaritchie1]

How do we know the lip reader isn't just making it up?

[@maryannehernandez9050]

just wonderful!!

[@vincentlyons]

wonderful piece of historical film, thank you for sharing. Much of the film frames have stationary content, with little movement. Would be possible to normalize/ average those areas to get an extremely steady flicker free frame?

[@javiergonzalezlopez10]

If this is a restored film, I don't even want to know how did it look like before restoration.

[@hatfieldrick]

Seriously, what was it restored FROM, a pile of ashes?

[@davidholman48]

So much changes, yet so much remains the same. The trees in the background are blown about by a strong breeze. A man smiles sheepishly as he steps into frame. Where did the smoke from Twain's cigar go? Are there still traces of it somewhere? Twain had only one more year left. Did he know? Even films as old and scratchy still convey an illusion of life.

[@adairoakheart7396]

Ah, time goes on, death is inevitable, and we will become dust and ashes. It is worth reflecting once more on why we live and whether we act with dignity. Let everyone reading these lines remember mindfulness and wisdom and strive to seek them.

[@conniedavis2486]

Wonderful to see!

[@rhenz111]

And yes, I can aver positively that it is Clara behind the samovar (the hat is added so she can be seen), and Jean on the left. That's Ashcroft who brings in the hat, I'm pretty sure. I was first shown this film by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger, in 1978. Caroline was friends with Clara from 1942 til Clara's death in 1962. Caroline died in1995.

[@a.a.1245]

Richard Henzel Cool!

[@myguitardetective5961]

As the family members sit in the loggia calmly sipping tea and chatting, the man who enters briefly giving Clara her hat is Mark Twain's French Butler Claude Beuchotte.

[@myguitardetective5961]

@Georgina Orwell Certainly: "Mark Twain's Other Woman" by Laura Skandera Trombley. The discussion of this Edison film and the 100% now-confirmed ID for Claude Beuchotte appears on pg. 223.

[@davey306]

If you’re driving a Tesla and it is stolen does it then become an Edison?

[@derienme]

I think that 'distracting centerpiece' someone mentioned is actually a thing for heating hot water in, with a little burner under it, so as to be able to refresh the tea. Which is still distracting and blocking his other daughter's face, but is kind of a neat detail. I had no idea that those first cameras swapped the image right to left like a mirror. I wasn't believing that, initially, but then I realized it seemed more likely than that he and both his daughters were left handed.

[@409tabbycat]

It sure was windy that day.

[@gertrudemcfuzz74]

Beautiful man who adored his beautiful family. We need more SLC's in this increasingly ugly world.

[@classicsfan8791]

+Thanos of Titan Read up on Clara before heaping praise.

[@gertrudemcfuzz74]

+Wandstrasse Hurensohn I've read plenty. Everyone has demons, and Sam and Clara were no exceptions. He knew he could be a tyrant. Brilliant men are often eccentric and impossible to live with at times. He acknowledged this many times in his life. “I found that all their lives my children have been afraid of me! have stood all their days in uneasy dread of my sharp tongue and uncertain temper. . . . All the concentrated griefs of fifty years seemed colorless by the side of that pathetic revelation.” Sounds to me like SLC knew he had darkness within him. What made him special was his ever-increasing ability to pointedly and poetically admit it.

[@TSZatoichi]

Looks like a very windy day, had there been sound on film at the time this may have been shot indoors. It also looks like the cameraman (Edison?) wasn't very experienced at setting up a shot to be able to get the faces of all three at the same time while they were having tea(?).

[@lunhil12]

Imagine how fun it would be to sit, have a cup and chat at that table.

[@georgehscheetz4050]

By flipping the image, the right-handed Mark Twain, when walking around the house in the middle sequence, suddenly is left-handed. That is, the cigar in his right hand in the first sequence appears to be in his left hand in the middle sequence, which is the reverse of the original print of this film.

[@alanklink]

Looks to have been shot in August of 1909. Edison was at Stormfield in February - possibly to plan the shoot. Anyone know for sure?

[@oscarjuliano]

Priceless!!

[@Homeless122]

I did a 3D conversion on every frame of this same footage. Very interesting to look back in time. Did anyone else notice Clara in the window second lap around the house?

[@deliriumdarko]

Darren Moore good eye!

[@Homeless122]

this is interesting here is the room today that they are having tea in In the film 40.media.tumblr.com/e9056e54c5ef78166a77081e2415fad0/tumblr_nfx7gb0qSD1s3hp12o7_1280.jpg

[@deliriumdarko]

Darren Moore beautiful! wow! thanks so much for sharing!

[@KalOrtPor]

That room doesn't exist anymore, the house burned down in the 1920s and a similar one was rebuilt shortly after. The place they are having tea is not a room but an open area on the opposite end of the house from where Twain is walking into view.

[@trixzitailz4151]

Mark twain did make a recording of his voice around 1892 for a small privately owned recording firm in newyork know as bettine. Unfortunately very few of these recordings exist and are highly prized by collectors today. Perhaps it will turn up someday but it's highly unlikely. Someone who knew him made a recording around 1930 imitating him. It's the closest thing we have to the real thing. Look it up.

[@charlesstuart7290]

A Twentieth Century man largely caught in the Nineteenth.

[@emsrusty846]

Wow great footage . Imagine What Samuel Clemons would think of the world today !?!?

[@LindaDooWop]

Love it! Thank you!

[@jimburke3801]

Great restoration work, lovely to have. Is it possible to make it a little bit clearer?

[@theyruinedyoutubeagain]

Watching a video shot 114 years ago, fucking wild

[@519djw6]

*In the 1970's, the late Hal Holbrook did a one-man show called "Mark Twain Tonight." I think it must have been on PBS. Does anyone know if a recording of this is available in any form?*

[@barrietite495]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4qQqpiwfLeFn9k

[@backpackr]

From looking at pictures of Twain he wrote with his right hand and smokes with his left..that first frame looks backward. Did you fix the camera-to-subject orientation on it too?

[@mysticwine]

Is that 'reefer' he's smoking? Turns you into a mad killer!

[@audiobook3837]

Ol Samuel keepin the pimp hand strong..

[@cuteycindyhoney]

Does history record who the guy was that came in and gave her that killer hat?

[@razzledazzle4553]

+Cindy G Looks like it might be Jervis Langdon, Jr., Clara's and Jean's cousin. He's in Clara's wedding photo taken at Stormfield in October 1909.

[@louisiix5266]

That was Jethro from the Beverly Hill Billies

[@myguitardetective5961]

As the family members sit in the loggia calmly sipping tea and chatting, the man who enters briefly giving Clara her hat is Mark Twain's French Butler Claude Beuchotte.

[@DepisTV]

I find it fascinating that i only live 2 miles away from stormfield

[@7ajhubbell]

Thank you.

[@thebestofbelltowneasthampt6679]

There are images of MT with the cigar in either hand. Study the unique design of the house. That will give you your answer.

[@elkabong6429]

Wonderful footage! It’s unfortunate that one of the daughters had a table ornament placed directly in front of her for all of posterity!

[@xenophidian]

Mark Twizzle up in the Hizzle.

[@SpeegBJ]

Great! And who's that good looking 'lad' bringing in the hat? Kudos to all

[@drinkthekoolaidkids]

A dead man

[@mazeman01]

Sadly, one of those daughters (Jean, the younger) died later that year. She was found in a bathtub at that same house on Christmas Eve. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Clemens

[@sybrpunk]

it was a windy day. I hadn't thought of Mark Twain as the type to have a butler(?)

[@Bhakti-rider]

That was likely Clara's husband.

[@annaeklund-cheong4414]

A true "national treasure" found and restored!

[@jonherman8121]

This restoration is way better than the original version. Seeing Twain puffing on a cigar, I wonder why he didn't quit smoking after seeing what it did to his friend General Grant.

[@Guitcad1]

+Jon Herman He did quit, thousands of times.

[@boataxe4605]

Because he was willing to trade off a few years ( the nursing home years) for something that he enjoyed.