Comments on: Mark Twain was Secretly A Geek, and Here’s Footage to Prove It

By: JUJU

JUJU — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 19:46:16 +0000

…AWSOME!!!…What a surprise to see this wonderful writer in action!…Alive and Kicking with his daughters. Technology amazes me!…And its advances!. So much for that!. Amen!.
Thanx!.~

By: Jess Q.

Jess Q. — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 18:32:28 +0000

Great video, though I think I’ve seen it before on a documentary of Twain. I do wish the framerate could be adjusted to make his walking speed closer to what it really was, it’s too fast here. But that’s just nitpicking, haha.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:50:06 +0000

Mark Twain was never “secretive” in his internest in technology. He pursued many patents and inventions, some to his finacial detriment. It is great to see Sam Clements but such a loss that we cannot hear his Missouri twang.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 04:57:05 +0000

Lip readers can often read silent film. What’s Twain saying?? He is talking up a storm.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 04:50:31 +0000

If someone took the time, it might be possible to reconstruct aspects of Twain’s voice and manner of speaking by scientifically analyzing the moving images of Twain’s face and throat in the film. Add this info to what we have described regarding his voice from historical sources or his regional dialect, and maybe his voice could be reconstructed.

By: Sela

Sela — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 05:45:53 +0000

Fascinating. While he’s definitely easier to see in the photos taken of him they don’t show his walk. That was a thrill to watch.

However, there’s an error in the sentence “He tried again in 1909 at Edison’s lab, but those recording were lost in a 1914 fire.” It should either be that recording or those recordings.

By: Rose Eveleth

Rose Eveleth — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:56:19 +0000

Whoops, fixed now! Thanks!

Rose

By: Rose Eveleth

Rose Eveleth — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:55:47 +0000

Hi there,

Yep, that one slipped through the cracks here. We’ll remove it now. Thanks for pointing it out!

Rose

By: H. Scott

H. Scott — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:01:20 +0000

Both captions identify the picture on the “left” … Is that some kind of science fiction?

By: Dylann

Dylann — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 20:05:25 +0000

“The Only Footage of Mark Twain in Existence”
Don’t you mean, “the only footage in existence of Mark Twain’???

By: Mike N

Mike N — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:36:21 +0000

“a video of Mark Twain?”

How sad that an institution revered for zealous dedication to proper technical classification could publish such an obvious error. This footage is probably digitized from an Edison Kinetoscope reel. It is in no way a “video” recording.

#Smithsonianfail.

Or, #EmbarassingEditing.

By: Offended

Offended — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:17:22 +0000

If we are really monitoring this website can we remove the cuss words sent in by Drake?

By: NotLegalCounsel

NotLegalCounsel — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:30:30 +0000

I think Drake got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Either that or he has a personal vendetta against the author.

By: Pamela

Pamela — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 17:16:38 +0000

Interesting to see such old footage.

By: shthar

shthar — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 01:21:09 +0000

We know what he sounds like.

He sounds like Hal Holbrook.