Books by John Bengtson
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Top Posts & Pages
- How Harold Lloyd Filmed Safety Last!
- Leave it to Santa Monica - Beaver and Harold Lloyd
- Where Roscoe Arbuckle Filmed His Brooklyn Vitaphone Shorts
- Buster Keaton's riverbank footsteps - Steamboat Bill, Jr.
- How Buster Keaton Filmed The General
- Green Acres, Pickfair, Chaplin's Breakaway Home, and Keaton's Italian Villa
- Buster Keaton's Lost and Found "Seven Chances" Homes
- Laurel & Hardy's Liberty Rooftop
- How Chaplin Filmed The Champion - on Location in Niles
- How Harold Lloyd filmed the Safety Last! finale (at three places)
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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
- 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
- Buster Keaton’s Kennel on the MGM lot
- Buster Keaton’s Blue Blazes in Astoria
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Silent Locations – Chaplin – Keaton – Lloyd (and more)- 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
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Tag Archives: Keystone Studio
The Little Tramp’s Screen Debut – Charlie Chaplin’s Kid Autos – They Were What ?!?
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. Inducted … Continue reading
Flying “Lizzies of the Field” – Part 2
One of silent comedies’ craziest scenes, race cars zooming down a ramp, flying through the air, landing in a pile atop each other, marks the exciting climax to Lizzies of the Field (1924), the Mack Sennett Comedies Studio production recently … Continue reading
Posted in Billy Bevan, Keystone Studio
Tagged Billy Bevan, Keystone Studio, Lizzies of the Field
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Billy Bevan’s “Lizzies of the Field” before Griffith Observatory
This post is dedicated with heartfelt appreciation to Dave Glass and Dave Wyatt, who join the growing ranks of silent film superheroes preserving and restoring classic films, and making them available on home video to grateful fans. Having released compilations … Continue reading
CHASE! A Tribute to the Keystone Cops
CHASE! A Tribute to the Keystone Cops, honors these still universally recognized icons of silent comedy with an anthology of entertaining and informative essays assembled and edited by Lon & Debra Davis. Historian Sam Gill provides the foreword, joined by … Continue reading
Charlie Chaplin’s Once Lost Film – A Thief Catcher
A once lost Chaplin film rediscovered?! It made international headlines a decade ago when producer-historian Paul Gierucki found and preserved A Thief Catcher (1914), a Ford Sterling comedy featuring Charlie Chaplin in a supporting role portraying a Keystone Cop. You … Continue reading
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
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Chaplin’s Earliest Scenes Beside the Selig Studio
When Charlie Chaplin began his film career at the Keystone Studio in 1914, the Selig Polyscope studio (above) stood just two blocks to the north, sandwiched between Clifford and Duane Streets along Allesandro (now Glendale Boulevard) in Edendale. Opening in … Continue reading
Charlie Chaplin’s Echo Park Home – 100 Years Later
As I explain in my book Silent Traces, Charlie Chaplin filmed several early comedies in Echo Park, just a few blocks south of the Keystone Studio where he began his film career 100 years ago. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out … Continue reading
Posted in Chaplin Tour, Charlie Chaplin, Keystone Studio
Tagged A Film Johnnie, A Flirt's Mistake, Chaplin Locations, Charlie Chaplin, Cruel Cruel Love, Echo Park, Keystone Studio, Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, then and now
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Chaplin’s First Scene – a Very Busy Place to Film
One of my earliest posts (reprinted below), reports that the site of Chaplin’s first scene, from his initial movie Making a Living (1914), was discovered by Kevin Dale to have been filmed in front of a residential porch adjacent to … Continue reading
Chaplin – Caught In the Rain 100 Years Ago by the 2nd St Tunnel
Charlie Chaplin’s lucky 13th Keystone Studio movie Caught in the Rain was released May 4, 1914, one hundred years ago today. Although Chaplin credits this film in his autobiography as his first directorial effort, Chaplin biographer David Robinson suggests otherwise, … Continue reading
Posted in Bunker Hill, Charlie Chaplin, Keystone Studio, Los Angeles Historic Core, Los Angeles Tunnels
Tagged bunker hill, Caught In The Rain, Chaplin Locations, Chaplin Tour, Charlie Chaplin, Keystone Studio, Los Angeles Historic Core, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, then and now
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Chaplin – 100 Years Ago on Sunset Boulevard
“Sunset Boulevard” – few words evoke the mystique and glamour of Southern California more than the name of this historic street that wends its way west from the heart of downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. As discussed here, … Continue reading
Posted in Charlie Chaplin, Cops, Keystone Studio, Tillie's Punctured Romance
Tagged A Film Johnnie, Chaplin Locations, Charlie Chaplin, Cops, Cruel Cruel Love, Hollywood, Keystone Comedies, Keystone Studio, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, Standing Pat, Sunset, Sunset Boulevard, then and now, Tillie's Punctured Romance
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Chaplin, Arbuckle and The Rounders
I’ve always enjoyed the comic interplay between Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle during their classic Keystone short The Rounders (1914). Charlie and Roscoe play a couple of good time inebriates, or “rounders,” who empty their wives’ pocketbooks in order … Continue reading
Posted in Charlie Chaplin, Los Angeles Historic Core, Roscoe Arbuckle
Tagged Charlie Chaplin, Keystone Studio, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Historic Core, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Silent Comedians, Silent Comedies, Silent Movie Locations, Silent Movies, The Rounders, then and now, Wilshire Boulevard
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Chaplin’s Kid Autos – They Were What ?!?
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 … Continue reading
Chaplin – A Film Johnnie at the Bryson
The remarkable image quality of the new Chaplin at Keystone collection from Flicker Alley makes it possible to identify several more scenes from Charlie’s earliest films. As shown here, the extant Bryson Apartments (2701 Wilshire Blvd.) stood in for the … Continue reading
Chaplin’s Very First Scene – Now a Jack-in-the-Box
Following the release of the Chaplin at Keystone DVD Collection, for which I prepared a bonus feature program, Kevin Dale contacted me wondering if Chaplin had filmed the opening scene from his inaugural film Making a Living in front of … Continue reading
Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd film locations (and more) 