This pseudo-newsreel uses special effects to illustrate the fire caused by the San Francisco earthquake. A miniature model of downtown San Francisco is set ablaze and filmed.

San Francisco Disaster

Fake.

And not a very good fake at that. Biograph weren&apos;t the first to fake footage of a real incident - Vitagraph passed off a couple of model boats in a bathtub as an authentic sea battle a few years earlier - and they certainly weren&apos;t the best. I guess this blazing miniature model of San Francisco might have fooled a few people back in 1906 but it wouldn&apos;t fool anyone today. And in a way there&apos;s something a little tasteless about the opportunistic way in which early filmmakers cashed in on a natural disaster which killed countless people. Much of the film is obscured by smoke, and at any moment you expect to see a giant hand sneak into the top of the shot to wave it away.

And not a very good fake at that. Biograph weren't the first to fake footage of a real incident - Vitagraph passed off a couple of model boats in a bathtub as an authentic sea battle a few years earlier - and they certainly weren't the best. I guess this blazing miniature model of San Francisco might have fooled a few people back in 1906 but it wouldn't fool anyone today. And in a way there's something a little tasteless about the opportunistic way in which early filmmakers cashed in on a natural disaster which killed countless people. Much of the film is obscured by smoke, and at any moment you expect to see a giant hand sneak into the top of the shot to wave it away.

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San Francisco Disaster

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