Kobelkoff | 1900 | Documentary, Short

Title: Kobelkoff | 1900 | Documentary, Short Starring: Nikolai Kobelkoff Runtime: 2 Format: 35 mm, black-and-white, silent Country: Austria Language: Silent Genres: Documentary, Short --- Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:25 Skill demonstration I 00:00:55 Skill demonstration II 00:01:25 Mobility display 00:01:50 Closing --- Summary: This early actuality short presents the celebrated fairground performer Nikolai Kobelkoff, born without arms and legs, demonstrating everyday skills for the camera. The film functions as a concise document of turn‑of‑the‑century entertainment culture and of a performer’s remarkable adaptability before a static backdrop. Though only a couple of minutes long, it exemplifies the era’s non‑fiction filmmaking, capturing a sideshow act at the Viennese Prater and preserving a rare moving‑image record of Kobelkoff’s stage routine. --- Background: Produced around 1900 and preserved by Filmarchiv Austria, Kobelkoff is described as the oldest surviving film of a Prater sideshow. Kobelkoff himself had already embraced cinema by the late 1890s, touring with a traveling cinematograph; this short is the only known film of his act to survive. --- Trivia: Nikolai Kobelkoff was born in the Russian Empire and gained international fame on European fairgrounds before settling in Vienna. Filmarchiv Austria identifies this title as Austrian and notes it as the earliest preserved footage of a Prater show attraction. The surviving element is a 35 mm nitrate source held by Filmarchiv Austria. The film runs roughly two minutes and is silent, photographed in black‑and‑white. In 1913 Kobelkoff established the Toboggan ride in Vienna’s Prater, extending his presence there beyond the sideshow stage. --- Public Domain / Rights: Copyright Status: Public Domain Renewal: No --- Hashtags: Kobelkoff 1900 SilentFilm Documentary ShortFilm AustrianCinema PublicDomain NikolaiKobelkoff This video was sourced from Internet Archive. Originally uploaded by jake@archive.org. https://archive.org/details/silent-kobelkoff