John Bunny enjoyed a popularity in his day that has evaporated with time. To some extent that process began right at the end of his screen career. The mid-‘teens saw the rise of slapstick in the manic Keystone comedies and… Read More »Revisiting the Films of John Bunny
Mabel Normand had a head start. I’ll give you that. Her association with Mack Sennett and with Roscoe Arbuckle has put her name in the consciousness of those with only a passing awareness of silent film. The Jerry Herman musical… Read More »Let’s Hear It For Alice Howell
The rehearsals and performance of my orchestral score for the Charley Chase short “Dog Shy” in February were probably the first time I’d watched the film several times in a while. My participation in the NYC Physical Comedy Lab in… Read More »Charley Chase Takes a Trip
I never got to meet Diana Serra Cary, but I did have a couple of phone conversations with her. This was while I was producing the DVD release of one of her feature films, The Family Secret (1925). She passed… Read More »Remembering Diana Serra Cary
We classic film fans typically own several “The Films of…” books that cover the careers of important stars or directors. Unavailable for our shelves has been a “films of” entry for one of the main comedians of the silent era… Read More »“Rediscovering Roscoe”: Arbuckle Made More Films Than You Think
Owners of Blackhawk Films 16mm and 8mm prints of “A Tour of the Thomas Ince Studios” probably had no idea why the smiling gentleman, seen racing to the studio in one segment, keeps popping up throughout the film. His is… Read More »Douglas MacLean-Spotting Around the Ince Lot
On Tuesday night I rolled the dice and presented yet another obscure, unknown silent comedy film I’d taken a liking to at a show I was accompanying. Sure, I liked the wacky adventures and Fairbanksian enthusiasm of Douglas MacLean in… Read More »Enjoying Douglas MacLean – It’s Not Just Me
I first saw one of the “Mishaps of Musty Suffer” at the annual, now-defunct Slapsticon festival. I assumed it was another obscure comedy shorts series no one knew about. I found out later that some of these had aired on… Read More »Bob Hoskins and “Musty Suffer”
Running a group of shorts in chronological order at a show isn’t always ideal. For a film class where you’re looking to present a segment of a body of one comedian’s work in the order in which is made, then… Read More »Revisiting What Goes Last on a Laurel & Hardy Silents Show
Wait…don’t I have a print of a March of Time episode about the opening of MoMA’s new building and film library from 1939? Ah, yes. Here it is…The March of the Movies, in 16mm. Turns out there were two episodes… Read More »The March of the Movies – and MoMA