First Music Video

This film, known as The Dickson Experimental Sound Film, is the first known film with live-recorded sound. The film features William Dickson playing the melody “Song of the Cabin Boy” from the light opera “The Chimes of Normandy“, composed by Robert Planquette in 1877.

The two men dancing are likely to be employees at Edison’s studio – the Black Maria. The lyric of the song they are dancing to describes life at sea without women.