Monthly Archives: August 2013

A new version of Keaton’s The Blacksmith – part 3, Robin Hood’s castle and more surprises

As first reported in Variety in July (and again in Variety in October), and in my first and second posts, film historian Fernando Pena has discovered that a completely different version of Buster Keaton’s 1922 short The Blacksmith circulated overseas, … Continue reading

Posted in Buster Keaton, The Blacksmith | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Leave it to Santa Monica – Beaver and Harold Lloyd

Although Leave it to Beaver takes place in “Mayfield,” set in an undetermined state, I show in a prior post how Skokie, Illinois stood in for Mayfield during a scene from “Beaver’s Fortune” (Season 3: Episode 10; first broadcast December … Continue reading

Posted in Harold Lloyd, Hot Water, Leave It To Beaver, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

The Kid – Cops – Safety Last! Three comic masterpieces filmed at a common Hollywood alley you can still visit today

Charlie Chaplin encountered the abandoned infant who will become his son in The Kid (1921) along an alley running east-west between Cosmo and Cahuenga just south of and parallel to Hollywood Boulevard.  A gang of police would later chase Buster … Continue reading

Posted in Buster Keaton, Chaplin - Keaton - Lloyd Alley, Charlie Chaplin, Cops, Harold Lloyd, Hollywood Tour, Safety Last!, The Kid, The Last Edition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Punky, Harold, and Harry – nine decades of film location history at Shatto Place

In a prior post I explain how the same setting on Witmer Street appears in a Harold Lloyd silent comedy, a 1950 film noir classic, and in the recent sitcom The Office.  Another post shows how early Buster Keaton comedies … Continue reading

Posted in For Heaven's Sake, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments