Short documentary films
Silent

Original film titles in English:
Sights in Singapore
Scenes in Singapore

Directed by James Young
Produced by Vitagraph
Year of release: 1913
Film Locations: Singapore Town

 

Motography, 17 May 1913:

“Globe Trotters Are Still Busy – […] Even stranger and more amusing have been the experiences of the camera-men and players forming the personnel of the [New York film company] Vitagraph “Globe-Trotters”, who are now touring the world, making novel and interesting photo-plays in various foreign lands. The party, which is under the leadership of William V. Ranous and Maurice Costello, left New York early last December and have not completed about half of their projected tour. They traveled by way of Chicago and San Francisco, across the Pacific to Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands, and thence to Japan, where they stayed for a considerable time. From there they went to Hong Kong and Singapore and on again by way of Panang [sic] and Rangoon to British India, whence they traveled to Egypt, where they are located at the moment of writing.

“In almost every place where they have stopped they have produced a photoplay. After careful study of the manners and customs of the different places, they have been able to introduce into the pictures a true local atmosphere, the like of which could not possibly be duplicated in a studio production.… Among the other players on tour are James Young, Miss Clara Kimball Young… By no means the least important of the travelers is Gene Mullen, the Vitagraph scenario writer who accompanies them.”

 

 

The Motion Picture Story Magazine, August 1913, Vol. VI, No. 7:
‘A Girdle of Film Round the World’ – by Peter Wade [excerpts]
“(James Young and his globe-trotters) started from San Francisco, December 12, 1912, on the S.S. Tenyu Maru, bound for Japan…

“Singapore, like a corn on the foot of the Malay Peninsula, held them long enough to photograph some of the native street-dancers, and then they were off into the heart of the mystical Far East, thru the Strait of Malacca to Rangoon, the capital of Burma.”

Motography, 6 September 1913:
“SIGHTS IN SINGAPORE – Vitagraph. Showing the peculiar buildings of this wonderful city and the strange manners and customs of the multitudes of Malays, Hindus and Chinese that form its population.”

Motography, 4 October 1913:
“SCENES IN SINGAPORE – Vitagraph. Singapore possesses the most wonderful and quaintest sights ever held. Some of the strangest are presented in this brief travelogue.”