1912 Edison Home Kinetoscope Movie Projector Film * In And Around Havana, Cuba

If you're an uncompromising collector of antique technology, make sure to check out all my listings after you look at this one. I don't think you'll find a better, broader or more balanced assortment of technical antiques anywhere -- hundreds of listings each year, almost all of them featuring eye-popping "gee whiz" gadgetry in exceptional original condition. And don't forget, you can click this link to quickly add and then save me to your favorite seller list and Ebay will automatically send you updates when I put similar new listings online.Here's a hard to find Edison Home Kinetoscope motion picture filmstrip that dates to around 1912. It's clean and continuous, and its leader strip is still intact.The movie's title is "In And Around Havana, Cuba." It's a "Class C" documentary that was filmed in Havana during the first decade of the last century, in the wake of the Spanish-American War. It's a fascinating piece of world history, and it's among the scarcest of all the Home Kinetoscope titles. To the best of my knowledge, it was never catalogued, though clearly it was produced and distributed by Edison. On the leader strip is the film's title (In And Around Havana, Cuba), the film's class (C), the film's catalog number (L30C) and the film's manufacturer (Thomas A. Edison Inc.)On the back of the film's metal canister is a return label addressed to the Thomas A. Edison Exchange Bureau Program, indicating it was part of a "pay per play" lending library that Edison ran in order obviate the need for individuals and institutions to pay full price for titles they were only going be viewing a few times. On the underside of the canister, the title is typed rather than printed, and it appears to be a mismatch (the ink has faded), but title/canister mismatches were probably not uncommon for movies that were part of the Exchange Bureau Program.As you can see in the photographs, the filmstrip comprises 3 parallel tracks squeezed onto a 22mm wide filmstrip. Condition of the film itself is good, and there does not appear to be any damage anywhere. The canister has some blemishes, as you can see, but overall this is a nice old Kinetoscope film, and you rarely see them anymore, in any condition.Please review the video and the photographs and consider them an integral part of the description.I'm one of ebay's best known, most highly regarded sellers of technical antiques. I've been selling and shipping them for more than 25 years. When you purchase an item from me, you can rest assured that it will arrive safely because it's been carefully packed (by me, not by some well-intentioned but nonetheless confounded, doe-eyed teenager working at the UPS store who wouldn't know a projector from a popcorn maker), Sure, you can probably get a lower price from Joe and Janet Barn-Find, but when your "bargain" arrives broken, and without any hint of how you might be able to put it back together, you'll realize that you really do get exactly what you pay for.