Fred Ott appears in Thomas Edison’s 1894 film Fred Ott’s Sneeze.
The short film shows Edison employee Fred Ott taking a pinch of snuff and sneezing. It was filmed at the Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey, by William K.-L. Dickson, who worked with Edison on early motion-picture equipment and production.
The film consists of a series of individual photographic frames designed for viewing through Edison’s Kinetoscope. It became one of the best-known early surviving motion pictures and was deposited for copyright as a paper print in 1894. Its brief action made it especially suitable for the limited viewing time of early motion-picture machines.
The title is sometimes shortened to Fred Ott’s Sneeze, while the original catalog wording is commonly given as Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze. Fred Ott was not the inventor of the camera or viewer; he was the Edison employee filmed in the demonstration.