General

As time goes by some things begin to fade from memory. Not everything will, but most everything is condemned to be forgotten. I guess this is the way of nature and in some cases this trend has cost us the memories of some very special people. I am not talking about scientists who have split the atom, or anything that serious, because these people will always be remembered unless the entire human race is wiped out. I am talking about more mundane people, like some of the great comedians of the past. The invention of moving pictures has helped us to remember some of these greats, but as time goes by we see less and less of them. An example of this would be the great comedian Buster Keaton. Keaton was a man who always had a look of misunderstanding and seemed to be able to screw up anything. He made several truly memorable movies. In one he had his own business, a moving company, which was really him, with a horse and wagon. A New York City policeman hired him to move his personal goods and somehow Buster, while moving the stuff, lands up in the middle of the New York Saint Patrick's Day parade with thousands of policemen all around him.

Buster Keaton And Family
Photo Source: Public Domain

As he tries to maneuver out of the parade, he begins to start dropping things off the wagon which get broken and it is not long before the cop who hired him sees his stuff laying broken in the street and begins to chase him along with hundreds and maybe thousands of New York City policemen. Hey people they just don't make them like this anymore. As funny as this film was, Buster Keaton is probably remembered more for a movie called The General. It was about a steam engine and took place supposedly during the American Civil War. Keaton manages to save the train from southern sympathizers, while creating havoc wherever the train goes. This guy was so funny that people today would appreciate his humor.

I guess I could keep talking about all the famous comedians of the past, such as Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges, but there is a good chance that these people will live on forever in one type of media or another. I know that I still put on a Laurel and Hardy comedy if it is being shown. There is just something timeless about that team. The Three Stooges seem to appeal to the slapstick in all of us and this is proven by the fact that somewhere in the world a Three Stooges movies is always being run, or a Three Stooges show is being shown on television. But there were others that were not as famous and they appeared in countless movies.

Harold Lloyd
Photo Source: Public Domain

Harold Lloyd was extremely famous in his time, almost as famous as Chaplin himself. He has been considered one of the most influential comedians of the silent era. He made about 200 films between 1914 and 1947. He was always a go getter that somehow landed up in some very perilous situations. If one wanted to see a comedy that featured thrill chases and daredevil feats, Lloyd was the guy to go see. His most famous scene is the one pictured above where he is hanging from the hands of a clock.

I bet there is hardly anyone out there that has heard of Snub Pollard. Snub started out in supporting roles in the silent films of Harold Lloyd a much more famous silent film comedian at the time. He was easy to spot because of his crazy mustache. Hal Roach, a famous producer at the time saw Pollard and decided that he was star material and gave him the staring role in some of his films. Pollard employed a lot of Rube Goldberg devices in his films and remained in movies for many years. He was still in the movies in 1957 when he appeared in Man of A Thousand Faces. Even though he lasted a long time in films, he was reduced to walkons and no dialogue parts. His last film was in 1962 and was called Twist Around the Clock.

Charlie Chaplin
Photo Source: Public Domain

Charlie Chase was another famous comedian of the silent movie era. We seem to have had no shortage of very funny people in that time. He was not only funny, but talented in other areas. He was also a screenwriter and director. His brother was a famous comedian at that time and went by the name James Parrott. Chase also came from vaudeville and became part of Keystone Studios and started in bit parts in Mack Sennett films. He was soon also directing some of them under the name Charles Parrott. He even directed a young Oliver Hardy for another studio. He moved over to Hal Roach Studios and supervised the filming of the Our Gang series. He became the main director there. Chase finally went back into starring in the movies himself and moved into the talkies with ease. He was very funny and also could sing. In 1933 he appeared with Laurel and Hardy in Sons of the Desert. He was still in the movies in 1937 but his career ended about then and he died in 1939.

Raymond Griffith is all but forgotten. It was said that after the big four, Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd and Langdon there was Griffith. He worked under contract at Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount. He was so funny that they put him in six films in 1925. He was born into the theater. It is said that his first part in the theater took place when he was 15 months old. He went into the movies in 1916. They liked him and he was put into the Lehrman Knock-Out comedies. He moved around a lot from studio to studio, but learned the most under Sennett. He also became a writer and director. As years went by he left the movie industry in 1940 and died in 1957 when he chocked on some food in a restaurant. Griffith was remembered for wearing a top hat and tuxedo in most of his films. A fact of note was that his vocal cords had been damaged by a childhood disease.

The list of old time comedians is quite long and some of them were quite good and are still remembered by the elderly who chuckle at their names. Some of these people were Reggie Morris, Ben Turpin, Billie Ritchie, Gale Henry, Lloyd Hamilton, Monte Banks, and Charley Bowers. Someday someone might just resurrect some of these early films, if they exist anymore, and these old time stars may just become popular again. One never knows in this age of electronics.