Rip Van Winkle (1896)
The first film adaptation of Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle", a short story about a man who awakes after a twenty-year-long sleep to a huge white beard on his face and a much changed world. In this footage, Joseph Jefferson, the actor most associated with the character on the nineteenth-century stage, makes a series of short films recreating scenes from his stage adaptation.
May 12, 2012