Cheerful, dapper, always smiling, winking, performing pratfalls and dangerous stunts tirelessly in dozens of films, silent comedian/director Monty Banks is a revelation. Born Mario Bianchi in Italy in 1897, he started in films in 1916, before Buster Keaton, and made more feature silent comedy films than Harry Langdon. And he filmed everywhere, all across soon to be widely-known Hollywood and LA locations, often before other silent film stars filmed there too. While perhaps more silly fun than high art, his movies are thrilling and enjoyable. David Wyatt (sadly now deceased) and David Glass have released a truly splendid Blu-ray Kickstarter set of Monty’s rare and restored films, for which I was honored to contribute several location bonus programs. So expect more blogs about Monty in the weeks to come.

Above the Third St Tunnel – a typical Monty stunt climbing scene Paging Love (1923)

But here’s what I find most amazing about Monty. Pick any film and it is bound to be loaded with locations and early visual history. This post studies fragments of but a single film, Monty’s 1921 comedy Peaceful Alley, which remarkably was presented as part of a (1990s ?) Czech television tribute “The Alphabet of Humor- Monty Banks the Comedian and his World” hosted on YouTube – starting at 01:14 link HERE. In just this one single film Monty crosses paths with Mary Pickford, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, D. W. Griffith, and others, and provides unique points of view for scenes from Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid.

To begin, looking south, Monty filmed this scene from Peaceful Alley at the urban “Y” shaped intersection backlot set at the Brunton (later United, then Paramount) Studio.

Above, views of the same “Y” intersection set appearing in Mary Pickford’s 1919 The Hoodlum (left) and in Buster Keaton’s 1922 Day Dreams. You can read all about this frequently used backlot set in this prior post Mary Pickford, the Talmadge Sisters, and Buster Keaton at the Brunton Studio.

Above left, now looking NW, Monty flees the police toward the main branch of the “Y” intersection, matching Buster’s ladder stunt scene from Cops (1922). Monty is running past the “Money To Loan” pawn shop (visible in the Cops frame – click to enlarge) where Buster mistakenly “purchased” a horse and wagon for $5.00.

Next during Peaceful Alley, Monty runs past a distinctive narrow street corner.

Above left, looking west, reveals the now lost corner of Alameda (left) and Los Angeles St (right). Here Harold Lloyd joins the fun. Harold filmed at least three comedies here, That’s Him in 1918, and the 1919 comedies Off the Trolley, and above right From Hand to Mouth.

Above, left and right, Snub Pollard filmed Fifteen Minutes here in 1921, while Larry Semon (center) filmed Frauds and Frenzies (1918) at the same spot. Visually distinctive street corners, allowing the audience to see cops and comedians on the opposite sides, unaware of each other before slamming into each other, were very popular gags. You can read all about this frequently filmed location here Silent Comedy’s Crazy Corner. Early in my research it felt like a lucky coincidence if more than one comedian used the same location. But having documented at least seven comedies filmed at this corner (likely many more), it’s increasingly clear such locations were commonly known and shared within the small, tightly-knit film community

Now a few blocks south from the Los Angeles St corner, Monty filmed scenes looking east beside the now lost 412 Ducommun Street triangle building near the corner of Alameda. Monty is peeking down Labory Lane to the right, the towering Ducommun gas plant holding tank appears at left.

Above, two views of the 412 Ducommun Street triangle building from Cops with an inset from an 1897 photo!

More views of this once very popular filming site before it was demolished around 1923. Above left, Robert Harron in D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916), and another appearance with Monty jumping between moving vehicles in Derby Day (1922). This triangle building appeared in many other films – you can read more here The Kid, Cops, Intolerance revealed in a 125 year old photo.

This view from Peaceful Alley looks east down Labory Lane toward the Amelia Street Public School at back, now all lost.

Charlie Chaplin now joins the action. Above, during The Kid (1921) Charlie filmed scenes rescuing Jackie Coogan from the orphanage truck looking east down Labory Lane, with the Ducommun gas holding tank and Amelia Street school at back.

Above – Peaceful Alley, Monty plots to retrieve collected rent money stolen by William Blaisdell – Marc Wanamaker Bison Archives.

The Peaceful Alley scene above (left) shows the other side of the brick wall where Albert Austin and A. Thalasso discover the abandoned baby in their stolen car during The Kid (right). Both scenes were filmed beside a rail spur branching off from the main rail line along Alameda, next to a crumbling brick wall, in back of the former Rescue Mission, all now lost.

These views from Peaceful Alley (left) and The Kid (right) show matching views of the same crumbling brick wall from both sides. An earlier post reveals wide vintage photos of this location – read more at Chaplin falls for The Kid – every scene now identified.

Updating my previous post about Silent Comedy’s Bridges of Hollenbeck Park, the recent three-disc Kino-Lorber Vitagraph Comedies Blu-ray release, featuring over 40 Vitagraph Studio comedies filmed between 1907-1922, includes a segment from the 1918 Larry Semon comedy Hindoos and Hazards featured below.

Above, two views of the former Hollenbeck Park arched bridge appearing in Hindoos and Hazards, as Larry escapes one pursuer by tricking him to dive at him, only to miss and fall off the bridge.

So much of early LA is lost, demolished, built over. But as more and more silent movies become available on home video releases and on YouTube, the interplay between such films grows stronger. As seen in this post, Monty Banks filmed Peaceful Alley everywhere, and with just one single movie has provided overlapping images of once commonly used locations, while providing a deeper and wider window into the past.

Check out my new YouTube video Caught On Film – Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman. Not just the locations, moving to M-G-M, and Buster’s rented bungalow right outside, but hidden details reveal how filming at long-familiar locales, and near where he had once worked happily with mentor/best friend Roscoe Arbuckle, must have given Keaton some comfort during this difficult transition in life. Score by Jon C. Mirsalis.