Born Today June 7: Max Kretzer

Kretzer in 1897

1854-1941

German writer Max Kretzer was born on this day in Posen, Prussia (now Poznan, Poland) to what was then a marginally middle class family. By the time Kretzer was 13, the family had become deeply impoverished and moved to Berlin; forced to leave school he became a factory worker for the next 12 years of his young life.  This left an indelible mark on Kretzer's mind.  He suffered an injury in an accident, and despite his lack of formal education, he began to write around 1879.  He started off producing short stories in a style that would become known as "social realism," but graduated to writing novels, the main characters of which were often the urban working types that he had encountered in the ever growing industrialism of Berlin. He also wrote novels in what has been labeled "Christian socialism"--the basic tenants of which is that Christ would fight the onslaught of modernism--what Kretzer thought was degeneration due to industrialism.  This way of philosophising about the "end" of the industrial revolution wouldn't

have seemed it at the time, but eventually would lead to some of the basic claims and tenants of national socialism--or Nazism--in Germany.  In fact, by the early 1930's Kretzer was an open, if not enthusiastic, supporter of the Nazis and would remain so for the rest of his life (about 10 years). Also during his lifetime, he would see his work made into four films, the first of which was Das Armband in 1918, released in January during the last year of World War I.  In fact, despite that the war would not end until the middle of November, three of the four above mentioned films based on his work were released in 1918.  The other two films are: Die Buchhalterin and Die Kunst zum Heiraten. The only film made of his work (so far) in any other language than German came in 1925 with The Man Without A Conscience a Warner production here in the U.S. directed by James Flood, starring June Marlowe and Irene Rich and based on one of his short stories.  The only other film to be produced from his work (again, to date) was the 1980 West German made for television film Meister Timpe based on his most successful novel.  Ketzer died in the throes of World War II in Berlin on the 15th of July, 1941 at the age of 87. He is buried in a huge family plot in Berlin's Luisenfriedhof II (or Westend Cemetery) listed under his name.

[Wikipedia-German entry]

Wikipedia (includes a near complete list of works)

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Born Today June 6: George Hollister Jr.

1908-1976

George (and his sister Doris) was born surrounded by film fame, despite the industry's young age.  He was the son cinematographer George K. Hollister and his actress wife Alice.  Both George Jr. and Doris were born in New York City and were amongst the first recognizable child actors in film. Young George first appeared in film 1912 in the Sidney Olcott, shot on location, middle eastern themed drama An Arabian Tragedy (filmed in Egypt).  He was just 4 years old.  He also appeared in the epic Olcott directed relatively unsung masterpiece  From The Manger To The Cross; or, Jesus Of Nazareth, also released in 1912 and shot on location; where he played Jesus as a young child (his parents and his sister were also involved with the production in a big way!).  Between the ages of 4 and 7, he appeared in 12 films--most of them in 1912 and 1913.  A goodly number of them featured his mother, and all of them were for Kalem, who had his mother under contract as an actor and his father was the principle director of photography.  The last film that he made at the company as a child was the Kenean Buel directed melodrama The Swindler in 1915, which starred Guy Coombs and Alice Joyce.  Hollister appeared in just one film as an adult, a late silent in 1929 at the age of 21: The Arizona Kid.  This is all his work as it related to the film business.  Hollister lived until the age of 67, dying on the 22nd of January, 1976 in San Diego (outliving his mother Alice by just three years).  Both of his parents and his sister are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, but even a search a cemetery records there don't reveal whether he too was also laid to rest there.  [Note: if you read the comment below, his granddaughter was so kind as to let me know that he is not buried with family member in Glendale; unfortunately, she states that his burial place is not known at this time; let's hope that is a temporary thing! 😇]

Most of the principle cast of From The Manger to The Cross aboard ship en route to the Holy Land, George Jr. is in the middle of the photograph; his sister Doris is the other child. Both of his parents as also pictured. 

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Born Today June 5: Richard J. Jose

1862-1941

Often listed as an "American countertenor," Richard J. Jose was in fact a British operatic singer born in Lanner, Cornwall (his name rhymes with "rose" and was originally "Joce"--which is a traditional Cornish name [reminder: Cornwall is a Celtic enclave of England--it is as Celtic as Wales]).  He apparently followed an uncle to the U.S., settling in Nevada and singing in saloons. He eventually joined minstrel shows which wound up taking him to California. By this time (the 1890's) he was becoming a well known operatic singer in the U.S. and made a number of recordings via the new technology of phonograph cylinders. By the turn of the century he was an early signee of the music company Victor.  His version of "Silver Threads Among the Gold" was a big hit for him and the company.  It was this song that led to his only appearance in a film, which came in 1915. The film was titled the same as the song and was a curiosity to say the least.  The poster boasted the gimmick of the film's promotion, "Richard J. Jose (Appears In Person)."  Jose actually toured with the film, singing the song in the appropriate places during the film's screening; Jose also starred as Martin in the film itself (IMDb link, and the film should not be confused with the 1911 film of the same name produced by the Edison Co & directed by their man Porter). The film was the brain child of the K & R Film Company--a one off sort of affair.  Unfortunately the film is lost; it's one of those great loses in the film world from the silent era--not because the film would likely be some long lost masterpiece, but because it was so oddly unique.  This is Jose's only film appearance; he soon retired completely from the entertainment industry and settled permanently in California.  There he embarked on a second career as California Deputy Real Estate Commissioner.  Jose died in San Francisco at the age of 79 on 20 October 1941.  He is buried in the Olivet Memorial Park (then Mount Olivet Cemetery) in Colma, Ca--just outside of CA. 

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Born Today June 3: Al Liguori

1886-1951

Early, relatively unknown cinematographer Al Liguori was born on this day in Salerno, Italy.  Very little is known about either his early or later life. What is known, is that the first film he is credited with photographing is Sidney Olcott's The Innocent Lie in 1916, where he was credited as Alfonso Ligouri at Famous Players (the film was shot on location in Bermuda).  When he is discussed, for some reason, his name is associated almost exclusively with the Famous Players Film Co.--which is odd, because as of 1918, he had moved on to other production houses, starting with The Grain of Dust, directed by Harry Revier for Ogden Pictures. In all he is credited with 19 films as a cinematographer, but there well could be more that have not been properly recorded (if his one lone writing credit is anything to go by).  His years active spanned between 1916 to 1927. Very few of the films that he shot had any extremely famous actors in them; though he did work with Alice Brady, Matt Moore, Conrad Nagel and Lionel Barrymore.  By 1925, he was back at Famous Players (by then Famous Players-Lasky) and Sidney Olcott. He photographed Salome of the Tenements for him starring Dutch Jewish actress Jetta Goudal. The last film that he photographed was considered a "nothing" at the time of it's release, but has come down to us as a very important piece of cinema from the silent era.  The Scar Of Shame (1927) is an all black production (well, except for the Italians working on the film, which included the director Frank Peregini) made for the Colored Players Film Corp. released into the segregated film houses of Jim Crow.  Liguori does not have any other cinematographer credits after this film, but does have a curious credit for writing dating from 1936. He is credited as one of 4 writers on the Mexican picture María Elena. After this, there are no more film credits for him under any category.  He is listed as having died at the age of 64 in Overbrook Hills, Pennsylvania on the 8th of May, 1951.  A search of grave records yeilds no results on burial. What remains of his work, is often described as "noirish" in nature--ahead of its time.

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Born Today May 25: Barbara Luddy

1908-1979

Barbara Luddy was born in the then rugged Great Falls, Montana.  She got into film at the early age of 17 in 1925, when she landed a part in the Columbia Pictures produced An Enemy of Men, in a named role.  From there she had steady work all through the 1920's.  Again quite the accomplishment for such a young woman in such a rough world.  In the later part of 1925, she was cast opposite George Harris in a series of short films largely directed by Benjamin Stoloff.  She took a film acting hiatus between the only film that she made in 1928 and her next film appearance, which came in 1930 with a talkie (utilizing the RCA Photophone System for sound): Headin' North.  With her silent days behind her, she went on to appear in several films in the early 1930's, with her last coming in Her Secret in 1933.  She possessed real talent, both in acting, but also in voice; her next step was to go into radio.  In 1936 she was a voice on the popular, and, as it turned out to be, long running The First Nighter Program; she remained with the series until its cancellation in 1953.  What she is most well known for is her voice over work in classic mid-twentieth century Disney animation films. Though she did make a few appearances in films and appeared in some television, including a small part in the Primal Scream episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.    Luddy passed away on 1 April 1979 in Los Angeles at the age of 70 from lung cancer. She was cremated and her remains interred in urn and kept privately.

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Born Today May 1: José de Alencar

1829-1877

José de Alencar, born José Martiano de Alencar in Fontaleza in Empiric Brazil on this day, was a man of many professions, but principle among them was novelist in the romantic tradition. During his lifetime "novelist" was not a career of course; for that, Alencar was a lawyer. This choice of career took him into work as politician (he was also a public orator on social issues).  In his writing career (which included dramatic works), he used several pen names, with Erasmo being both the most well known and often used.  He began writing as a form of public criticism, this led to published work in the form of his first romantic novel in 1856.  It was just one year later that he would publish his most well known work, O Guarani after the people and language of the same name, the beginning of both his so-called works of "indianism" and his "Indianist Trilogy." It's first adaptation would be into an opera. Though Alencar wrote about native peoples of Brazil as the foundation of the nation, his politics were decidedly unprogressive; for example, he solidly opposed the abolition of slavery in the nation--he even campaigned on this as a platform.  In government, Alencar would eventually rise to Minister of Justice.  He was also chosen as patron of the newly formed Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1897--20 years after his death.  Alencar was married to the Brazilian daughter of a British aristocrat; they had 6 children--several of whom would go on to have either political or writing careers (or both) of their own. Eventually all three of his "indian novels" would first be made into films during the silent era.  The first film adaptation of his work came in 1908, and was, predictably, Os Guaranis, adapted and filmed by early Brazilian filmmaker Benjamin Oliveira. The novel would go on to be adapted into a film four more times in the before 1930.  His other two "Indian" novels Iracema and Ubirajara were also eventually made into films, the first in 1917 and the second in 1919.  In all, 10 films were produced from his novels in what we've come to think of as the silent period, spanning the years 1909 through 1926.  The Brazilian produced Iracema directed by Jorge S. Konchin in 1931 was also a silent film. Onde a Terra Acaba, released in 1933, was the first film with sound produced from his writing.  His work first appeared on the small screen (television) in the Brazilian drama series Teledrama in 1957, and it was on television that his work most recently appeared in 2005 (Essas Mulheres).  Alencar died in the city that he spent his adult life living and working in--Rio de Janeiro--on the 12th of December, 1877--dying at the young age of 48 succumbing to tuberculosis.  He is buried Rio's Cemitério de Sao Joao Batista. 

Press still from Iracema (1931)

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Born Today March 27: Barney Gilmore

1869-1949

Silent actor Barney Gilmore was born Bernard Frances Gilmore on this date in Philadelphia (note: some sources cite his birth year as being 1965).  He was first and foremost an actor of the theater. His active years in the films spanned 1912 through 1940, with the bulk of his work coming in the 1910's and 1920's.  His first credited role came in the Solax produced short comedy Dublin Dan (1912).  In the next film in which he appeared, he had a hand in writing, along with Alice Guy and her husband Herbert (and 2 other people): Kelly From The Emerald Isle was also a comedy short and was released in June of 1913.  This would (as far as anyone knows as of this writing) mark his only foray into scenario writing.  His film acting, even in his most active years, was sparse--he kept to the stage for the most part.  By 1915, he was with Sterling Camera and Film Company; and by 1917 he made a feature length film for Fine Arts Film Company (The Man Who Made Good).  He took 2 1/2 years off from film acting between 1918 and 1921, returning with an appearance in the Romaine Fielding film The Rich Slave. He made just one other appearance in a film that year, in yet another Fielding film, before taking another hiatus from film acting that lasted 5 years.  He returned in 1926 in the independent short western feature The Galloping Cowboy.  He appeared in 5 more films in the 1920's, with Smiling Irish Eyes being an all sound film produced by First National with sound by Vitaphone.  He made just two more film appearance in his lifetime--one, a short from 1931 and the last in a 1940 uncredited role in the John Ford classic The Grapes Of Wrath.  Gilmore lived a further 9 years, dying in Los Angeles at the age of 80 (or 84 depending on his actual birth year) on the 19th of April.  He is interred in Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood.  He was the father of actress Lillian Gilmore, who was herself a silent film player.  

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Born Today February 17: Kate Bruce

1860-1946

Prolific silent era matronly actress Kate Bruce was born on this day in Columbus, Indiana. She started acting on the stage and made her film debut in The Fight for Freedom in 1908 in one of the films for American Mutoscope & Biograph that was ghost co-directed by D. W. Griffith to help mitigate the rather disastrous directing efforts by Wallace McCutcheon Jr.!   Bruce is known to have made at least one appearance on Broadway. She would go on to be a favorite actress for Griffith, who used her in older female parts that required a motherly type.  Once she entered pictures, her roles, though very small, were numerous.  She showed up in roles (some of them uncredited) in several of Griffith's most well known Biograph shorts, among them: The Country Doctor, A Corner In Wheat, and A Trap For Santa Claus--all of them in 1909.  Of course, as an in-house actress with Biograph, she worked with other directors as well (including, most notably Travers Vale, but also J. Searle Dawley); however it was with Griffith that she is most associated in history.  The number of well known actors in the silent era that she acted along side is long and impressive as well.  That list includes: Jack Drumier, Alan Hale Sr., Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, at least one of the Moore brothers (Owen), and Louise Vale--wife of Travers.  One of her appearances with Dorothy Gish came in Gretchen the Greenhorn in 1916, filmed at Fine Arts Film Studio on Sunset Blvd.; it was probably the largest production she had worked on to date. [It appears that Bruce's first feature length appearance in a film came in politically motivated 1915 Civilization, which involved the Ince family is various ways].  She, along with practically everyone who had had worked frequently with Griffith, ended up with bit parts in his massive Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout The Ages in 1916.  After that film's production, she resumed work for Griffith in subsequent features--working almost exclusively for him from after 1917 through to mid-1920.  Getting older, she took fewer roles as the 1920's waned on; she took no roles at all in 1926 or in 1928.  The first talkie that she worked on was The Flying Fool in 1929, a William Boyd film made for Pathe Exchange that also had a silent version.  Her last role came, predictably, in a D.W. Griffith film in 1931: she was "Granny" in The Struggle.  She then retired and returned to the east coast, where the Gish sisters helped her live a comfortable, but modest life; she passed away on the 2nd of April, 1946 in New York City at the age of 86.  She was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens.  

With Mabel Normand

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Born Today February 16: Mack Swain

1876-1935

Seasoned vaudevillian and silent film comic Mack Swain was born Moroni Swain on this day in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Swain had been a seasoned live comic for many years before signing with Mack Sennett and his Keystone Film Co.  He made his film debut in the Mabel Normand comedy short A Muddy Romance in 1913.  He showed up in a few Normand films from then on; and he appeared in the Charlie Chaplin 1914 feature Tillie's Punctured Romance (one of my favorite appearances of his with Chaplin is in the hilarious short called by various names, including Laughing Gas also in 1914).  At Keystone, he was the partner of fellow comic Chester Conklin as the duo of Ambrose and Walrus--with Swain as Ambrose.  The character, however, was not confined to films with Conklin; Swain made several Ambrose films where the character appeared in a solo capacity--most of these films were shorts.  And, a goodly number of these films were made after he signed with the L-KO Kompany in 1918, where he stayed for a year; the first film that he made with them was Ambrose's Icy Love. Swain also has some 15 directing credits to his name.  His directorial debut came in 1919 with what is basically the one man act in Heroic Ambrose; the film was made for Frohman Amusement who he would stay with into the 1920's.  By the dawn of the 1920's, the appetite for comedic 2-reelers was waning. Swain was able to work pretty steadily in 1920 in short films featuring Ambrose; but after this, his film appearances slowed.  He shows back up in a Charlie Chaplin film in 1921 as one of many, many extras in Chaplin's film The Idle Class.  He appeared in more Chaplin films in the 1920's and also worked with Jack White (who worked with The Three Stooges in the 1930's). He also worked with the likes of Lloyd Bacon, Ben Turpin, Paul Leni, Harry Pollard, Allan Dwan, and Clarence Brown during the decade.  His film career picked back up steam starting in 1926 and continued through to the arrival of the talkies.  Amongst the features that he appeared in in the mid to late 1920's are: the Will Rogers feature A Texas Steer (1927), the original Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928), Mockery (1927) starring Lon Chaney Sr. with Ricardo Cortez, and the remake of Tillie's Punctured Romance (1928) which saw him back in a film with Conklin.  A few films that he made in the 1920's also saw him working again with Mack Sennett; one of the later of these-- the comedy short The Girl From Nowhere (1928)--was shot partially in the two-color process of Technicolor. He also appeared in his first sound film in 1928 as well; Caught in the Fog was a partial silent feature shot for Warner Brothers, using their facilities for early sound production in Burbank.  Swain had regular work in the early 1930's, working steadily through 1932, when he obviously began to have reasons to leave films (probably health related).  He didn't appear in any films in 1933 or 1934 and only appeared in one film in 1935--his last.  He made an uncredited appearance in Bad Boy.  He died suddenly that same year after a sudden illness caused internal bleeding.  He passed away in Tacoma, Washington on the 25th of August at the age of just 59.  He is buried in the state of Washington at the Huntsville Cemetery.

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Buster, Al St. John and The Fat Man in New York

The following in my entry into The Fourth Annual BUSTER KEATON Blogathon, hosted by Lea over at Silent-ology, please check out all the goodies on offer!! And thank Lea for hosting while you are about it.  

Buster Keaton's first film appearances were produced in 1917; with the first five in which he acted filmed in the New York area.  They were all directed by that near genius comic director and actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who would later be more famous for the scandal that engulfed his life, rather than the groundbreaking director that he was--never mind any remembrance for being the man who could be credibly credited with "discovering" Buster Keaton. I had seen the films, like all lovers of slapstick, dozens of times over the years, but it wasn't until I hastily wrote up a piece on Al St. John to mark his birthday last year that I went back to them. It was the first time that I really watched these films looking specifically for St. John--these were Keaton/Arbuckle films after all!  I viewed the lot--every single film through to The Garage (1920), and found myself basically "book-ending" the New York films for re-watch.  When Keaton was persuaded, and persuaded he was, to join Arbuckle's new team in NYC, Arbuckle already had his nephew St. John in tow.  It was no secret that St. John, a childhood acrobat, was no good at prat falls (Keaton makes mention of this in his book).  He was prone to injury, yet he had filled a vital role in the films that Arbuckle directed for Mack Sennett--that of the skinny fall guy who takes almost endless punishment; so it was one hell of a stroke of good luck that Keaton turned up when he did in Arbuckle's directing career!  Keaton was a veteran of vaudeville and knew how to stage stunts and take falls without injury.  Keaton's obvious place in these films, at least at first, was in parts more or less as an add on--appearing in roles mostly unfamiliar to the other characters--such as a customer or a delivery man; but this would really only last a short time.  I would like to zero in on some of these moments for a closer look at a dynamic that I had really been over looking all these years.

Keaton with Al St. John and Josephine Stevens in The Rough House (1917), Keaton is the delivery boy--a character device for his entrance in a couple of the early films in which he appeared.

The Arbuckle directed Keaton films have always been amongst my favorite slapstick performances, and Arbuckle's direction is such a pin-pointedly accurate approach to what for all the world looks like hilarious chaos. But, looking specifically for Al St. John within the films made me realize like I was viewing them basically with fresh eyes.  What had started out as simple curiosity had turned into something more solid; a different, and rather unexpected, approach to re-watching these films.  I found myself looking around for Buster constantly; noticing his parts in the films as more than a foil; seeing that his presence stood so well on it's own, right from the beginning.  He had just his vaudevillian performance expertise to draw on and bring to film acting, and it is quite amazing how much of that managed to shine through from moment one.  His interactions with the acting pair of "Fatty" and Al in no way seemed forced right from the very first scene.

Buster about to let St. John have in The Butcher Boy (1917)

I was, of course, fully aware of the trio, or roundhouse comedy dynamic, of the films; I just never thought to watch especially for St. John within the action--which seems a bit strange to me now that I think of it, since he was the partner of Arbuckle in films prior to Keaton's arrival.  In doing so, I noticed the extent to which the "choreography" left Buster's roles standing rather starkly on their own. This makes sense; as Keaton was, after all, the newcomer.  Arbuckle had acted with his nephew as a comic pair for several years before being offered the chance to form his own company in 1917; it was pure accident that Keaton came along when he did.  Arbuckle never made a film in New York for his new Comique Co. that didn't feature both his nephew and Keaton (earlier films made for Mack Sennett show St. John's place in the comedy skit as provocative foil; especially the later films that Arbuckle directed himself; examples include the Chaplin film The Rounders from 1914 and Arbuckle's 1916 The Waiters Ball [both of which are on YouTube], as well a number of "Fatty & Mabel" films--St. John had also been a Keystone Cop, along with his uncle).  

Fatty and Al from The Waiters Ball (1916)

Fatty and Al from His Wedding Night (1917)--both show St. John's rough and tumble role in the Arbuckle world of comedy.

Buster Keaton's acting career started when he was just an infant as part of the the successful vaudevillian touring family that billed themselves as "The Three Keatons."  In fact, when Keaton stumbled on the opportunity to act in films, he was set to appear in a well paid live act in New York, with no really good reasons for giving it up.  Keaton wrote in his memoir My Wonderful World Of Slapstick that newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst had tried to lure the family act into pictures before this, with no luck at all.  Buster's father Joe would have none of it, and regarded the "flickers" as a passing fad.  The younger Keaton's film debut would have to wait several years and came (pretty famously) in The Butcher Boy  in 1917--that crazy rample rousing 2-reeler in which Buster inadvertently made cinema history by virtue of accidentally becoming the first (and I think, to this date, only) actor to film his debut scene all in one take (it is worth mentioning that Joe Keaton did finally show up in films with his son, when Comique moved west).  The story as to how this all came about is about as simple as it could have been, and equally as famous (so pardon my recounting of it).  Roscoe Arbuckle had set up shop at the studios on east 48th, after having made a break from Mack Sennett and gone to work for Joe Schenck, the then husband of screen starlet of Norma Talmadge.  The studio was set up for the newly formed company bearing her name and was the intended vehicle for the furtherance of her career--Arbuckle and company merely filled out the space and the "portfolio."  Keaton had run into an old acquaintance (Lou Anger), who was then working for Schenck, just days before beginning rehearsals on a stage act that would have netted him $250 a week.  He introduced Keaton to Arbuckle, who then suggested that he come round the studio the next day as a kind of screen test.  Keaton knew who Arbuckle was, of course, from films.  He knew "the Fat Man" to be a very competent comedian; but Keaton knew absolutely nothing about the film industry or how to actually shoot a movie.  He needed little convincing, though, to agree to show up; the atmosphere that he encountered in the studio convinced him that he was in the right place for him at that point in time.  He described it as follows in his book:

When I got there the whole place was humming with activity. Besides the Arbuckle company, Norma Talmadge's own company, her sister Constance's and a couple of others were making romantic dramas in other parts of the studio. This seemed wonderful to me.  It was like being in a great entrainment factory where different shows were being manufactured at the same time. 91-92

Keaton getting a flour bag in the face thrown by Al St. John in The Butcher Boy at the beginning of his very first shoot.

Keaton was hooked and agreed to stay as a film actor for Arbuckle for just $40 a week.  He writes that he so knew that he would love working in films that he didn't even bother to ask how much he would be paid, nor did he care.  He also writes of that history making first take:

Roscoe had brown paper bags filled with flour, tied up and ready to use. He lost no time in putting me to work. "As you come in the store," he explained, "I will be throwing some of these bags at St. John. He will duck, and you will get one right in the face." It seemed like nothing at all after the punishment I'd been taking from Pop all these years... I found out that day that he [Arbuckle] could put his whole heart and every ounce of his weight into throwing a flour bag with devastating accuracy.  There was enough force in that thing to upend me completely. It put my feet where my head had been, and with no cooperation from me whatever... Because I was new to the business, I was politely picked up and dusted off. But it was fifteen minutes before I could breathe freely again.  --92

The famous flour bag to the face in The Butcher Boy thrown by Fatty.

The first half of The Butcher Boy is the part of the story that takes place in the general store--it includes all the parts written in for Keaton by Arbuckle as soon as he realized what a talented comic actor he had on his hands.  These include that first flour to the face scene shot in one take, and all the craziness that ensues after wards with a full set food, flour & whatever fight.  It also includes Buster's character showing up for the famous molasses purchase--complete with pork pie hat. The second half of the film, which takes place in a girl's boarding school, was clearly written before Keaton's appearance at the studio.  It's a rather stark contrast to the first half, in that Buster really has little to do, save from play one of Slim's (St. John) co-horts.  Still, when Slim calls in his buddies, Keaton's presence in the action is very noticeable, taking several prat falls to the head; one--when he falls through the window of the house--obviously thrown in by Keaton himself without direction.  It was certainly more than a hint of what was to become of Buster Keaton before the camera.  

Being thrown for a loop in The Butcher Boy

In The Rough House, we see the first of Buster's bicycle stunts--and his first appearance of the character device of the delivery man (which shows up as more fully formed in His Wedding Night).  Of course, Keaton also plays the gardener at the beginning of the film, fumbling with the hose as Fatty realizes he's set his bedroom ablaze; but it is the grocery delivery boy that mixes it up in the Rough's cook (St. John).  Here, several antics that Arbuckle employed in The Waiter's Ball (1916) show back up, but Keaton's presence in these acrobatic stunts elevates them to a whole new level....and they are twice a funny. It is precisely because Keaton is so good at what he does, and therefore makes the whole seemed so less staged.  And, of course, it should be mentioned that history now tells us that Keaton not only contributed to the writing of the film, Arbuckle also allowed him to direct small portions as well.  Keaton had apparently been so interested in how things worked in the making of films, he reportedly had Roscoe take a camera apart for him to understand it better.  Indeed he said of Arbuckle, "I could not have found a better-natured man to teach me the movie business, or a more knowledgeable one."  --95

Our delivery boy has an accident...

Roundhouse in the Rough house.

The film really shows the pairing of Keaton and St. John for the first time. They cause all sorts of trouble about the house before getting arrested, ending up basically as Keystone Cops by the end.  Other than that, there was not a lot for the two of them to do throughout the bulk of the film.  The Rough House and His Wedding Night are two films that feature more of Arbuckle on his own than do any of the other three films.  These films are meant as "Fatty features," so it's worth the mention that Rough House contains one of my all time favorite Arbuckle moments in any of his films: that of Fatty making his usual "chefly" mockery in the kitchen and in the food service (including reminding anyone who has ever been around an antique metal bladed fan just how dangerous they are, by using one to slice potatoes, a la a modern food processor....).  

Buster's wedding dress delivery in His Wedding Night

The setting for His Wedding Night is basically the same as for The Butcher Boy.  A general store, with Arbuckle working as a soda jerk, rather than a butcher, who is engaged to be married to Alice who also works at the store.  St. John is again set up as the rival, but this time Keaton's character is more fully written into the film.  He serves as the delivery man/fitter for the wedding gown.  This eventually results in hilarity when Keaton, dressed in the gown for Alice to evaluate, is mistakenly kidnapped by St. John the rival and his gang of stumble-bums. The result is that Keaton's delivery boy is very nearly married not just to the rival, but also to Fatty.  Now, I will acknowledge that there are elements in this film that are very off-putting, and not just by today's standards, but also by the standards of the time when these films saw re-release.  They include (but not limited to): the kissing of the woman who is passed out from chloroform and the treatment of the African-American customer in the drugstore (who is, incidentally, played by the same actress that shows up in the very politically incorrect original, or full ending, of Coney Island--her name sadly not known as of this writing).  Still the film shows, for the first time, a character played by Buster Keaton fully incorporated into a script. Oh, and I have failed to mention that in most of these films, the great "stone-face" is really nowhere to be found.  Buster displays a full range of emotions, including--yes-some droll faces, but also: smiles, laughter, sour-faces, irony and screeches of pain.  These show up even more so in the fourth New York film Oh Doctor.

Someone has to get into drag...this is a Roscoe Arbuckle film! His Wedding Night

In Oh, Doctor, Keaton plays, quite convincingly, the young son of Dr. Holepoke (Arbuckle), complete several "mama's boy" moments.  In this role, he displays a whole range of emotions, but none so funny as his expressions of pain when his father physically harangues him with vaudevillian violence.  Here the story is of Dr. Holepoke's various interactions with the Gambler and his girlfriend, in one form or another, until the conclusion of the sketch--with the Dr.'s son and wife making scant appearances throughout. What we don't get in Doctor is any real interaction between Keaton and St. John--which I miss greatly; though there is a funny bit where young Holepoke follows St. John's Gambler after he makes off with some jewels.  One thing is certainly clear, by this time, Keaton had thoroughly replaced Al St. John in the role of "foil of Fatty;" and though he may have replaced him in a role that requires acrobatic know-how, we don't get nearly as much of Keaton in the film as we do in the previous two--a shame given his wide range of physical displays of emotion his character has. However, there is some wonderful stuff on a rooftop between Arbuckle (in a police get-up that again harkens back to Keystone Cops) and St. John's Gambler who is trying hard not to fall through a sky-light.... 

Keaton with various expressions from Oh, Doctor.

For his part, Al St. John makes a pretty slick character in the film as well.  This is a departure from his clueless idiot character that show up in most of his uncle's films in which he appeared.

Another observation: that as these films progressed one to the other, there is less and less of a two act demarcation between the two reels, and more of a over-all coherent story throughout.  It is first obvious in His Wedding Night, and becomes even more so in Doctor--progressing finally to Coney Island.  Which, of course, bring me to Coney Island the last, rather famously so, film that the trio made in New York.  The film might be as well known as The Butcher Boy to people who only have a passing knowledge of Arbuckle's comedies featuring Keaton.  It is by far the most dynamic of the the early films and was shot almost entirely on location at the famous Luna Park on Coney Island itself.  It showcases Luna Park at night, because, why not?? A great deal of the camera work, especially on the rides, is groundbreaking--breath taking actually--but that is a subject for another time.  And, here it is worth mentioning, that a good deal of the plot and idea for the amusement park filming comes from an earlier film of Arbuckle's A Reckless Romeo (1917)--which, though released under the Comique name--was actually filmed in 1916 at the very end of Arbuckle's contract with Sennett.  Coney Island, can be seen as a kind of re-working of that earlier film; it is however, a much more successful film in it's comic charm and cohesiveness.* The film has Buster's character bringing a date to the now all but forgotten Mardi Gras parades at Coney; but when it comes to paying for entrance to the park, he comes up short and his girl winds up with Al instead.  This sets up his character as being rather solo for the rest of the film in one capacity or other, as he attempts to keep track of his girl with St. John, and later Fatty.  It also provides with some Keaton's more well known antics in any of Arbuckle's films, including an out or nowhere back flip.  

The film also features some of the most hilarious interactions between Fatty and Al--with Arbuckle's most well known and drop dead funny drag outfit in any of his films (not mention that famous breaking of the fourth wall in the changing room).  I admit that of all Keaton's films with Comique, this is has always been my favorite; it's part of the reason that I had not really paid very close attention to films preceeding it.  What I had not noticed prior to going back to them in the last year, was the progression of Keaton's presence in the films chronologically; how he went from more or less a walk on, to such integral part of Arbuckle's independent work as film crafter.  I'm sure that Roscoe Arbuckle's comedies would have been quite entertaining without Buster Keaton, but I cannot imagine them being nearly so clever...or so funny.

Buster was hell with that mallet!

Al and Fatty: Happy Couple....

In all, these films are just such a pleasure to watch.  They always have been. Going back to them after a pretty long period of time [years], I am pleased to have happened on a new "eye view" of them--for me they have presented as crazy fun all over again, something akin to seeing them for the first time.  I discovered, watching specifically for Al St. John, that though he was injury prone, his wiry antics are the perfect contrast to Keaton's talents at actual prat-falls and stunt coordination.  It goes without saying that he was a great foil to his rotund uncle!  Keaton went on to employ St. John in his 1937 short Love Nest on Wheels as Uncle Jed (which included some of the same jokes found in The Bell Boy), 5 years after Arbuckle's death.  As for "Fatty"--Keaton kept a smiling photo of him hanging in his home until his own death in 1966.

Mayhem on the set in The Butcher Boy.

*In regards to A Reckless Romeo, there is a bit of controversy over it's completion.  While it would seem that it was merely edited after Arbuckle started his own company and Schenck signed with Paramount to distribute, there is some question as to whether a few scenes may have been added at that time as well.  It is curiously listed as the second film that Keaton appeared in within the filmography compiled for the 1982 re-release of Keaton's memoir.  The list was compiled by Raymond Rohauer and it was approved by Keaton's estate, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he actually appeared in the film.  He is sometimes listed as being the not-so-blind organ grinder--though the fellow doesn't really look like Keaton to me, and the scene appears to be pre-Colony Studio material.  It is equally possible that he may appear, fleetingly, in some other unnamed role.  Or not... The film was lost until the mid 1990's...and it is now on YouTube and available on Internet Archive. So go watch and see if you can spot Buster--can't say I've had much luck myself. 

Sources:

Keaton, Buster & Charles Samuels. 1960 My Wonderful World of Slapstick, Da Capo Press.