Books by John Bengtson
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Top Posts & Pages
- How Harold Lloyd Filmed Safety Last!
- Silk Hat Raymond Griffith at Swanky Fremont Place
- How Harold Lloyd filmed the Safety Last! finale (at three places)
- Leave it to Santa Monica - Beaver and Harold Lloyd
- Charlie, Buster, and Harold Silent Footsteps LA Tour
- Green Acres, Pickfair, Chaplin's Breakaway Home, and Keaton's Italian Villa
- Farewell - a sudden lost Our Gang landmark
- Hollywood Snapshots - a 1922 Time Machine
- Ben Model presents Edward Everett Horton: 8 Silent Comedies
- The Red Kimono - A Vast Record of Early Los Angeles
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Author Interviews – Reviews
- Academy Interview July 2011
- AMPAS Lecture on The General
- City Brights SF Gate Review
- Publishers Weekly Review
- KPCC Interview
- Interview on Movie Mom
- Philadelphina Inquirer
- Los Angeles Times interview
- Los Angeles Magazine Review
- MOMI article on New York and Speedy
- New York Times (see page 5)
- Author’s Modern Times Program
- Wall Street Journal
- Associated Press
- Examiner – Best 2011 Silent Film Books
- The Commentary Track
- Leonard Maltin Movie Crazy
- LA Observed
- Film Forum New York
- New York Times – Keaton Review
- 2013 Club TCM in Hollywood
- LA Times 2013
- John Bengtson on IMDB
- Talking Buster Keaton – Neighbors @ 24:30
- Talking Buster Keaton – The Blacksmith @ 11:30
- Nitrateville Radio Interview
- Laurel & Hardy Blogcast Ep. 26 Interview at 22:12
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Recent Posts
- Silk Hat Raymond Griffith at Swanky Fremont Place
- Wonderful Wanda Wiley … Who? Part Two – lost on Beaudry
- The Little Tramp’s Screen Debut – Charlie Chaplin’s Kid Autos – They Were What ?!?
- Silent Star Mabel Normand – the Game Girl’s Trio of Triumphs
- Santa Monica’s Slapstick Comedy Cliffs – How Did They Do It?
- Wonderful Wanda Wiley … Who?
- Hiding in plain sight – more cinematic magic from Buster Keaton’s Go West
- Buster Keaton’s “Electric House” Home
- New revelations about Safety Last! and The Kid
- The Kid, Cops, Intolerance revealed in a 125 year old photo
- Harold Lloyd’s “Hot Water” Sherlock turkey troubles
- Flying “Lizzies of the Field” – Part 2
- Jackie Coogan’s Charlie Chaplin’s Lost LA Alley – The Rag Man
- Harold Lloyd’s “Hot Water” “Happy Days” Home
- Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” Sanitarium Solved
- Billy Bevan’s “Lizzies of the Field” before Griffith Observatory
- What? Buster Keaton’s Studio Appears in Seven Chances!
- Case Closed! How Buster Keaton filmed Sherlock Jr.
- Soft Shoes – Crossing Paths with Chaplin, Laurel, and Lloyd
- Charlie Chaplin’s One A.M. Mystery
- Keaton Sherlock Jr. – Valentino Blood and Sand – at Avalon Silent Film Showcase
- The San Francisco Silent Film Festival returns to live cinema – Steamboat Bill, Jr. – Penrod and Sam
- Buster Keaton’s Lost and Found “Seven Chances” Homes
- Buster Keaton’s riverbank footsteps – Steamboat Bill, Jr.
- SF Silent Film Festival Returns to Live Cinema with Chaplin’s City Lights
- Take the Tour – the Buster Keaton Studio
- Lady Cops (and Harold Lloyd) Reveal 1914 Lost LA Treasures
- Silent Locations YouTube Channel
- Ben Model presents Edward Everett Horton: 8 Silent Comedies
- The Roaring Road – rare ‘new’ views of early Hollywood
- Silent Movie Day celebrates the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley
- Step by silent footstep – how the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley was revealed
- Hollywood Heritage Celebrates the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley
- Solved! Buster Keaton’s Mystery Colegrove Building
- The Kid – Chaplin’s Silent Footsteps tour now on YouTube
- The Kid – Silent Footsteps a Century Ago – Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum Chaplin Days
- Silent Footsteps Now Online – SFSFF Amazing Tales
- Silent Footsteps – SFSFF Amazing Tales Online
- Worth a Thousand Words – Patrick Mate’s Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley Cartoon
- Chaplin’s Bay Area Footsteps
- Charlie, Buster, and Harold Silent Footsteps LA Tour
- Columbo and Mannix Save Us, Again
- Early Hollywood Visual Tour at HippFest 2021
- Buster Keaton’s Early Days on Los Feliz
- Incredible new Laurel “OR” Hardy film collection
- The Lens of History – Hollywood before the Chaplin Studio
- Live Virtual Silent Locations Tour with Esotouric
- Mary Pickford’s “A Beast at Bay” a century before LAX
- Buster’s Brazen Bystanders
- Doug and Mary, Hedda and Jed, The Beverly Hillbillies Hollywood Appeal
- The Remarkable Charlie Chaplin Archives
- Buster, Harold, Mabel, and Doug, and the murder of Wm. Desmond Taylor!
- Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Lyons & Moran – the “good” old days on New High Street
- Buster Keaton’s Go West Desert – “Frozen” in Time
- Time Travel to 1919 Hollywood
- CHASE! A Tribute to the Keystone Cops
- Buster Keaton – Hard Luck, The Goat – closeups at Westlake Park
- Time Travelers: Uncovering Old LA in Keaton Comedies
- Buster Keaton – Ghosts of Go West
- Caught on Camera – Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman in New York
- Charlie Chaplin’s Once Lost Film – A Thief Catcher
- Arbuckle and Keaton Filmed in Culver City Years Before Laurel and Hardy
- Harold Lloyd’s Earliest Days Filming in Edendale
- Buster Keaton – More Backlot Scenes From Our Hospitality
- How Laurel and Hardy Filmed Duck Soup
- Keaton’s The Cameraman on the Santa Monica Pier
- Three Good Fellows – Harold Lloyd, Doug MacLean, and Ben Model
- Buster, Harold, and Stymie at the Venice Pier
- Mary Pickford, the Talmadge Sisters, and Buster Keaton at the Brunton Studio
- Keaton’s Missing Scene and Cameraman Tricks
- Silent Comedy’s Crazy Corner
- Happy “Roaring Twenties” New Year at Keaton’s Bungalow
- Buster Keaton at the Selig Studio “Prison”
- Buster Keaton’s Scarecrow Adobe
- Silent Hollywood’s Japanese Enclave
- How Mary Pickford Filmed Daddy-Long-Legs Part Two
- Chaplin’s Earliest Scenes Beside the Selig Studio
- Harpo, Chico, and James Cagney at the Brunswig Mansion
- Early Thrill Comedies – Who Was First?
- Harry Houdini Solves a Charlie Chaplin Mystery!
- How Mary Pickford Filmed Daddy-Long-Legs Part One
- Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Schindler
- The nearly last – Safety Last – joke
- The Office – Film Noir – and Harold Lloyd
- Chaplin, Keaton, and Lois Weber’s “Suspense” in Beverly Hills
- Alice Howell Early Hollywood Views
- The Hollywood Heritage in Lois Weber’s Suspense
- Harold Lloyd’s The Kid Brother Was Close to Home
- Buster’s Paramount Backlot Plunge
- Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman
- Green Acres, Pickfair, Chaplin’s Breakaway Home, and Keaton’s Italian Villa
- Silent Echoes LA Bus Tours and Podcast
- Hollywood Snapshots – a 1922 Time Machine
- Harry Langdon – His Marriage Wow
- Laurel & Hardy’s Liberty Rooftop
- Before the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley
- Chaplin falls for The Kid – every scene now identified
- Keaton’s Bungalow Outside MGM
- Oliver Hardy at the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley
- Buster Keaton and W.C. Fields in Astoria
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Categories
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Silent Locations – Chaplin – Keaton – Lloyd (and more)- Silk Hat Raymond Griffith at Swanky Fremont Place
- Wonderful Wanda Wiley … Who? Part Two – lost on Beaudry
- The Little Tramp’s Screen Debut – Charlie Chaplin’s Kid Autos – They Were What ?!?
- Silent Star Mabel Normand – the Game Girl’s Trio of Triumphs
- Santa Monica’s Slapstick Comedy Cliffs – How Did They Do It?
- Wonderful Wanda Wiley … Who?
- Hiding in plain sight – more cinematic magic from Buster Keaton’s Go West
- Buster Keaton’s “Electric House” Home
- New revelations about Safety Last! and The Kid
- The Kid, Cops, Intolerance revealed in a 125 year old photo
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Tag Archives: Harold Lloyd
New revelations about Safety Last! and The Kid
Two recent YouTube videos revealing new details from Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last!, and Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, are now uploaded to my YouTube Channel. The channel includes a playlist of other video presentations hosted by museums and other groups. Hang … Continue reading
Harold Lloyd’s “Hot Water” Sherlock turkey troubles
Wrangling a live turkey on a trolley, forced to walk it home, overlapping Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr., even more visual history is now revealed from Harold Lloyd’s Hot Water (1924). Newlywed Harold’s day is shattered when his better half calls … Continue reading
Harold Lloyd’s “Hot Water” “Happy Days” Home
Harold’s home stands on two different blocks and TV’s Happy Days Cunningham home appears nearby. So many new locales from Hot Water (1924) were found and shared by eagle-eyed reader Zebra 3, a self-described film location hobbyist, who shares what … Continue reading
Posted in Harold Lloyd, Hot Water
Tagged Happy Days, Harold Lloyd, Hot Water, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, then and now
7 Comments
Soft Shoes – Crossing Paths with Chaplin, Laurel, and Lloyd
Now streaming on the San Francisco Silent Film Festival’s website, Harry Carey’s 1925 action/drama Soft Shoes, in which Carey (right) seeks to rescue a young woman from a life of crime, was purportedly set in San Francisco. Yet the film’s … Continue reading
Posted in Charlie Chaplin, Chinatown, Harold Lloyd, Stan Laurel
Tagged A Film Johnnie, Apablasa, Asbury, Bryson, Cayetano, Charlie Chaplin, Chinatown, For Heaven's Sake, Franconia, Harold Lloyd, Harry Carey, Mandarin Mixup, Ocean Park, Soft Shoes, St. Clement's Church, Stan Laurel, The Kid
1 Comment
Lady Cops (and Harold Lloyd) Reveal 1914 Lost LA Treasures
What time machines! Thanks to the Eastman Museum, vivid details of downtown LA’s most iconic (and now sadly lost) landmarks fill the background of the 1914 gender reversal comedy Forcing the Force, restored and streaming on the museum site. Harold … Continue reading
Ben Model presents Edward Everett Horton: 8 Silent Comedies
With now this third post, let me repeat, musician Ben Model is a silent film SUPER-HERO. Aside from his duties as resident accompanist for MoMA in New York, the Library of Congress, and performing at silent screenings around the country, … Continue reading
Silent Movie Day celebrates the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley
On September 29, 2021, the inaugural National Silent Movie Day, Hollywood Heritage celebrated the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley with this beautiful plaque. This story by the Hollywood Partnership provides a good overview of that special day. https://hollywoodpartnership.com/post/first-ever-national-silent-movie-day-comes-to-hollywood It was crowded by the … Continue reading
Step by silent footstep – how the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley was revealed
Step by silent footstep, clues from a dozen silent films collectively reveal a century-old secret, the humble Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley where three timeless comedies were made. This video has been upgraded with a beautiful score composed and performed by Jon C. … Continue reading
Hollywood Heritage Celebrates the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley
Hollywood and “the movies” have been synonymous for over 100 years. Handprints in cement and the Walk of Fame honor stars from the past. But only now, with the exciting Hollywood Heritage campaign, will Hollywood celebrate its direct geographic connections … Continue reading
Worth a Thousand Words – Patrick Mate’s Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley Cartoon
Award-winning animator and wickedly funny caricaturist Patrick Mate has joined the campaign to name the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley with this delightful cartoon, capturing the spirit of The Kid, Cops, and Safety Last! with a single image. A French-born DreamWorks Animation veteran … Continue reading
Posted in Chaplin - Keaton - Lloyd Alley
Tagged Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Hollywood, then and now
2 Comments
Charlie, Buster, and Harold Silent Footsteps LA Tour
Hosted by the Los Angeles City Historical Society, Charlie, Buster, and Harold’s guided silent footsteps tour across Bunker Hill, Chinatown, Olvera Street, and other historic downtown locations is now posted on YouTube. The webinar is free, but the Historical Society … Continue reading
Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Lyons & Moran – the “good” old days on New High Street
One of my all-time favorite discoveries are the young girls caught on camera intently watching Charlie Chaplin filming scenes from The Kid (1921) (read more HERE). A closer study of Harold Lloyd’s early short From Hand to Mouth (1919) reveals … Continue reading
Posted in Chaplin - Keaton - Lloyd Alley, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Lyons and Moran, The Kid
Tagged Charlie Chaplin, From Hand to Mouth, Harold Lloyd, Harry Houdini, Lyons and Moran, New High Street, Philipe the Original, Silent Movie Locations, That's Him, The Grim Game, The Kid, then and now, What A Clue Will Do
2 Comments
Harold Lloyd’s Earliest Days Filming in Edendale
The cinematic roots for the three great kings of comedy, Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd, trace back to the earliest days of filmmaking. As reported HERE, Chaplin staged scenes from his 1914 Keystone films Those Love Pangs and Tillie’s Punctured Romance … Continue reading
Posted in Edendale, Harold Lloyd, Keystone Studio
Tagged Fatty's New Role, Fatty's Tintype Tangle, Harold Lloyd, Hey There, Keystone Studio, Lonesome Luke, Lonesome Luke Circus King, Norbig Studio, Peanuts and Bullets, Ruses Rhymes and Roughnecks, Selig Polyscope Studio, Silent Comedians, Silent Movie Locations, then and now
3 Comments
Three Good Fellows – Harold Lloyd, Doug MacLean, and Ben Model
Musician Ben Model is a silent film super-hero. Aside from his duties as resident accompanist for MoMA in New York, the Library of Congress, and performing at silent screenings around the county, his indie Undercrank Productions has released over 20 … Continue reading
Buster, Harold, and Stymie at the Venice Pier
A prior post explains Buster Keaton and Orson Welles crossed paths filming in Venice, California. But what about Buster and Our Gang superstar Stymie Beard? Above Buster in The High Sign (1920) and Orson directing A Touch of Evil (1958). … Continue reading
Silent Comedy’s Crazy Corner
Quick – what are some essential elements for a silent comedy? A park bench? An angry cop? A banana peel? If you think about it, one absolutely essential geographic element is the humble street corner. It doesn’t matter what the … Continue reading
How Mary Pickford Filmed Daddy-Long-Legs Part Two
In Daddy-Long-Legs (1919) Mary Pickford portrays an endearing young orphan later sent to college by an anonymous benefactor. Complications ensue when Mary meets her sponsor, unaware of his status, and they fall for each other. Pickford’s most financially successful production … Continue reading
Posted in Mary Pickford, The Kid
Tagged Busch Gardens, Busch Sunken Gardens, Charlie Chaplin, Daddy Long Legs, Fremont Place, Harold Lloyd, Haunted Spooks, Los Angeles Orphanage, Malibu rock pool, Mary Pickford, Millspaugh Hall, Occidental College, Silent Movie Locations, Southern Pacific Depot, St. James Park, Stella Maris, The Kid, then and now, Windsor Square
5 Comments
The nearly last – Safety Last – joke
Surviving his heroic climb up a skyscraper during Safety Last!, Harold Lloyd falls into the arms of his loving fiancé Mildred Davis, waiting for him on the rooftop. As reported in another post, this satisfying conclusion was actually filmed from … Continue reading
The Office – Film Noir – and Harold Lloyd
What do the television show The Office, the 1950 film noir drama Edge of Doom, and Harold Lloyd’s final silent comedy Speedy (1928) have in common? They all filmed scenes looking southwest down Witmer Street towards the front of the … Continue reading
Harold Lloyd’s The Kid Brother Was Close to Home
It’s time to celebrate the wonderful new Blu-ray release of Harold Lloyd’s classic comedy The Kid Brother by the Criterion Collection. Considered by many to be Lloyd’s masterpiece, this release is simply stunning, a beautiful clear crisp print, a choice … Continue reading
Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd film locations (and more) 