Comic Costume Race

{{Short description|1896 British film by Robert W. Paul}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Use British English|date=May 2016}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Comic Costume Race

| image = ComicCostumeRace.jpg

| caption = Screenshot from the film

| director = Robert W. Paul

| producer = Robert W. Paul

| writer =

| narrator =

| starring =

| music =

| cinematography = Robert W. Paul

| editing =

| studio = Paul's Animatograph Works

| distributor =

| released = {{film date|df=yes|1896||}}

| runtime = 49 seconds

| country = United Kingdom

| language = Silent

| budget =

}}

Comic Costume Race is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent actuality film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring a comic costume scramble at the Music Hall Sports on 14 July 1896 at Herne Hill, London. The music hall sports day was an annual charity event consisting of other events such as egg and spoon races and three-legged races. The film is the best surviving pictorial record of the Music Hall Sports.{{cite book|last=Horrall|first=Andrew|title=Popular Culture in London C.1890-1918: The Transformation of Entertainment|date=7 December 2001|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-5783-0|page=106}} It is not known who the race participants are.{{cite web |url=http://chaplin.bfi.org.uk/resources/bfi/pdf/chaplin-in-context.pdf |title=Chaplin-in-Context: A Catalogue of Music Hall Related Films 1895 - 1930 held by the bfi National Film and Television Archive|publisher=British Film Institute|page=3}}

The film was, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "presented at Windsor Castle on 23 November 1896," which, "enabled Paul to add a royal seal of approval to his advertisements." It is included on the BFI DVD R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908.{{cite web |title=Comic Costume Race |first=Michael |last=Brooke |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/713067/ |work=BFI Screenonline |date= |accessdate=2011-04-24 }}{{cite web |title=Comic Costume Race |first= |last= |url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/22305 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023232449/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/22305 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-10-23 |work=BFI Film & TV Database |date= |accessdate=2011-04-24 }}

Another film of the costume race at the Music Hall Sports was produced in 1898.{{cite book|last=Barnes|first=John|title=Pioneers of the British film|year=1983|page=180}} In 1899, Cecil Hepworth produced a film on a similar race, entitled Comic Costume Race for Cyclists. This film depicted a group of cyclists racing to a pile of clothing, containing costumes such as those of a policeman and a clown, before remounting and racing to the finishing line.{{cite book|last=Barnes|first=John|title=The Beginnings of the Cinema in England, Vol. 4: Filming the Boer War|year=1992|publisher=David & Charles|page=200}}