Made by Keystone Studios and directed by Henry Lehrman, the movie portrays Chaplin as a spectator at a "baby-cart race" in Venice, Los Angeles. The film is presented at first like a genuine newsreel, with Chaplin's spectator getting in the way of the camera for the attention of the camera, causing great frustration to the cameraman. The film was shot during the Junior Vanderbilt Cup, an actual race with Chaplin and Lehrman improvising gags in front of real-life spectators.

Unusually, the camera breaks the fourth wall to show a second camera filming (as though it were the first), to better explain the joke. At this stage, Chaplin gets in the way only of the visible camera on screen, not the actual filming camera. In this way, the filming camera takes on a spectator's viewpoint, and Kid Auto Races becomes one of the first public films to show a movie camera and cameraman in operation.

PERILS FROM "PLUNDER" (1923)

This abbreviated version of the otherwise lost serial Plunder, starring stunt queen Pearl White (The Perils of Pauline) was sold on the 8mm home movie market. Pearl is an adventuress looking for buried treasure hidden underneath a New York skyscraper, but first, she must escape from a sinking pit of quicksand. According to historian Kevin Brownlow, Pearl's stunt double John Stevenson (wearing a blonde wig) died jumping from a double-decker bus during the filming of Plunder. Fortunately (or unfortunately) that scene is not included in this truncated version.

Plunder is a 1923 American drama film serial directed by George B. Seitz. During the production of this serial, on August 10, 1922, John Stevenson, a stuntman for Pearl White, was killed doing a stunt from a moving bus to an elevated platform. The film survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archive and a trailer is preserved at the Library of Congress.

THE MOVIES MARCH ALONG 1896-1928 (1945)

Motion picture archivist Irving K. Meginnis compiled this engaging overview of the silent era, from early experiments like The Kiss (1896) and The Great Train Robbery (1903) to masterpieces such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and Scaramouche (1923) for use in schools, museums, and 16mm film clubs. Among the luminaries featured are John Bunny, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Theda Bara, William S. Hart, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Lon Chaney, Ramon Novarro, Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson, and John Barrymore. There's even a glimpse of the first animated film ever made, Fantasmagorie (1908) by Émile Cohl.

SELECTED NEWSREELS FROM WORLD WAR I (1916-1918)

The newsreel was an important part of the early moviegoing experience. Originally, they dealt almost exclusively with frivolous matters, and were played for their comedic value. World War I changed all that. Newsreels now kept audiences on the edge of their seats as the horrors going on in Europe unspooled in front of their eyes. Included are examples from series such as The Mutual Weekly, Gaumont Graphic, and The Selig-Tribune, all dealing with World War I.