Silent Comedy’s Bridges of Hollenbeck Park

Posted on April 27, 2024 by John Bengtson

The graceful arch bridge that once spanned the narrow lake in Hollenbeck Park has appeared in numerous silent films. USC Digital Library.

Perhaps its most celebrated appearance is with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy during their early talkie short Men ‘O War (1929), when the bridge appears at back while they flirt with Gloria Greer and Anne Cornwall.

Years earlier, in 1920 Harold Lloyd attempted to end it all by leaping from the bridge during Haunted Spooks (above left, looking north), and returned in 1924 to film this scene from Girl Shy (above right), looking south toward the bridge.

Harold also posed beside the arched bridge for this early 1915 Lonesome Luke comedy Great While It Lasted.

Hollenbeck Park appears in splendid detail throughout the 1920 Snub Pollard comedy Run ‘Em Ragged, hosted on YouTube by Leeweegie1960, including views of the bridge starting at 15:14 HERE.

During the 1916 comedy Picture Pirates, Ben Turpin (center in above left image) and his cohorts flee the police. Some cops lose their trail by running over the bridge instead, the earliest footage I’ve seen of the bridge from this angle. Once again hosted by Joseph Blough’s wonderful YouTube channel, you can watch the scene starting at 06:07 HERE. Looking west from the lake’s east side, this scene was filmed in the morning. (Filming on the west side of the lake looking east is more common as it provides for a longer shooting day). Scientists may prove me wrong, but to my eye morning scenes in silent films appear bright and cool (see above), while afternoon scenes appear warm. Flawed science or not, based on whether a scene looks cool or warm, morning or afternoon, and therefore west or east, has provided accurate geographic clues from which I have discovered many locations.

Final views of the arched bridge, this time in the 1920 Kewpie Morgan comedy The Heart Snatcher, above left. Hosted by the Eye Filmmuseum YouTube channel you can watch the scene, beginning at 08:45 HERE. Above right, Snub Pollard in The Butterfly Hunter, hosted by Extreme Mysteries YouTube channel, the scene starting at 0:58 HERE.

Further south, the 6th Street bridge for automobiles that once spanned the park and the lake below, also appears in numerous films. Whenever a hero or a comedian leaps from a bridge during a silent movie it was likely filmed here. The bridge was the optimal height for the leap to appear thrilling on screen without inconveniently killing the performer. USC Digital Library.

To begin, look who’s back. That’s Ben Turpin (above left, on the right) once again in Picture Pirates, leaping off the bridge to escape the police. (I can’t say whether someone doubled for Ben during the jump or not). You can watch the scene starting at 06:28 HERE.

Another thrilling stunt, from the Looser Than Loose DVD set Larry Semon: An Underrated Genius, during Scamps and Scandals (1919) Larry Semon (or perhaps his double) dives from the 6th Street Bridge. Notice Larry beside the same telephone pole next to Ben Turpin above. Just for fun they installed a platform on the pole to make the dive that much higher. While the image could be more clear, the dive really took place, ending with a convincing splash in the water.

Next, during the Our Gang 1928 comedy The Ol’ Gray Hoss, the dismissive big kids tell young Wheezer to go jump in a lake, which he promptly obeys by falling from the 6th Street Bridge.

The terrified big kids, who dive after Wheezer, safely but embarrassingly land head first in a deep pool of mud. Wheezer, an the other hand, catches his suspenders on a post and is retrieved safe, clean, and dry. The Ol’ Gray Hoss is hosted on YouTube by Leeweegie1960, with bridge scene starting at 24:36 HERE.

Just for fun, the 1957 Doris Day movie musical The Pajama Game was also filmed at Hollenbeck, with views looking south toward the 6th Street bridge.

Wrapping up, the narrow north end of the lake once had a much smaller arched bridge, near the bandstand gazebo. This bridge was torn down long ago, and rarely appears in archival photos.

The bridge and the gazebo appear with Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand during their 1915 comedy Fatty, Mabel and the Law, hosted on YouTube by the Al St. John Official YouTube Channel with the bridge scene starting at 3:20 HERE. The low bridge was likely demolished well before 1924, but the bandstand gazebo, also now demolished, appears in the 1929 film Men ‘O War, above right.

This post provides merely an overview of early silent movies filmed beside the now lost Hollenbeck Park bridges. Now that you know what to look for, you will likely recognize these distinctive bridges in other silent films. Giant institutional buildings such as the Hollenbeck Home For Aged People, and the Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital, stood across from the park, and appear in the background of other films too.

Check out my latest YouTube video – Caught on Film, How Buster Keaton Made The Cameraman, with a score by Jon Mirsalis. Hidden details throughout the film reveal Buster’s journey, leaving his studio behind, visiting familiar locations, and crossing paths with his friend and mentor Roscoe Arbuckle. Please also check the many other Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd videos posted on my YouTube Channel.

Below, an aerial view looking north at Hollenbeck Park, now hemmed in on the west by the Golden State Freeway.

 

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Colleen Moore and Buster Keaton Reveal a “Lost” Hollywood Intersection

Posted on March 30, 2024 by John Bengtson

Hollywood was a small, undeveloped community during the early years of cinema. Cahuenga Blvd, now a major thoroughfare, once ran south for two blocks from Hollywood Blvd past Selma to where it ended at Sunset Blvd. Through traffic would then zig-zag, turning left on Sunset and continuing right, south along Townsend, now Ivar, a half block further east. In these early years, and early stages of their careers, future flapper superstar Colleen Moore and stone-faced Buster Keaton filmed matching scenes at the former “T” intersection of Cahuenga and Sunset. As shown below, Stan Laurel filmed an early solo comedy there as well.

During A Roman Scandal (1919) leading man Earl Rodney wishes to marry stage-struck Colleen, a wannabe actress who defers his marriage proposal to pursue her thespian dreams. You can view a beautiful scan of the entire film at Joseph Blough’s wonderful YouTube channel.

Out for a stroll, starting at 04:17 HERE, Earl and Colleen notice a publicity billboard (inset) for a live stage production of The Fall of Rome. Notice “MORGAN HARDWARE,” 1503 Cahuenga, at back. Colleen and Earl attend the show, and when the lead actors go on strike, they are hired to replace them.

Above, twin views of Morgan Hardware – a production still from an unidentified comedy, and a modern view with a palm tree standing where “MORGAN” could once be seen.

Above, Stan Laurel (at the corner disguised in a giant dog costume) flees (fleas?) the police in The Pest (1922). You can clearly see the SUNSET BLVD sign and barely make out MORGAN HARDWARE between the ladders.

More views of Morgan Hardware. Above left, during a scene from Day Dreams (1922), presented as if filmed on a cable car in San Francisco, Buster rides east along Sunset looking north past the corner of Cahuenga. The word “HARDWARE” appears left of the cop’s elbow. As explained at 03:04 of my YouTube video about Buster Keaton’s San Francisco Footsteps, Sunset did not have a trolley line, so Buster is filming on a prop trolley being towed close to the south curb, not on a real trolley on tracks moving down the center of the street. That’s why the same-direction auto traffic passes behind Buster during the scene. Above right, an unidentified comedy presented by the Library of Congress Mostly Lost Film Festival, looking SW to Morgan Hardware and the corner of Sunset.

Above, during One Week (1920), newly-wed Buster grabs a policeman’s hat and whistle to rescue his bride from a car driven by his rival. This view to the right also looks SW – notice the matching warehouse air vents in both images.

Above left, impersonating the cop, Buster orders his rival’s car to stop. Above right, Earl and Colleen admire the billboard for the play. Both views look west from the NE corner of Cahuenga toward the Sunset Roofing Company.

Matching views then and now SW along Sunset from Cahuenga, once a “T” intersection. Click to enlarge the One Week frame and you can barely read “The Sunset Roofing Co.” at back.

Click to enlarge – this view looks west down Sunset past Cahuenga, toward the towering Hollywood Athletic Club building on the corner of Schrader at back, and where Earl and Colleen stood on the corner beside the former Hollywood Laundry facility. LAPL.

This closer view shows where the billboard was placed beside the former Hollywood Laundry.

Traveling east along Sunset in Day Dreams, before reaching the corner of Cahuenga above, Buster first passes the circular arched entrance along the side of the building.

As explained in my book Silent Echoes, and in Buster’s San Francisco Footsteps YouTube video, the initial clues for identifying Buster’s traveling shot were the bottom half of the letters “HOLL” “OOD” “LAU” painted on the background wall. Not surprisingly, San Francisco did not have a Hollywood Laundry, but guess who did!

Now looking south, here’s an early panoramic view along Sunset forming the back end of the “T” intersection with Cahuenga. The road continues south past the corner of Townsend to the left. Notice the P.F. Pursel & Son Sunset Stable, also appearing below. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

Above left, a frame from the 1915 (!) Lyons & Moran comedy Pruning The Movies, looking south down Cahuenga toward the “T” intersection at Sunset and P.F. Pursel & Son. Above right, looking east down Sunset with Pursel at center, the 1919 Billie Rhodes comedy A Two-Cylinder Courtship. This 1919 movie also contained scenes that identified matching locales appearing in Keaton’s 1921 shorts The Play House and The Goat – see post Solved! Buster Keaton’s Mystery Colegrove Building.

Then and Now – Buster and his rescued bride Sybil Seely reclaim their car in One Week looking east down Sunset Blvd from the corner of Ivar, a short half-block east from Cahuenga. The Muller Bros. Auto Supplies at 6380 Sunset, pictured on the corner, was ultimately replaced by the Cinerama Dome Theatre.

Click to enlarge – a final view SW at Sunset (red) and the 1500 block of Cahuenga (orange) south of Selma. The image of Buster in The Goat running by the Toribuchi Grocery at 1546 Cahuenga (green), led to one of my all-time favorite discoveries – that at a time when few ethnic Japanese lived anywhere in Los Angeles, the 1500 block was once home to a small, seemingly forgotten Japanese enclave, with stores, lodging, a bath, a school, and a small church. Read all about it here – Silent Hollywood’s Japanese Enclave.

As explained in numerous posts, the 1600 block of Cahuenga between Hollywood Blvd and Selma was likely the most widely used filming location in early silent films. Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Colleen Moore, Stan Laurel, Harry Langdon, Our Gang, Dorothy Devore, Oliver Hardy, and many more filmed there, and it was the favorite block in Hollywood for Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd to film. But as seen here, the 1500 block, now with its lost “T” intersection, has its own rich silent film history.

The TCM Classic Film Festival will screen Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. (1924) together with The Goat at the beautifully restored Egyptian Theatre this Sunday April 21 at 7:30 pm. This YouTube video shows how Buster staged Sherlock Jr. all across Southern California, including new discoveries.

Harold Lloyd’s masterpiece The Kid Brother (1928) was recently screened at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I created a visual essay for the beautiful Criterion Collection Blu-ray release of the film, The Kid Brother Was Close to Home, which you can read about HERE. Buster’s screening at the Egyptian Theatre will be accompanied by the magnificent Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Below, the former “T” intersection of Sunset and Cahuenga – spin the image around for a full 360 degree view.

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Harold Lloyd, Dorothy Devore, Movie Pilot Frank Clarke – Stunt Birds of a Feather

Posted on March 2, 2024 by John Bengtson

Here’s more Hollywood history appearing in another little-known film, this time from a Columbia Studios Screen Snapshots newsreel.

Above, Screen Snapshots captured pioneer Hollywood stunt pilot/actor Frank Clarke flying an airplane from the roof of the Los Angeles Railroad Building downtown, beginning at 01:35 on YouTube HERE. Seen here under construction, before a later building would block the full view, it still stands at 1060 S Broadway at the NE corner of Broadway and 11th.

Looking north up Broadway, if the Blackstone Building at back seems familiar, it’s because it appears behind Harold Lloyd during Safety Last! – 1923, still standing at Broadway and 9th.

Here are matching views from the movie, left, and one of many images of Frank Clarke available through the San Diego Air & Space Museum archival Flickr account. You can read part of the “BLACKSTONE” building sign in both images.

A news account of Frank’s stunt. At back, to the right, stand 950 and 908 S Broadway, the buildings where Harold would build rooftop sets for his climbing stunts in Feet First – 1930 and Safety Last!

For visual context, here’s a side view of where Frank flew from the roof of the Railway Building (unfinished at the time), near the three-story triangular building, now lost, at the former intersection of Broadway and Broadway Place, where Harold built sets for his initial climbing scenes from Safety Last! (left) and Feet First (middle). USC Digital Library.

Using Frank’s photo for reference, we see up the street the 950 and 908 S Broadway rooftops where Harold would later build stunt sets for the next stage of his climb in Safety Last! and Feet First.

Dorothy Devore made stunt comedies matching Harold’s skill and production techniques. Above, a frame from Hold Your Breath – 1924, notice the Blackstone Building behind her. Dorothy screen captures courtesy the Retroformat Vault – https://www.patreon.com/retroformatsilents.

Above, looking again at the Railway Building paired with a promotional still from Hold Your Breath. Dorothy appears to be at great height, but she is in fact hanging on from the side of the one-story rooftop building far away from the main edge of the roof. Historian Richard W. Bann pointed out that when Harold works at the De Vore Department Store during Safety Last! (right) he is paying indirect tribute to Dorothy.

Dorothy filmed earlier stunts atop the roof of 908 S Broadway, the same rooftop where Harold filmed the clock scenes from Safety Last! The facade of Harold’s set faced away from the street, while Dorothy’s facade faced toward the street. The large white building at back is the Hamburger’s Department Store still standing at Broadway and 8th.

This building facade and safety net were built for another movie filmed years later atop the LA Railway Building (several late-1920s buildings, including LA City Hall, appear at back), but this simulated composite view shows how Dorothy safely filmed her stunt climbing scenes here. Marc Wanamaker – Bison Archives.

Above, photos by George Watson from the Delmar Watson Archives. Frank took flight with little clearance to spare.

Above, looking north up Broadway at Frank’s lift-off – the completed Railway Building now boasts a prominent “Western Auto Supply Co” sign. The Blackstone Building appears at back. USC Digital Library.

Above, a final view of Frank’s launch pad, before the one-story rooftop building Dorothy climbed on (above) was constructed. San Diego Air & Space Museum archival Flickr account.

I knew nothing about Frank Clark (later Clarke) before starting this post. He led quite a life, born in 1898, he was one of the original Hollywood stunt pilots, transferring between moving airplanes, landing a plane atop a moving train, and doubling for actors such as James Cagney. The 6′ 2″ actor is credited with over a dozen roles and stunts on IMDb. Frank served as a major in the Air Force during WWII, training young pilots. Biographer and LA Times staff writer Cecilia Rasmussen explains Frank died in 1948 when a practical joke went wrong. He had planned to dive bomb a friend’s rural cabin with bags of cow manure, but during the steep descent the bags became lodged behind the control stick, causing his plane to crash. Cecilia reports Frank’s rooftop stunt discussed here was filmed for the Katherine MacDonald Pictures Corp. movie titled It Could Happen, released in 1921 as Stranger Than Fiction. Publicity for the film boasts about “A take-off from the roof of a skyscraper.”

I hope you will check out Buster Keaton’s San Francisco footsteps, a true window into the past. Please also check the many other Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd videos posted on my YouTube Channel, including How Harold Filmed Safety Last!

Below, the LA Railway Building at Broadway and 11th.

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Historic Hollywood Relics Found In “Lost” Films

Posted on February 4, 2024 by John Bengtson

This post presents bits and pieces of Hollywood history appearing in an assortment of little-known films, many unavailable for decades.

I closely follow Dave Glass’s invaluable YouTube channel. You never know what brief scene from an obscure film will reveal more Hollywood history. To begin, check out these scenes from the 1924 Billy Bevan comedy Bright Lights, starting at 05:25 HERE and again at 06:05 HERE.  Do they look familiar?

That’s right – it’s the back end of the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley, where Harold Lloyd filmed many scenes from Safety Last! (1923). Check out my YouTube videos showing the discovery of the alley HERE, and how Harold made Safety Last! HERE.

Next, a recent post showed how Douglas Fairbanks and Buster Keaton filmed along all sides of the former Hollywood Fire-Police Station, leading a virtual tour around the now lost site, read more HERE. It was fun to show in this post how the adorable early silent film comedienne Gale Henry frequently filmed here too.

Well, thanks to Joseph Blough’s wonderful YouTube channel, we see more views of Gale Henry filming in back of the fire station during her 1919 film Pants – watch video HERE. A key plot device, a seemingly insurmountable brick wall separates a “boy’s college” from a “girl’s seminary,” leading to mischief, mayhem, and true love. Above, it’s love at first sight as the college handy-man encounters Gale, the seminary cook.

A wider view during Pants, left, reveals the free-standing wooden car parking enclosure behind the wall, fully visible to the right during a brief clip of the Sid Smith and Harry McCoy Hallroom Boys comedy Put and Take (1921), right, hosted by the Eye Filmmuseum at their Bits & Pieces YouTube channel series, Nr. 631, visible at 01:35 HERE.

Gale’s brick wall appears throughout the Douglas Fairbanks 1916 comedy Flirting With Fate, above left, looking south, above right looking NW (click to enlarge), the arrow marking Doug’s pathway relative to Gale and the wooden car parking enclosure in the corner. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

Next, responding to growing, widely criticized Hollywood scandals, the film community produced self-promotional movies reassuring middle America that the folks in Hollywood were, gosh darn it, just good, honest, friendly folks like everyone else. One of my favorite posts dissects such a film, Hollywood Snapshots, in great detail, and its treasure trove of historic, often unique images of early Hollywood. From that film, above, rare street level views in 1922, of the 7200 Santa Monica Blvd. entrance to the Pickford Fairbanks Studio (left – note Doug’s castle set for Robin Hood) and the 1520 Vine St. entrance to the Famous-Players Lasky Studios (right). Can you imagine just walking along the street and seeing a castle?

Once again with gratitude to Joseph Blough, we can study another visually stunning historic 1922 self-promotional film Night Life in Hollywood. I hope to do a lengthy detailed post about this film, which features views of the Will Rogers’ early home in Beverly Hills, the Hollywood homes of Jack Kerrigan, Wallace Reid, and Theo Roberts, and numerous Hollywood Blvd. locales, including the once open fields further west of town. Until then, above, country boy Joe Frank Glendon decides to check out Hollywood for himself, where his new friend leads him into the 6642 Santa Monica Blvd. entrance to the Hollywood Metropolitan Studios – click to enlarge. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

Above, following her brother Joe to town, and convinced her alluring cinematic charms must be shared with the world, country gal Gale Henry (yes, her again, another fun performance), attempts to sneak into the studio for an audition. The arrow above marks her position by the front office. At left, Gale grabs a taxi beside the lost Southern Pacific depot – the homes at back once stood on Central Ave. across the street. The Hollywood Metropolitan Studios shown above, completely reconfigured but still operating at the same locale today as the Sunset Las Palmas Studios, is where Harold Lloyd would later create his independently produced films after leaving the Hal Roach Studios.

Once again from Night Life in Hollywood, noted Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa and his wife Tsuro Aoki greet country boy Joe and his friend at their home once located at 1904 Argyle on the NE corner of Franklin. It is here in the movie Joe realizes “the fact that the Hollywood motion picture colony is no sensual Babylon that the home town papers painted it.” Known as Castle Glengarry, the incredible mansion was built by Hollywood promoter Dr. Schloesser (Dr. Castles), whose next, bigger, larger mansion just up the street, Castle Sans Souci, appeared in many early films, including Charlie Chaplin’s Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914). Read my post about Castle Sans Souci HERE. USC Digital Library.

Above, a view of the rear of the house, a point of view of this once landmark home that may be truly unique, as I have never seen the back of this lost home in a photo before. Also, how cute is that? Sessue and Tsuro’s pet dog had his own Castle Glengarry dog house!

I have identified dozens of random locations from dozens of random obscure films that don’t easily fit within a certain theme or category, so I hope to post more “potpourri” articles such as this to help document Hollywood’s vast unclaimed visual history. Remember too, the remarkable street level views of early Hollywood reported in this post, many of which are unique, were captured from the films presented on YouTube for our enjoyment and study by Hollywood heroes Dave Glass and Joseph Blough. Please visit their YouTube channels – Dave Glass YouTube – Joseph Blough YouTube.

I hope you will check out my latest YouTube video Buster Keaton’s San Francisco footsteps, and the many other Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd videos posted on my YouTube Channel.

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Solved! – Buster Keaton’s 100 Year Old Three Ages Bungalow

Posted on January 19, 2024 by John Bengtson

Love triumphs over all. Buster Keaton’s first feature comedy Three Ages (1923) tells three tales of love, set in the Stone Age, the Roman Age, and the Present Age (i.e. 1923), where against all odds underdog Buster wins the girl played by Margaret Leahy by defeating villainous Wallace Beery.

The movie ends with brief postscript finales – caveman Buster and wife, and their 10 caveman kids exit their cave one-by-one. Next, elegant Roman Age Buster and wife and 5 children, all wearing graceful togas, exit their formal columned home. For the final shot in the movie, Present Age Buster and wife exit their Hollywood bungalow, along with … one tiny dog! What a perfect, purely visual joke to end the film.

The Roman home was a backlot set, and as reported years ago in my book Silent Echoes, the domestic cave was filmed at the Iverson Ranch (details below). But I’ve sought out the Present Age bungalows for over 25 years. Then once again, suddenly, a clue from another silent film revealed this location, and more remarkably, the home is still standing unchanged. Below, does this view look familiar?

I closely follow Joseph Blough’s wonderful YouTube channel, as he regularly posts rare and seldom seen silent and classic-era films, often sourced from the Library of Congress Archives. Joseph posted a beautifully clear 7-minute fragment from a Buster Brown silent comedy short Buster’s Bustup (1925), starring Arthur Trimble as Buster and Pete the Dog as Tige. Sitting on a steel girder at a construction site, Buster and Pete find themselves rising high up in the air. Buster and Pete remain relatively calm and nimble, so the fun is in watching them cleverly overcome their obstacles, rather than trembling in fear, while getting the best of a cranky construction foreman.

Click to enlarge – as Buster and Pete rise in the air, at 2:19 the first point of view shot looking down clearly matches Buster’s Three Ages bungalow! Buster’s doorway is the sunlit doorway closest to the corner.

Click to enlarge – studying the Buster Brown frame revealed the landmark St. George Court Apartments in the background (above), still standing to the south at 1245 Vine Street. USC Digital Library.

Click to enlarge – other views revealed the Taft Building to the north at Hollywood and Vine. Triangulating from these north and south landmarks, I quickly fixed the SW corner of El Centro and Leland as Buster’s home location. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

More remarkable, whereas many/most little Hollywood homes have been replaced by giant modern apartment blocks, Buster’s bungalow is still there! The arrow marks Buster’s path from his front entrance at 1425 El Centro. The tiny palm trees planted in the wide sidewalk median visible during the scene are now perhaps 100 feet tall.

Click to enlarge – these matching views looking SW show the corner of El Centro and Leland in the foreground stands only a few blocks from Buster’s former studio at Lillian Way and Eleanor (yellow oval) above. The storage building clock tower still stands on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Cahuenga. The storage building was featured in two recent posts, how Buster and W.C. Fields crossed paths filming near Buster’s studio (HERE), and how Stan Laurel also crossed paths with W.C. Fields near Buster’s studio (HERE). The Greek-style building to the left of the curve in both images was the former Hollywood Methodist Episcopal Church, once standing at 1201 Vine at the corner of Lexington. The aerial view above was taken in 1924, before St. George Court was built up the street from the church. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

Another fun discovery – Buster in 3D! Different Blu-ray releases of Three Ages are presented from either the A or B camera negative. (Silent movies were commonly filmed with two cameras placed side-by-side. The A camera negative would generate prints for American theaters, while the B camera negative would be sent to Europe to create prints locally.) The parallax offset between two adjacently photographed images creates a 3D effect. It may not be easy, but if you can focus looking forward, beyond these twin images, and cross your eyes a bit, the right image as seen by your left eye will overlap with the left image as seen by your right eye, yielding a 3D image in the center. Richard Simonton, who personally rescued and restored several of Harold Lloyd’s films, and who manages Harold’s photo archives, including thousands of Harold’s 3D images, cropped and aligned these twin images. He reports the images yield a modest effect when viewed with a cardboard 3D viewer.

Switching gears, Keaton filmed the Stone Age scenes at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, about 25 miles north of Hollywood, beside the unusual rock formations called the Garden of the Gods. I cover more than a dozen caveman scenes in my book. Above, just for fun, here’s 25 year old photo of me sitting beside Buster’s Stone Age bathtub, along with a shot from the 1926 Fox film Silver Treasure. The two prominent rocks at back, perhaps the most famous in the Garden of the Gods, are called the Tower Rock at left, and The Sphinx at right. As reported by Hollywood and Chatsworth film historian and “Iverson Movie Ranch Blog” host Dennis, these landmark rocks and other spots at the Iverson appear in the earliest days of film, and in hundreds of major Hollywood productions, “B” westerns, and television shows, and is still used even today. Here’s the link to his phenomenal, vast, and extensively researched Iverson Movie Ranch Blog.

Buster’s closing scene was filmed beyond the south end of what is now the community pool for the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village near the Iverson Movie Ranch. The giant cleft rock is obscured by trees. While I report this spot in my book, I have never visited the site in person, and Dennis patiently explained to me precisely where Buster’s now relatively inaccessible setting was located.

With a color photo and common details provided by Dennis, a closer view of the back corner of the community pool shows the entrance to Buster’s “cave” was actually an open space between these two rocks.

Of particular interest, one of Dennis’s posts explains the fake rock house Buster used in Three Ages appeared in earlier films! Here it is, to the left of Tower Rock and The Sphinx. Read more HERE. Dennis also writes about Buster filming The Paleface at the Iverson HERE, and filming an episode of the television show Route 66 HERE.

For a great overview of Dennis’s incredible work, and to see for yourself how the Garden of the Gods appeared not only in Three Ages, but in Man-Woman-Marriage (1921), Richard the Lion Hearted (1923), and Tell It To The Marines (1926), download his amazing 43 page PDF program hosted by the Chatsworth Historical Society.

Dennis also wanted to share the earliest known filming at the Iverson was the 1913 lost film Everyman, starring Linda Arvidson (estranged wife at the time of D.W. Griffith), read his post HERE, while his post HERE about the 1917 William S. Hart Western The Silent Man mentions other lost silent movies and filming at the Iverson Ranch by Thomas Ince.

Remember, Dennis also covers classic-era films, “B” westerns, and vintage to present-day television appearances filmed at the Iverson – the early silent era is but one field of many covered at his blog http://iversonmovieranch.blogspot.com/.

In closing, Dennis and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Ben Burtt, one of the premiere Iverson historians, for introducing us to this hallowed filming location. It was Ben who first discovered nearly all of the Three Ages rock locations, including the bathtub rock. The multi-talented writer, director, editor, and film-maker is perhaps best known as the 4-time Academy Award-winning sound designer and editor for such films as Stars Wars, ET, and Indiana Jones.

The recent Eureka Entertainment Blu-ray release of Three Ages includes the video essay about Three Ages I prepared for Kino-Lorber a few years ago. The essay includes later discoveries not reported in my book.

Below, Buster’s bungalow at 1425 El Centro in Hollywood. Look at those towering palm trees!

 

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Buster Keaton’s San Francisco footsteps

Posted on December 30, 2023 by John Bengtson

Buster filmed scenes from Day Dreams (1922) and The Navigator (1924) across San Francisco. Most locations look remarkably unchanged a century later. My latest YouTube video reveals every SF locale with then and now views, intercut with scenes where sneaky Buster actually filmed in Hollywood and Oakland instead.

The video quickly identifies every scene (as does this printed PDF tour you can download), and highlights a fun fact – Buster filmed near three famous SF landmarks BEFORE they were built. This post highlights these “prenatal” landmarks by diving deep into vintage aerial photos.

Click to enlarge – to begin, this 1922 aerial photo of the SF North Beach neighborhood reveals four Day Dream scenes; filmed looking west from Lombard at Taylor (red), looking east from Bay at Taylor (orange), east from Lombard at Columbus (yellow), and south from Lombard at Columbus (green). Notice how Buster filmed efficiently on flat streets relatively close together. David Rumsey Map Collection.

Three SF landmarks, the Lombard Street hairpin turns, Coit Tower, and Saints Peter and Paul Church on Washington Square, are absent in the above image. They would have appeared in the background of Buster’s scenes, but they hadn’t been built yet! The images below shows their future locations. OpenSFHistory.org – Lombard – Coit Tower – Saints Peter and Paul.

Click to enlarge, the same circa 1922 photo as above, shows the future sites of the three SF landmarks Buster missed because they weren’t built yet. The red and yellow patches in the movie frames above show where the landmarks would have appeared in Buster’s scenes. The church’s missing appearance is explained further below.

A closer view west up Lombard from Taylor, the first silent movie location I ever discovered, back in 1996. The block farthest up the hill would later become famous as “the crookedest street in the world.” Construction plans for the eight hairpin turns were approved June 9, 1922, around the time Buster filmed. The brick street was quickly torn up, but work halted all summer awaiting one homeowner’s approval. The nearly completed construction photo is dated December 14, 1922, so Buster missed capturing this future landmark by only a few months. On the other hand, Buster was ten years too soon for Coit Tower. The landmark honoring the City’s firefighters was built in 1932-1933. OpenSFHistory.org.

Later in the film, further south, Buster rides a cable car turning the corner from Washington onto Powell, blissfully unaware of the cops who reverse course to chase after him. Looking north, the setting is nearly unchanged, except today for the twin spires of Saints Peter and Paul Church now appearing at back. This beautiful church, facing Washington Square nearby (see aerial view above), played a major role in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1923), where it appears under construction (left). Once again Buster was too soon.

Vertigo – Day Dreams, same NE corner of Washington and Powell. Keaton (oval) sits in the cable car.

There’s more. Buster’s Day Dreams intersects with Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo (1958). When Scottie (James Stewart) traces Madeleine (Kim Novak) by car back to his own apartment, they cross paths twice with Buster. Note matching window (red box). Read more HERE.

Matching views from Day Dreams and Bullitt.

Buster and ‘King of Cool’ actor Steve McQueen also crossed paths filming stunts. McQueen’s celebrated car chase in Bullitt (1968) matched views from Day Dreams looking SE down Columbus Avenue, with the same prominent apartment block at Mason and Greenwich at back. Read more HERE.

Click to enlarge – more views from Day Dreams, Washington at Powell, view north red, view west orange, and Second at Minna, view east green and view west yellow. David Rumsey Map Collection.

In closing, a scene above from The Navigator staged at 2505 Divisadero.

I hope you will check out Buster Keaton’s San Francisco footsteps, a true window into the past.  It also contains many Day Dreams scenes filmed in Oakland and in Hollywood, as well as scenes from The Navigator. Please also check the many other Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd videos posted on my YouTube Channel.

Below, Lombard at Taylor on Google Maps.

 

Posted in Buster Keaton, Day Dreams, San Francisco | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Stan Laurel and W.C. Fields Crossed Paths Near the Keaton and Metro Studios

Posted on December 16, 2023 by John Bengtson

Expanding on the previous post, Stan Laurel also crossed paths with W.C. Fields, at the Metro Studios south of Buster Keaton’s studio, with the same landmark storage building still standing appearing at back. The scenes further below appear in Stan’s 1925 film Twins, made with producer Joe Rock after Stan was dropped by the Hal Roach Studio as a solo performer.

The same storage building appears in The Balloonatic, Twins, and If I Had A Million

Stan’s lesser known film Twins was kindly brought to my attention by Dave Heath, who runs the vast and wonderfully encyclopedic Hal Roach Studio films blog Another Nice Mess. Comedy mayhem ensues when husband Stan leaves town on business the same time his identical twin brother bachelor Stan arrives unannounced, confounding husband Stan’s unaware wife when bachelor Stan begins dating her best friend.

Stan filmed a scene bumping into an actor portraying his twin, knocking each other down, beside a former Metro Studios property storage building on the NW corner of Cahuenga and Willoughby a block south of Keaton’s studio.

Click to enlarge – the same Metro Studio corner, looking to the NW at left, and to the SE at right, with Buster’s studio in the foreground for reference. HollywoodPhotographs.com

Click to enlarge – a closer view of the same corner of Cahuenga at Willoughby.

Click to enlarge – again, closer views of Cahuenga and Willoughby, now both looking to the NW. HollywoodPhotographs.com

Click to enlarge – here one of the angry women chases husband Stan or bachelor Stan (I forget which) up Cahuenga from Willoughby past the property storage buildings and scene docks on the Metro Studio lot. Notice also that some type of underground pipe or trench is being installed along Cahuenga.

Remarkably, Stan and W.C. Fields filmed at the same NW corner of Cahuenga and Willoughby, creating a continuous panoramic view of its corner cement curb. The Metro building appearing with Stan in 1925 was completely demolished when Bill filmed a scene from If I Had A Million here in 1932, just seven years later. You can read many more details and locations about Bill’s film in the prior post HERE.

A closing shot above, the same six-story storage facility, built in 1922, still standing at 6372 Santa Monica Blvd. on the SE corner of Cahuenga (at left), appears two blocks up the street behind Stan and W.C. As I explain in the prior post, the building was expanded around 1925, now twice as large, but obviously the work was completed after Stan had filmed Twins.

A much earlier post shows Stan filming the same joke, same locale, as Buster, read more HERE.

Please check out my YouTube channel, including new visual discoveries showing how Buster Keaton made The General. I wrote its musical score, the Paddlewheel Rag, back in 1975, and employed the Musescore app to record it for the video.

Google Maps view of Willoughby at Cahuenga today.

Posted in Stan Laurel, W.C. Fields | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Keaton and W.C. Fields Cross Paths Again Near Buster’s Studio

Posted on November 11, 2023 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton filmed The Chemist (1936) and W.C. Fields filmed Running Wild (1927) beside the same apartment building still standing across the street from the Astoria studios where both movies were made in Queens, New York. (Links to detailed posts HERE and HERE).

Click to enlarge – Keaton – The Chemist and Fields – Running Wild beside the SW corner of 35th Ave. and 35th St. in Queens. The Astoria studios where they both worked stands across the street.

Yet another landmark building, still standing in Hollywood, also appears in their films. Further, these movies shed light on the history of the Keaton Studio itself.

A scene from The Balloonatic (1923) filmed due east of the Keaton Studio (above) reveals a six-story storage facility, built in 1922, standing at 6372 Santa Monica Blvd. on the SE corner of Cahuenga. Notice the extant clock tower – click to enlarge. The building is larger in the color view because a six-story expansion was added around 1925. Looking north from Romaine east of Lillian Way, this scene also reveals the Keaton Studio dressing room windows, and the back of the studio sign (see front of sign inset).

The fully expanded warehouse appears next during a scene in Keaton’s 1925 feature Go West as firemen prepare to hose down a cattle stampede running amok on city streets. The view looks east down Santa Monica Blvd. In the movie frame you can read most of the Cahuenga street sign and part of the facility’s “Hollywood 3569” phone number.

Jumping now to W.C. Fields, the 1932 anthology film If I Had A Million (now on Blu-ray) depicts how people’s lives change when a stranger gifts them $1M out of the blue. Some stories are comedic, some uplifting, and some tragic. For comedy Fields and his partner Alison Skipworth use the money to take revenge on road hogs. They purchase a fleet of cheap used cars, and hire a team of drivers to follow with them driving in formation. Whenever some road hog cuts Bill off, Bill runs the offender off the road, ruining both of their cars. Bill then hops into the next car in their fleet, vigilant for the next road hog victim. Bill and Allison spend a perfect day ruining about a dozen cars in all. They arrive at the Jack Frost Ford dealer at 750 S La Brea (left, now lost), with the dwellings and two-car garage along 5282 W 8th Street appearing behind them (above). Other scenes were staged near Silver Lake Blvd. and Bellevue, filmed from different angles, and a block further north along Vendome at Marathon, just a block south from the steps where Laurel & Hardy filmed The Music Box (1932). Perhaps we’ll cover these in a later post.

Here’s where Buster fits in. This frame with Bill and Alison being cut off looks north up Cahuenga from Willoughby (notice the street sign) toward the same storage building on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. What’s striking is the Keaton Studio is already demolished, replaced in part by the white KMTR radio station building (now also demolished), while the pitched roof of the old Metro Studio headquarters stands behind a “VOC” billboard. Buster recorded an interview at this station many years later.

Click to enlarge – matching the 1932 movie frame annotated with a 1938 aerial view both looking north. The Keaton Studio stood between Cahuenga and Lillian Way (blue lines) and Eleanor and Romaine. KMTR sits on the west side of the studio site, the east side is a vacant lot. The former headquarters building for the Metro Studios below Keaton’s studio, which shut down in 1924 to join M-G-M in Culver City, is still standing in 1938.

It wasn’t feasible to upgrade Buster’s small studio to make talking pictures, so after Keaton moved to M-G-M in 1928 his studio sat vacant until it was demolished in 1931. For comparison this photo above also looks north at the storage building clock tower (upper left) and the pitched roof of the back of the former Metro headquarters before KMTR was built. The large, dark, barn-like structure near the center is the Keaton Studio enclosed filming stage, shortly before it was demolished. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

Here’s a 1938 view of KMTR where Buster’s studio once stood. The photo archive misidentifies the address as “La Brea”, but you can see the storage building to the left, and the series of buildings here match the profile in the 1938 aerial view above. LAPL.

Studying vintage movie exteriors always reveals new surprises. A recent post about Keaton’s Seven Chances (1924) shows Buster fled from a mob of angry jilted brides by running north up Vine Street, revealing the front corner of his studio in the background (above) as he crosses Eleanor (link to detailed post HERE).

This circa 1930 aerial view above looking NW shows Buster’s path up Vine crossing Eleanor (arrow) and the Keaton Studio between Cahuenga and Lillian Way (blue lines). Notice the large barn-like filming stage, and the clock tower of the storage building. See Seven Chances post HERE for more details.

Compare this similar view, circa 1931, also showing Buster’s path north up Vine (arrow), and the corner of Willoughby and Cahuenga where Fields filmed (X). The Keaton Studio and large filming stage once standing between the blue lines are fully demolished, with the small KMTR buildings now standing on the west side of the lot.

Another startling view, this 1923 photo looking SE shows the Keaton Studio between the blue lines, and Bill’s car on the corner of Willoughby (X). Not only was the Keaton Studio demolished when Fields filmed in 1932, but all of the Metro Studio buildings and exterior sets between the red lines were demolished as well. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

Taken from the storage building, a modern view south of the Keaton Studio site between the blue lines running north from Romaine to Eleanor, and Bill’s corner of Willoughby and Cahuenga (X).

Please check out my YouTube channel, including new visual discoveries showing how Buster Keaton made The General. I wrote its musical score, the Paddlewheel Rag, back in 1975, and employed the Musescore app to record it for the video.

Google Maps view of Willoughby at Cahuenga today.

Posted in Buster Keaton, Keaton Studio, W.C. Fields | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Chaplin, Keaton, and Coogan on Sanchez Street – Three Films Revealed in a Brief Glimpse during The Kid

Posted on October 14, 2023 by John Bengtson

Accolades aside, Chaplin’s masterpiece The Kid preserves a treasure trove of visual history, including Olvera Street near the Plaza de Los Angeles, and the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley in Hollywood. It’s complicated (more below), but The Kid also captures the precise spot where Chaplin filmed scenes from Police (1916), Buster Keaton filmed scenes from Neighbors (1920), and Jackie Coogan filmed scenes from My Boy (1921), all south of the Plaza along Sanchez Street behind the Garnier Building.

As explained in my Chaplin book Silent Traces, in other posts on this blog, and in my new YouTube video The Kid – Part Two, when Charlie rescues Jackie Coogan from an orphanage truck, the south end of Sanchez appears in the background as they turn right onto Arcadia Street (above left – click to enlarge). Likewise, during Neighbors a cop drags Buster by the hand around the corner from Arcadia onto Sanchez, straight into a cement lamp post. With the aid of a movie frame from The Kid, this post shows how scenes from Police, Neighbors, and My Boy were all filmed behind the Garnier Building, part of which survives today as the Chinese American Museum https://camla.org/.

Above, a closer view of Sanchez and the Garnier Building, the aerial view looking east, as Jackie Coogan hides from a suspicious cop by strolling north from Arcadia in front of a washerwoman. As you can see, Sanchez was just one block long, wedged between the Plaza and Arcadia. With little through traffic and few pedestrians to redirect, this colorful “urban” alley was easy to shut down for filming, and became a popular movie location.

To begin, these frames show Charlie and Jackie turning right through a loading dock gate onto Arcadia. Click to enlarge – you can read “ARCADIA ST.” on the corner sign at back. The right frame looks north up Sanchez, revealing the back doorways and windows of the Garnier Building (more below).

As seen here, during Police Charlie slyly picks the pocket of the thief robbing him (left), matched with an enlarged frame from The Kid (at right). The red frame outlines the Police frame filmed on Sanchez. Unique clues from Neighbors and My Boy confirm Charlie stood beside the back door to store 6 (below).

Built in 1890, the Garnier Building provided eight long, narrow, ground floor retail spaces for Chinese merchants, each storefront facing Los Angeles Street. Left and right rear windows flanked the central back door of each store along Sanchez, creating a repeating pattern of window-door-window eight times over along the back of the building. (Notice the “Opium Joint” identified on this 1906 map next to the first store.) The bottom ledges for each pair of windows in the back were of equal height, but since Sanchez gradually sloped uphill toward the Plaza, certain right window ledges were higher than their neighboring left window ledges. Further, the left window of store 7 was expanded into a narrow doorway, breaking the window-door-window pattern.

Click to enlarge – above, in a later tracking shot during Neighbors, as Buster wipes paint from his face, a cop leads Buster north up Sanchez behind the Garnier Building past the four stores between the red lines. Everything to the right of the yellow line was later demolished, including Garnier stores 6, 7, and 8.

Above, distorting the view of Sanchez from The Kid matches three of the stores Buster passes during Neighbors. The repeating window-door-window pattern for each store is clearly evident, except the left “window” for store 7 was extended into a narrow doorway (yellow), breaking the pattern.Above, as confirmed by the matching two-board, single-board window gap enclosures (red), Buster walked right past the same spot as Charlie during Police. The doors to store 5 and store 6 appear in both images.

The same two-board, single board window gap enclosures (red) appear with Jackie during My Boy. Notice the right window of store 4 (yellow) is higher than the neighboring left window of store 5.

Once again, the view of Sanchez from The Kid (right) confirms the high right window-low left window ledges (yellow) appearing in My Boy. The red box marks the My Boy frame.

And now for the glass-half-full payoff. You can visit Sanchez today and stand in the very same spot as Jackie, Charlie, and Buster. But there’s a catch. By 1956 the Santa Ana Freeway plowed through downtown LA, demolishing Arcadia Street and the south end of Sanchez, including three of the eight Garnier storefronts. While the five north storefronts more or less survive, store 6 appearing prominently during Police is lost. The back windows and door for store 4 have been remodeled, and store 5  has been reconfigured to create a “corner” from what was once the middle of the original building. The back windows and door to store 5 are now an open arch.

Then and now views of Sanchez, both photographed from atop LA City Hall. The pink roof in both images marks the remaining five-eights portion of the Garnier Building. All vintage buildings in the foreground were demolished. USC Digital Library.

Some film sites remain. As Jackie looks back at the cop chasing him during My Boy you can read the corner “Plaza-Sanchez” street signs above him. The north end of Sanchez facing the Plaza has been preserved.

What does this mean? Prior scenes from My Boy appeared in a 1921 Chaplin movie and this scene appears in a 2023 “Jake from State Farm” commercial!

Thanks to the Eye Filmmuseum for posting Jackie’s My Boy on YouTube which you can watch HERE.

My blog has several other posts about silent filming along Sanchez and Arcadia. This post explores more about Jackie Coogan filming My Boy, and later The Rag Man (1925) at this historic, now lost, downtown intersection.

My latest YouTube video shows how Charlie and Jackie made The Kid filming around the Plaza de Los Angeles and its neighboring working class streets.

So much of early LA has been lost, but intriguing glimpses remain hidden in the background of silent film, and in State Farm commercials! You’ll never know where another silent film site might appear. Below, looking north up Sanchez toward the filming site. “Arcadia” is now an access road parallel to the freeway. Rotate the view to see the freeway and downtown behind.

Posted in Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, The Kid | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

How Laurel & Hardy Filmed Duck Soup – Flicker Alley Year One Blu-ray Release

Posted on September 2, 2023 by John Bengtson

Hooray for Flicker Alley releasing Laurel & Hardy: Year One, a beautifully presented 2-disc Blu-ray set of Stan and Ollie’s 1927 films. The all-new restorations look stunning, meticulously assembled from the best available materials contributed by archives and collectors around the world. I was honored to present a bonus video essay providing an overview of the locations appearing in several films, showing how Stan and Ollie made humble Main Street in Culver City their cinematic home. As fully explained in this post below, many Duck Soup locales require more diagrams and explanation than feasible for a brief visual essay, so my bonus program encourages interested viewers to check out this blog instead for more details.

Although they had appeared onscreen together in The Lucky Dog (1921), the Hal Roach short Duck Soup (1927) marks the first time Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were paired as comedy leads. They play a couple of hoboes who flee a surly forest ranger conscripting tramps to fight a raging fire. The film begins in Westlake (now MacArthur) Park, where they dash off, grab a bicycle in Culver City, pedal up and down Grand Avenue in Bunker Hill, only to crash in front of a Beverly Hills mansion. This post examines the many classic landscapes appearing in this landmark film.

Forest rangers scour Westlake (MacArthur) Park, looking for bums to fight the fire, with a matching view seen from the other side looking to the NW at right LAPL. It appears the awning shaded a seating area for concerts performed in the pergola standing in the water.

At left, Joe Cobb looks toward the lakeside shaded seating area in the Our Gang comedy Dog Heaven (1927), with a matching color postcard view, LAPL, and closer view of the forest rangers grabbing bums.

Ollie cheerily greets the menacing forest ranger played by Bob Kortman.

Stan and Ollie casually saunter away, followed by the ranger, who tracks their every step as they begin to flee. This was likely filmed in the NW corner of the park, with the now-demolished Regent Apartments peeking over the trees at back. For comparison the same corner of the park revealing the Regent appears to the right in this scene from Lige Conley’s 1920 short A Fresh Start. The Regent (1913-1983) appeared in many films, and portrayed the facade of the restaurant where Charlie Chaplin worked in The Rink (1916), inset, read more HERE.

Looking at the NW corner of the park, with the lawn (oval) where the ranger likely chased the Boys in relation to the Regent – LAPL, USC Digital Library.

Running for their lives, Stan and Ollie turn the sharp corner from Culver Blvd. right (north) up Main Street in Culver City. Marc Wanamaker – Bison Archives.

As they pedal away, behind them (yellow box) is the alley (now lost) where they would later unsuccessfully attempt to switch their mismatched pants during Liberty (1929). I document their rooftop antics in that film HERE. While the Culver Hotel remains in the modern view, lower right, the south side of Culver Blvd. across from the corner has been completely redeveloped. (C) 2020 Microsoft.

We now jump to downtown. Here they travel south down Grand from 6th Street.

A point of view shot, left, speeding down Grand toward 5th, with a matching photo view LAPL. The large lawn on the right corner was part of the grounds for the LA Public Library, and is now the site of the library’s Mark Taper Auditorium.

Stan and Ollie race down Grand toward the former library lawn on the corner of 5th, past the former Biltmore Garage on the left, also seen in the 1934 Carole Lombard film Gay Bride upper right.

The bike odessy begins with Stan and Ollie crossing Grand Ave. west along 3rd Street, matching the arrow in this map designed by Piet Schreduers. Shown here, the section of 3rd Street on Bunker Hill above the 3rd Street Tunnel was just two blocks long, running from Angels Flight on Olive to Bunker Hill Ave.

Poor Oliver really pedaled Stan west uphill along 3rd from the corner of Grand. The matching color view comes from Marilyn Monroe’s 1956 movie Bus Stop during a scene intended to portray Phoenix Arizona! The Alta Vista Apartments, far left, appear again later below.

Click to enlarge – this panoramic view shows the backdrop as Stan and Ollie’s stunt doubles race south down Grand toward the corner of 5th. The far left frame comes from the movie, the other frames come from Africa F.O.B. (1922) starring Monty Banks, shown racing on foot down the street. Details mark the doorway to the former Sherwood Apartments at 431 S. Grand, and J. W. Johnson’s garage at 437 S. Grand. The pyramid peeking out in back belonged to the former State Normal School (inset), torn down to accommodate the LA Public Library opening on that site in 1926. LAPL.

Thanks to Jim Dawson, the Sherwood Apartments portray San Francisco (look how steep the street is) during the opening scenes, at left, from Ida Lupino’s 1953 drama The Bigamist.

Opposite views of 3rd between Grand and Bunker Hill Ave., with Duck Soup looking west to the left, toward the corner blade sign for the Alta Vista Apartments (inset right), and Harold Lloyd’s race to the church in Girl Shy (1924) looking east to the right. Among Lloyd’s surviving films the corner of 3rd and Grand, depicted here, is where he filmed more often than any other spot in town. Most traffic along 3rd St passed through the tunnel beneath Bunker Hill. Only two blocks long, the short parallel section of  3rd St above the tunnel had little traffic and was easy to shut down for filming. California State Library. Novelist John Fante lived here briefly in 1933, immortalizing it (as the fictional Alta Loma) in his classic 1939 Bunker Hill novel Ask The Dust.

Above, Stan and Ollie travel south down Grand, with a garage at back, matched with stock footage of Bunker Hill used during a traveling car scene for the 1949 Columbia release Shockproof. The footage, available from the Internet Archive, was projected behind the actors sitting in a prop car filming inside a sound stage, creating the illusion they were driving outside. I have an extensive post documenting the numerous landmarks to appear in this Bunker Hill stock footage you can read HERE.

Further south, the lost Zelda Apartments (box) appears in both shots. The tall Sherwood Apartments, mentioned above, towers on the left behind Stan, while the edge of the Sherwood appears to the left of the 1949 frame.

The chase continues, matching views looking up Grand from 5th, with the library lawn to the left, and the former Biltmore Theater (Ben Hur sign) to the right.

A final view, tracing Stan and Ollie’s path along Grand, starting from the Sherwood Apartments to the left, then past the rooftop cars parked at Johnson’s garage to the right, then the Biltmore Garage across the street on the corner, and after crossing 5th, the Biltmore Theater on the other corner, all now lost, with the beautiful pyramid-capped LA Public Library in the foreground.

Leaving downtown behind, the Boys crash in front of 815 N. Alpine Drive in Beverly Hills, once standing on the SW corner of Sunset, and are soon pursued by the rangers. Flight c-4686, frame 24, UCSB Library.

This stately home also portrayed the governor’s mansion during Stan and Ollie’s The Second Hundred Years (1927). The lines and dimensions of the new home suggest the original home was first completely demolished. The neighboring home to the left in the movie frame appears to have since been remodeled.

Los Angeles residential historian Duncan Maginnis made this amazing discovery, and has identified many other homes appearing in classic silent films. He is the author of the amazingly rich and fascinating series of historical blog posts about classic Los Angeles neighborhoods, including BERKELEY SQUARE; WESTMORELAND PLACE; WILSHIRE BOULEVARD; ADAMS BOULEVARD; WINDSOR SQUARE; ST. JAMES PARK; and FREMONT PLACE.

The clue was the Max Whittier mansion looming tall in the background. Once standing on the NW corner of Sunset and Alpine, the Whittier home also no longer exists, but was notorious in the 1980s because a wealthy Saudi prince painted it gaudy colors, and lined the place with nude statues painted flesh color with highlighted genitals and pubic hair, creating quite a sight for tourists along Sunset Blvd. The inset image comes at 1:48 from a Youtube history video about Mr. Whittier. The image with the car above appears at 2:45, while the image upper left image above comes from the Alice Howell comedy Distilled Love (1920), in which Oliver Hardy plays a villain.

Both views look north. Dressed as a maid, Stan loads stolen goods into a moving van, with the Whittier home looming in the background. The aerial view is from 1938.

A modern view shows both homes have been completely rebuilt. (C) 2020 Microsoft.

Captured by the rangers and forced to fight a fire, the movie ends with Stan and Ollie struggling with a loose and powerful fire hose on an open field beside Carson Street, a popular Roach filming site south of the studio. The central home behind them at 8885 Carson appears, for example, in the Charley Chase film All Wet (1927) upper right, and the silent Our Gang comedy The Fourth Alarm (1926) lower right.

As first reported by Jim Dallape as part of the Back Lot Tour blog documenting scenes filmed around the Roach Studio, the final scene was staged in the open field to the south, with the home at 8885 Carson Street (yellow oval) marked in each image. Marc Wanamaker – Bison Archives; flight c-6926x, frame 36, UCSB Library.

Remarkably this home still stands. While the modern view shows the front facing Carson Street, the side of the home appearing in the film now abuts a cinder-block wall, blocking the view.

I want to express again my thanks to Duncan Maginnis, and my particular thanks to Dave Lord Heath, and his encyclopedic Hal Roach Studio films blog Another Nice Mess, for his insight and assistance with researching this post. Read Dave’s post about Duck Soup HERE.

This once lost movie was reconstructed with prints of the film preserved by the British Film Institute, a short scene preserved in the Library of Congress, and extra frames preserved in the Filmoteka Narodowa (FINA), as assembled and restored by the tireless efforts of Serge Bromberg, Eric Lange, and Lobster Films Laboratories.

Laurel & Hardy: Year One features all new restorations sourced from the best available materials contributed by archives and collectors around the world, as restored by Blackhawk Films® and Lobster Films in Paris. This comprehensive deluxe Blu-ray 2-Disc collection features thirteen extant films produced in 1927 and two additional films from before they were officially a team. First posted in April 2020, this Duck Soup blog has been updated with stunning new Blu-ray frame grabs from the film.

Please check out my latest YouTube video, revealing new visual discoveries about how Buster Keaton made The General, and the other dozen-plus videos on my YouTube Channel.

Where it all started, near the site of the hobo roundup at MacArthur Park.

Posted in Beverly Hills, Bunker Hill, Duck Soup, Laurel and Hardy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan Made The Kid at the Plaza de Los Angeles

Posted on August 12, 2023 by John Bengtson

Time travel back over a century ago, as Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan lead a personal tour around the Plaza de Los Angeles while making The Kid (1921) and other early films.

Charlie and Jackie famously reunite on Olvera Street, you can still visit today, but their movies provide dozens of fascinating glimpses of weary, working-class districts downtown, mostly demolished decades ago.

One tantalyzing discovery, a scene from Buster Keaton’s Cops (1922) reveals the building where Charlie filmed the rooftop chase and rescue of Jackie during The Kid.

On August 27, 2023, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Museum is screening Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last! to honor its 100th anniversary, with a live orchestra performing Carl Davis’s original score, conducted by Angel Velez, and hosted by Harold’s granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd. Details – tickets HERE. I love so many films, so many comedians, but NOTHING tops watching Safety Last! with a large audience, gasping and shrieking at every turn. Step-by-step, this video shows how Harold made this masterpiece film.

Check out my YouTube channel, with over a dozen videos showing the visual history hidden in silent films.

Posted in Chaplin Tour, The Kid | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Keaton-Fairbanks Hollywood Fire Station

Posted on July 22, 2023 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton filmed FIVE movies at the former Hollywood Fire/Police Station. Douglas Fairbanks was likely the first major star to film here, and so far as known the only star to film the now lost building from all sides. Teaser – other huge stars filmed here too, check the end of this post. Once situated at 1625-1627-1629 Cahuenga, steps south from the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley, with Buster’s help let’s follow Doug for a time-travel tour around the Keaton-Fairbanks Hollywood Fire Station. Photo Hollywood historian Tommy Dangcil.


ONE: Cultivated from his 1916 comedy Flirting With Fate, Doug’s five-point tour (see annotated route below), begins at the 1627 Cahuenga central entrance to the joint station. The plot – faced with financial and romantic troubles, Doug hires an anonymous assassin to kill him. Doug’s fortunes suddenly reverse, but unaware his faceless killer has found God and repented his evil ways, Doug fears his now cherished life is threatened by every person he meets. Doug filmed many scenes around the 1600 block of Cahuenga, including a quick dash beside the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley stairway. Purchase Doug’s film on DVD at Flicker Alley – A Modern Musketeer. YouTube link HERE.

This 1922 aerial view looking NW marks the five points of Doug’s clockwise tour around the joint fire/police station on Cahuenga. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

The joint station was constructed in 1913. Before starting the tour, consider this rare 1914 view from One of the Bravest, hosted on YouTube by Eye Filmmuseum. Note the 1625 Cahuenga street address. This marks the station’s earliest screen appearance I’ve yet been able to identify.

TWO: Moving clockwise now to the station’s SE corner. Thanks again to the Eye Filmmuseum, this composite view was created from Nr. 631 of their Bits & Pieces YouTube series of short, unidentified film clips. After seeing it posted on YouTube HERE, viewer @kathleens.4324 identified the brief clip as the Sid Smith and Harry McCoy Hallroom Boys comedy Put and Take (1921).

TWO: Looking west at the wide driveway south of the station. You can understand why Buster filmed along this quiet “alley” for three films; a wide space, plenty of room on the empty lot for his crew, with day-long full exposure to the sun, standing just blocks north from his studio at 1025 Lillian Way. Other images show a tennis court stood further west to the left behind those cars. The empty lot was built over by 1923.

Above, scenes from Keaton’s Neighbors (1920) left, and two views from The Goat (1921), filmed along the “alley” south of the station.

THREE: Above left, the same brick wall and gate appear in reverse view in the 1917 Gale Henry comedy The Masked Marvels (posted on YouTube HERE by Joseph Blough). Joseph has posted dozens of rare and wonderful early silent films – please check out his YouTube Channel for more fun discoveries.

THREE: This similar view with Buster appears in Hard Luck (1921).

Next, a closer view reveals the hanging sliding doors of the PIONEER LUMBER CO. once standing along Comso Street one block to the east. The same PIONEER sign and hanging doors appear during Cops (1922) as Buster affixes a boxing glove to an extension towel rack traveling south down Cosmo. Doug filmed many scenes from Flirting With Fate running around this same lumber yard. In 1917 the south end of the Cahuenga block, north of Selma, was still undeveloped, providing an unobstructed view of Cosmo.

THREE: Continuing Doug’s clockwise tour around the station, visual clues from Put and Take and The Masked Marvels clearly show Doug is running through the gated opening leading to the garage and storage yard behind the joint fire/police station. Doug’s view looks south across vacant land toward Selma. The view east, above right, shows that by 1917 the swinging metal gates behind Doug had been removed.

THREE: Remarkably, opposite views of the same brick wall appear on film, looking south with Doug, and looking north with Buster in The Goat. The windows above the wall in Buster’s frame stand far north of the station, and appear again more clearly below.

THREE: Turning the back corner of the joint fire/police station, now looking north, we see the garage and storage yard behind the station, enclosed by a brick wall. The image to the left appears in Soldiers of  Security, a 1926 LA-sponsored political campaign film encouraging voters to approve better pay for their firemen and policemen. Read Hollywood historian Mary Mallory’s post about the film HERE.

FOUR: Doug leaps over the brick wall enclosing the back of the joint fire/police station. Now looking SE at the station’s NW corner, we see the ground floor of the police station had barred windows to secure the prisoners.

FOUR: Looking south down Cahuenga toward the joint fire/police station, the same north-facing windows highlighted. If you click to enlarge you can see people playing tennis beyond the station tower. The three story building in the foreground is the Fremont Hotel Doug also climbs during the film.

FIVE: Completing his circuit running around the station, Doug runs between the NE corner of the station and the neighboring bike repair shop located at 1633 Cahuenga. During Flirting With Fate Doug also climbs up the front three-story fire escape of this building, the Fremont Hotel. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

FIVE: Above left, looking north from The Masked Marvels (YouTube HERE), comedienne Gale Henry appears beside the police station entrance, revealing its 1629 Cahuenga address. The matching wooden siding of Doug’s bike shop appears behind Gale.

FIVE: Above left, this 1926 view from Soldiers of Security (see LA City Archives YouTube clip) also reveals the 1629 address. The police entrance appears too in the 1919 Lyons and Moran comedy Taking Things Easy. Working with the Library of Congress, Michael Aus has made several early Lyon and Moran comedies, including Taking Things Easy, available to grateful fans. Visit his eBay listing where you can purchase such films directly. The sale proceeds benefit the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

ONE: completing the loop tour, SURPRISE, Charlie Chaplin filmed Easy Street (1917) at the same central entrance where we began our tour with Doug at the top of this post. If you click to enlarge, you can even make out the words POLICE COMMISSION and FIRE COMMISSION on the right plaque. I didn’t emphasize Charlie here because Easy Street was already the subject of this prior post chaplin-leads-the-gang-to-the-hollywood-police/, explaining how Stan Laurel, Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd, Lloyd Hamilton, and even Our Gang also filmed at the station. Also, Buster and Doug captured numerous views of the station, while Charlie recorded just this single tight shot. Inset: click to enlarge – this detail from the 1919 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Vol. 10 Page 1051 shows the joint station, its Cahuenga street addresses, the six foot high brick wall surrounding its garage and back storage yard, and the bicycle repair shop and protruding fire escape “F.E.” appearing with Doug above.

Wrapping up, this post focused on Doug’s five-point tour around the station, supported by scenes from Keaton’s Neighbors, Hard Luck, and The Goat, a trio of films explained further in this prior post front-and-back-cameos-100-years-of-a-hollywood-landmark/. Buster also filmed many scenes here from his debut feature comedy Three Ages (1923), both above, including a scene within the station.

Likewise, during The Cameraman (1928) Buster rides a fire engine into the station, providing more cinematic glimpses of the station’s interior. In closing this prior post mary-pickford-and-the-silent-stars-meet-at-one-hollywood-corner/ shows other views from Flirting With Fate.

No matter how rare or obscure, each moment captured on film expands our visual history of the silent film era. We should all be grateful to the Eye Filmmuseum, Joseph Blaugh, and Michael Aus, for preserving and sharing these cinematic puzzle pieces that enable us to walk with Buster and Doug around the Keaton-Fairbanks Hollywood Fire Station. Purchase Flirting With Fate on DVD at Flicker Alley – A Modern Musketeer.

Please check out my latest YouTube video, revealing new visual discoveries about how Buster Keaton made The General.

Below, while the joint fire/police station was demolished long ago, the “alley” driveway where Buster and other comedians filmed remains.

Posted in Buster Keaton, Doug Fairbanks, Gale Henry, Hollywood History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Rooftop Vistas from Silent Film – Hal Roach’s “Radio Mad”

Posted on July 1, 2023 by John Bengtson

Imagine visiting an apartment rooftop a century ago, the things you’d see. Overflowing with LA history, the Hal Roach comedy Radio Mad (1924) also reveals novel views of silent films such as Safety Last! and A Woman of Paris (below), as well as insight to underground poet Charles Bukowski. PLEASE CLICK TO ENLARGE EACH HIGH DEFINITION IMAGE.

Radio Mad (view on YouTube HERE) was an entry in the aptly named “Spat Family” comedy series about a bickering married couple and her live-in brother. Frank Butler played the mustachioed imbecile husband J. Tewksbury Spat, Laura Roessing played his wife Mrs. Spat, and her belligerent Brother Ambrose was played by Sidney D’Albrook. In Radio Mad slapstick mayhem ensues when Husband Spat and Brother Ambrose attempt to install a rooftop antenna for Mrs. Spat’s new radio, dealing with pesky dogs, high voltage electrical wires, and a jealous gun-toting neighbor, all before starting a fire that sends the Spats fleeing their home.

The Spat Family lived at the regally named Princess Apartments above (stripped of ornamentation but still standing at 722 S Bonnie Brae), once adjacent to magnificent buildings and homes now lost to history. Standing east of Westlake (now MacArthur) Park, the rooftop provides unique vantage points of where other silent movies were made.

The Dresden Apartments appearing in Safety Last!

To begin, looking northwest behind Mr. Spat reveals the east side of the Dresden Apartments still standing at 1919 W 7th. As posted HERE, Harold Lloyd learns early in Safety Last! that his roommate Bill Strother is a human spider when he climbs the Dresden to escape an angry cop.

Looking north provides views of the grand lost home at 680 S Bonnie Brae (yellow) and the fire department tower (orange) of Engine Co. No. 11 (LAFD Historical Archive).

Closer views of Engine Co. No. 11 at 1819 W 7th – the modern LAFD Station No. 11 still occupies the site today (LAFD Historical Archive).

The Radio Mad fire station actually appears in the background during Safety Last! as Bill scales the Dresden in this scene looking east down 7th Street. The west side of the station roof (yellow) and matching flag pole (arrow) appear in both films.

But there’s more. Charles Bukowski’s sleazy but fun poem Fire Station (for Jane with love) takes place at this station, as reported by my Esotouric historic LA tour company friends Richard Schave and Kim Cooper. The poem chronicles how Charles and his “girlfriend” earn funds to continue their drunken afternoon adventures by providing “entertainment” to bored firemen awaiting the next alarm. You can visit the station as part of Esotouric’s upcoming Charles Bukowski historic bus tour on August 12, 2023. You can read the full poem HERE and watch Charles himself read the poem on YouTube HERE.

Switching views, we see the NE corner (left) and on film the SW corner of the grand Hotel Pepper that once stood on W 7th and Burlington. USC Digital Library.

> Sigh < Can you imagine visiting this spectacular building in its prime? It was demolished in 1965, replaced by this mundane US Post Office building. The front of the Princess Apartments appears at back (yellow). Huntington Digital Library.

The Hotel Pepper was later named Hotel Wesley Terrace – the pre-demolition “VACATED” entrance photo was taken in 1964. California State Library Image One and Image Two.

Again looking NW, further back behind Frank Butler stands the Ansonia Apartments (yellow) at 2205 W 6th St., home to Edna Purviance (center) during Charlie Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris (1923), matched with a modern view. All three images show the east side of the building.

From the roof with Brother Ambrose left and Husband Spat right, now looking east at the back of the Hotel Pepper and the elaborate chimneys and tower domes of the neighboring homes at 717 and 720 S Burlington.

Back and front views of long lost 717 S Burlington. USC Digital Library.

For context, here’s a view looking SE over the newly completed extension of Wilshire Blvd. across Westlake (MacArthur) Park. USC Digital Library.

Looking closer now towards the Princess Apartments – the orange tower and yellow roof of Engine Co. No. 11 at left. The orange arrow points to the Dresden Apartments Bill Strother climbed in Safety Last!, the red arrow points to the west side of the Hotel Pepper, and the yellow arrow points to the grand homes on S Burlington mentioned above.

Another lost treasure, looking north at the south side of the La France Apartments (yellow), noted for its grand entryway figures (inset), once standing on 681 S Burlington. Front view USC Digital Library – inset California State Library.

Looking NW, the star marks Frank Butler’s spot on the roof of 722 S Bonnie Brae.

A parting view looking NE, the Dresden Apartments (orange), new LAFD Station 11 (yellow), Post Office site of the Hotel Pepper (pink), and the Princess Apartments (red).

Thank you so much to CINEPIX for posting this fun and historic film.

Special thanks also to author and historian Steve Vaught – his fascinating and entertaining Paradise Leased blog looks back on classic Hollywood and Southern California architecture, and inspired this post.

Below, the Princess Apartments still reigns at 722 S Bonnie Brae.

 

Posted in Hal Roach Studios, Safety Last! | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Ghosts of Trolleys Past – Harold Lloyd’s Haunted Spooks

Posted on June 10, 2023 by John Bengtson

Paul Ayers, attorney, SoCal historian, and Altadena hiking trail expert and restorer (Paul on Facebook, Paul’s channel on YouTube) has shared many remarkable location discoveries over the years, including the Little Tramp’s walking-away-alone finale spot from Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus (1928). I’m happy to host guest blogger Paul’s amazing post regarding the lost LA trolley history appearing in an early silent film. Take it away Paul.

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The first silent movie location puzzle I solved for John involved a railway scene. In his initial work, Silent Echoes, John actually asked his readers for help with a location, specifically, that of the motorcycle-meets-train segment from Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. I had a fairly extensive library of out-of-print train books, and in one, I found that the shot took place in Atwood, a Santa Fe whistlestop in northeast Orange County. (Read about The Circus walk-alone finale and the Sherlock Jr. stunt HERE).

Since that time I have identified a number of rail-related locations. These include the use of the Ontario Southern Pacific station in Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman, the Santa Fe line between Inglewood and Redondo beach in Buster Keaton’s The Goat and Lloyd’s An Eastern Westerner, the Hynes Union Pacific station in Lloyd’s Girl Shy, and the Southern Pacific’s Tropico station, also in Lloyd’s An Eastern Westerner. It is not uncommon that when John has a railroad problem to solve, he gives it to me to work on. The latest puzzle and the subject of this blog is the attempted suicide-by-streetcar from Lloyd’s 1920 two-reeler, Haunted Spooks.

Beginning about nine minutes into the film, Lloyd learns that a girl he is infatuated with is being wooed by another man. Despondent he resolves to end his life. Happily he does not succeed but in his efforts to do so, laughs are generated.

One of the attempts involves standing in front of an oncoming streetcar; this plan is foiled when the car switches to a parallel track just before hitting him. It was the location of this scene that John asked me to identify.

Based on the locations that John had already identified, it was clear that the scene was shot in Los Angeles. Accordingly, it was a fair assumption that the shot utilized a line of one of the two streetcar companies operating in Los Angeles in the 1920s, the Los Angeles Railway [LARy] or the Pacific Electric [PE] Railway.

A primary difference between the two railways was their track gauge, which is the space between the rails. PE used standard gauge of 4’ 8 ½”, LARy used narrow gauge of 3’6”. It was apparent to me that the track seen in the footage was narrow gauge. As such, it was fairly certain that the car and track used in the scene belonged to LARy.

There were certain specific aspects of the setting which provided clues as to the scene’s location. Above, the track was laid in a single block with “T” intersections at both ends, and a slight incline.

At the lower end of the block, above, a streetcar appears moving in the background. Looking in this direction, at frame right, a park-like open space lined with shrubbery is seen; here we see children observing the filming.

Looking uphill beyond the street-side shrubbery, a bare road cut is seen, while above, buildings, with specific architectural elements, are visible.

You can watch the brief scene on this non-official YouTube clip starting at 9:46.

In addition to these specific clues, one general rule guided my efforts. Silent movie scenes which involved trains or trolleys usually took place on little-used or abandoned routes; the simple reason for this was that the rail companies did not want heavily used lines to be disrupted by filming. The Santa Fe line from Inglewood to Redondo Beach provides a good example of this rule in action. Originally opened as a tourist line to Redondo, this role had been supplanted by direct PE lines to the beach city and by the late teens the line had become a seldom used freight line. This and its proximity to Hollywood, made it perfect for filming, and it was used by such diverse directors as Keaton [The Goat], Lloyd [An Eastern Westerner] and D.W. Griffith [Intolerance]. Mary Pickford filmed here as early as 1912 for A Beast at Bay – read more HERE.

There followed a three month period of trying to figure out where in the LARy system the subject trackage was. Many locations were reviewed and discarded because they did not match the specific elements discussed above. Books and maps were pored over, internet searches and views of locations undertaken, all to no avail. Ultimately the solution came, as it often does, by taking a look at a resource which seemed to have nothing to do with the problem.

The standard research map for LARy lines is the 1938 route map; it did not reveal any trackage that satisfied the specifications of the scene. In taking another look at my rail maps I found a 1906 map (above) which I had not reviewed as feeling it too early to provide an answer to my problem. What it revealed was an extension to the LARy “C Line” which by 1938 had been abandoned, thus not on the 1938 route map. This extension ended on a single block run on what was then Echo Park Road (“the block”). The block had T intersections at either end; the southern intersection was with Temple Street, the northern with Bellevue Avenue.

The discovery of the C Line extension quickly led to confirmation of the single block (green line above) as the sought location by additional proofs. Just west of the block between Temple and Bellevue was the Echo Park Playground (green triangle above), an open area that matched the park-like area shown in the frame with Harold and the children. Temple Street, which formed the south end of the block had a heavily traveled streetcar line. Looking in the other direction, a road cut seen in the film matched that on the north side of Bellevue; somewhat amazingly, the road cut survives to this day. Finally, building elements seen in the film, above the road cut, matched structures, some of which still survive, on Kensington Road, which intersects with Bellevue just to the east of the block.

A 1908 map of the same block (red line) where Harold filmed beside the Echo Park Playground.

1938 view of Harold’s block (red line) on Echo Park Road – USC Digital Library

For context the north end of the Echo Park Playground and the prominent road cut along Bellevue at back. Harold stood far out of frame at right near the south end of the playground, with the road cut behind him and the playground to his left – Huntington Digital Library

Looking north – the extant home at 1128 W Kensington appears at back

1128 Kensington – matching 1920 view north and 1941 view east – c-7334_104 FrameFinder

In retrospect one of the challenges of finding the location was its absolute obliteration by the construction of the Hollywood Freeway in the 1950s; if Lloyd were standing in the same position as seen in the subject scene he might be dodging freeway traffic. Happily with the scene and the identification of its location we have a marvelous remembrance of a bygone Los Angeles.

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Thank you so much Paul for this amazing discovery. My book Silent Visions shows where Harold filmed other failed suicide scenes from Haunted Spooks at the Millbank Mansion at 3344 Country Club Drive, at Lincoln Park, and at Hollenbeck Park.

Below the scene location today – the stretch of Echo Park Road between Temple and Bellevue where Harold stood no longer exists.

Posted in Harold Lloyd, Trolleys | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Silk Hat Raymond Griffith at Swanky Fremont Place

Posted on May 28, 2023 by John Bengtson

Ben Model is a silent film SUPER-HERO. Now the subject of four posts at this site, Ben’s indie Undercrank Productions has released dozens of rare silent movies to home audiences. His latest Blu-ray production now for sale, Raymond Griffith: The Silk Hat Comedian, features two previously unavailable Griffith feature comedies Paths to Paradise (1925) and You’d Be Surprised (1926), along with a video essay by film author-historian Steve Massa.

As Ben and Steve explain, Raymond Griffith is one of the best-kept secrets of silent comedy. During a twenty-five year career he not only wrote, directed and produced movies, but was also the star of nine comedy features for Paramount. Because of the disappearance and unavailability of his work he’s been forgotten. Both films are presented in stunning, sparklingly clear 2K digital restorations of archival 35mm prints preserved by the Library of Congress accompanied with new theatre organ scores by Ben.

To keep things brief, this post will focus on one small detail from Paths to Paradise – the millionaire’s mansion is portrayed by the magnificent home at 56 Fremont Place (above), once rented for a year in 1918 by Mary Pickford, and in 1919 by Mary Miles Minter. You can read all about the home’s incredible history at 56 FREMONT PLACE. [Residential historian Duncan Maginnis is the author of the amazingly rich and fascinating series of historical blog posts about classic Los Angeles neighborhoods, including BERKELEY SQUARE; WESTMORELAND PLACE; WILSHIRE BOULEVARD; ADAMS BOULEVARD; WINDSOR SQUARE; ST. JAMES PARK; and the other homes at FREMONT PLACE. Duncan’s skillful research and wonderful writing have frequently been invaluable to studying silent film locations.]

Co-star Betty Compson and Raymond at 56 Fremont Place

I became aware of Fremont Place researching Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid (1921), as distraught single mother Edna Purviance abandons her new-born baby in a millionaire’s limousine across the street, at 55 Fremont Place. Perhaps Mary residing here put this location on Charlie’s radar. You can read all about these early The Kid scenes HERE, and can watch them on my YouTube video (screen grab below) HERE.

Edna Purviance in The Kid – Muhammad Ali would later own 55 Fremont Place

Movies inform and entertain. But each newly available silent film also offers greater insight into other films, and to the past.

Above, Betty and Raymond flee the mansion with stolen diamonds. Above right, 56 Fremont Place appears as Jean Harlow’s home in the 1933 feature Bombshell.

A more detailed glimpse, the 56 painted curb number appears during Raymond’s film, and above right with Edward Everett Horton during No Publicity (1927), another film Ben restored and made available for sale.

A wide view of 56 Fremont Place as it appears during The Red Kimono (1925), where many scenes were filmed at 53 Fremont Place – read more HERE.

In closing, two more views of the home. [Note – the Raymond frame grabs are razor sharp – please click to enlarge if they do not appear clearly on this main page.]

Aside from Ben Model’s duties as resident accompanist for MoMA in New York, the Library of Congress, and performing at silent screenings around the country, his indie Undercrank Productions has released well over 22 rare silent movie DVDs. I only became aware of the delightful Alice Howell comedies (Alice Howell Collection) (see my post HERE), the equally delightful Doug MacLean light comedies (The Douglas MacLean Collection) (see my post HERE), and the series short silent comedies starring character actor Edward Everett Horton (Edward Everett Horton: 8 Silent Comedies) (see my post HERE), because Ben had first tirelessly assembled, restored, scored, and released these essential early films to home video. More remarkably, Ben and Steve Massa host live-streamed silent film comedy shows The Silent Comedy Watch Party Sunday afternoons at 3pm EDT on YouTube.

Incredibly, this beautiful home still stands.

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Wonderful Wanda Wiley … Who? Part Two – lost on Beaudry

Posted on May 6, 2023 by John Bengtson

Wonderful Wanda Wiley is my favorite rediscovered silent film comedienne. Her charm, girl-next-door appeal, and athletic stunt-work are on great display in her 1927 comedy short A Thrilling Romance.

Wanda portrays a struggling novelist, buried by stacks of rejection letters.

Things get worse when the mailman throws back Wanda’s piles of rejection letters, prompting her apartment landlady to evict Wanda by unceremoniously rolling her down two flights of stairs.

Wanda’s apartment setting intrigued me, so many unique details – the strangely configured corners, upper floor entrance stairs, a small store to the left side (notice the “OLF’S GROCERIES at back), the 327 address, and the uphill corner at right.

The apartment also stood on a corner a very short block from a trolley line (see the passing trolley above right).

While the “OLF’S” grocery store sign clue led nowhere, a breakthrough came noticing the sign for “TEMPLE SWEET SHOP” across the street. Temple Street had an active trolley line.

Wanda’s apartment (star) stood on the corner of Beaudry (blue) and Angelina near Temple (orange) -1909 map. The wonderful circle of homes on North Court – South Court now lie beneath the 110 Freeway.

By tracing vintage maps and aerial photos, I noticed a matching configuration of streets and corners at Beaudry Avenue at Angelina just south of Temple.

[UPDATE] This photo from noirish Los Angeles shows Wanda’s Beaudry apartment – arrow. We’re looking west along Temple with the Figueroa underpass in the foreground.

Wanda’s “327” address appears on the building, and a quick search for “327 Beaudry” on the Calisphere photo archive search site revealed three remarkably detailed photos of the now lost building.

As we see, Wanda filmed at the Northwest Apartments (now lost) at 327 N. Beaudry on the southwest corner of Angelina. The apartments were later occupied by Japanese-Americans prior to their evacuation to internment camps in 1942.

It’s rare to ponder about an unusual filming location, suddenly solve it, and then quickly find three separate vintage photos precisely documenting the long lost site.

As mentioned, despite her glamor and charm, Wanda was a slapstick heroine. Also from A Thrilling Romance, that’s her leaping between moving automobiles, heading south down Vine St., as described in my first post about Wanda. The post also shows Wanda filming on Vine south of the Famous-Players Lasky Studio – please read the post HERE.

It’s tragic Wanda has been almost completely forgotten, and that nearly all of her films are lost. But you can enjoy several of her films on Joseph Blough’s YouTube Channel, including Queen of Aces (1925) HERE, Won By Law (1925) HERE, Jane’s Trouble (1926) HERE, and Even Up (1927) HERE, as well as A Thrilling Romance posted below. Also, thanks to author/historian Jim Dawson for reminding me Ben Model and Steve Massa host the Danish Film Institute’s copy of Wanda’s A Speedy Marriage (1925) HERE. I hope you’ll check my YouTube Channel as well.

Below, Wanda’s long lost apartment stood on this now empty near left corner of Angelina St.

Posted in Wanda Wiley | 7 Comments

The Little Tramp’s Screen Debut – Charlie Chaplin’s Kid Autos – They Were What ?!?

Posted on March 11, 2023 by John Bengtson

My latest YouTube video presents Charlie Chaplin’s screen debut of “The Little Tramp,” while explaining what exactly were “kid auto races.” Below, a few scenes from the video, and further below, my original post about the film from 2011.

January 10-11, 1914, Chaplin’s first public appearance dressed as The Little Tramp, in Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal., at the corner of Main and Westminster in Venice, CA. Color photos Jeff Castel de Oro.

The Junior Vanderbilt Cup Race

Inducted now into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal. was Charlie Chaplin’s second motion picture release, and the first release to feature his Little Tramp persona.  It was filmed at the Junior Vanderbilt Cup Race held in Venice, California on Saturday, January 10, 1914, and at the children’s pushmobile race held there the following day.  The weekend shoot capped a busy week for Charlie at Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studio following the holidays.  (Note: Brent Walker, author of the definitive Sennett Studio history Mack Sennett’s Fun Factory reports Chaplin commenced shooting Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914), in which Charlie wears the tramp costume for the first time, prior to the weekend filming of Kid Auto, but Mabel was not finished and released until after Kid Auto was released.  Thus, the Venice race that Saturday was the first time members of the public had ever witnessed Charlie dressed as the Little Tramp.)

In my book Silent Traces I explain how Chaplin filmed most of the scenes from Kid Auto at the corner of Second (now Main Street) and Westminster in Venice, while looking either north, south, or west, and how several background homes and buildings there are still standing.  I have posted a few photos here.

Main and Westminster, looking west towards the ocean, at what was a hillside country club with tennis courts (fences), and what is now the Westminster Dog Park.

Although the film title mentions a “Kid Auto Race,” I was never able to determine what in the world was a Kid Auto Race?  Thankfully, Todd von Hoffmann, associated with www.VeniceHeritageMuseum.org, and co-author of The Von Hoffmann Bros.’ Big Damn Book of Sheer Manliness, contacted me with the solution, as reported in the May, 1914 issue of Technical World Magazine.

From Technical World Magazine, May 1914

The Kid Auto Race at Venice was, in fact, a sanctioned ten-mile race in which fourteen year old boys piloted home-made one or two-cylinder cars, many adapted from motorcycle engines, while vying for a share of $250 in prize money (that’s ~$7,500 today!).  From today’s litigate-first, bubble-wrap your child perspective, it is almost inconceivable that untrained and unlicensed youths, without helmets, safety equipment, or even seat belts, were once actively encouraged to race one another along the streets of Santa Monica and Venice.

Click to enlarge.  A photo of the Kid Auto Race appearing in Technical World Magazine (upper left), a modern view up Main from Westminster (lower right), and two comparable movie frames.

The article also describes the pushmobile race held the following day, where Chaplin was also filmed, as motorless carts raced down a steep ramp.  Three of the houses pictured in the background below are still standing (see Google Street View links in the caption).  In the far background between Charlie 3 and 4 stands the former Race Thru The Clouds twin-track racing roller coaster, once located along the former Venice Lagoon.

Looking south from Main (at the time Second) and Westminster, at the pushmobile ramp.  Three homes in the back, the far left on San Juan, the other two along Horizon Avenue, still remain (Google Street View links).

I have set forth the complete text of the magazine article below.  While the reporter duly transcribed his narrative of the event, he was either oblivious to, or deliberately chose to ignore, the antics portrayed by Chaplin there at the time.

May, 1914 Technical World Magazine, submitted by Todd von Hoffmann,

Forty youngsters dare-deviled around a ten-mile course at Venice, California some little time ago in the Junior Vanderbilt Cup Race. They all had homemade one- or two-cylinder cars and they were all after one of the six silver cups and a share in two hundred and fifty dollars of prize money.

Albert Van Vrankin, Jr. sailed home with first prize in a little over thirty-seven minutes, although in the middle of the race he ran into a ditch, turned turtle, and had to extricate himself and his car.

The starting line for the Kid Auto Race at Venice

Most of the machines were ingenious adaptations of motorcycle engines to four-wheel crafts. Many of these cars, some of which are easily controlled, are capable of amazing speed.

At the race, the ten thousand spectators, including Barney Oldfield, Earl Cooper, and Teddy Tetzlaff, who judged the finish, cheered wildly as the contestants whirled around the track.

Regular road racing rules the contest and the fourteen-year-olds traveled the course with splendid judgment and the daring of older heads.

Besides the Junior Vanderbilt, there were races for pushmobiles, which furnished a great deal of amusement for the crowd. A broad incline was used to give the pushcars a good start and most of the boys had trouble in getting to the bottom right side up.  Some of the spills looked dangerous to the crowd but none of the drivers were injured.

The difficulties of the boys in constructing cars for the Vanderbilt are told only by the perfection of the machines, because the adaptation of a motorcycle engine to an automobile is a very difficult mechanical job. The dozens of cycle car manufacturers that have sprung up within the last few months have given testimony freely that the thing can’t be done. A special motor for the little car of the “common people” has been built by most of the manufacturers, and many different schemes of transmission and differential have been used.

Check out the dozen videos about Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd hosted on my YouTube Channel.

All images from Chaplin films made from 1918 onwards, copyright © Roy Export Company Establishment. CHARLES CHAPLIN, CHAPLIN, and the LITTLE TRAMP, photographs from and the names of Mr. Chaplin’s films are trademarks and/or service marks of Bubbles Incorporated SA and/or Roy Export Company Establishment. Used with permission.

Posted in Charlie Chaplin, Venice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Silent Star Mabel Normand – the Game Girl’s Trio of Triumphs

Posted on February 18, 2023 by John Bengtson

As seen in the two previous posts, the Wonderful Wanda Wiley leapt between moving cars on Vine Street, and rollicked at the edge of the Santa Monica Slapstick Comedy Cliffs. But silent star “game girl” Mabel Normand took some good shots too. With dozens of heroic scenes to choose from, here are but three examples of Mabel giving it her all (1912 photo left).

First, Ford Sterling ties Mabel to the railroad tracks during Barney Oldfield’s Race for a Life (1913). This classic scene was staged along the frequently filmed north-south stretch of track that ran along what would later become the east boundary of LAX International Airport.

The distinctive windbreak of trees appearing behind Mabel once stood south of W. Manchester Ave. outside of Inglewood, and are also clearly visible left to right in these scenes from Mary Pickford’s A Beast at Bay (1912), D. W Griffith’s Intolerance (1916), and Buster Keaton’s The Blacksmith (1922). This post about Mary’s film HERE provides many more views of this long-forgotten filming site, and its formidable silent film history.

Mabel clings to the roof of the Castle Towers Apartment in Mickey.

Mabel’s wildly popular 1918 feature Mickey climaxes with a thrilling roof-top rescue staged years before Harold Lloyd stunned audiences with his high-rise climb in Safety Last! (1923).

Looks can be deceiving – a seemingly matching wide and close view of Mabel’s rooftop climb?

Reportedly the highest grossing film of the year, Mickey was the only film produced by Mabel’s independent studio set up for her by Mack Sennett. You can read more about Mabel’s roof-top stunts HERE.

Not a care in the world, Mabel blithely leads Numa for a walk

Last, during The Extra Girl (1922), Mabel plays a small-town girl/wannabe movie actress who lands a job working for a film studio wardrobe department. One of her menial tasks is tending to the studio mascot Teddy the dog, who happens to be made up that day with a lion costume. Instead, Mabel absentmindedly enters the studio’s lion cage (they all had one then, right?), and leads a real live lion for a walk around the studio as comedic mayhem ensues.

It doesn’t minimize Mabel’s heroic courage to explain the lion was Numa, a 550 pound 13 year old specially trained beast managed by Charles Gay at the Gay lion farm in El Monte. In a 1927 Picture Play Magazine profile story “Numa Earns a Fortune,” Charles reports Numa has appeared in over 100 pictures, without ever scratching a screen player. Numa’s sole demand is to be left in solitude for two hours during his daily feeding of 15 pounds of horse flesh. Otherwise Numa works day or night without protest (photo left).

Charles explains “When we were making ‘The Extra Girl,’ Mabel Normand took hold of a short rope and led Numa all round the set. She did not even ask if there was danger. That’s nerve! Mabel is one of the gamest girls in pictures.” [emphasis original]

Below, the full “Numa Earns a Fortune” article, Picture Play Magazine, January 1927, page 55, click to enlarge. As you can see Numa also appeared with Charlie Chaplin in The Circus (1928).

Mabel Normand “is one of the gamest girls in pictures.” Indeed, no truer words were ever spoken.

Check out my videos about Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd hosted on my YouTube Channel.

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Santa Monica’s Slapstick Comedy Cliffs – How Did They Do It?

Posted on January 28, 2023 by John Bengtson

Although Harold Lloyd was the most accomplished, dozens of others silent comedians also filmed “stunt” comedies climbing up or hanging from tall buildings. As reported many times in this blog, one very common technique was to construct a small building façade overlooking the Hill Street Tunnel (left – click to enlarge). Whenever you see a “HOTEL LA CROSSE” sign in the background you know the stunt scene was filmed above the former tunnel. Comedians also filmed looking south from above the former Broadway Tunnel and looking west from above the Third Street Tunnel – see more HERE.

Harold took this technique to the next level by building elaborate rooftop sets. But constructing sets wasn’t even necessary. Many downtown buildings had one-story penthouses or one-story rooftop maintenance buildings far from the edge of the roof that were safe for comedians to climb. That’s how Roscoe Arbuckle performed his high-rise “stunt” during The Life of the Party (1920) – see more HERE – he’s simply hanging two feet above the stepped-back terraced roof of the Bartlett Building at 215 W. 7th St. As such, nearly all high-rise comedies were safely filmed no more than a few feet above a solid surface.

But how then do you explain the other mecca for silent comedy stunts, the seaside cliffs overlooking Santa Monica Canyon and what is now the Pacific Coast Highway? Its unique geographic features, and the prominent Bundy Bath House pictured here in the background with Al St. John, and at the top of this post, easily confirm this frequently used location, looking south from the corner of the palisades just north of W. Channel Road. Santa Monica Public Library.

View east of the filming cliff (marked) left of W Channel Road heading inland

But while the high-rise camera tricks and safety precautions make perfect sense, I remain completely baffled about the literal cliff-hanging comedies filmed here.

To begin, imagine if, and I repeat if, the cliffside was defined by a series of stepped plateaus rather than a continuous straight drop. If so, perhaps the drop from the top edge of the cliff to the first plateau below might be only a few feet. That way comics could safely tumble about near the edge, drive speeding cars toward the edge, and yet still be protected from a full fall by the lower-level plateau below immediately out of camera view. (Above A Thrilling Romance, Special Delivery, and Wall Street Blues.)

View north toward the Bundy Bath House (center) and cliff location – Huntington Digital Library

There are two huge problems with this theory. First, none of the vintage cliffside photos I’ve studied suggest naturally occurring staggered plateaus were ever present.

The bigger problem, these cliffside comedies often depict comics and cars being dragged up and down the face of the cliff itself. Unlike the safely filmed high-rise comedies, these scenes aren’t faked, the comics are truly in mid-air. (Above 10 Minute Egg, Al St. John in Special Delivery and/or Aero-Nut, and Wall Street Blues.)

Does anyone know how these Santa Monica scenes were accomplished? Perhaps filmmakers built safety platforms below the visible cliff edge. For comparison, page 86 of “Fort Lee – Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry” by the Fort Lee Film Commission, depicts a safety platform built on the Fort Lee Palisades. But could such a platform in Santa Monica protect racing automobiles from teetering over the edge?

The Santa Monica cliffsides appear in so many slapstick comedies. Even our heroine, the Wonderful Wanda Wiley above, took her spills at the cliff edge during A Thrilling Romance (1927), covered in the prior post.

1931 view east – W Channel Road at far right. Santa Monica Public Library

So what do you think? The geographic location is the easy answer. But how did they safely film here, over and over again? Were there natural little plateaus out of view below protecting the actors? Did they build huge safety platforms high up against the side of the cliff? That seems quite challenging and expensive. Or were the comedians simply crazy? This remains a top unsolved mystery.

Check out my videos about Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd hosted on my YouTube Channel.

Below, looking up at the cliffside north of W Channel Road today:

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Wonderful Wanda Wiley … Who?

Posted on January 14, 2023 by John Bengtson

Wonderful Wanda Wiley was a spirited, athletic silent film comedienne, whose charm and girl-next-door appeal made her the female equivalent of Harold Lloyd’s “All-American Boy” (sometimes she even wore glasses). [Fun update – Wanda and Harold share the same April 20 birthday!] Ever ready, she bravely rolled down stairways, dived on cement sidewalks, and jumped between moving automobiles (see further below), anything for a laugh, matching her male colleagues blow by blow. Despite her slapstick antics, Wanda also posed for glamor publicity stills, above – read more on Lantern Media.

Wanda made a series of wonderful silent short comedies for Century Studios at Universal between 1924-1927. While most of her films are sadly lost, thanks to silent film superheroes Ben Model, Steve Massa, and Joseph Blough, you can enjoy some of her work on YouTube. This post highlights Wanda’s captivating comedy A Thrilling Romance (1927), where she plays a struggling author. On their Silent Comedy Watch Party YouTube link HERE, you can enjoy Ben’s musical accompaniment for the film along with Steve’s discussion of Wanda’s career. Joseph’s YouTube link HERE presents a silent but more visually clear copy of the film.

A Thrilling Romance is great fun, and it was exciting to discover Wanda’s on-screen charms, a talented star I’d never heard of before (ad above). I highly encourage you to enjoy her film. But the movie is also a remarkable time-travel machine, offering so many views of early Hollywood that this first post will cover only rare, perhaps unique views along Vine Street, including the long lost Famous Players – Lasky Studio.

Hollywood fans may know the small barn where Cecil B. De Mille filmed The Squaw Man in 1914, and later relocated to serve as the Hollywood Heritage Museum, originally stood at the SE corner of Selma and Vine as part of the Famous Players – Lasky Studio. Click to enlarge – this 1921 aerial view above looks north – the Selma and Vine Lasky barn highlighted. But pay attention to the lower left corner of Sunset and Vine. Marc Wanamaker – Bison Archives.

When Wanda, pictured here in 1927 paired with the 1921 aerial view, chases after a bag of stolen money, she runs down Vine with the rarely photographed SUNSET corner of the Famous Players studio behind her. (To be clear, Wanda was not working at this studio when filming beside it).

Update: above, the Sunset corner of Famous Players – California State Library.

Click to enlarge – this 1924 aerial view at left is color-coded to Wanda’s 1927 view. At back in pink stands the Taft Building at Hollywood and Vine, built in 1923, the yellow spot marks the Sunset corner of Famous Players, and the star marks Wanda among the homes near 1415 Vine Street. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

Click to enlarge – a reverse view, circa 1918, of the Sunset and Vine corner of Famous Players, Wanda standing among the now lost early residences. USC Digital Library.

Click to enlarge, this time a 1919 aerial view of Famous Players, looking south down Vine, again matched with Wanda looking north. Marc Wanamaker – Bison Archives.

Above, a better view north of the Taft Building. USC Digital Library.

Above, these scenes filmed looking north reveal the staggered walls that once lined the west side of Vine between De Longpre and Leland Way. I am unable to locate any photos of these long lost homes.

Click to enlarge – a much closer view of the 1924 aerial photo looking north. Wanda and her hero taxi driver Earl McCarthy stand on the west side of Vine (star), with the white porch arches of 1415 Vine Street behind them.

As mentioned, despite her glamor and charm, Wanda was also a slapstick heroine. That’s her leaping between moving automobiles, heading south down Vine St.

View south towards the Colehurst Apartments, 1106 N. Vine, left at back.

The St. George Court Apartments at 1245 Vine

Click to enlarge – vintage views of the Colehurst Apartments (left) and the St. George Court Apartments (above) appearing with Wanda. The Colehurst stands on the NE corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Vine, a short block from the former Buster Keaton Studios. Buster filmed at this Santa Monica and Vine intersection several times, but only before the Colehurst was built in 1924. LAPL – USC Digital Library.

Above, Wanda spills down the cement stairway of her apartment at 327 Beaudry Ave., dives on the sidewalk among many scenes filmed on Cahuenga, near Selma, the favorite Hollywood filming block for Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, and even visits the frequently filmed cliffs overlooking Santa Monica Canyon. Details to follow in a later Wanda Wiley post – stay tuned. [Update – check out post number two about Wanda HERE.]

Click to enlarge – Universal Weekly September 17, 1924 Vol. 20 No. 7 – Lantern Media

Wanda Wiley becomes now the fourth fantastic silent film comedian brought to my attention for the first time by Ben Model. Aside from Wanda, I only became aware of the delightful Alice Howell comedies (Alice Howell Collection), the Doug MacLean light comedies (The Douglas MacLean Collection), and the pre-talkie films of Edward Everett Horton (Edward Everett Horton: 8 Silent Comedies), because Ben had first tirelessly assembled, restored, scored, and released these essential early films to home video. I’ve posted stories about these releases from Ben elsewhere on my blog.

It’s tragic Wanda has been almost completely forgotten, and that nearly all of her films are lost. But you can enjoy several of her films on Joseph Blough’s YouTube Channel, including Queen of Aces (1925) HERE, Won By Law (1925) HERE, Jane’s Trouble (1926) HERE, and Even Up (1927) HERE, as well as A Thrilling Romance posted below. Thanks to author/historian Jim Dawson for reminding me Ben Model and Steve Massa also host the Danish Film Institute’s copy of Wanda’s A Speedy Marriage (1925) HERE. I hope you’ll check my YouTube Channel as well.

Below, looking north up Vine toward Leland Way, close to where Wanda stands on Vine near the top of this post.

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