PHILADELPHIA — With "Nope" now in theaters, it looks like director Jordan Peele has yet another hit on his hands, following the massive success of "Get Out" and "Us." While we expected Peele's latest directorial effort to be good, we didn't expect to find a Philadelphia connection to the movie.
But, sure enough, there is one in Eadweard Muybridge, a photographer who worked in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1800s.
Muybridge is considered one of the founding fathers of motion pictures thanks in part to a GIF-like clip of a man riding horse that has come to be known as "The Horse in Motion," otherwise called "Sallie Gardner at a Gallop." Created as a series of photos in 1878, the work gained motion (literally) with Muybridge's invention of the zoopraxiscope, a primitive predecessor of the modern movie projector.
In "Nope," the clip factors into the backstories of OJ and Em Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer), two Hollywood horse trainers who begin to experience a strange, otherworldly presence on their family ranch. In the film, the rider featured in Muybridge’s “The Horse in Motion” is their great-great-great-grandfather — a Bahamian jockey who ultimately put the family on their path in the equine industry.
And, weirdly enough, it's possible that OJ and Em's distant relative could have been a Philadelphian.
Here's the thing: "The Horse in Motion" never actually appears in "Nope." What the film uses instead is actually a different assembly of Muybridge's known as "Plate 626," or "Annie G. Galloping." That work, while similar and of better quality than "The Horse in Motion," was created during the photographer's time working in Philadelphia, and comes from a collection known as Animal Locomotion: An Electro-photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements.
So, who was Eadweard Muybridge, and what was he doing in Philadelphia?
An Englishman abroad
Born in 1830 as Edward James Muggeridge in England, Muybridge came to the United States as a 20-year-old bookseller, eventually landing in San Francisco. After a stagecoach crash in 1860 that friends said caused a shift in his personality, he returned to England, and began his work as a photographer.
He came back to the United States in the late 1860s, and earned a name for himself as a nature photographer, focusing on the landscape and architecture of the American West.
By the 1870s, Muybridge would begin work on "The Horse in Motion," likely his most well-known work, thanks to a commission from then-California Gov. Leland Stanford, the founder of Stanford University.
He killed a man in Calistoga
Before becoming one of the world's first filmmakers, Muybridge was a killer. In 1871, Muybridge, 41, married Flora Shallcross Stone, 21, and the pair had a child, Florado Helios Muybridge, in 1874. That year, Muybridge became aware that his wife was having an affair with a friend named Harry Larkyns, and reportedly had reason to believe that Larkyns was Florado's father.
In October 1874, Muybridge tracked Larkyns down in Calistoga, California, and shot him to death. Legend has it that before the murder, Muybridge told Larkyns, "I have a message for you from my wife."
He was arrested and went on trial in 1875. Muybridge's attorney pleaded insanity as his defense, and several friends testifed that his 1860 stagecoach accident caused his behavior to become unpredictable.
It turns out, he didn't need that defense. The jury acquitted him, finding that the murder was a justifiable homicide.
'The Horse in Motion'
Three years after his acquittal, Muybridge would make history with what would become known as "The Horse in Motion." That started with Stanford, who, in 1872, had hired Muybridge to reportedly settle a $25,000 bet to prove that all four of a horse's hooves leave the ground while at a gallop — though, as Smithsonian magazine reports, the bet most likely was a fabrication.
While Muybridge worked on the project over the several years, the summer of 1878 brought success. Muybridge set up shop at racetrack in Palo Alto, California, to photograph one of Stanford's horses, Sallie Gardner, galloping — and Stanford invited press to attend.
He set up about a dozen cameras, and as the horse ran, tripwires fired the cameras, creating a series of photos showing a horse running. Muybridge developed the photos on-site, and came out with a shot of the horse in motion, at one point with all four hooves off the ground.
Muybridge's later invention of the zoopraxiscope would allow viewers to more easily see the horse's motion, and with that, "The Horse in Motion" was born.
Penn, animal locomotion and 'Plate 626'
By 1883, Muybridge started coming to Philly, giving photography lectures at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts following correspondence with Thomas Eakins, who at the time was a PAFA professor.
Muybridge would go on to meet with then-Penn provost William Pepper and a group of wealthy Philadelphians, and the group ultimately gave the photographer a $5,000 advance and space on the grounds of the school's veterinary hospital to begin a study on animal locomotion.
By 1884, Penn created an outdoor studio at 36th and Pine Streets where Muybridge would work. He remained there for several years, producing an estimated 100,000 images by 1886.
Muybridge’s subjects varied widely, and included animals from the Philadelphia Zoo, disabled models from the Philadelphia Almshouse, and Penn students and faculty. In 1887, Muybridge published his photos from Penn in an 11-volume tome consisting of 781 plates known as Animal Locomotion: an Electro-photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements.
Among them was "Plate 626," the animated, looping GIF that we see used in place of "The Horse in Motion" in "Nope." Rather than horse Sallie Gardner, we see a jockey on Annie G. at a gallop, and in much better quality than "The Horse in Motion" — which, if we had to guess, is why it wound up in the movie.
Following his work at Penn, Muybridge traveled the world as a lecturer, and ultimately settled back home in England. He died of prostate cancer in his hometown in 1904, and at the time was constructing a model of the Great Lakes in his back yard, according to Stanford magazine.
What 'Nope' got right
While the clips are different, "Nope" didn't get everything wrong. In the film, Palmer's character notes that the Black jockey's full name in "The Horse in Motion" has been lost to time — which is true. Similarly, we don't know the name of the jockey in "Plate 626."
In "The Horse in Motion," Muybridge's photographs identify the jockey as "G. Domm." According to online Muybridge investigator and software developer Jaymie Strecker, that jockey may have been Gilbert Domm, a stock manager at Stanford's farm. There is, however, no hard proof that Domm is the man pictured in the sequence.
The identity of the jockey in "Plate 626" is even less clear. The photographs don't identify him, and, there have been no developments in figuring out who he is. But, as Strecker points out, given that Muybridge created "Plate 626″ while in Philly, it's conceivable that that jockey could be a local.
Either way, though, "Nope" is a mysteriously fun sci-fi romp from one of today's most enticing directors — whether its characters are descendants of a Philly guy is kind of besides the point. Just go see it.
