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Mabel's Blunder
Mabel’s Blunder By Brent E. Walker Mabel Normand was the first major female comedy star in American motion pictures. She was also one of the first female directors in Hollywood, and one of the original principals in Mack Sennett’s pioneering Keystone Comedies. “Mabel’s Blunder” (1914), made two years after the formation of the Keystone Film Company, captures Normand’s talents both in front of and behind the camera. Born in Staten Island, New York in 1892, a teenage Normand modeled for “Gibson Girl” creator Charles Dana Gibson before entering motion pictures with Vitagraph in 1910. In the summer of 1911, she moved over to the Biograph company, where D.W. Griffith was making his mark as a pioneering film director. Griffith had already turned actresses such as Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford into major dramatic stars. Normand, however, was not as- signed to the dramas made by Griffith. Instead, she went to work in Biograph’s comedy unit, directed by an actor-turned-director named Mack Sennett. Normand’s first major film “The Diving Girl” (1911) brought her notice with nickelodeon audiences. A 1914 portrait of Mabel Normand looking Mabel quickly differentiated herself from the other uncharacteristically somber. Courtesy Library of Congress Biograph actresses of the period by her willingness Prints & Photographs Online Collection. to engage in slapstick antics and take pratfalls in the name of comedy. She also began a personal ro- to assign directorial control to each of his stars on mantic relationship with Mack Sennett that would their comedies, including Normand. Mabel directed have its ups and downs, and would eventually in- a number of her own films through the early months spire a Broadway musical titled “Mack and Mabel.” of 1914. -
January, 2006
J A N U A R Y, 2006 V O L . 3 I S S U E N º 1 The Internet Noiseletter of Looser Than Loose Publishing LOOSER THAN LOOSE 373 South Willow Street Nº 227 Manchester, New Hampshire 03103 www.looserthanloose.com JUST RELEASED! TThhee LLaarrggeerr WWoorrlldd ooff LLaauurreell aanndd HHaarrddyy Volume III The second disc in this series offers another group of seldom seen comedy shorts populated (at least in part) by familiar figures in the world of Laurel and Hardy. With us this time are Babe London in a com- plete Christie-Educational two-reeler, Charley Chase in two shorts, Ed Kennedy in two shorts, another Billy West title with Babe Hardy in support and a handful of less familiar faces like Jess De Vorska and Billy Bletcher filling out the various casts. We’ve also included a spe- cial audio section featuring Music Hall performers Gracie Fields and Kirby and Hudson. Just in case that isn’t enough, our opening montage features a clip of Stan Laurel and Babe London “watching” the L&H short Our Wife in Stan’s apartment at the Oceana! As always, we have labored over the presenta- tion of these films. To that end, correct titles and inter- titles have been recreated whenever necessary, proper projection speeds (24 fps) have been observed and period (dance music) scores have been created from restored acoustic and electric 78 rpm records. The source materials for the visual elements on this dvd are all 16mm prints, except The Other Fellow which came originally from 35mm. -
Pass the Gravy by Steve Massa
Pass the Gravy By Steve Massa Max Davidson had appeared in movies since the early teens – act- ing at Biograph, supporting Fay Tincher in her Komic Comedy and Fine Arts comedy, and briefly headlining in his own Izzy Come- dies” – usually portraying stereo- typical Jewish tailors and mer- chants. After scoring a notable success co-starring with Jackie Coogan in the features “The Rag Man” and “Old Clothes” (both 1925) he was hired by producer Hal Roach to be part of his stable of supporting comedians. Proving himself in the service of Roach star comics Cuckoos” (1927) introductory description of “Love’s such as Stan Laurel, Charley Chase, and Mabel Greatest Mistake.” Screen freckles usually denote Normand in the shorts “Get ‘Em Young,” “Long Fliv fresh and fun-loving characters, but Spec’s spots the King” (both 1926), and “Anything Once” (1927), came with an icy heart, a malevolent grin, and Max was bumped up to the leading role in his own beady eyes that loved to see his screen father series and given the opportunity to flesh out his squirm. standard screen persona. The first entries were di- rected by Leo McCarey, then director-general of the In contrast to his sons like Spec, Max’s screen Roach Studio, who laid the ground work with shorts daughters are always his pride and joy, but still such as “Why Girls Say No,” “Jewish Prudence,” cause him a lot of aggravation, particularly when “Don’t Tell Everything,” and “Should Second they take up with boys he doesn’t approve of or as- Husbands Come First?” (all 1927). -
“The Spice of the Program” Educational Pictures and the Small-Town Audience
3 “The Spice of the Program” Educational Pictures and the Small-Town Audience “What the hell’s educational about a comedy?” asked slapstick producer Jack White in an interview toward the end of his life. “Something that was very offen- sive to me,” he continued, “was [the slogan] . ‘This is an Educational Comedy.’ There’s no such thing as educating yourself with a comedy. It’s a stupid name.”1 The object of White’s ire? The company for which he had produced and directed two- reel shorts for over a decade—the comedy distributor with the most unlikely of names: Educational Pictures. The company had been formed in 1915 as the Educational Films Corporation by real-estate man Earle W. Hammons, with the intent indicated by its name: to provide educational subjects for school, church, and other nontheatrical pur- poses. But by the late 1910s Hammons had realized little profit from this idea and began to target the commercial field, setting in motion a process of expan- sion that would see Educational become the dominant short-comedy distributor of the late silent era. “It did not take me long to find out that the demand [for educational films] did not exist and that we could not survive by doing that alone,” Hammons later recalled.2 As early as the 1918–1919 season, Educational had begun to diversify its product lines, adding Happy Hooligan and Silk Hat Harry cartoons to its weekly program of travelogues and informational sub- jects.3 In April 1920, Hammons signed director Jack White and comedian Lloyd Hamilton from Fox’s Sunshine Comedies to produce two-reel comedies under the brand name Mermaid Comedies, and began immediately taking further strides into the comedy market.4 The program for Educational’s 1920–1921 season, which represented the company’s first year of general commercial release, included four comedy series: the Mermaids, produced by White; C. -
Download File
Gale Henry Also Known As: "The Elongated Comedienne" Lived: April 15, 1893 - June 6, 1972 Worked as: film actress, producer, scenario writer, theatre actress Worked In: United States by Steve Massa Thought to be the prototype for Popeye’s girlfriend Olive Oyl, Gale Henry was tall and extremely skinny, with large eyes and a sharp nose. Known as “The Elongated Comedienne,” from 1914 to 1933 she entertained audiences with eccentric physical comedy. Like her contemporaries Alice Howell, Mabel Normand, Marie Dressler, and Louise Fazenda, Gale took many bumps and bruises in the name of laughter alongside her male comedian counterparts in an estimated two hundred fifty-eight shorts and features, some of the craziest of which she wrote. Her active female characters bear comparison with Pearl White and Helen Holmes, the “serial queens” of the 1910s, and she often spoofed the cliff-hanger genre in which they appeared. Henry’s performing style could be very broad, but she also had a gift for small, insightful gestures that could bring a moment of pathos and feeling into the knockabout. She often played put-upon slavies, but her unconventional looks also made her perfect as a lovelorn spinster, an overbearing wife, or a burlesque country girl. She wore a wide-brimmed hat, a tight, old-fashioned button-up blouse, a long plaid or checkered skirt, and clunky high-top shoes. The overall look had a feel of L. Frank Baum’s Scarecrow of Oz—as if she were put together from odd, mismatching parts. After growing up on a ranch in Bear Valley, California, Gale Henry began her stage career with the Temple Opera Company. -
“I Want Music Everywhere” Music, Operetta, and Cultural Hierarchy at the Hal Roach Studios
4 “I Want Music Everywhere” Music, Operetta, and Cultural Hierarchy at the Hal Roach Studios In their 1928 stockholders’ report, the Hal Roach Studios’ board of directors anticipated the company’s conversion to sound with calm assuredness: The last few months has [sic] witnessed the advent of another element in the produc- tion field; that is, the talking or sound pictures. It is, of course, difficult to foretell what the eventual outcome of talking pictures will be or the eventual form they will assume. One thing is certain, however, that is that they are at the present time an element in the amusement field apparently having a definite appeal to the public, and properly handled, it promises to be a great addition to the entertainment value of pictures and a great aid to the producer in building up the interest in the picture intended. The company has placed itself in a position to gain by any and all new methods and devices introduced in the field.1 Confidence is to be expected in a stockholders’ statement, but for the Roach Studios such an attitude likely came easy, at least in comparison with the com- petition. Unlike the independent producer-distributor Educational—which had initially flubbed its transition by backing the Vocafilm technology—the Roach Studios enjoyed the luxury of a financing and distribution deal with industry powerhouse Loew’s-MGM and opted to follow the parent company’s lead in entering the uncertain waters ahead. The Roach organization was, for example, included in Loew’s-MGM’s initial contract with Electrical Research Products, Inc. -
The Cine-Kodak News; Vol. 8, No. 8;
MAY JUNE 1932 Happy Days for them will last forever ... if you make their gift a Cine-Kodak UNE WEDDINGS ... commencements. J What gift could be more fitting, more welcome than a Cine-Kodak? Unusual ... Useful. The means whereby the honey- mooners or graduate can capture happy days for all time. Model K, illustrated above, is recognized everywhere as a movie-making instrument that performs superbly. One could wish for nothing finer. Because of an interchangeable requires no focusing. It's light in weight lens feature it makes Kodacolor, telephoto ... so simple to operate that good pictures and wide angle movies as well as black and are assured from the start. white. Half speed at the press of a button. Any Cine-Kodak dealer will gladly Two finders. With the ultra-fast f.1.9 lens, show you these cameras. Many dealers Model K costs $150; with f.3.5 lens, $110. offer easy terms. Prices include carrying case. Another popular Cine-Kodak is the $75 EASTMAN KODAK CO MPANY Model "M." Equipped with an f.3.5 lens it ROCHESTER , NEW YORK MAY -JUNE 1932 C IN E -KO DA K Publ is hed Bi·M o nth ly in the inte resls o f Amateur Motion Pictures by the NEWS Eastman Kodak Company, Roch es ter, N Y, V olum e 8 . N um ber 8 CATCH-AS-CATCH-CAN MOVIE MAKING That's how I make movies- but not how I show them . by R. F. D A Y IFTHERE is any premeditated scheme of things behind my movie-making activity, I am unaware of it. -
Jules White Papers
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8j967vz No online items Jules White papers Special Collections Margaret Herrick Library© 2013 Jules White papers 203 1 Descriptive Summary Title: Jules White papers Date (inclusive): 1923-1990 Date (bulk): 1934-1958 Collection number: 203 Creator: White, Jules Extent: 12.5 linear feet of papers.7.2 linear feet of photographs. Repository: Margaret Herrick Library. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Languages: English Access Available by appointment only. Publication rights Property rights to the physical object belong to the Margaret Herrick Library. Researchers are responsible for obtaining all necessary rights, licenses, or permissions from the appropriate companies or individuals before quoting from or publishing materials obtained from the library. Preferred Citation Jules White papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Acquisition Information Gift of Jules White, 1958-1975, with additions from Erwin Dumbrille, 2009 Biography Jules White was a Hungarian-born director and producer. His family came to America in 1904. He was a child actor and eventually followed his older brother Jack into the short comedy field, first as film editor and general assistant, finally becoming active as director from 1924 to 1958. From 1934 to 1958 he supervised the production of short comedies at Columbia Pictures, featuring, among others, a team of knockabout comics who'd been supporting comedian Ted Healy, helping to re-invent them as "The Three Stooges." White served on the Academy Board of Governors from 1945 to 1947. He was nominated by the Academy in the short subject category four times. Collection Scope and Content Summary The Jules White papers span the years 1923-1990 (bulk 1934-1958) and encompass 19.7 linear feet. -
Hollywood Cinema and American Modernity in the Jazz Age
Hollywood Cinema and American Modernity in the Jazz Age By Dr Michael Hammond Associate Professor of Film at the University of Southampton I took my BA in History at California State University Los Angeles, my MA in Film Studies at the University of East Anglia, and my PhD at Southampton Institute. I am currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Southampton. The decade that followed the First World War witnessed considerable social upheavals one of which was the newly established social phenomenon of the cinema. From family recreation to dating rituals the cinema contributed to their ‘modernization’ often reflecting those changes in the films they produced. Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman (1925) built on the myths that had sprung up about college life that had been initiated by an expansion in higher education and called up a world of sexual liberation outlined in the jazz age stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ernst Lubitch’s comedy/drama Forbidden Paradise (1924) depicted a vision of Old World royalty that was both spectacle and satire, confirming its passing. Where Lloyd’s comedy was restless and fast Laurel and Hardy’s was driven by sense of confusion at the rapid pace of modern life. Destroying machinery, upending the workplace and enraging those who they encountered, the two met the accelerating age with a lethargic resistance. In the 1920s for American audiences and for those outside of its borders from Europe to Latin America, from cinema was the harbinger of the American Century. At the end of the First World war Europe’s economies had been exhausted, the war had destroyed much of the confidence in the old order and throughout the 1920s each country sought to rebuild under clouds of political and social upheaval. -
Guide to the Donald J. Stubblebine Collection of Theater and Motion Picture Music and Ephemera
Guide to the Donald J. Stubblebine Collection of Theater and Motion Picture Music and Ephemera NMAH.AC.1211 Franklin A. Robinson, Jr. 2019 Archives Center, National Museum of American History P.O. Box 37012 Suite 1100, MRC 601 Washington, D.C. 20013-7012 [email protected] http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives Table of Contents Collection Overview ........................................................................................................ 1 Administrative Information .............................................................................................. 1 Arrangement..................................................................................................................... 2 Scope and Contents........................................................................................................ 2 Biographical / Historical.................................................................................................... 1 Names and Subjects ...................................................................................................... 3 Container Listing ............................................................................................................. 4 Series 1: Stage Musicals and Vaudeville, 1866-2007, undated............................... 4 Series 2: Motion Pictures, 1912-2007, undated................................................... 327 Series 3: Television, 1933-2003, undated............................................................ 783 Series 4: Big Bands and Radio, 1925-1998, -
El Programa De Mano Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer En Los Inicios Del Cine Sonoro: Las Versiones En Habla Castellana
Willis García-Talavera Jemes F.(2002): El programa de mano Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer en los inicios del cine sonoro: las versiones en habla castellana. Revista Latina de Comunicación Soci... Revista Latina de Comunicación Social 52 – octubre - diciembre de 2002 Edita: Laboratorio de Tecnologías de la Información y Nuevos Análisis de Comunicación Social Depósito Legal: TF-135-98 / ISSN: 1138-5820 Año 5º – Director: Dr. José Manuel de Pablos Coello, catedrático de Periodismo Facultad de Ciencias de la Información: Pirámide del Campus de Guajara - Universidad de La Laguna 38200 La Laguna (Tenerife, Canarias; España) Teléfonos: (34) 922 31 72 31 / 41 - Fax: (34) 922 31 72 54 El programa de mano Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer en los inicios del cine sonoro: las versiones en habla castellana Dr. James F. Willis García-Talavera © La Laguna (Tenerife) Resumen Este artículo analiza, sirviéndose de los programas de mano MGM como fuentes primarias de investigación, la producción de una serie de películas con actores y actrices de habla hispana en los estudios norteamericanos de Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, durante el comienzo de la década de los treinta, cuando el doblaje aún no había sido instaurado. En los programas de mano destaca, tras una mera observación preliminar, la inclusión de la frase "hablada en español", ubicada en el lugar más visible y de la forma más llamativa, como elemento publicitario de primer orden A principios de la década de los treinta, antes de la llegada del doblaje, las grandes productoras norteamericanas – especialmente, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer– auspiciaron una masiva emigración de profesionales de habla castellana a sus estudios de Hollywood, para producir versiones de sus películas con actrices y actores españoles hablando en su idioma, tratando de imponerse en los prometedores mercados hispanos. -
Download the UCLA Festival of Preservation Catalog (PDF)
FROM THE DIRECTOR THE UCLA FILM & TELEVISION ARCHIVE'S mission is to preserve and provide access to our collections. The biennial Festival of Preservation allows us to show pristine examples of our recent work as they were meant to be seen-by appreciative audiences on the big screen. This year's Festival is dedicated to Preservation Officer Robert Gitt-the man who since 1977 has put the Archive on the international map for excellence in film preservation and restoration. In 2005, he officially retired from University service. but will continue to work part-time. contributing his wealth of expertise to preservation and restoration projects for many years to come. A special evening on Saturday, July 29. hosted by film critic and historian Leonard Maltin. will celebrate Bob's singular career. This year is also notable because it is the last time the Festival will be presented in the James Bridges Theater. In early 2007, with construction funding from Mrs. Audrey Wilder. the Archive will move into a new home at the state-of-the-art Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, creating an incomparable center to celebrate the legacy of motion pictures. The 13th Festival of Preservation presents a wide selection of fascinating motion pictures. shorts, television and newsreels. Film directors range from Elia Kazan. Hal Roach and Orson Welles to Kenneth Anger and John Cassavetes. Stars include Carroll Baker, Clara Bow. Ronald Colman, Cary Grant, Laurel and Hardy, Burgess Meredith and Gena Rowlands. One television evening takes a rare look at Johnny Carson before THE TONIGHT SHOW.