Monday, February 13, 2017

The Oldest One?

I have found this gem a few time ago and start wondering whether it is the first nude combat captured on film. It is in fast motion, typical attribute of movies shot in the 1920s when cameras run at 18-19 frames/second for saving film. Therefore, I suspect it came from that period, specially because it is a German production and the country had a liberal approach to nudity. 

Unfortunately, it is just a two minutes clip and apparently the fight is longer.

.

Update: Following the information given by the clip finder (see the comment), I have done a brief research on the Web. The footage has come from Karl Höffkes Archives, a huge repository of common life scenes in Germany in the 20th century (I don´t know the language, so I had to use bare tools as Google Translate). The above clip is here and on its brief information line, Karl dates the material to the 1940s (or even the 1960s) and the location at a certain "Atrium". There was a theater with this name in Dusseldorf that held female wrestling events in the 1940s after the war. Does anyone can find more?

Two more things: my assumptions about the film speed were just a fantasy and I have supposed that I could post the video here...
.

10 comments:

  1. Thomas Edison filmed two women boxing...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was the one who found this online. This was done by Karl Hoeffke who was a famous german filmmaker. I found it on a website that features a bunch of archived film footage by this man. Unfortunately this was the only nude female combat clip I found on the site. As a matter of fact, there was a lot of footage from the nazi era that looked like newsreel propaganda. I do find it interesting that the poster in back of the action says women's freestyle wrestling like it was some type of event held.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Our kudos for your finding! So the AKH at top right is related to Karl Hoeffke; it is a pity that the remaining footage is still missing. Thanks again for your contributions (I have used other material found by you elsewhere in the blog...).

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is one of the best female nude wrestling clips i ever seen!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The other clip from KH that shows two women fighting in lingerie has been confirmed as to
    being shot in 1936. I think the nude female match could be around the same year.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ah, those halcyon days before deforestation!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That was originally from the Zschiegner collection. Zschiegner was a German dentist around the 40s and 50s, and a fan of women wrestling. He was lucky enough to be married to a woman who liked wrestling with other ladies as well. Being a dentist he afforded to use a 16mm Bolex for his films. Most of the fights were in Bikini or bathing suits, many outside the house in the garden.Some footage is saved as a filler on Cal Supreme tapes. I have also some stills from a book written by a german expert.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This information puts another piece of the puzzle in place. Cal Supreme founder, Ron Dvorkin, started his business after having seen movies from Germany (btw Ron was also a dentist). I guess the book you mention is Werner Sonntag´s "Kampfes Lust".

      Delete