Original Video Credits/Acknowledgments
This presentation was developed and edited in 1992-93 by Gene DeAnna, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. The detailed descriptive notes for the films were provided by San Francisco historian Michael D. Lampen, assisted by Gladys Hanson of the Museum of the City of San Francisco. Cataloging support was provided by Elaine Woods. Many of the original paper prints were transferred by Bill Ault at the UCLA film archive in Los Angeles. Videotape mastering was by James B. Winther, Recording Lab, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Engineering support was by Paul Chrisman, Recording Lab, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. (Acknowledgements online).
There is also a page with the video cut into three parts, available in a few other formats. The page is noteworthy in itself for the descriptions of the filming. a Video summary page

The Music
The song "La Femme D'argent" comes from the group Air, and their album "Moon Safari" . You can download the song from either i-Tunes or Amazon. Probably other places,too. The music is copyright : Air, EMI, Astralwerks, (without looking at the CD).
For more about Air : Air Official Website, or Wikipedia has a detailed history of the group.

Download the video
You can download video from www.archive.org . I used the big 330MB mpeg version,but you can download other formats. You do not have to register, and there are no fees to download. The film is labeled as Public Domain, which means that any copyrights on the film have expired. The film has no audio.
Hint:Download it at night;broadband should download at 1MB/s or better.

How we made the video
Open the film with Windows Movie Maker. It will take several minutes to load. We edited our video, to begin a few minutes into the film. There was a lot of frame rolls before that. Then we just let the film play, uncut and unedited, until the end of the song. We saved the video as a .wmv file, 720x480 resolution, with 30fps. We did not intend to 'up-convert' the resolution.That was an honest mistake.
This video was uploaded to YouTube only. We do not offer it for download.

Video Types The video can be seen on YouTube at Air - La Femme D'Argent. This video is a 33.1MB .mp4 video file. We have tried several formats to correct the video. The original film was filmed at a frame rate of 15 frames per second. The video you can download (on archiv.org) is recorded at 30 frames per second. It has been said that this produces 'unnatural' effects in moving objects.

Trivia
We enjoy some details, such as: The policeman waving the streetcar on with his baton at :38, the horse and buggy that comes out from between two streetcars at :41. Note the film rolls here, as if the cameraman was startled.
After all, he had to crank the film through the camera 'manually'. By hand crank.
The man with the small child seen walking away from the camera, just behind the 'horse and buggy' at :42.
As an automobile passes in front of the camera, in the background you can see a tall 'delivery' style horse and wagon crossing the street from right to left.
At 1:15 , the man waves in an attempt to 'stop' the streetcar the camera is in. Apparently this streetcar is not on a regular route.
At 1:24 you see a man crossing the street from right to left, carrying some rather long objects in his arms.
At 1:40, two men and a woman seem to be waiting to board the streetcar, which doesn't stop.
Two newspaper boys at 2:29 .
At 2:36 the guy jumps right into the path of an oncoming automobile, but manages to get out of its path.
The video jumps at 2:41 as though something interrupted the camera operator. (Newspaper boy?)
At 2:50, a man with some type of logo on his hat crosses the tracks. I am curious as to what the cap says.Western Union (telegram?)
Right behind him, two cowboys are crossing.
At 3:00, another newspaper boy . This one crosses the tracks cautiously, and makes a hand gesture.
He jumps out of the way, and turns around to face the side of the streetcar. The film rolls, here.
At 3:10-3:12, you see three gentlemen 'squeeze over' next to the streetcar. Then an automobile passes by.
The automobile continues on, note the driver is on the right side of the auto.
Starting around 3:24, there is an automobile coming down the wrong side of the road...
And at the same time, a rider on a white horse is galloping down the street on the left side.
At 3:53, two automobiles are attempting to make a 'u-turn' from right to left...
But notice the two policemen standing near, obscured by another passing streetcar.... One trots away from the camera, and the other seems to follow.
At 4:00, a young man crosses directly in front of the camera wearing an apron.
At 4:03, a young man is jogging to the right of the camera. He looks over his left shoulder... And then looks over his right shoulder; with a horse in front of him, and an automobile behind.
At 4:16, a man lunges out into the street to avoid an automobile.
At 4:45, another man with the same type of logo on his hat we saw at 2:50. This one has papers in his hand.
At 4:52, you see a child (newspaper boy?) waving his hand in front of the camera...
waves again at 4:54. Then you see the newspaper boy run in front of the camera at 4:56. Playing ?
There is also two boys trying to 'hitch a ride' on the back of an automobile..
At this point, you see many horses and wagons on the right side of the road. They appear to be loaded with stock.
You can see a single horse pulling a covered buggy on the left.
At 6:02, an automobile passes right in front of the camera. The camera man doesn't flinch.
At 6:15, an automobile passes from left to right, narrowly between two streetcars....
A man approaching from the right side, has his hand reaching inside his jacket, like Napoleon...
He makes a hand gesture, as if he would like to board the streetcar with the camera onboard.
At 6:56 we see an odd 'frieight wagon' and the wheels seem to twist and turn...
as we pass, and we see the wagon is drawn by a single horse, not a team.