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The Lost Laugh
#12 1 April 2020 Welcome to issue 12 of THE LOST LAUGH. I hope, wherever this reaches you, that you’re coping OK with these troubled times, and keeping safe and well. These old, funny films are a great form of escapism and light relief at times like these. In fact, I was thinking the other day that the times they were made in had their fair share of troubles : two world wars, the 1918 flu pandemic, the Wall Street Crash and the great depression, to name a few. Yet, these comics made people smile, often even making fun out of the anxi- eties of the day. That they can still make us smile through our own troubles, worlds away from their own, is testament to how special they are. I hope reading this issue helps you forget the outside world for a while and perhaps gives you some new ideas for films to seek out to pass some time in lockdown. Thanks to our contributors this issue: David Glass, David Wyatt and Ben Model; if you haven't seen them yet, Ben’s online silent comedy events are a terrific idea that help to keep the essence of live silent cinema alive. Ben has very kindly taken time to answer some questions about the shows. As always, please do get in touch at [email protected] with any comments or suggestions, or if you’d like to contribute an article (or plug a project of your own!) in a future issue. Finally, don’t for- get that there are more articles, including films to watch online, at thelostlaugh.com. -
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. -
My Wonderful World of Slapstick
THE THIS BOOK IS THE PROPERTY OF Georgia State Bo»r* of Education AN. PR,CLAun\;v eSupt of School* 150576 DECATUR -DeKALB LIBRARY REGIONAI SERVICE ROCKDALE COUNTY NEWTON COUNTY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Media History Digital Library http://archive.org/details/mywonderfulworldOObust MY WONDERFUL WORLD OF SLAPSTICK MY WO/VDERFUL WORLD OF SLAPSTICK BUSTER KEATON WITH CHARLES SAMUELS 150576 DOVBLEW& COMPANY, lNC.,<k*D£H C(TYt HlW Yo*K DECATUR - DeKALB LIBRARY REGiOMA! $&KZ ROCKDALE COUNTY NEWTON COUNTY Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 60-5934 Copyright © i960 by Buster Keaton and Charles Samuels All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America First Edition J 6>o For Eleanor 1. THE THREE KEATONS 9 2. I BECOME A SOCIAL ISSUE 29 3. THE KEATONS INVADE ENGLAND 49 4. BACK HOME AGAIN IN GOD'S COUNTRY 65 5. ONE WAY TO GET INTO THE MOVIES 85 6. WHEN THE WORLD WAS OURS 107 7. BOFFOS BY MAN AND BEAST 123 8. THE DAY THE LAUGHTER STOPPED 145 9. MARRIAGE AND PROSPERITY SNEAK UP ON ME 163 10. MY $300,000 HOME AND SOME OTHER SEMI-TRIUMPHS 179 11. THE WORST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE 199 12. THE TALKIE REVOLUTION 217 13. THE CHAPTER I HATE TO WRITE 233 14. A PRATFALL CAN BE A BEAUTIFUL THING 249 15. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 267 THE THREE KeAtOnS Down through the years my face has been called a sour puss, a dead pan, a frozen face, The Great Stone Face, and, believe it or not, "a tragic mask." On the other hand that kindly critic, the late James Agee, described my face as ranking "almost with Lin- coln's as an early American archetype, it was haunting, handsome, almost beautiful." I cant imagine what the great rail splitter's reaction would have been to this, though I sure was pleased. -
New Findings and Perspectives Edited by Monica Dall’Asta, Victoria Duckett, Lucia Tralli Researching Women in Silent Cinema New Findings and Perspectives
in Silent Cinema New Findings and Perspectives edited by Monica Dall’Asta, Victoria Duckett, lucia Tralli RESEARCHING WOMEN IN SILENT CINEMA NEW FINDINGS AND PERSPECTIVES Edited by: Monica Dall’Asta Victoria Duckett Lucia Tralli Women and Screen Cultures Series editors: Monica Dall’Asta, Victoria Duckett ISSN 2283-6462 Women and Screen Cultures is a series of experimental digital books aimed to promote research and knowledge on the contribution of women to the cultural history of screen media. Published by the Department of the Arts at the University of Bologna, it is issued under the conditions of both open publishing and blind peer review. It will host collections, monographs, translations of open source archive materials, illustrated volumes, transcripts of conferences, and more. Proposals are welcomed for both disciplinary and multi-disciplinary contributions in the fields of film history and theory, television and media studies, visual studies, photography and new media. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ # 1 Researching Women in Silent Cinema: New Findings and Perspectives Edited by: Monica Dall’Asta, Victoria Duckett, Lucia Tralli ISBN 9788898010103 2013. Published by the Department of Arts, University of Bologna in association with the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne and Women and Film History International Graphic design: Lucia Tralli Researching Women in Silent Cinema: New Findings and Perspectives Peer Review Statement This publication has been edited through a blind peer review process. Papers from the Sixth Women and the Silent Screen Conference (University of Bologna, 2010), a biennial event sponsored by Women and Film History International, were read by the editors and then submitted to at least one anonymous reviewer. -
Feminine Charm
THE GREAT DYING A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing by Amy Purcell August, 2013 Thesis written by Amy Purcell B.S., Ohio University, 1989 M.F.A., Kent State University, 2013 Approved by Varley O’Connor, Advisor Robert W. Trogdon, Chair, Department of Psychology Raymond A. Craig, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii CHAPTER ONE Lucy Sullivan first noticed she was disappearing on Monday morning as she prepared to return to work at the Field Museum. This was two weeks after Sean had died, at the peak of Chicago’s worst heat wave in history, and two weeks after she had asked, politely, for time and space alone. The apartment smelled of the worn-out sympathies of friends. Baskets of shriveled oranges and pears and wilting lilies and roses moldered on the coffee table and mantle above the fireplace in the living room and anywhere else Lucy had found room to place them. She was certain there were even more baskets waiting for her outside the door of the apartment. She hadn’t opened the door during her seclusion, hadn’t touched the fruit or watered the plants. The idea that a dozen oranges or a clichéd peace plant would alleviate her grief brought on such an unreasonable rage that she’d decided it was best to ignore the whole lot. Outside it was pitch black, except for the sickly yellow-white pools of light illuminating the empty, elevated train tracks above North Sedgwick Avenue. -
Nick Redfern – Shot Length Distributions in the Chaplin Keystones
Shot length distributions in the Chaplin Keystones Nick Redfern Abstract Cinemetrics provides an objective method by which the stylistic characteristics of a filmmaker may be identified. This study uses shot length distributions as an element of film style in order to analyse the films by five directors featuring Charles Chaplin for the Keystone Film Company. A total of 17 Keystone films are analysed – six directed by Chaplin himself, along with others directed by Henry Lehrman, George Nichols, Mabel Normand, and Mack Sennett. Shot length data was collected for each film and then combined to create data sets based on the studio style and for each director. The results show that for the distribution of shot lengths in Keystone films starring Chaplin (1) there is no significant difference between films directed Chaplin and the overall Keystone model; (2) there is no significant difference between Chaplin’s films and those of Lehrman, Nichols, and Sennett; (3) there is a significant difference between the films of Normand and the Keystone model but the effect size is small; and (4) there is a significant difference between Normand and the other Keystone filmmakers but the effect size of these differences is again small. This study shows that the distribution of shot lengths can be used to identify how the style of an individual filmmaker relates to a larger group style; and that, in the specific case of the Keystone Film Company, it is the studio style of fast- paced, slapstick comedy that determines the distribution of shot lengths with little variation present in the films of individual filmmakers. -
I!Information
PAGE 4 UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKER—DETROIT, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1939 UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKER The Upper Crust It’s A Great OFFICIAL PUBLICATION. Inti. Union, United Automobile Workers of America, affiliated with the ClO—Published weekly; System! yearly subscription to members 60c, to nonmembers $1 —Entered as 2d-class matter April 26. 1937 at the postoffiice at Detroit, By JOHN PAINE Mich, under the act of Aug 24. 1912. Federated Press Publication Office: 281 W. Grand Blvd, Detroit—Lafayette 79M -I! INFORMATION#. Mayor LaGuardia has warned New Yorkers of an impending water shortage. Why not a mu- MEMBERSHIP nicipal vineyard project? » • • Turkey wurst Sausage casing dealers have announced a new wiener, consist- ing of ground turkey meat to be served with cranberry sauce on a 37S 000 roll. Hope for distribution by Thanksgiving. • * * The Seattle electrician who rigged an electric eye to close his windows and make his toast when the sun comes up should EDITED DY THE INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE DOARD, UAW-CIO continue his research. ' I What we need is an automatic cold shower for the front porch, to be turned on by the shadow of WHAT IS the landlord. CHRYSLER UP TO? • * • The prize mystery of the season is why Chrysler Corp. Irrepressible is acting the bullhead in its prolonged lockout over the A 145-lb. Chinese laundryman in New York made the headlines speedup and arbitrary discharges. when he grappled w ith a 200-lb. A corporation that made $25,000,000 the first half year robber and shot the man w ith his own gun. stood every chance of doubling that in the prosperous second The Japanese army would un- half. -
Moma More Cruel and Unusual Comedy Social Commentary in The
MoMA Presents: More Cruel and Unusual Comedy: Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film Part 2 October 6-14, 2010 Silent-era slapstick highlighted social, cultural, and aesthetic themes that continue to be central concerns around the world today; issues of race, gender, propriety, and economics have traditionally been among the most vital sources for rude comedy. Drawing on the Museum’s holdings of silent comedy, acquired largely in the 1970s and 1980s by former curator Eileen Bowser, Cruel and Unusual Comedy presents an otherwise little-seen body of work to contemporary audiences from an engaging perspective. The series, which first appeared in May 2009, continues with films that take aim at issues of sexual identity, substance abuse, health care, homelessness and economic disparity, and Surrealism. On October 8 at 8PM, Ms Bowser will address the connection between silent comedy and the international film archive movement, when she introduces a program of shorts that take physical comedy to extremes of dream-like invention and destruction. Audiences today will find the vulgar zest and anarchic spirit of silent slapstick has much in common with contemporary entertainment such as Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, MTV's Jackass and the current Jackass 3-D feature. A majority of the films in the series are archival rarities, often the only known surviving version, and feature lesser- remembered performers on the order of Al St. John, Lloyd Hamilton, Fay Tincher, Hank Mann, Lupino Lane, and even one, Diana Serra Cary (a.k.a. Baby Peggy), who, at 91, is the oldest living silent film star still active. -
40 Years of American Film Comedy to Be Shown
40n8 - 4?' THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART tl WEST 53RD STREET, NEW YORK •fgLEPHONE: CIRCLE 5-8900 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FORTY YEARS OF AMERICAN FIM COMEDY FROM FLORA FINCH AND JOHN BUNNY TO CHAPLIN, FIELDS, BENCHLEY AND THE MARX BROTHERS TO BE SHOWN AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART That movies are the proper study of mankind has been estab lished at the Museum of Modern Art, where eight comprehensive series and four smaller groups of the outstanding films through which the great popular art of the cinema has evolved since 1895, have already been shown to Museum visitors. The Museum now announces a new series of fifteen programs in the art of the motion picture under the general title: Forty Years of American Film Comedy, Part i; Beginning Thursday, August 1, the series will be presented dally at 4 P.M. and on Sundays at 3 P.M. and 4 P.M. in the Museum1s auditorium at 11 West 53 Street. Instruction will thus be provided from the screen by Professors Mack Sennett, Frank Capra, W. C. Fields, Harpo and Groucho Marx, Robert Benchley and Charlie Chaplin in a new appraisal of screen comedy reviewed in the light of history. "It is very evident," states Iris Barry, Curator of the Museum's Film Library, "that the great farce-comedies, as well as the cowboy and gangster films, rank among this country1s most original contributions to the screen. We are grateful indeed to the film industry for cooperating with the Museum in providing this unique opportunity for tracing screen comedy to its sources in this group of classics now restored to view for the amateurs of the twentieth century's liveliest art. -
Best Picture of the Yeari Best. Rice of the Ear
SUMMER 1984 SUP~LEMENT I WORLD'S GREATEST SELECTION OF THINGS TO SHOW Best picture of the yeari Best. rice of the ear. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983) SHIRLEY MacLAINE, DEBRA WINGER Story of a mother and daughter and their evolving relationship. Winner of 5 Academy Awards! 30B-837650-Beta 30H-837650-VHS .............. $39.95 JUNE CATALOG SPECIAL! Buy any 3 videocassette non-sale titles on the same order with "Terms" and pay ONLY $30 for "Terms". Limit 1 per family. OFFER EXPIRES JUNE 30, 1984. Blackhawk&;, SUMMER 1984 Vol. 374 © 1984 Blackhawk Films, Inc., One Old Eagle Brewery, Davenport, Iowa 52802 Regular Prices good thru June 30, 1984 VIDEOCASSETTE Kew ReleMe WORLDS GREATEST SHE Cl ION Of THINGS TO SHOW TUMBLEWEEDS ( 1925) WILLIAMS. HART William S. Hart came to the movies in 1914 from a long line of theatrical ex perience, mostly Shakespearean and while to many he is the strong, silent Western hero of film he is also the peer of John Ford as a major force in shaping and developing this genre we enjoy, the Western. In 1889 in what is to become Oklahoma Territory the Cherokee Strip is just a graz ing area owned by Indians and worked day and night be the itinerant cowboys called 'tumbleweeds'. Alas, it is the end of the old West as the homesteaders are moving in . Hart becomes involved with a homesteader's daughter and her evil brother who has a scheme to jump the line as "sooners". The scenes of the gigantic land rush is one of the most noted action sequences in film history. -
Book Reviews – October 2012
Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies Issue 24 October 2012 Book Reviews – October 2012 Table of Contents Jacques Rivette By Douglas Morrey and Alison Smith Alain Robbe-Grillet By John Phillips A Review by Jonathan L. Owen ............................................................... 3 Music and Politics By John Street Wagner and Cinema Edited by Jeongwon Joe and Sander L. Gilman A Review by Nathan Waddell ................................................................ 11 Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children’s Films By M. Keith Booker Demystifying Disney: A History of Disney Feature Animation By Chris Pallant A Review by Noel Brown ...................................................................... 17 Virtual Voyages: Cinema and Travel Edited by Jeffrey Ruoff Cinematic Journeys: Film and Movement By Dimitris Eleftheriotis A Review by Sofia Sampaio .................................................................. 26 1 Book Reviews Jerry Lewis by Chris Fujiwara Atom Egoyan by Emma Wilson Andrei Tarkovsky by Sean Martin A review by Adam Jones ...................................................................... 34 The Comedy of Chaplin: Artistry in Motion By Dan Kamin Disappearing Tricks: Silent Film, Houdini and the New Magic of the Twentieth Century By Matthew Solomon A review by Bruce Bennett ................................................................... 42 Von Sternberg By John Baxter Willing Seduction: The Blue Angel, Marlene Dietrich and Mass Culture By Barbara Kosta A Review by Elaine Lennon -
Sennett Creative Campus, Echo Park's Newest Modern
SENNETT CREATIVE CAMPUS, ECHO PARK’S NEWEST MODERN/CREATIVE OFFICE ENVIRONMENT 1745- 1759 GLENDALE BOULEVARD, ECHO PARK, CALIFORNIA David Aschkenasy Executive Vice President Phone 310.272.7381 email [email protected] The Sennett Creative Campus is greater Los Angeles’ most unique creative office destination. The Spaces: +/- 6,500 - 14,000 sq ft Campus offers one of the largest and architecturally significant, contiguous office spaces available. Rate: $1.95 psf, Modified Gross Originally built in 1946, and fully modernized and renovated in 2015, 1745-1759 N Glendale Blvd is a Parking: In rear of building, free of charge 30,000 Square Foot +/- campus environment that brings the glory of old Hollywood to life in the 21st Century. Comprised of 4 buildings, outdoor patios and surface parking lots, 1745-1759 N Glendale Features: • Exposed Ceilings Blvd is equipped with dramatic exposed wood truss ceilings, new HVAC & electric, polished concrete • Loading Dock and hardwood floors, brand new restrooms, reclaimed wood kitchens, multiple skylights and ample • Concrete & Hardwood Flooring parking. Greater Los Angeles is very limited with regard to true creative office space of this scale and • Exposed HVAC Ducting caliber. While there is availability in Silicon Beach (Venice and Santa Monica), Hollywood, and the • High Ceilings Arts District, the Sennett Creative Campus offers the same Creative Office Build outs at a fraction of the price. The Campus is priced at least 50% below these other creative office locations, and offers • Private Exterior Patios free parking for an additional savings. There is also the opportunity to have the exclusive use of the • Skylights rooftop billboard.