Alf Collins

[1] His shorts include Rescued by Lifeboat (1906), The Lady Athlete; or, Jiu-Jitsu Downs the Footpads (1907), and The Dancing Girl (1908).

[2][3][4] This event was held on the original site of Collins's outdoor stage, of the Gaumont film studios, in Camberwell.

[5] The event included the film When Extremes Meet (1905), which is 150 feet long, with Collins dressed in Cockney costume.

[6] How Percy Won the Beauty Competition (1909) is a comic chase film set in the fields and nearby streets of his outdoor stage.

One of these – It Was A Nice Quiet Morning (1907) – has survived and has now been synchronised with an original recording provided by local film collector Bob Geoghegan.

Some of these films only exist today because they were copyrighted between 1895 to1912 with the Library of Congress in Washington USA or with National Archives in Kew UK.

For the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company Collins made an early convict short film for them[14] What Goes on in the Moonlight, to use in their penny-in-the-slot machines and for music halls.

[15] Collins went on to produce and sometimes act in over 260 films for Gaumont British and used his out of work theatre friends and his own family as actors.

The Stage Archive quoted "Good wholesome fun and hilarious slapstick are abundant, the chorus is admirably trained and finished."