Media item

Arabian gun twirler

Film from the Paper Print Collection of the Library of Congress.

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A bearded man performs a rifle twirling act on a stage with a painted backdrop of a city street corner. He wears a white turban and a dark two-piece costume of tunic and baggy pants that narrow at the knees; perhaps the costume of an Arab infantryman. The tricks he performs include throwing the spinning rifle in the air and catching it; twirling the gun in front of him, above his head, behind his back, to the side of his torso, and under his leg; and twirling the rifle as he switches hands.

Notes:
The performer, Hadji Cheriff, was apparently a performer on the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, perhaps in the "A Street in Cairo" or Turkish village exhibits.

See also the entry for this film on the Library of Congress American Memory website

Creator:
Edison Manufacturing Co.
Publication date:
20 March 1899
Length:
00:40

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Type:
video
Original format:
 
User:
Library of Congress
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