Comic Costume Race is an 1896

1896 in film

-Events:* January - In the United States, the Vitascope film projector is designed by Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat. Armat begins working with Thomas Edison to manufacture it....

 British short

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 black-and-white  silent

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 actuality film

Actuality film

The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that like the documentary film uses footage of real events, places, and things, yet unlike the documentary is not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or coherent whole. In practice, actuality films preceded the emergence of the...

, directed by Robert W. Paul

Robert W. Paul

Robert W. Paul was a British electrician, scientific instrument maker and early pioneer of British film.-Early career:...

, featuring comic costume scramble at the Music Hall Sports on 14 July, 1896 at Herne Hill

Herne Hill

Herne Hill is located in the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London. There is a road of the same name which continues the A215 north of Norwood Road and was called Herne Hill Road.-History:...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. The film was, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "presented at Windsor Castle on 23 November 1896," which, "enabled Paul to add a royal seal of approval to his advertisements." It is included on the BFI DVD R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908.