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The Keystone Cops
The Keystone Cops (often spelled "Keystone Kops") are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917. History The idea for the Keystone Cops came from Hank Mann, and they were named for the Keystone studio, the film production company founded in 1912 by Sennett. Their first film was '' Hoffmeyer's Legacy'' (1912), with Mann playing the part of police chief Tehiezel, but their popularity stemmed from the 1913 short ''The Bangville Police'' starring Mabel Normand, which had Ford Sterling in the role of chief. As early as 1914, Sennett shifted the Keystone Cops from starring roles to background ensemble in support of comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle. The Keystone Cops served as supporting players for Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, and Chaplin in the first full-length Sennett comedy feature '' Tillie's Punctured Romance'' (1914); '' Mabel's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Making A Living
''Making a Living'' (also known as ''Doing His Best'', ''A Busted Johnny'', ''Troubles'', and ''Take My Picture'') is the first film starring Charlie Chaplin. A one-reel comedy short, it was completed in three days at Keystone Studios in Los Angeles, California and was released for distribution on February 2, 1914.Chaplin, Charles. ''My Autobiography''. New York: Simon and Schuster, pp. 143-144. In it Chaplin portrays a charming swindler who runs afoul of a news reporter and a Keystone Cop. In addition to co-writing the "scenario" and directing the production, Henry Lehrman performs as the principal supporting character. Plot In the film’s opening scene, Chaplin's character, the "Swindler", attempts to convince a passerby (Henry Lehrman) to give him money. Chaplin is next shown flirting with a young woman and proposing marriage to her, which she accepts. Lehrman, who portrays a news reporter, now approaches the woman and presents to her a bouquet of flowers and a ring, which s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mack Swain
Mack Swain (born Moroni Swain; February 16, 1876 – August 25, 1935) was an early American film actor, who appeared in many of Mack Sennett’s comedies at Keystone Studios, including the Keystone Cops series. He also appeared in major features by Charlie Chaplin. Early years Swain was born on February 16, 1876 to Robert Henry Swain and Mary Ingeborg Jensen in Salt Lake City, Utah and was educated in Salt Lake City's public schools. He ran away from home at age 15, joining a minstrel show. His mother took him home after one performance, but he persuaded her to let him continue in entertainment. Career In the early 1900s, Swain had his own stock theater company, which performed in the western and midwestern United States. Swain worked in vaudeville before starting in silent film at Keystone Studios under Mack Sennett. While with Keystone, he was teamed up with Chester Conklin to make a series of comedy films. With Swain as "Ambrose" and Conklin as the grand mustachi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edgar Kennedy
Edgar Livingston Kennedy (April 26, 1890 – November 9, 1948) was an American comedic character actor who appeared in at least 500 films during the silent and sound eras. Professionally, he was known as "Slow Burn", owing to his ability to portray characters whose anger slowly rose in frustrating situations. In many of his roles, he used exasperated facial expressions and performed very deliberately to convey his rising anger or "burn", often rubbing his hand over his bald head and across his face in an effort to control his temper. One memorable example of his comedy technique can be seen in the 1933 Marx Brothers' film '' Duck Soup'', where he plays a sidewalk lemonade vendor who is harassed and increasingly provoked by Harpo and Chico. Early years Kennedy was born April 26, 1890, in Monterey County, California, to Canadians Neil Kennedy and Annie Quinn. He attended San Rafael High School before taking up boxing. He was a light-heavyweight and once went 14 rounds with Jac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slim Summerville
Slim Summerville (born George Joseph Somerville; July 10, 1892 – January 5, 1946), was an American film actor and director best known for his work in comedies. Early life Summerville was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his mother died when he was only five. Moving from New Mexico to Canada and later to Oklahoma, he had a nomadic upbringing. In Canada, in Chatham, Ontario, he lived with his English grandparents and obtained his first job there, working as a messenger for the Canadian Pacific Telegraphs. Film career The beginning of Summerville's three-decade screen career can be traced to another early job he had, one working in a poolroom in California. There in 1912 he met actor Edgar Kennedy, who took him to see Mack Sennett, the head of Keystone Studios in Edendale. Sennett immediately hired him for $3.50 per day to perform in bit parts, his first being in the role of a "Keystone Kop" in the short '' Hoffmeyer's Legacy''. Tall and gangly, Summerville used hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Avery (actor)
Charles Avery (May 28, 1873 – July 23, 1926) was an American silent film, silent-film actor, film director, and screenwriter. One of the original seven Keystone Kops,Lahue, Kalton (1971); ''Mack Sennett's Keystone: The man, the myth and the comedies''; New York: Barnes; . p. 194. Avery directed Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in thirty-one comedies while at Keystone Studios. Early life and education He was born Charles Avery Bradford in Chicago, Illinois. His sister Charlotte was also an actress, as was his mother Marie Stanley. His father was a playwright. Career He started acting in the theatre, playing the title role in ''Charley's Aunt'', and the part of Pegleg Hopkins in the adaptation of ''David Harum'' which had William H. Crane in the lead role. Avery appeared in a touring production of ''The Clansman'' as Governor Shrimp, before entering films with the Biograph Company in 1908. From 1908 to 1909, Avery featured in 33 short films under the direction of D. W. Griffith, u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Dunn
Robert P. Dunn (August 28, 1890 – March 24, 1937) was a comic actor who was one of the original Keystone Kops in '' Hoffmeyer's Legacy''. Early years Dunn was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Richard P. and Melissa Dunn, and attended St. Johns Military Academy. He was a world-champion high-diver with Dr. Carver's diving horses. Career Dunn started his film career at Keystone Studios with Mack Sennett and worked as a comedian and stuntman for a variety of other film studios as well. He lost many of his teeth and suffered other injuries performing stunts as well, including the loss of one of his eyes when he fell into a barrel of water and his eye was irreparably damaged by a floating matchstick.Goldhammer, Harvey (2014)"Meet the Keystone Kops" ''Silent-ology'', 27 July 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2019. The glass eye he wore after that accident gave him a somewhat "cross-eyed" appearance, although that effect "served only to empower his comedic career." Later, during the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Jeske
George Washington Jeske (February 22, 1891 – October 28, 1951) was an American screenwriter, director, and actor. Career Jeske was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1891. He was one of the original Keystone Kops for Mack Sennett. He wrote for more than 50 films between 1926 and 1946, including the Torchy film series with Ray Cooke in the title role. He also directed 37 films between 1922 and 1933. He died in Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' .... Selected filmography See also References External links * * 1891 births 1951 deaths American male screenwriters American film directors American male film actors American male silent film actors Silent film directors Male actors from Utah Writers from Salt Lake City 20t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Del Lord
Delmer "Del" Lord (October 7, 1894March 23, 1970) was a Canadians, Canadian film director and actor best known as a director of Three Stooges films. Career Delmer Lord was born in the small town of Grimsby, Ontario, Canada. Interested in the theatre, he traveled to New York City, then when fellow Canadian Mack Sennett offered him a job at his new Keystone Studios, Lord went on to work in Hollywood, California. There he played the driver of the Keystone Cops police van, appearing in many of the Cops' successful films. Given a chance to direct, Del Lord became a specialist in automotive gags, rigging cars to explode, crash, fall apart, or dangle in precarious positions. Lord was responsible for a number of very successful comedies for Keystone and directed two feature films for Universal Studios, Universal Pictures. However, the Great Depression plagued the film industry with budget cuts, and Sennett was forced to close his studio in 1933. Hal Roach launched a brief series of slaps ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Finlayson
James Henderson Finlayson (27 August 1887 – 9 October 1953) was a Scottish actor who worked in both silent and sound comedies. Bald, with a fake moustache, Finlayson had many trademark comic mannerisms and is known for his squinting, outraged, "double take and fade away" head reaction, and characteristic expression "d'ooooooh", and as the best remembered comic foil of Laurel and Hardy. Finlayson was known by a variety of nicknames. According to Laurel and Hardy scholar Randy Skretvedt, he "called himself Jimmy, was known around the lot as Jim and is usually referred to today as 'Fin'"Skretvedt, p. 77 – as a truncated version of his surname, as author John McCabe presented it in his 1961 book biography ''Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy ''. Early life and stage career Born in Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland to Alexander and Isabella (née Henderson) Finlayson, James worked as a tinsmith before pursuing an acting career. As part of John Clyde's company, he played the part of Jamie Ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chester Conklin
Chester Cooper Conklin (January 11, 1886 – October 11, 1971) was an early American film comedian who started at Keystone Studios as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops, often paired with Mack Swain. He appeared in a series of films with Mabel Normand and worked closely with Charlie Chaplin, both in silent and sound films. Early life Conklin was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa. One of three children, he grew up in a violent household. When he was eight, his mother was found burned to death in the family garden. Although first judged a suicide, his father, a devoutly religious man who hoped his son would be a minister, was eventually charged with murder, but found not guilty at trial. Conklin won first prize when he gave a recitation at a community festival. A few years later, he ran away from home after vowing to a friend he would never return, a promise he kept. Heading to Des Moines he found employment as a hotel bellhop, but then moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where his interes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wished On Mabel
''Wished on Mabel'' is a 1915 American silent comedy short or "one-reeler" filmed at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, and directed by Mabel Normand. The short also co-stars Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Plot This "farce comedy" begins with an older, well-dressed woman sitting down on a park bench with her daughter Mabel. With a magazine in hand, "Mama" proceeds to read to the obviously bored young woman, whose spirits are lifted when nearby she sees her boyfriend "Fatty". Mabel motions to him to come sit with them. After sneaking a few quick kisses with Mabel, Fatty takes her away so they can spend time together, leaving Mama alone on the bench."''Wished on Mabel'' (1915) - Mabel Normand & Fatty Arbuckle - Mack Sennett" full 12-minute short available ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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