Another treat from the excellent Joseph Blough YouTube channel: an extremely rare fragment of an otherwise lost Charley Bowers film. Bowers made some of my favourite silent comedies: truly surreal shorts featuring a pioneering mixture of action and stop-motion animation.
HOP OFF is from his second series of films, made for Educational Pictures in 1928. In common with many of Bowers’ shorts, it gives him some cute animated sidekicks: in this case, a pair of fleas he is training. Studio publicity tried claiming them as “the two smallest actors in the world”! The extant footage here is three minutes from near the end of the film; not much, but I didn’t realise that anything from this film existed at all, so anything is a bonus (it’s not included on the otherwise comprehensive Charley Bowers Blu-Ray set from a couple of years back). Anyway, a real treat to see, even if it is only brief. Now I’m itching to see the rest, though. (Sorry, I’ll get my coat…)
More on the enigmatic Mr Bowers in an article I wrote a few years back here: Charley Bowers
From the archives, here’s an article that first appeared in issue #13 of The Lost Laugh, in 2021…
DOUBLE TROUBLE: THE SNUB POLLARD & MARVIN LOBACK FILMS
One of my earliest memories of silent comedy is of watching a ‘COMEDY CAPERS’ VHS when I was very young. One of the episodes on the tape, ‘BABY BACHELOR’ confused me: it was a virtual copy of Laurel and Hardy, but the Laurel character was wearing an enormous moustache. Who were these L & H wannabes? Years later, I learned that they were Snub Pollard and Marvin Loback, jumping on the bandwagon of fat-and-skinny comedy teams as Stan and Babe were at their zenith. I’ve always been intrigued by these copycat shorts, and endeavoured to find out more about them. Here’s the story…
It’s late 1927. Laurel & Hardy’s pairing has blossomed, and they’ve just produced their biggest hit to date, THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY, for Hal Roach. For another ex-Roach employee, Snub Pollard, things are not going so well. Once one of the studio’s big stars in classics like IT’S A GIFT and SOLD AT AUCTION, he had been let go as the studio moved to more sophisticated comedy. A series of shorts at the low-budget Weiss Brothers studios was a step down the ladder; even further down was a return to vaudeville when that series ended.
While Snub was treading the boards, Laurel and Hardy’s meteoric rise gave someone at Weiss Brothers a brainwave: why not produce their own version of the team, with Snub as the thin half? Pollard was called back to Weiss Brothers in early 1928, and teamed with large comic Marvin Loback. Loback was a veteran of Sennett and Roach, and had even appeared with Snub a few times in small parts.
The films that resulted might charitably be called homages to Laurel & Hardy; less kindly, they could be called blatant rip-offs. To be fair, some of the films were more original than others, and there was always a certain amount of shared ground and gag-borrowing in silent comedy. However, the way that some of the Pollard-Lobacks like SOCK & RUN re-enact whole chunks of L & H films is particularly shameless. What particularly attracted attention is the one-time belief that these shorts were made before the Laurel & Hardy films they resemble. We now know this to be untrue. However, there do seem to be some examples where the Pollard films did a gag or routine simultaneously or before the Roach crews.
The films are an interesting sidelight in Snub’s career, and a fun curio for L & H fans. The Laurel & Hardy influence is obvious from the outset, but is painted broadly: the amount of nuance may be gauged from the fact that Loback’s character is called ‘Fat’. There’s none of Oliver Hardy’s quiet dignity in that! To be fair, Loback does a decent job throughout the series of replicating Hardy’s impatience, if not his charm. It’s his presence that really brings the L & H comparison. As for Snub, he hasn’t changed his appearance from his standard costume of bowler, moustache, striped shirts and spats. As far as his performance goes, he’s definitely gone a bit more passive, but his trademark moustache is a handicap in reproducing Stan’s blank innocence. He rarely does a complete rip-off of Laurel mannerisms (although he does a crude version of the cry in one film), but the intention is clear.
Though the first few films of the series mainly aped L & H in the comic’s appearance, soon more similarities began to creep in. Perhaps it was lack of inspiration for new material, but the intentional effort to piggyback on the team’s success soon becomes a bit more blatant by –ahem- borrowing their material. Sometimes the likenesses are vague – Snub and Marvin as two sailors in HERE COMES A SAILOR, or a hint of DOUBLE WHOOPEE in MITT THE PRNCE, for instance. At other times, the similarities constitute plagiarism pure and simple, as entire gags and plots are ripped from L & H films like FROM SOUP TO NUTS, PUTTING PANTS ON PHILLIP and SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME!
The L & H connection has brought the Pollard-Loback films into focus now and again, particularly when one theory suggested the films actually pre-dated the Laurel & Hardy films! In the pre-Internet days, and before the onset of trade paper archives like the Media History Digital Library, States-Rights films made by companies like The Weiss Brothers were obscure and hard to trace. As a result, the films seem to have been confused with Pollard’s first (solo) Artclass series, which were made in 1926-27. We now know that the Pollard – Lobacks were released in two batches, six films in 1928-29, and a further four in 1929-30, disproving the claim that Laurel & Hardy were the ones doing the borrowing.
The trade magazines only gave light coverage to low-budget, indie two-reelers like these, but after sifting through, I’ve gathered a handful of more precise dates. British trades like The Bioscope and Kinematograph Weekly also came in handy – though the films generally hit the UK a little later, the release dates gives a rough indication of when they were made and registered for release. Below is the information I’ve been able to gather to pin down the dates and titles a bit more.
1928 -29
Variety reported that Snub was working for Artclass on May 2, 1928. By June 19, they note that both Pollard and Ben Turpin have finished filming their first shorts for the company (THICK & THIN and SHE SAID NO, respectively). By September 1st, 1928, Film Daily reports that an additional two films are ready: ONCE OVER & THE BIG SHOT. American mentions of the series are scant hereafter. However, the British Press picks up the slack. Louis Weiss visited London to trade-show the series in the Autumn and they were distributed by Gaumont from November 1928. The Films Act, article 6 required that all films must be registered for exhibition – these listings tells us that the other three films from the first series were SOCK & RUN, MEN ABOUT TOWN and HERE COMES A SAILOR.
1929-30
In May 1929 Film Daily reported that Snub listed four titles in production for 1929-30; however, the titles listed were actually ones from the previous season, presumably an error. Actually, the four films were DOUBLE TROUBLE, NO KIDDING, SPRINGTIME SAPS and MITT THE PRINCE. These were released with synchronised music tracks (but no dialogue) as a concession to the advancing sound revolution. Adverts exist for the reissue of these films, with soundtracks, in 1943.
All the films were filmed in the Spring of 1929, with Variety reporting that the series wrapped in the second week of May, 1929. DOUBLE TROUBLE was used to launch the second series, and was reviewed in Film Daily on August 18th, 1929. SPRINGTIME SAPS was reviewed on October 24th. In Britain at lease, MITT THE PRINCE was the last of the series to be released, in February 1930.
With the above in mind, here’s a run-down of these seldom-discussed films, in what I believe is the order of release.
THICK & THIN
THICK & THIN was definitely the first of the shorts to be released and sets the tone for the series, with Snub and Marvin as two penniless gents in a shabby boarding house, trying to cook a meal, and then sneaking their belongings out without paying the rent.
Of all the series, this is the one that most harks back to Snub’s Hal Roach films, the hidden devices that the pair use to cook their meal a bit like a less elaborate reminder of IT’S A GIFT, STRICTLY MODERN and other films featuring Snub gadgetry.
There’s also a bit of a Harry Langdon influence, both in Pollard’s subdued persona, and in a gag lifted from Langdon’s FIDDLESTICKS. THICK & THIN is undoubtedly derivative, but the gags flow nicely and it’s an entertaining little two-reeler.
2. ONCE OVER
Snub and Marvin roll into town on a freight train, riding in a boxcar of cows. There’s a funny scene featuring the atrociously fake cow heads they use as a disguise, confounding brakeman Tiny Lipson (even more so when one of the cows appears to smoke his cigar!). For a topper, they exit the boxcar under blankets that make them appear to be a strange, two-headed beast!
The bulk of the film centres around their attempts to filch some food, pursued by cop Harry Martell. Along the way, two Hal Roach gags are – *cough* – borrowed. The scene from THE FINISHING TOUCH with Stan Laurel on both ends of the same plank is used, and there’s also a gag with a mailbag and a fence lifted shot-for-shot from Max Davidson’s DUMB DADDIES
Then it’s on to the park, where they fail to steal a family’s picnic before Snub has a brainwave. Covering his hand with a long white sock, he hides in a bush and pretends to be a swan, stealing the sandwiches a lady is feeding to the birds. Unfortunately, he knocks her in the water, and the cop is on their trail again. To elude him they enter a restaurant and are put to work as waiters. A predictable level of competence ensues, and things wrap up with some pie-throwing. Though the finish is weak, ONCE OVER is maybe the best of the Pollard-Lobacks. The borrowing is less overt than in many of the other shorts, and the film rambles along happily from one gag situation to the next, with some nice original ones thrown into the mix.
3. THE BIG SHOT (Released October 1928, belatedly reviewed in Film daily, Feb 1929)
THE BIG SHOT is another one of the better Pollard-Lobacks, having some semblance of following the same story from start to finish. Snub and Marvin are reporters tasked with getting a photo of a camera-shy Scottish inventor. This involves Snub being coerced into wearing a kilt, and we’re into a semi re-run of PUTTING PANTS ON PHILIP. It doesn’t work on the same level of the L & H film – the sexual ambiguity surrounding the innocent Laurel character in PHILIP just cannot translate to a character wearing a huge moustache! To be fair, the gags don’t try to be a carbon copy and mainly just deal in the incongruity of Snub’s appearance. There are a few nice original variations, including Snub trying to change a tyre, with the draught from every passing car sending his kilt flying up. Snub and Marvin wind up following the inventor onto a boat and eventually corner him for a photo, but Snub is too generous with the flash powder and after a huge explosion, he is left clinging to the mast.
4. MEN ABOUT TOWN
After three films that borrowed from Laurel & Hardy but at least tried to have original plots, the Pollard unit pretty much gave up the pretence of trying to be original for the next few films.
MEN ABOUT TOWN is largely a re-run of SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME set on the golf course, with added gags from YOU’RE DARN TOOTIN’. However, there are some occasional moments in the Weiss Bros films where they seem to foreshadow a later Laurel & Hardy moment. Here, Marvin’s attempts to contact Snub and sneak him out of the house include trying to contact him by phone, anticipate L & H’s BLOTTO of 1930. However, L &H knew how to milk the scene for all it was worth, whereas here it is just a quick throwaway gag. MEN ABOUT TOWN is definitely one of the weaker films in the series.
5. SOCK & RUN
Ok, now they’re really taking the Mickey. Not content with pinching the kilt material from PUTTING PANTS ON PHILIP, they basically re-film the entire first reel of that film, throwing in some soup gags from YOU’RE DARN TOOTIN’ and ending with a boxing match á la BATTLE OF THE CENTURY!
The PHILIP material is recreated gag for gag, from the laughter of the crowd as Snub arrives, to his medical examination, to Marvin’s attempts to keep him walking a few paces behind. Oh, but wait, it’s actually been changed – Snub is French, not Scottish, and people are laughing at his silly top hat instead of his kilt. That ought to avoid the copyright infringement lawsuit…
Of all the Pollard-Lobacks, SOCK & RUN is maybe the one that has most secured the reputation of the series as being mindless L & H rip-offs. In this sense, it’s the worst of the bunch. On its own terms, it’s not terrible, and if you’d never seen a Laurel & Hardy picture, you’d probably find it entertaining. But if you lived in a world without Laurel & Hardy, SOCK & RUN would be the least of your problems.
6. HERE COMES A SAILOR
HERE COMES A SAILOR starts out with the boys as sailors who hire a car, in the spirit of TWO TARS, but doesn’t get down to mass car destruction (something Weiss Bros surely didn’t have the budget for). Instead, it takes a left turn to become a clone of FROM SOUP TO NUTS as the pair get jobs at a dinner party, down to Snub serving the salad “undressed”.
There is one nice original gag, as Snub accidentally causes a cameraman’s tripod camera to collapse on top of him; bumbling around on all fours with the cloth over his back and the lens dangling out in front, the man resembles some strange elephantine creature!
7. DOUBLE TROUBLE
Snub and Marvin unsuccessfully rehearse and audition their terrible vaudeville act, then are hired as process servers to repossess their landlord’s piano. This second series of Pollard-Lobacks are where some of the confusion over their originality seems to have come from. While the first-series L & H rip-offs like SOCK & RUN are blatant steals, the second batch do actually contain some gags or situations used by Pollard & Loback before Laurel & Hardy. DOUBLE TROUBLE is a case in point; Snub and Marvin’s attempts at repossession anticipate BACON GRABBERS, not just in story, but also down to individual gags.
Held back until after L & H’s first few talkies, BACON GRABBERS wasn’t released until October 1929, but DOUBLE TROUBLE was filmed before May, and had already been released and previewed by August of 1929. Therefore, it couldn’t have been a simple case of Les Goodwins or other Weiss gagmen having been to see the latest L & H film at their local theatre and filling their notebooks with ideas.
However, while DOUBLE TROUBLE may have reached cinemas before BACON GRABBERS, the Laurel & Hardy film was almost certainly finished first. My theory is that a Roach gagman moved over to Weiss Brothers, probably during the time when the Roach studios were being fitted out for sound. Another possible ‘mole’ was Bert Ennis, Snub’s gag and title writer. Ennis doubled as a publicist, and had his own regular column in Motion Picture Classic, so was probably quite well connected with other studios.
8. NO KIDDING (September 1929)
NO KIDDING is a fun little short, featuring Snub and Marvin accidentally in charge of a toddler, and then having to hide him from the landlord of their bachelor apartment. The toddler is actually played by midget Billy Barty (incidentally, he played a similar role in the Laurel-Hardy SAILORS BEWARE). There are some amusing scenes as they disguise the toddler as an adult in a suit, complete with cigar, but the deception is undermined as he proceeds to make various noises and arouse the landlord’s suspicion.
Again, there’s a parallel situation of the Snub film seeming to pre-empt the Laurel & Hardy film. The central situation of the team hiding an unwanted guest in their apartment was also the basis of ANGORA LOVE, and one particular gag appears in both films. As the landlord lectures Snub & Marvin/Stan & Ollie that “this is a respectable boarding house”, a woman walks behind him towards her room, pursued by a sailor! NO KIDDING was filmed in early Summer 1929, and released in the Autumn, but ANGORA LOVE wasn’t released until December 1929. The Roach Mole seems to have been at work again…
(By the way, this is the short I saw on COMEDY CAPERS VHS, cut down and retitled…)
9. SPRINGTIME SAPS (October 1929)
SPRINGTIME SAPS is a ragbag effort that changes situations as the team run out of gags for each one. The best scenes are set in the park, with Snub and Marvin attempting to get 40 winks on a bench before being woken by a cop, and then trying to steal a man’s cigar.
When that’s milked for all the comedy they can manage, the pair get jobs as taxi drivers, mainly so that they can nab a gag from the Sennett film TAXI DOLLS. Then things peter out in some feeble haunted house comedy.
The most notable aspect of this film is a moment where a man angrily gives Snub the middle finger! It’s not a slip or even made to seem like one – it’s just blatantly there, in full shot! It shows how low under the radar these states-rights films must have flown, particularly at the tail end of the silent era.
10. MITT THE PRINCE (Release dates variously quoted as Dec 1929 and Feb 1930).
Snub and Fat are two incompetent handy men. Sent to deliver some parcels to the social-climbing Mrs Woodby-Noble (Ho Ho!), they write off the car on the way there with bit of L & H patent tit-for-tat. When the Prince who is supposed to attend fails to show, the hostess persuades Snub to take his place. There’s a vague hint of DOUBLE WHOOPEE in this premise, but no direct stealing of material.
The best thing about MITT THE PRINCE is a nice running gag of Snub accidentally getting his hand continually in others’ pockets; other than that, it’s a middling effort.
The series wrapped in May of 1929, and with it Snub’s career in silents. However. there was still one last gasp for his starring career, and his association with Weiss Brothers. In July 1929, Film Daily reported that the company was planning some talkie shorts, with Snub heading east to film some. Two shorts resulted, and the Pollard-Loback faux L & H vibe was dropped:
HERE WE ARE (filmed July 1929, released August 1929 )
Snub played a plumber’s assistant, who ends up pretending to be the plumber’s wife. Obviously, he didn’t wear his moustache in this one, or the deception wouldn’t have been very convincing!
PIPE DOWN (Trade shown September 1929)
Snub was teamed with Jack Kearney as a pair of sailors on shore leave who keep running afoul of tough guy Gunboat Smith, ending in a slapstick fight. After Kearney knocks smith unconscious, the pair light cigarettes, but an open gas lamp next to them causes a huge explosion. At least Snub’s starring career ended with a literal bang! Variety wasn’t impressed, calling PIPE DOWN “third-rate Vaude stuff passed off as film comedy”.
These two talkies were released in the UK in February, 1930.
And with that, the Snub Pollard Weiss Brothers series was over. The films were hardly his most glorious moment, but they helped keep his starring career afloat a little longer. Viewed today, the films range from good fun, to middling, to outrageous rip-offs (sometimes within the space of the same film!), but they show an interesting sidelight to how silent comedians could try to meet changing tastes and demand for particular styles of comedy. They are also a reminder of how special, and how hard to replicate, the chemistry between Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy was.
You can enjoy some of Snub’s Weiss Brothers films (and a host of others from the studio, including Ben Turpin and Jimmy Aubrey) in the great DVD WEISS-O-RAMA
I’ve just come back from the long-awaited return of Kennington Bioscope’s Silent Laughter Weekend. The world has changed a lot since the last one in 2019, and we’ve certainly all earned some good laughs! Finally, we could enjoy another full weekend of rare and classic silent comedy, and what an occasion it was. There was really something special in the air at The Cinema Museum this weekend. The films, the live music and the audience seemed even more wonderful and I think we all laughed more readily and joyously after the time away. It felt so great to be back.
Walter Forde
Saturday’s programme began with Walter Forde’s WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT. I’ve wanted to see this feature on a big screen for years; having only seen it, unaccompanied, on a Steinbeck in the BFI’s basement. Forde plays an inventor working on a wireless controlled tank – but spies from a hostile nation are out to steal his plans and sabotage the tank before the war Ministry gets it. This isn’t quite a classic, but a great little film with a uniquely British flavour – the highlight is a wonderful chase sequence on the London Underground (actually a specially built replica constructed at Nettlefold Studios). The opening scenes in a Toy shop feature some great gags too, including Forde’s attempts to gift wrap some helium-filled balloons. Although he began as a Chaplin imitator, and his later work is often compared to Harold Lloyd, Forde definitely has a style of his own, and the gags in this film are almost all uniquely his. He mixed thrills with his comedy too, and the climactic scenes of his tank (a genuine one borrowed from the War Office) running amok are genuinely exciting. Geoff Browne, author of the only book on Forde, gave some entertaining insights into the making of the film. There’s more on Forde here, and in issues 12 & 13 of The Lost Laugh magazine!
Next up, silent comedy expert Steve Massa, beamed in virtually from the U.S. to celebrate Roscoe Arbuckle. Steve’s presentation, accompanied by a wonderful montage of clips compiled by Dave Glass, really showed Roscoe in a new light. Like his terrific book on Arbuckle, it allowed us to focus on his comic skills and achievements, rather than that scandal. Roscoe’s ability to flit between slapstick chaos on a grand scale to subtle farce and even serious acting in films like THE ROUND UP deserves more praise, and the compilation of all these skills together in Steve’s presentation really showed what a multi-faceted talent he was. The show concluded with a complete screening of HIS WIFE’S MISTAKE (1916), a lesser-known but terrific little short, with some great slapstick routines for Roscoe.
Into the afternoon, and we had a programme of ALMOST LOST LAUGHS – films that nearly didn’t survive, but were rescued and/or rediscovered in the nick of time. These included Charley Bowers in MANY A SLIP, the surviving reel of the Charley Chase-Stan Laurel- Oliver Hardy curio NOW I’LL TELL ONE, and Edward Everett Horton’s DAD’S CHOICE. All great fun, and a good sampler of the stylistic breadth of silent comedy: surrealist stop motion, to situational slapstick to farce comedy in three easy moves.
I’d never seen Mary Pickford’s last silent, MY BEST GIRL, before. This was a real treat! The storyline of a shopgirl in a big store has some similarities to Clara Bow’s IT, but for my money this was a much funnier film. Pickford handled situational humour and slapstick with equal flair, a highlight being her attempts to walk through a busy store while carrying an enormous pile of pots and pans. The film depicts the burgeoning real life romance between Pickford and co-star Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers. There’s an absolutely charming sequence as Mary hitches a ride on the back of a truck, “accidentally” dropping astring of objects so that Rogers will keep following her and returning them.
There’s also one hell of a comedy cast in this film, adding to the fun; stand up and take a bow Lucien Littlefield, Sunshine Hart, Mack Swain, William Courtwright, Sidney Bracey and Carmelita Geraghty.
Cinematographer Charles Rosher made MY BEST GIRL positively glow, and was nominated for an Oscar, only to lose out to… himself. He received his award not for this film, but for his work on the classic SUNRISE, nominated in the same category. Thanks to Chris Bird for sharing his rare print of this sparkling rom-com.
I’m a huge Harry Langdon fan, so it was a real pleasure to be able to introduce a showing of THE STRONG MAN, his funniest feature film. I know Harry can be an acquired taste, but I was delighted to see the film go down really well with the audience. A huge boost to the film was Meg Morley’s piano score. With his slow performance style and quirky rhythms, Langdon is quite hard to match music to – I’ve certainly heard soundtracks that don’t really suit his style before – but Meg played an absolutely wonderful accompaniment to THE STRONG MAN that was just spot on. It was one of the best live accompaniments to a silent film I’ve seen, in fact. While we’re on the subject of music, all weekend long I found myself appreciating the live music for these films even more than usual – the absence of live cinema events in the last couple of years has really driven home how much the talented silent film pianists bring to the films. Lest we forget, this is how silent films were designed to be seen.
Day 1 finished with another classic, Harold Lloyd’s SAFETY LAST. Chris Bird gave a terrific introduction explaining how Lloyd shot the climbing sequences, and Dave Glass had an extra treat: a compilation of clips from a Spanish print he’s just acquired featuring alternate camera angles, and in some instances, completely different takes! SAFETY LAST is a film made for an audience, and boy, did it deliver the goods tonight. About half the audience had never seen the film before, and were completely wowed by it, giving it one of the best receptions ever! A jubilant finish to a great day.
Day 2 began with another Chris Bird rarity – his recently rediscovered, sole surviving print of Johnny Hines’ THE WRIGHT IDEA. This was certainly the rarest film of the entire weekend, and the screening was probably the first time it had been seen in at least ninety years. I wrote about the film in issue 13 of The Lost Laugh, but briefly, it’s a typically breezy effort from Johnny Hines featuing his attempts to market his invention of a luminous, blotterless ink. A patently contrived plot sees him mixed up with an escaped lunatic, some stolen bonds, a yacht and some bootleggers; it’s all fairly ridiculous, but a heap of fun, with plenty of good sight gags. Fred Kelsey provides a good share of the comedy as the inept Detective Flatt, and the most unconvincing prop octopus I’ve ever seen is also responsible for a good few laughs, too (If that sentence doesn’t make you want to see it, what will??). Some great accompaniment from John Sweeney kept the film bouncing along pleasantly.
Lots of fun was provided by Dave Glass’s new Billy Bevan restorations from the upcoming Blu-Ray set. ON PATROL, NIP & TUCK, CALLING HUBBY’S BLUFF and WANDERING WAISTLINES really showed that Bevan was much less two-dimensional than the received version of film history tells us. As well as an excellent performer of slapstick and sight gags, he could also add plenty of subtlety, as in the famous scene where he plays cards with Harry Gribbon (and Cameo the Wonder Dog!) in NIP & TUCK, or the gentle domestic comedy of CALLING HUBBY’S BLUFF. After seeing him in these different roles, I could fully understand how he was able to transition to work as a character actor in sound films. We were also treated to an interview snippet with Bevan’s grandson, and a behind-the-scenes featurette of how Dave has completed the restorations. If you were in on the Billy Bevan Kickstarter, you’re in for a treat!
Reginald Denny followed, in the wonderful WHAT HAPPENED TO JONES? I had to duck out of this one though, as I had to go meet our special guest for the afternoon: Sara Lupino Lane, granddaughter of Lupino Lane! Sara had very kindly agreed to come along the Cinema Museum and take part in a Q & A session to accompany some of her Grandfather’s films.
(Photo from Kennington Bioscope)
Sara has wonderful memories – of her Grandfather’s many and varied hobbies, of their trips to see panto together, and of her own father, Lauri Lupino Lane. Lauri followed in his dad’s footsteps and became a performer, specialising in a slapstick ‘slosh routine’, which he even performed in Chaplin’s A KING IN NEW YORK. Sara shared a terrific story of the time Lauri and Chaplin were together at a theatre; Lauri was besieged by autograph hunters, who all failed to recognise Chaplin and totally ignored him!
Sara was also kind enough to share one of her treasures – a can of film that she’d forgotten about for years, but had turned out to contain Lupino Lane’s own home movies! We’d kept this discovery under wraps until this weekend, but what a find they are! As well as lots of domestic scenes and clowning around, there is some priceless behind-the-scenes footage taken on the Educational Pictures lot. We get brilliant fly-on-the wall glimpses of Lane shooting MONTY OF THE MOUNTED and HALF PINT HERO; there are candid shots, outtakes and footage of Lane conferring with director Charles Lamont. There are glimpses of other comedians too: Lane’s cousins Stanley and Barry Lupino, and best of all, a previously unseen snippet of Charley Chase! Just wonderful to see, and there were some audible gasps in the room at some of the footage. As well as these rarities, we showed two of Lane’s finest slapstick ballets: SUMMER SAPS and JOY LAND, both recently restored for 2020’s Kickstarter project.
The wonderful Marie Prevost.
It was such a pleasure to be involved in hosting this screening. I’m always passionate about making sure that forgotten comedians are celebrated and introduced to new audiences, but being able to show Sara how much people still enjoy her Grandfather’s films felt extra special.
A change of pace for the next show – there’s no slapstick or acrobatics in view in Lubitsch’s THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE! This low-key film is much more subtle, but wonderfully sophisticated with fantastic direction from Lubitsch and brilliant performances. Adolphe Menjou and Marie Prevost, in particular, are just sublime. Costas Fotopoulos provided a lovely accompaniment to the film, and Michelle Facey gave a fact-packed introduction.
How time flies when you’re watching funny old films: it was time for the last show of the weekend already. Another treat to finish with: the always wonderful Neil Brand presenting his Laurel & Hardy show. Aside from the always wonderful clips of the boys, Neil’s intro was beautiful, describing how Laurel & Hardy had helped him through the COVID lockdown and how they were more relevant than ever. It was heartfelt and really quite emotional, and seemed to sum up the whole weekend.
Yes, there was definitely something special in the air at The Cinema Museum – the laughter seemed to flow more freely, somehow. Part of this was down to the wonderful curation of the programme by David Wyatt and the Kennington Bioscope team, but there was something else indefinable too. The enforced hiatus seemed to make everyone appreciate everything more. How wonderful to have chance to enjoy the breadth of comic talent on-screen, but also the amazing talent of the accompanying musicians; the chance to experience the extra dimension a live audience brings to these films; the chance to meet up again with fellow comedy fans we haven’t seen in years, and share favourite moments from the films. The wonderful news that the Cinema Museum has just been given a reprieve from closing down was the icing on the custard pie.
Despite everything, these century-old films are still funny, and have the power to bring people together to share in some collective joy. That’s a special kind of magic.
Now, can we do it all again next weekend??
P. S. Here are the programme notes, for anyone who couldn’t make it:
Issue 14 of THE LOST LAUGH is now available to download!
The newest issue features a focus on some of the ‘light comedies’ of the 1920s. The cover star is Marie Prevost, who is usually remembered chiefly as a terrible cautionary tale of the tragedy that can befall a forgotten star. It’s unfortunate that this has overshadowed her tremendous skill as a comic performer in both Sennett slapstick and more sophisticated farces. In issue 14, we put the spotlight back on her overlooked comedy talent.
The ‘light comedies’ of Johnny Hines, Reginald Denny and Doug MacLean also feature, and did you know that great dramatic actor George Arliss made some lightly comic feature films? . It’s a thrill to be able to publish a guest article by Mr Arliss’ biographer Robert M Fells, focussing on this forgotten aspect of his career.
Other articles include a Q & A with David Crump, author of a fantastic new biography of Fred Karno. You’ll also find articles on Harold Lloyd‘s UK visit in 1932, the surreal and postmodern Masquers Club Comedies and forgotten silent comedian Al Alt. Plus the usual news and reviews!
*Errata: In the review of the new Charley Chase DVD, I somehow got the number of films included wrong. D’oh! There are actually 21 shorts, not 15. So, now you’ve got even more reason to buy it!
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Among comedy buffs, Fred Karno will be forever remembered as the man who discovered Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, but his career involved much more than this. In the days of music halls, Karno crafted a new type of sketch comedy, and remained hugely influential for a long period of time. The list of comedy talents he worked with. In later years, his status waned; subsequently, his legacy has been largely forgotten.
Today marks the publication of Fred Karno, The Legend Behind the Laughter by David Crump. This definitive biography has been ten years in the making, and is a real labour of love. Dave very kindly took time to answer a few questions about Karno, and his quest to uncover more about the man behind the laughter.
Hi, Dave. So, why Fred Karno? What led you on this mission to research and write about him?
DC: I’ve always been a huge fan of comedy and as a writer of pantomimes, the history of panto routines and gags was something I’d become increasingly interested in. However, the Karno connection was pure co-incidence. One day in my office my secretary stumbled over some random boxes which had been left where they shouldn’t and exclaimed “It’s like Fred Karno’s Army in here!”. I had never heard the expression and asked her what it meant. She just said that it meant anything chaotic, but she had no idea why people said it. I googled Fred Karno and found very little information on the internet (this was about 12 years ago) except a brief biographical paragraph which said that he had been a circus acrobat, turned impresario who was responsible for discovering Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. I was intrigued. I lodged in the back of my mind that this sounded like someone who I should know more about but didn’t do anymore about it for a year or so. Then a theatre company I was working with were deciding on their next production and were considering both Mack and Mable (the story of Mack Sennett and Keystone) or Underneath the Arches (The Crazy Gang musical), some research demonstrated that Fred Karno’s story was almost a prequel to both of these and that led ultimately to me writing a musical about Karno’s life based on a 1971 biography. We staged that in Birmingham in 2010 and as a result I was introduced to some members of the Karno family, they gave me access to a treasure trove of archive material which demonstrated to me that much of what we thought about Karno was clearly untrue. I spent the next ten years writing this new biography which I hope corrects previous errors and sets the record straight for a man who was such an extraordinary influence on comedy, film and popular culture.
Stan Laurel, Charlie Chaplin and many others referred to Karno as “the Guv’nor”, and acknowledged the debt they owed him. What do you think were the comic skills they learned most from working in his troupe?
DC: Karno was an acrobat by background, and had begun in circuses where he would perform on the high wire, the parallel bars and on horseback, but in those small circuses the acrobats also had to perform as clowns. He later bought this physical purely visual comedy to the music hall on a scale and with a complexity which was innovative and set him apart from his contemporaries. His headquarters at The Fun Factory became the base for his companies and he had an Alex Ferguson approach to management – find young performers and train them up, that way you keep costs down and ensure that they perform in a consistent Karno style. Well over 2000 individual comics worked with Karno during his career and many young discoveries went on to enormous success. Will Hay, Billy Bennett, The Crazy Gang, Syd Walker, Frank Randal, Fred Kitchen, Max Miller, Sandy Powell and many more. Karno trained them all in visual comedy first and foremost (especially in the early days). When Karno companies crossed the channel to tour America they turned up performing this breakneck acrobatic visual comedy just as silent films were in their infancy and studios were looking for visual comics. Karno’s comics were trained in pratfalls, custard pies, taking a punch, falling down stairs, etc etc. The Karno comics formed were quickly poached by the studios and formed a nucleus of comics which quickly became omnipotent in silent comedy: Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel are the most famous but there was also Charley Rogers, Eric Campbell, Albert Austin, Jimmy Aubrey, Billy Reeves, Billie Ritchie and many others.
Karno taught them not only physical comedy but also how pathos could be mixed with comedy to create tension and release, leading to bigger laughs, Stan recalled that Karno would always say “Keep it wistful gentlemen” – and Chaplin took that to the silver screen.
As well as physical comedy skills and subtleties of pathos, Karno instilled in his troops a strong work ethic, formed in his circus days, which led him to be both a perfectionist and a control freak. It is no coincidence that both Chaplin and Laurel were hands on both on and off screen, in writing, directing, editing, etc. that attention to detail was very much a Karno trait. So it wasn’t just the physical acrobatic comedy, the timing and subtleties of performance but it was also his approach to ensuring every aspect of a production was spot on.
The list of performers Karno employed is like a Comedy ‘Who’s Who’ list. Did he ever discuss his particular favourites? How did he view the meteoric rise of Chaplin?
DC:I’ve noted some of the names above, and although he was very proud of both Chaplin and Laurel’s success, the comedian he claimed ‘always did him the most credit’ was Fred Kitchen. Kitchen was a huge star of the halls in his day, but never transferred to film so is now largely forgotten. His style was a significant influence on Chaplin, so much so that Kitchen said he didn’t go into film because everyone would have assumed he was copying Chaplin when in fact the opposite was true.
When Chaplin first began making films he was just another one of Karno’s comics who had defected, he had not stood out. After he became a global superstar everyone was quick to claim the credit. Karno did so to an extent but he gave Chaplin credit for his own abilities, and they stayed on reasonable personal terms. However, in later life Karno began to resent Chaplin’s fame, feeling he’d achieved it largely off Karno’s material and Chaplin did nothing to help Karno when he desperately needed it after his bankruptcy. The story that Chaplin funded a retirement business for Karno (an off licence in Poole) is untrue. Only Stan Laurel gave Karno any sort of support or help in later life.
Karno’s career was boosted by Chaplin’s fame – and his most popular music hall sketch ‘Mumming Birds’ which had first been performed in 1904 (four years before Chaplin joined Karno) was later publicised as ‘the sketch that made Charlie Chaplin famous’. This helped keep the sketch running until well into the 1930s, supposedly the longest running music hall sketch of all time.
Your research for the book must have led you to meet some interesting people and visit some interesting places. What were the highlights?
DC:Lunch with Richard Bann and the late Chuck McCann at the Culver City Hotel in L.A. was a great experience, to hear Chuck tell stories that Stan Laurel and told him directly, and Richard sharing his memories of Hal Roach was a privilege. Kate Guyonvarch of the Chaplin archive in Paris was amazingly helpful and I had a wonderful time rooting through archives over there. I’ve met so many people along the way and all have been lovely, helpful, interested and so generous in sharing their stories and information. Particularly Chaplin’s biographer the legendary David Robinson who also wrote a lovely foreword for the book, and A.J. Marriot who is so knowledgeable about Chaplin and Stan’s early careers and who has acted as a mentor to me throughout the experience. I’ve been in touch with literally hundreds of descendants of Karno comics, through my website, all of whom contacted me in search of information on their relatives, and most of whom told me as much as I told them, shared photographs and family anecdotes (although they couldn’t ALL have worked with Charlie Chaplin!). Finally, meeting and becoming close friends with Karno’s direct descendants has been amazing. His granddaughter Jo, great-grandaughter Louise and great-nephew Warren are now firm friends. I was lucky enough to meet Karno’s two grandsons who lived in Palm Springs and had lived interesting lives of their own in and around Hollywood, back in 2010 – they were both in their 90s by then and are now sadly no longer with us – but they were a joy and their children are still in regular touch with me.
Did you have any particular revelations about Karno or his work as a result of doing this deep dive into his life?
DC:Lots and lots. Firstly there are two previous biographies, one Karno pretty much wrote himself in 1939 – that is a sycophantic account of his career, which is full of holes and inaccuracies and says nothing about his personal life. Then in 1971 J.P. Gallagher wrote a biography which is a scandalised account of his personal life, recounted largely by friends of Karno’s ex-wife, and largely fiction. Unfortunately every subsequent biography of Chaplin and Laurel repeats these errors and takes Gallagher’s stories as fact. I have been able to fill in the blanks, correct many errors, chart his career accurately, whilst also casting significant doubt onto many of the claims made against Karno. He was no saint, but with access to his personal letters and business files it has been possible to paint a much more objective and balanced picture of this most complex character and I hope to a certain extent, repair his reputation. As well as this, and unlike the previous biographies I have tried to set the story in the context of social history at the time, for instance Karno’s wife had an involvement in the Dr Crippen Case, Karno’s company sailed across the Atlantic just a few weeks after the Titanic disaster, on the RMS Olympic (her sister ship) – how did that feel? I’ve dug up stories on how Stan Laurel avoided the draft in World War One and how a tiny mistake on Karno’s contract may well have saved Chaplin’s life. The challenge has been that everywhere I looked I found more interesting stories, everyone Karno worked with and employed could have been (and in some cases has been) the subject of a book of their own – avoiding going down too many side alleys was difficult. The book is big, over 600 pages, and yet I have spent the last three years editing down from more than double that.
Karno’s short-lived stint at the Hal Roach studios is quite infamous among comedy buffs. Were you able to find out any more about this, and why do you think he was unable to find a more permanent home there?
DC:Oh yes, and how wrong we all were. Karno wrote regularly back home from L.A. while he was there and those letters reveal for the first time what really happened at the Roach studios and why he came home with his tail between his legs after only a few months – it’s a very interesting part of the book and I think will shed fresh light on that part of Karno’s story and also on the history of Roach’s studio.
Things went less well for Karno in later years, after the failure of the Karsino. Did you find any evidence of how he felt about the downturn of his fortunes?
DC: Yes, he was a fairly regular letter writer and I have letters to his daughter in law Queenie (Fred Karno Junior’s wife), Syd Chaplin, Con West (his first biographer) and others – they help to tell the personal story and reveal the impact of his fall from grace had on him personally and on his family. It really is a very sad story for someone who had brough so much laughter to so many people.
What do you think is Karno’s legacy to the world of entertainment?
DC:Where do I start? Imagine a world without Charlie Chaplin or Stan Laurel. How different would things have been in those early comedy films? Chaplin at least is seen as being hugely influential on the filmmakers and comedians that followed, and even today many many comedians still cite Laurel and Hardy as an influence. But Karno did much more than train and launch two of the most influential comedians of our time. He pioneered physical comedy in the music hall (bringing it from the circus), he pushed the boundaries of legislation which forbid speaking in the halls and effectively created sketch comedy as we know it today. He was hugely influential in establishing copyright around early film and its use of stage materials, he was a pioneer of musical accompaniment to his comedy and Chaplin credited Karno with teaching him that innovation – imagine film without a musical soundtrack? Finally his later comedians, like the Crazy Gang, were innovators in breaking the fourth wall and engaging directly with the audience – previously unheard of except amongst musicians. He even invented the idea of including a talent show in a professional show, still popular today – in a way we have Karno to thank for the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. This may all sound far fetched, and it is an oversimplification, but I think the book will support these claims. When you take these things collectively, he was quite simply the biggest single influence on comedy and popular culture we have ever known – and yet most people have never heard of him!
Thanks to Dave for his terrifically detailed answers to my questions! I’m sure, like me, you can’t wait to read the book.
Here’s more from the press release:
“From his famous nursery of nonsense, the ‘Fun Factory’, the Guv’nor conquered the world, built an empire, made millions and lost the lot. In the process he discovered and trained the early twentieth century’s greatest comedians: Will Hay, Robb Wilton, Sandy Powell, Syd Walker, Frank Randle, Max Miller, Billy Bennett, the Crazy Gang, and most significantly of all Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin. He pioneered physical sketch comedy and developed the raw material that Hollywood later fashioned into the finest comics of silent film. The phrase ‘It’s like Fred Karno’s Army’ entered the lexicon to describe any chaotic situation, but his extraordinary legacy is largely forgotten, lost in the mists of time and sullied by a tarnished personal reputation.
This book tells the remarkable story of the man behind the myth and reveals Karno’s huge contribution to comedy and popular culture – an impact which still resonates today.”
Fred Karno: The Legend Behind The Laughter is available now from Brewin Books, and here’s the Amazon link. For more on Karno, visit Dave’s home page ‘Khaotic’.
Walrus-moustached Billy Bevan is one of the most iconic faces of slapstick. However, while many of us know classic gags and routines featuring him, his complete films have often been elusive. Now Dave Glass and Dave Wyatt are planning to remedy that with a follow up to last year’s Lupino Lane BluRay, throwing the spotlight on Mr Bevan. Hooray! The Kickstarter campaign has just been launched – take a look at the video below:
Here’s more detail from Dave Glass:
So here we are again!…. with our 3rd Kickstarter…and this time… we’re throwing the spotlight onto Billy Bevan (cue sound effect!)
Billy was THE face of Sennett slapstick comedies in the 20s. Whenever you watch a compilation of silent comedy clips, his face usually pops up.
And for many of us, when we were young, it was HIS comedies that hypnotized us the most.
So as before, we’ve been in touch with some archives and collectors, to try and unearth some of the best but lesser seen Mack Sennett films that featured Billy Bevan. And we’ve got some real goodies!!
Our first port of call was Lobster Films. Serge Bromberg kindly sent his humungous list of Billies and after we’d been resuscitated, we found some real rarites for starters:
MUSCLEBOUND MUSIC (1926) – extremely rare complete print (35mm French) which contains a couple of scenes familiar to fans of Robert Youngson’s ‘Golden Age of Comedy’.
THE QUACK DOCTOR (1920) – another rarity and a great example of one of the early 20s Sennetts that Billy made with Louise Fazenda. This one co-stars many of the Sennett favourites too including Ben Turpin.
NIP AND TUCK (1923) – a real treat this one. It has a terrific chase with cops galore and Cameo the Wonder Dog! A few minutes worth were used in Youngson’s ‘Golden Age of Comedy’, but other than that, it’s not been available. This is the complete 35mm fine grain camera neg (from the Youngson collection!) – in other words, it looks spectacular. PLUS Lobster will be doing the restoration on this one themselves.
We’ll return to the Lobster farm in a moment….. but in the meantime, we’d contacted Elif at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.
They offered us their super rare 2K scan of CALLING HUBBY’S BLUFF (1929) – which also stars Dot Farley and Vernon Dent and is a very funny example of the late 20s situational style of comedy that Mack Sennett was producing then. Great stuff.
However, we’d also heard that EYE had a real treasure tucked away. One of THE iconic Mack Sennett comedies is a film called LIZZIES OF THE FIELD (1924), which features so many scenes of mayhem that have been used time and time again in comedy compilations. Welllllll….. this film has only ever been available in the world as a 1 reel version…. until NOW! I’d heard that EYE had a TWO REEL version in their basement… and yes, Elif confirmed that was true. Yippeeee!!! And when I happened to tell fellow ‘Lizzies’ fan Serge about this, he said “Yippeeeee” even louder! In fact, he got so excited, he’s now arranged with Elif to borrow and re-scan the original nitrate print, and restore it, using the sparkling Blackhawk film materials, to create the ultimate version of this favourite classic…. for us to use.
….. so there will now be a slight intermission, to allow you to catch your breath and restore your heart beat back to a normal rate…..
ok. ready to continue?…… ok…… sorry, but there’s MORE!!!
Serge told me he’d also been chatting about Billy to fellow fan and film enthusiast Jon Mirsalis, so after a quick chat with Jon, he’s kindly letting us use his super rare print of FROM RAGS TO BRITCHES (1925), which is another hilarious rare Bevan film co-starring Madeline Hurlock and Kewpie Morgan. Lobster have already made a 2K scan of this, so it just needs the restoration work.
And another? Well, this one wasn’t even known to exist… until recently.
If you’re a Sennett / Bevan fan, you’ve probably heard of WANDERING WILLIES and WHISPERING WHISKERS, which both contain some of the most iconic Sennett scenes ever seen!
Right, well hold on to your pants, because we’ve found….. WANDERING WAISTLINES! (1924) – And it’s a real treat!! It’s a similar gag packed slapstick fest, co-starring Sid Smith, Kalla Pasha and some of the most eye ball tickling stunts you’ll ever see. (Even Brent Walker hasn’t seen this one!) Thanks go to the Library of Congress for this print.
So those are the 7 main films in the collection. But there IS more!
As you may know, I’ve been uploading the occasional rare silent comedy to my You Tube channel (‘Reel Comedies’) and there’s one particular film I uploaded a few years ago, which has now gained more views than all of the other films combined. And what film is that Dave? Well Dave…. it’s a Billy Bevan rarity called ON PATROL (1922) which contains so many classic comedy scenes.
This “lost” film only exists in fragments, which have been found in various comedy clip compilations and those have been the main source for the restoration I produced. But it’s in need of an upgrade. So fresh new scans of the various film elements will be made, to provide you with the best possible looking version of this “lost” film that we can. (p.s. the picture on the front cover of Brent Walker’s book is from ON PATROL!)
And the other classic Bevan we’ve been asked to include is the restored version of WALL STREET BLUES (1924), which again doesn’t exist in any archive that we know of, but features some unforgettable scenes. This will be an updated version containing newly scanned footage.
Loads of fantastic content to look forward to there! The great news is that the Kickstarter has already been successful, so the Blu Ray is guaranteed to go ahead; there’s still until the 26th July to make your pledge and grab yourself a copy of what’s sure to be a great disk.
There are underappreciated silent comedians, and then there are truly forgotten ones. Al Alt definitely belongs to the latter group.
Alexander Alt, to give him his full name, was a jobbing comic in the mid-late 1920s. He worked for independent companies like Century and RayArt, as well as making afew films for Educational Pictures.
According to Steve Massa’s wonderful book LAME BRAINS AND LUNATICS, Alt was part of a vaudeville team with Hazel Howell. The pair made a few films (not that great, apparently) before Al went on to appear in some of the Hall Room Boys series in 1923. This series about a pair of dapper down-and-outs had a revolving door policy on comics; as well as Al, Jimmie Adams, Neeley Edwards, Sid Smith, Harry McCoy, George Williams, Zip Monberg and others all took turns playing ‘Percy & Ferdie’.
The dapper but embarassed young character stuck with Al after he moved on from the Hall Room Boys films. In fact, he became a bit like Century’s version of Charley Chase: a pleasant young husband getting himself into akward situations. As well as starring in his own comedies – sometimes teamed with Harry McCoy – he appeared as leading lady to Wanda Wiley and with the Century Follies girls.
Sadly, most of Century’s comedies are now missing, so we can’t see most of the comedies he made. Synopses and stills make them look quite interesting – EAT & RUN featured Alt & McCoy with a bicycle-propelled lunch wagon, and also featured Max Davidson.
Al moved over to RayArt, making films with and directed by Bobby Ray (best known from a few films he made teamed with Oliver Hardy that anticipate Hardy’s teaming with Stan Laurel). At least one of these survives: THE MILLION DOLLAR DERBY, featuring the delightfully ridiculous plot of Al having to wear a silly hat for 6 months to get an inheritance!
Alt & Ray apparently tried to jump on the bandwagon of comics like Monty Banks & Syd Chaplin making films in Britain – Variety’s London correspondent of Nov 15th 1928 reports them on holiday in London and trying to raise interest in a feature. They had no luck, and Al ended up in some Cameo comedies at Educational Pictures. Educational was on a high at the time, and these were Al’s most prestigious films.
Harold Goodwin, Al & Babe London in TOP SPEED (1929)
Educational’s Cameo comedies were efficient one reelers that milked simple situations for gags. Al’s shorts won praise and sound like good, fun little one reelers from existing reviews.
In LUCKY BREAKS, Al played a sailor on shore leave who has all sorts of troubles with his belongings on the train ride home. Film Daily praised the short:
“His bundles become unwieldy and almost animated. The way that Al retrieves them, apologises to passengers and registers confusion and embarrassment is a joy to behold”
The reviewer concluded:
“This Al Alt person has swooped across the short comedy horizon and it looks as though he is going to make ’em all sit up and take notice before very long.”
Scene from LUCKY BREAKS
Sadly for Al, it was really too late for anyone to take notice of a new silent comedian, and he was lost in the shuffle of the talkie revolution. Though he made a couple of cheap indie two reelers in the East (RELATIONS and THE PEST) his starring career was fading out. He returned to Educational for a few bit parts, but then moved behind the scenes, initially as an editor, but working up to be assistant director on a number of films into the 1950s and 60s. Apparently he lived on until 1992!
Al Alt is never going to be rediscovered as a master comedian, but he’s another one of the silent comedy terracotta army who added to the richness of the era and is worth a second look.
The lucky 13th issue of The Lost Laugh magazine is here, and available to download below!
At over 50 pages, it’s the most packed issue yet. There are articles on Snub Pollard, Walter Forde, Lupino Lane, forgotten female comedian Wanda Wiley, Buster Keaton and lots more! There are also some great guest contributions from silent comedy experts David Glass and David Wyatt, plus the usual news and reviews.
Working on this issue has certainly kept me entertained through the latest lockdown. I hope it gives you some entertainment too.
Here are the full contents:
Snub Pollard, a career overview and a focus on the Laurel & Hardy-style films he made with Marvin Loback.
The career of forgotten female comedian Wanda Wiley, who gave many of the male slapstick comics a run for their money. Also includes a full filmography, with synopses of each film.
The second part of our article on Walter Forde, detailing his silent comedy features, and including never-before published research.
An exclusive article on newly rediscovered Lloyd Hamilton footage by film historian David Wyatt!
Lupino Lane – details on the new BluRay/DVD set, including insights into the restoration process from David Glass. Also a look at Lane’s fascinating book “How to Become a Comedian”.
Buster Keaton’s last film, THE SCRIBE
Two long-unseen films starring Harry Langdon
A review of a very rare, previously lost Johnny Hines comedy, THE WRIGHT IDEA
Plus news and reviews of books, DVDs, Blu-Rays and streaming events.
— As always, please do get in touch with comments, constructive criticisms and ideas for future issues, and please do share on social media etc.
Finally, The Lost Laugh will always be free, but if you enjoy reading the magazine & site, and are in a position to contribute a little to site running costs, then you can buy me a virtual coffee on Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelostlaugh Thanks! 🙂
Here’s a sneak preview of the upcoming issue of The Lost Laugh magazine: part of an article on daredevil comedienne Wanda Wiley. This is an abbreviated version. The full article contains more detail, a full filmography and lots of rare images!
Of the precious few female comedians given a chance to star in their own films, Wanda Wiley is one of the most obscure. Sadly, about 90% of her short comedies are now missing, but those that remain reveal a very likeable performer who gets stuck into some wonderful physical and visual comedy.
Wanda was very much a 1920s woman. She wasn’t an eccentric-looking comic type like Alice Howell or Gale Henry; she was modern, attractive and fashionable, but not just a leading lady. She was a motivator of her own plots and always at the centre of the action. Her comic equipment included long limbs that sprawled in different directions as she ran, and a wide-eyed, startled look as action swirled around her. Something about Wanda still seems to leap off the screen. Game for anything, she engaged in dangerous stunts and slapstick with vigour, usually without a double.
Her talent at physical comedy is particularly remarkable considering that she did not come from a stage background and had only been in films a year or so before being starred. Wanda was born Roberta Prestina Wiley in 1902, and was originally from San Antonio, Texas. She actually planned on being a dentist, and it was apparently while at Dental College that a film crew at work on the campus spotted her. Allegedly, Wanda was asked to give the director a tour of the campus, and wound up with a part in his Western.
Former dental student Wanda finds that making people laugh can be just like pulling teeth…
Wiley’s next appearances seem to have been in Universal’s ‘Leatherpushers’ series. In 1925 an interviewer for Movie Monthly chatted to Wanda about her first appearances:
She was telling me the other day about her stunts. When she broke into the game, barely a year and a half ago, she was given a boxing scene in which she had to suffer a prompt and inglorious knockout. Wanda took her tap on the chin, but in falling added some funny business which set everyone to laughing.
This talent led her to Universal’s Century Comedies, made by Abe and Julius Stern. Wanda made her first appearance as leading lady to Harry McCoy, going on to appear alongside the Century Follies Girls and uber-obscure comedian Al Alt in several films. Her roles became increasingly prominent; and she was featured prominently in ads from HER FORTUNATE FACE onwards. From the beginning of 1925, she had her own star series.
Jess Robbins was hired to direct the films, alternating with William Watson and Edward Luddy. These experienced directors knew how to stage elaborate visual comedy and bring out the best in Wanda. The titles of the shorts leave no doubt about their comedic style: A THRILLING ROMANCE, A SPEEDY MARRIAGE, FLYING WHEELS, JUST IN TIME… These were fast-paced comedies, often featuring the heroine in a race to meet some kind of deadline. As one exhibitor put it, “When Wanda plays, you can always expect some speedy entertainment”!
Another dash for Wanda in FLYING WHEELS
A SPEEDY MARRIAGE is a good example. It turned up several years ago at the Danish Film Institute and was available to view for a short time on their website. The action begins immediately, as Wanda is thrown out of bed by an electrical device, and then struck by lightning! Her lawyer phones to tell her that she must be married by 5 o’clock to collect an inheritance. She makes a date with her fiancé, and drives madly to meet him, pursued by traffic cops. After dodging them in and out of manholes and a toy shop, Wanda meets her man and speeds off, but they collide with another car. Fortunately, the other occupant is a minister so the speedy marriage takes place and all ends happily! There’s only a tiny clip currently online:
Only the climactic second reel of FLYING WHEELS exists, but it again involves a car chase. This time, Wanda dashes across town in a miniature racing car in a fine and thrilling slapstick sequence.
A THRILLING ROMANCE is a clever little short, with Wanda as a budding novelist; we open on her typing away in a room filled with scrunched up paper. When an open window sends the paper flying to litter the entire boarding house, she is evicted . Slipping on her way out, Wanda rolls down the stairs wrapped in the carpet and right out on to the street – narrowly missing being run over by Earl McArthur’s taxi. Helping her up, Earl is so busy gazing into her eyes that he fails to notice his cab rolling away. Wanda has her own troubles, as a dog climbs into her grip and runs away inside it. Wanda’s pursuit leads her across town, and along the way she accidentally comes into possession of a crook’s bankroll. With the crooks in pursuit, she summons Earl’s help, leading to a car chase that ends up on a cliff top. Just as Wanda and Earl are hurled off the edge, the scene dissolves back into Wanda’s flat; the action has all been the latest story she is typing. You can view the short in this episode of The Silent Comedy Watch Party:
QUEEN OF ACES is rather different, substituting farce for thrills. This time, we open with Wanda engaging in a bout of fencing (apparently a real-life hobby). She is considered too much of a tomboy by her boyfriend Al’s father, and he bans her from attending a party he is throwing. Undeterred, she dresses up as a man, and makes such a hit at the party that Dad invites her to a wild night at a gambling den. When the police raid, the pair hide in a pair of barrels that ultimately tumble from the roof! When they make it home, the father insists that (s)he spend the night in his son’s room: Wanda and Al are reunited.
Sadly, this handful of films are almost all we have to judge Wanda’s talent on for now. Century/Universal silent comedies are scarce, and Wanda Wiley’s films are no exception. Lots of the missing films sound like fun, action-packed little comedies. LOOKING DOWN features her attempts to ride an out-of-control bicycle (with a policeman on the handlebars!) before indulging in some Lloyd-type stunting on a half-built skyscraper. GOING GOOD features a race to secure a scientific formula in the face of “bearded giants, gorillas and ghosts”!
Action and stunting was the chief attraction of the Wiley comedies, and she did the majority of her stunts herself. She even recreated some live stunts involving cars on Broadway as a bit of publicity! As you’d expect, she suffered injuries as a result of her style of comedy. She was once thrown off a motorbike, but luckily escaped serious injuries, and was laid up for a couple of weeks with a sprained ankle and broken arm after an accident with a horse.
For the 1926 -27 series, Wanda’s films were not billed as star comedies in the same way, but came under the bland umbrella title of the “What Happened to Jane?” comedies. The move to the rebrand the series was the first step downwards in Wiley’s career. It made her less of a focus not only in billing, but also in material; as the ‘Jane’ series went on, more and more of the comedy was devoted to her male co-stars. It seems curious that, after establishing Wanda as a star, Century would seek to anonymise her in such a way. It would have made much more sense (and sounded better) to call the series “What Happened to Wanda?”. However, if you look at the Stern Brothers’ other comedies of the time, a pattern becomes apparent: the focus was on making series, not stars. ‘The Newlyweds and Their Baby’ and ‘Let George Do It’ focused on characters and brands rather than star personalities . The advantage for the Sterns was that these characters could be played by different actors. It offered them a way to control stars’ demands, and to easily replace them if they got out of hand.
It’s quite possible that Wanda was unsatisfied with the treatment. Whether she jumped or was pushed, Wiley departed Century in late 1926 and moved to Bray Comedies (there was also a fire at the Stern studio at this point which suspended production – this could have influenced the move, too). For Bray, Wanda appeared in several episodes of the collegiate series, ‘Fistical Culture’. Sadly, she soon found that her appearances were equally subordinate to male lead Lew Sargent, and before long she gave up on the series. Her disappearance from the screen may have also been hastened by the trauma of narrowly escaping from a house fire.
By early 1928, Wanda was reported to be hitting vaudeville, so often the agonal breath of a film comic’s career. This was no exception; she quickly faded from the limelight, and the coming of sound extinguished her career for good.
The big shame is that Wanda Wiley never got a chance to work for Hal Roach. Her flair for physical comedy grounded in a realistic personality would have slotted right in at the studio. It was not to be. Despite some vague reports of Wanda planning a screen comeback in 1933, she never made another film. However, she did marry happily to a noted physician, a Dr Atkinson, and lived on until the 1980s. We can only hope that more of her wonderful little shorts resurface one day. Those that do exist are genuinely funny comedies, and an all-too-rare breath of fresh air from the male-dominated world of silent comedy.
What a year it’s been. Thanks for reading THE LOST LAUGH, and I hope the magazine and blog have been able to offer you a little entertainment and distraction. Wherever you are, I hope you’re able to squeeze some merriness out of the season, and here’s to a better 2021!
We’ve all seen Laurel & Hardy’s BIG BUSINESS, but here’s a trio of lesser-known Christmas-themed comedies to help kickstart the season.
First up, Charley Chase’s THERE AIN’T NO SANTA CLAUS, from 1926. One of his less-seen Pathé shorts, this features some great gags, including Charley’s attempts to carry a Christmas tree on his bike, and playing rival Santas with Noah Young (both fighting over the same beard!)
From the same year and the same studio, here’s Our Gang’s Christmas short, GOOD CHEER:
Another great rarity from the YouTube Channel Geno’s House of Rare Films, here’s KNIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS starring Karl Dane and George K Arthur . I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for this forgotten comedy team, and have wanted to see more of their sound shorts for a while. This one isn’t quite as good as A PUT UP JOB, but it’s a lot of fun, as Karl brings George along to his family Christmas gathering. A great cast too, with Fern Emmet and Irving Bacon as Karl’s parents, plus some familiar Hal Roach players: Harry Bernard and Harry Bowen (hidden beneath a huge beard!).
The Lost Laugh 