De mésaventure van een Fransch heertje zonder pantalon aan het strand te Zandvoort

"Zandvoort in an uproar! On Saturday morning at roughly 10 o’clock, with beautiful weather and calm seas, a Frenchman sat in a beach chair to gaze upon the magnificent view that the sea always affords, until he slowly began to fall asleep," so begins a report in the *Zandvoortsche Courant* of July 25, 1905. The article explains how the man was faced with the oncoming tide, and – to the amazement of the audience – took off his trousers to prevent them from being ruined by the saltwater. While trying to escape from the policeman who had rushed to the scene, he jumps into a passing car and hides out in a small changing cabin. Eventually he's nabbed by the police. Accompanied by a band and a large crowd, he is escorted to the police station. The article ends by saying that *Messrs. Alberts Frères* had staged the whole incident for a film in which two of the most popular genres of that period—the locally-shot film and the chase film—would be combined.