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Edward Sedgwick
Edward Sedgwick (November 7, 1889 – March 7, 1953) was an American film director, writer, actor and producer. Early life He was born in Galveston, Texas, the son of Edward Sedgwick, Sr. and Josephine Walker, both stage actors. At the age of four, young Edward Sedgwick joined his show business family in what was then the Sedgwick Comedy Company, a vaudeville act, doing a "singing speciality". He played child parts and did vaudeville acts until he was seven, when he was given his first comedy part, that of an Irish immigrant, in a comedy written by his father called ''Just Over''. During this time, he was only on stage during the summer months. In winter his father took him back to Galveston and sent him to school. He graduated from St. Mary's University of Galveston, and was then sent to the Peacock Military Academy in San Antonio, from which he graduated with the rank of first lieutenant. After graduation, he seriously contemplated a military life but the lure of the st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galveston, Texas
Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Galveston, or Galvez' town, was named after 18th-century Spanish military and political leader Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez (1746–1786), who was born in Macharaviaya, Málaga, in the Kingdom of Spain. Galveston's first European settlements on the Galveston Island were built around 1816 by French pirate Louis-Michel Aury to help the fledgling empire of Mexico fight for independence from Spain, along with other colonies in the Western Hemisphere of the Americas in Central and South America in the 1810s and 1820s. The Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies". In 1996, ''Entertainment Weekly'' recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, and in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. Working with independent producer Joseph M. Schenck and filmmaker Edward F. Cline, Keaton made a series of successful two-reel comedies in the early 1920s, including ''One Week'' (1920), '' The Playhouse'' (1921), '' Cops'' (1922), and ''The Electric House'' (1922). He then moved to feature-leng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurel And Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American Double act, comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to "sound film, talkies". From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully. Their signature theme song, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos" (by Hollywood composer Marvin Hatley, T. Marvin Hatley) was heard over their films' opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats. Prior to emerging as a team, both had well-established film careers. Laurel had acted in over 50 films, and worked as a writer and director, while Hardy was in more than 250 productions. Both had appea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Haley
John Joseph Haley Jr. (August 10, 1897 – June 6, 1979) was an American actor, comedian, dancer, radio host, singer and vaudevillian. He was best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man and his farmhand counterpart Hickory in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film '' The Wizard of Oz''. Early life Haley was born on August 10, 1897. His father was a waiter by trade, and later a ship's steward. He died in the wreck of the schooner Charles A. Briggs at Nahant, Massachusetts on February 1, 1898, when Jack was almost six months old. He had one older brother, William Anthony "Bill" Haley, a musician, who died of pneumonia in 1916 at the age of twenty-one after contracting tuberculosis. Career Haley headlined in vaudeville as a song-and-dance comedian. One of his closest friends was Fred Allen, who would frequently mention "Mr. Jacob Haley of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts" on the air. Haley made a few phonograph records in 1923, and in the early 1930s, Haley starred in comedy shorts f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Roach Studios
Hal Roach Studios was an American motion picture and television production studio. Known as ''The Laugh Factory to the World'', it was founded by producer Hal Roach and business partners Dan Linthicum and I.H. Nance as the Rolin Film Company on July 23, 1914. The studio lot, at 8822 Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California, United States, was built in 1920, at which time Rolin was renamed to ''Hal E. Roach Studios''. History Roach saw significant success in the 1920s with series of short comedy films featuring stars such as Harold Lloyd, Snub Pollard, and the ''Our Gang'' kids. The studio produced both short films and features for distribution through Pathé Exchange until 1927, when it signed a new distribution deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. By the early 1930s, the studio had entered a golden age, with a line-up of many of film's most popular comedians, including Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, ''Our Gang'', Thelma Todd, and Zasu Pitts. As movie theaters began to favor d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
What! No Beer?
''What - No Beer?'' is a 1933 Pre-Code comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer directed by Edward Sedgwick and starring Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante. MGM had also paired Keaton and Durante as a comedy team during this period in ''The Passionate Plumber'' and ''Speak Easily''. Production The filming of ''What - No Beer?'' was difficult. Since joining MGM in 1928, Keaton was not accorded the creative freedom that he had enjoyed during the silent era. By 1933 personal problems and a messy divorce were interfering with Keaton's work; he often showed up drunk or not at all for the filming of ''What! No Beer?'' He was enough of a professional (and a trained acrobat) to complete the film, doing extreme pratfalls even while visibly impaired. Plot It's an election year, with the possible end of Prohibition in sight. Taxidermist Elmer J. Butts (Buster Keaton) goes to a "dry" rally, where he follows the beautiful Hortense (Phyllis Barry) and her bootlegger boyfriend Butch Lorado (J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speak Easily
''Speak Easily'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code comedy film starring Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, and Thelma Todd, and directed by Edward Sedgwick. The studio also paired Keaton and Durante as a comedy team during this period in ''The Passionate Plumber'' and ''What! No Beer?'' Keaton later used many of the physical gags he created for this film when he wrote (uncredited) gags for the Marx Brothers' ''A Night at the Opera (film), A Night At The Opera''. The film is in the public domain, as the copyright was not renewed. Plot Professor Post is a shy Classics professor at Potts College, who has lived a sheltered life and has little experience of life outside of academia. Feeling that the professor should see more of the real world, his assistant tricks the professor into thinking that he has inherited $750,000, allowing the professor to leave academia and see the world. Boarding a train bound for New York City, Prof. Post encounters James, the manager of a da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parlor, Bedroom And Bath (1931 Film)
''Parlor, Bedroom and Bath'' is an American pre-Code comedy film starring Buster Keaton, released by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer in 1931. It was Keaton's third talking picture after his successful silent career. The film was released in the United Kingdom as ''Romeo in Pyjamas''. Two foreign-language versions were made at the same time: ''Buster se marie'' in French, and ''Casanova wider Willen'' in German. It is the remake of a 1920 film of the same name, based on the play by Charles William Bell and Mark Swan, which opened on Broadway in New York City on Christmas Eve, 1917 and ran for 232 performances. ''Parlor, Bedroom and Bath'' was filmed partly at Keaton's own house. The film is in the public domain and can be downloaded from the Internet. Plot Jeffrey Haywood ( Reginald Denny) wants to marry Virginia "Ginny" Embrey (Sally Eilers). However, Ginny refuses to marry unless her older sister, the hard-to-please Angelica (Dorothy Christy) marries first as she's afraid that Angelic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doughboys (1930 Film)
''Doughboys'' is a 1930 American Pre-Code comedy film starring Buster Keaton. It was Keaton's second starring talkie vehicle and has been called Keaton's "most successful sound Picture." A Spanish-language version was also made under the title, ''De Frente, Marchen.'' Plot Elmer ( Buster Keaton), a member of the idle rich, is smitten by working girl Mary (Sally Eilers), who will have nothing to do with him. When Elmer's chauffeur gets caught up in an army recruitment drive and quits, Elmer goes to an employment agency to find a new driver and accidentally enlists in the army. Elmer learns that Mary is on the base to entertain the troops and learns that his drill sergeant, Brophy ( Edward Brophy), is also interested in Mary. Cast * Buster Keaton as Elmer * Sally Eilers as Mary * Cliff Edwards as Nescopeck * Edward Brophy as Sgt. Brophy * Victor Potel as Svendenburg * Arnold Korff as Gustav * Frank Mayo as Captain Scott * Pitzy Katz as Abie Cohn * William Steele as Lieut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free And Easy (1930 Film)
''Free and Easy'' is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film starring Buster Keaton. It was Keaton's first leading role in a talking motion picture. Plot When small-town girl Elvira Plunkett (Anita Page) wins a contest that sends her to Hollywood, Los Angeles for a screen test at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), she is accompanied by her overbearing mother (Trixie Friganza) and Elmer J. Butts (Buster Keaton), a gas-station attendant who goes along as Elvira's manager. Elmer is secretly in love with Elvira, but on the train they meet MGM contract actor Larry Mitchell ( Robert Montgomery), who falls for her as well, and has the connections to make her a star. In Hollywood, Elmer manages to bungle his way through numerous films being shot on the MGM lot, disrupting production. When given a screen test, he can't manage to say his one line correctly. Despite this, both he and Elvira's mother are given film contracts, and appear in a comic opera together. Elmer wants to tell Elvira that he l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spite Marriage
''Spite Marriage'' is a 1929 American silent comedy film co-directed by Buster Keaton and Edward Sedgwick and starring Keaton and Dorothy Sebastian. It is the second film Keaton made for MGM and his last silent film, although he had wanted it to be a "talkie" or full sound film. While the production has no recorded dialogue, it does feature an accompanying synchronized score and recorded laughter, applause and other sound effects in some scenes. Keaton later wrote gags for some up-and-coming MGM stars like Red Skelton, and from this film recycled many gags, some shot-for-shot, for Skelton's 1943 film ''I Dood It''. Plot Elmer, a humble worker in a dry cleaning establishment, idolizes stage actress Trilby Drew (Dorothy Sebastian). She, in turn, is carrying a torch for fellow actor Lionel Benmore (Edward Earle). When Lionel spurns her for the younger Ethyl Norcrosse (Leila Hyams), she impulsively asks Elmer to marry her. Her handlers extricate her from the marriage, and when El ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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