Berna Eli Oldfield
Born	(1878-06-03)June 3, 1878 near Wauseon, Ohio
Died	October 4, 1946(1946-10-04) (aged 68) Beverly Hills, California
Resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery

Henry Ford standing beside Oldfield's first car in 1902

At Lakeside Track, April 1907

Barney Oldfield sitting in his Blitzen Benz at Daytona (undated)

Berna Eli "Barney" Oldfield (June 3, 1878 – October 4, 1946) was an automobile racer and pioneer. He was born on a farm on the outskirts of Wauseon, Ohio. He was the first man to drive a car at 60 miles per hour (96 km/h) on an oval.^[1] His accomplishments led to the expression "Who do you think you are? Barney Oldfield?"

Racing career[link]

Bicycle racer[link]

Oldfield began as a bicycle racer in 1894, winning silver medals and a gold watch.^[2] At age 16, in 1894, he entered his first bicycle race and soon officials from Dauntless bicycle factory asked him to ride for the Ohio state championship. Although Oldfield came in second in the race, it was a turning point in his life and he was hired as a parts sales representative for the Stearns bicycle factory, where he met his future wife, Beatrice Lovetta Oatis, whom he married in 1896.^[3]

By 1896, he was being paid handsomely by Stearns in Syracuse, New York to race on its amateur team.^[2]

Auto racer[link]

Oldfield was lent a gasoline-powered bicycle to race at Salt Lake City, which led to a meeting with Henry Ford. Ford had readied two automobiles for racing, and he asked Oldfield if he would like to test one at Ford's Grosse Pointe track. Oldfield agreed and traveled to Michigan for the trial, but neither car would start. In spite of the fact that Oldfield had still never driven an automobile, he and fellow racing cyclist Tom Cooper purchased both test vehicles when Ford offered to sell them for $800. One of those first vehicles was the famous "No. 999" which debuted in October, 1902 at the Manufacturer's Challenge Cup. The car can be found today at the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village.

Oldfield agreed to drive against the current champion Alexander Winton. Oldfield was rumored to have learned how to operate the controls of that car the morning of the event.^[4] Oldfield won by a half mile in the five mile (8 km) race. He slid through the corners like a motorcycle racer did instead of braking. It was a great victory for Ford and led both Barney Oldfield and Ford to become household names.

John Wilkinson, who designed an air-cooled engine for Franklin Automobile Company and was their chief engineer, raced against Barney Oldfield in 1902, winning the state 5 miles (8.0 km) championship in the record time of 6:54:6 in a Franklin.^[5]

On June 20, 1903, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Oldfield became the first driver to run a mile track in one minute flat or 60 miles per hour (97 km/h).^[6] Two months later, he drove a mile in 55.8 seconds at the Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.^[7] Winton hired Oldfield and agreed to supply free cars in addition to his salary. Oldfield, with his manager Ernest Moross and front-man agent Will Pickens, crisscrossed the United States in a series of timed runs and match races, where he earned a reputation as a showman. One year he competed at twenty tracks in 18 weeks while driving for Peerless, and won sixteen straight match races. He frequently raced in three event matches; in one, he won the first part by a nose, lost the second, before he won the third.

Oldfield made a fine showing at the opening of the Indianapolis Speedway (August 19–21, 1909), in a Mercedes.^[8]

He bought a Benz, and raised his speed in 1910 to 70.159 mph (112.910 km/h) in his "Blitzen Benz". Later that year he drove to 131.25 mph (211.23 km/h). He used the car to break the existing mile, two mile (3 km), and kilometer records at the Daytona Beach Road Course at Ormond, Florida. He was able to charge $4000 for each appearance after that.^[2]

Suspension and later career[link]

Oldfield was suspended by the AAA for his "outlaw" racing activities and was unable to race at sanctioned events for much of the prime of his career. Speed records, match races and exhibitions made up most of Oldfield's career. He put on at least 35 shows in 1914 with the aviator Lincoln Beachey. Oldfield raced his Fiat car against Beachey's aircraft.

He was reinstated and he competed in the 1914 and 1916 Indianapolis 500, finishing fifth in each attempt but becoming the first person in Indianapolis history to run a 100-mile-per-hour lap. His 1914 Indy finish was in an Indianapolis-built Stutz, making him the highest finishing driver in an American car in a race dominated by Europeans. Oldfield used the same car in his victory at the Los Angeles to Phoenix off-road race in November 1914. Oldfield also finished second in two major road races that year, the Vanderbilt Cup and the Corona 300. In 1915 he won the Venice, California 300 road race.

In June 1917 he used his Golden Submarine to beat fellow racing legend Ralph DePalma in a series of 10 to 25-mile (40 km) match races at Milwaukee. He retired from racing in 1918, but he continued to tour and make movies.

In 1932 he tried to re-enter speed record racing again with a new car design he touted in a major magazine article he wrote. But he found no supporters for the venture. That was his last attempt at racing in his life.^[9]

Stage and film performances[link]

He starred in the Broadway musical The Vanderbilt Cup (1906) for ten weeks. His movie career included the silent film Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life (1913), where he raced against a train to rescue a heroine tied to the train tracks. He was also featured in The First Auto (1927) as an early pioneer of automotive history. He was a technical advisor for the Vanderbilt Cup sequence in the feature film Back Street (1941). He starred as himself in a racing film titled The Blonde Comet, the story of a young woman trying to achieve success as a race car driver.

Contributions to racing safety[link]

Oldfield worked with Harry Arminius Miller, who developed and built carburetors in Los Angeles and became one of the most famous engine builders in America, to create a racing machine that would not only be fast and durable, but that would also protect the driver in the event of an accident. Bob Burman, one of Oldfield's top rivals and closest friends, was killed in a wreck during a race in Corona, California. Burman died from severe injuries suffered while rolling over in his open-cockpit car. Oldfield and Miller joined forces to build a race car that incorporated a roll cage inside a streamlined driver's compartment that completely enclosed the driver (called the "Golden Submarine").

Business ventures[link]

Barney Oldfield also helped fellow racer Carl G. Fisher found the Fisher Automobile Company in Indianapolis. It is believed to have been the first automobile dealership in the United States. [1]

He developed the Oldfield tire for Firestone, which helped put Firestone on the map. Firestone used the slogan "'Firestone Tires are my only life insurance,' says Barney Oldfield, world's greatest driver."^[10]

In 1924, the Kimball Truck Co. of Los Angeles, CA, built the only 1924 Oldfield.^[11]

Death[link]

He died on October 4, 1946 and was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.^[12]

Indy 500 results[link]

Awards[link]

• In 1953, Oldfield was among the first 10 pioneers of auto racing to be "enshrined in Auto Racing's Hall of Fame."^[13]

• In 1990, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
• He was named to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1990.
• He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in the inaugural 1989 class as the at-large representative.

Other Honors[link]

Oakshade Raceway in Oakshade, Ohio, near Oldfield's birthplace, holds an annual Barney Oldfield race.

Biographies[link]

• "Barney Oldfield: The Life And Times Of America's Legendary Speed King"; William F. Nolan; ISBN 978-1-888978-12-4

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• International Motorsports Hall of Fame Biography
• Biography
• Beachey's aircraft vs. Oldfield's car

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barney Oldfield

• Barney Oldfield at Racing Reference
• Barney Oldfield & Ford - History & Photos
• Barney Oldfield (I) at the Internet Movie Database
• Exhibit on Barney Oldfield
• Barney Oldfield Speedway at Great America theme parks

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2010)

Mack Sennett
Born	(1880-01-17)January 17, 1880 Danville, Quebec, Canada
Died	November 5, 1960(1960-11-05) (aged 80) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter, presenter, composer, cinematographer
Years active	1908–1949

Mack Sennett (January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-born American^[1] director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy". His short "Wrestling Swordfish" was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1932 and he earned an Academy Honorary Award in 1937.^[2]

Early life[link]

Born as Mikall (or Michael) Sinnott in Danville, Quebec, Canada, the son of Irish Catholic immigrant farmers. His father was a blacksmith in the small Eastern Townships village. When he was 17 years old his family moved to Connecticut.

The family lived for a time in Northampton, Massachusetts, where, according to his autobiography, Sennett first got the idea to go on stage after seeing a vaudeville show. He claimed that the most respected lawyer in town, Northampton mayor (and future President of the United States) Calvin Coolidge, as well as Sennett's own mother, tried to talk him out of his theatrical ambitions.^{[citation needed]}

In New York City, Sennett became an actor, singer, dancer, clown, set designer and director for Biograph. A major distinction in his acting career, often overlooked, is the fact that Sennett played Sherlock Holmes 11 times, albeit as a parody, between 1911 and 1913.^{[citation needed]}

Keystone Studios[link]

Keystone Studios, c. 1917

With financial backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman of the New York Motion Picture Company, in 1912 Sennett founded Keystone Studios in Edendale, California, (which is now a part of Echo Park). The original main building, the first totally enclosed film stage and studio in history, is still there. Many important actors started their careers with Sennett, including Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Raymond Griffith, Gloria Swanson, Ford Sterling, Andy Clyde, Chester Conklin, Polly Moran, Louise Fazenda, The Keystone Kops, Bing Crosby, and W. C. Fields.

Sennett's slapstick comedies were noted for their wild car chases and custard pie warfare. His first comedienne was Mabel Normand, who became a major star (and with whom he embarked on a tumultuous personal relationship). Sennett developed the Kid Comedies, a forerunner of the Our Gang films, and in a short time his name became synonymous with screen comedy. In 1915 Keystone Studios became an autonomous production unit of the ambitious Triangle Film Corporation, as Sennett joined forces with movie bigwigs D. W. Griffith and Thomas Ince.^{[citation needed]}

Sennett Bathing Beauties[link]

Sennett Bathing Beauties

player Billy Bevan flanked by four bathing beauties, 1920s

Also beginning in 1915,^[3] Sennett assembled a bevy of girls known as the Sennett Bathing Beauties to appear in provocative bathing costumes in comedy short subjects, in promotional material, and in promotional events like Venice Beach beauty contests.

Two of those often named as Bathing Beauties do not qualify. Mabel Normand was a featured player, and her 1912 8-minute film The Water Nymph may have been the direct inspiration for the Bathing Beauties.^[4] And although Gloria Swanson worked for Sennett in 1916 and was photographed in a bathing suit, she was also a star and "vehemently denied" being one of the bathing beauties.^[5]

Not individually featured or named, many of these young women ascended to significant careers of their own. They included Juanita Hansen, Claire Anderson, Marie Prevost, Phyllis Haver, and Carole Lombard. In the 1920s Sennett's Bathing Beauties remained popular enough to provoke imitators like the Christie Studios' Bathing Beauties (counting Raquel Torres and Laura La Plante as alumni^[6]) and Fox Film Corporation's "Sunshine Girls" (counting Janet Gaynor as alumni).^[7]

The Sennett Bathing Beauties would continue to appear through 1928.

Independent Production[link]

In 1917 Sennett gave up the Keystone trademark and organized his own company, Mack Sennett Comedies Corporation. (Sennett's corporate bosses retained the Keystone trademark and produced a cheap series of comedy shorts that were "Keystones" in name only: they were unsuccessful, and Sennett had no connection with them.) Sennett went on to produce more ambitious comedy short films and a few feature-length films.^{[citation needed]} During the 1920s his short subjects were in much demand, with stars like Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Harry Gribbon, Vernon Dent, Alice Day, Ralph Graves, Charlie Murray, and Harry Langdon. He produced several features with his brightest stars, such as Ben Turpin and Mabel Normand.

Many of Sennett's films of the early 1920s were inherited by Warner Brothers when Warners merged with the original distributor, First National. Warner added music and commentary to several of these shorts, but eventually destroyed the original elements for storage space. As a result, many Sennett films, especially those from his most productive and creative period, no longer exist.^{[citation needed]}

Move to Pathé Exchange[link]

In the mid-1920s Sennett moved over to Pathé Exchange distribution. Pathé had a huge market share, but made bad corporate decisions, such as attempting to sell too many comedies at once (including those of Sennett's main competitor, Hal Roach). In 1927 Paramount and MGM, Hollywood's two top studios, noting the profits being made by companies like Pathé Exchange and Educational, both re-entered the production and distribution of short subjects after several years. Roach signed with MGM, but Sennett found himself and Pathé Exchange in hard times, because the hundreds of exhibitors who had previously rented their shorts had switched to the new MGM or Paramount products.^{[citation needed]}

Experiments, awards, and bankruptcy[link]

Sennett made a reasonably smooth transition to sound films, releasing them through Earle Hammons's Educational Pictures. Sennett occasionally experimented with color and was the first to get a talkie short subject on the market, in 1928. In 1932 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in the comedy division for producing The Loud Mouth (with Matt McHugh, in the sports-heckler role later taken in Columbia Pictures remakes by Charley Chase and Shemp Howard), and he won in the novelty division for his film Wrestling Swordfish.^[2]

Sennett often clung to outmoded techniques, making his early-1930s films seem dated and quaint. This doomed his attempt to re-enter the feature film market with Hypnotized (starring blackface comedians Moran and Mack, "The Two Black Crows"). However, Sennett enjoyed great success with short comedies starring Bing Crosby; these films were probably instrumental in Sennett's product being picked up by a major studio, Paramount Pictures. W. C. Fields conceived and starred in four famous Sennett-Paramount comedies. Fields himself recalled that he "made seven comedies for the Irishman" (his original deal called for one film and an option for six more), but ultimately only four were made.

Sennett's studio did not survive the Great Depression; the Sennett-Paramount partnership lasted only one year, and Sennett was forced into bankruptcy in November 1933. His last work, in 1935, was as a producer-director for Educational Pictures; he directed Buster Keaton in The Timid Young Man and Joan Davis in Way Up Thar. (The 1935 Vitaphone short subject Keystone Hotel is not a Sennett production; it featured several alumni from the Sennett studio, but Sennett himself had no connection with the film.)

Mack Sennett went into semi-retirement at the age of 55, having produced more than 1,000 silent films and several dozen talkies during a 25-year career. His studio property was purchased by Mascot Pictures (later part of Republic Pictures), and many of his former staffers found work at Columbia Pictures.

In March 1938, Sennett was presented with an honorary Academy Award: "for his lasting contribution to the comedy technique of the screen, the basic principles of which are as important today as when they were first put into practice, the Academy presents a Special Award to that master of fun, discoverer of stars, sympathetic, kindly, understanding comedy genius - Mack Sennett."^[2]

Later projects[link]

Rumors abounded that Sennett would be returning to film production (a 1938 publicity release indicated that he would be working with Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy), but apart from Sennett reissuing a couple of his Bing Crosby two-reelers to theaters, nothing happened. Sennett did appear in front of the camera, however, in Hollywood Cavalcade (1939), itself a thinly disguised version of the Mack Sennett-Mabel Normand romance. In 1949 he provided film footage for, and appeared in, the first full-length comedy compilation, Down Memory Lane (1949), which was written and narrated by Steve Allen. Sennett was profiled in the television series This is Your Life in 1954,^[8][9] and made a cameo appearance (for $1,000) in Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955). He contributed to the radio program Biography in Sound, broadcast February 28, 1956.

Death[link]

He died on November 5, 1960 in Woodland Hills, California, aged 80, and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Filmography[link]

This is an incomplete (at the time) list of films with Sennett acting, producing and directing. Most of his films still survive.

1908[link]

In this year, Sennett appeared in 43 films with small and significant acting parts.

• Old Isaacs, the Pawnbroker (1908, actor)
• The King's Messenger (1908, actor)
• The Sculpter's Nightmare (1908, extra)
• Thompson's Night Out (1908, actor)
• The Invisible Fluid (1908, actor)
• The Man in the Box (1908, actor)
• Over the Hill to the Poor House (1908, actor)
• The Kentuckian (1908, actor)
• The Stage Rustler (1908, actor)
• The Black Viper (1908, actor)
• Deceived Slumming Party (1908, actor)
• The Fatal Hour (1908, actor)
• Balked at the Altar (1908, actor)
• Betrayed by a Handprint (1908, actor)
• Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court (1908, actor and writer)
• The Girl and the Outlaw (1908, actor)
• Behind the Scenes (1908, actor)
• The Red Girl (1908, actor)
• The Heart O'Yama (1908, actor)
• Where the Breakers Roar (1908, actor)
• A Smoked Husband (1908, actor)
• The Zulu's Heart (1908, actor)
• Father Gets in the Game (1908, actor)
• Ingomar, the Barbarian (1908, actor)
• The Vaquero's Vow (1908, actor)
• Romance of a Jewish (1908, actor)
• The Call of the Wild (1908, actor)
• Concealing a Burglar (1908, actor)
• After Many Years (1908, actor)
• The Pirates Gold (1908, actor)
• The Taming of the Shrew (1908, actor)
• The Guerrilla (1908, actor)
• The Song of the Shirt (1908, actor)
• The Clubman and the Tramp (1908, actor)
• Money Mad (1908, actor)
• The Valet's Wife (1908, actor)
• The Feud and the Turkey (1908, actor)
• The Reckoning (1908, actor)
• The Test of Friendship (1908, actor)
• An Awful Moment (1908, actor)
• The Christmas Burglars (1908, actor)
• Mr. Jones at the Ball (1908, actor)
• The Helping Hand (1908, actor)

1909[link]

Sennett directed his first film this year with D. W. Griffith, but was uncredited for his work. This year he appeared in 126 films.

• The Heart of an Outlaw (1909, actor)
• One Touch of Nature (1909, actor)
• The Maniac Cook (1909, actor)
• Mrs. Jones Entertains (1909, actor)
• The Honor of Thieves (1909, actor)
• Love Finds a Way (1909, actor)
• The Sacrifice (1909, actor)
• A Rural Elopment (1909, actor)
• The Criminal Hyptonist (1909, actor)
• The Fascinating Mrs. Francis (1909, actor)
• Mr. Jones Has a Card Party (1909, actor)
• Those Awful Hats (1909, actor)
• The Welcome Burglar (1909, actor)
• The Cord of Life (1909, actor)
• The Girls and Daddy (1909, actor)
• The Brahma Diamonds (1909, actor)
• A Wreath in Time (1909, actor)
• Tragic Love (1909, actor)
• The Curtain Pole (1909, actor and director)
• The Jonses Have Amateur Theatricals (1909, actor)
• The Politician's Love Story (1909, actor)
• The Golden Louis (1909, actor)
• At the Alter (1909, actor)
• The Prussion Spy (1909, actor)
• His Wife's Mother (1909, actor)
• A Fool's Revenge (1909, actor)
• The Wooden Leg (1909, actor)
• The Roue's Heart (1909, actor
• The Salvation Army Lass (1909, actor)
• The Lure of the Gown (1909, actor)
• The Voice of the Violin (1909, actor)
• The Deception (1909, actor)
• And a Little Child Shall Lead Them (1909, actor)
• A Burglar's Mistake (1909, actor)
• The Medicine Bottle (1909, actor)
• Jones and His New Neighbors (1909, actor)
• A Drunkards Reformation (1909, actor)
• Trying to Get Arrested (1909, actor and writer)
• The Road to the Heart (1909, actor)
• Schneider's Anti Noise Crusade (1909, actor)
• A Rude Hostess (1909, actor)
• The Winning Coat (1909, actor)
• A Sound Sleeper (1909, actor)
• Confidence (1909, actor)
• Lady Helen's Escape (1909, actor)
• A Troublesome Satchel (1909, actor
• Twin Brothers (1909, actor)
• Lucky Jim (1909, actor)
• Tis an III Wind That Blows No Good (1909, actor)
• The Suicide Club (1909, actor)
• The Note in the Shoe (1909, actor)
• One Busy Hour (1909, actor)
• The French Duel (1909, actor)
• Jones and the Lady Book Agent (1909, actor)
• A Baby's Shoe (1909, actor)
• The Jilt (1909, actor)
• Resurrection (1909, actor)
• Two Memories (1909, actor)
• Eloping with Auntie (1909, actor)
• The Cricket on the Heart (1909, actor)
• What Drink Did (1909, actor)
• The Violin Maker of Cremona (1909, actor)
• The Lonely Villa (1909, actor and writer)
• A New Trick (1909, actor)
• The Son's Return (1909, actor)
• The Faded Lillie's (1909, actor)
• Her First Biscuits (1909, actor)
• Was Justice Served (1909, actor)
• The Peachbasket Hat (1909, actor)
• The Mexican Sweethearts (1909, actor)
• The Way of Man. (1909, actor)
• The Necklace (1909, actor)
• The Message (1909, actor)
• The Cardinal's Conspiracy (1909, actor)
• Jealousy and the Man (1909, actor)
• A Convict's Sacrifice (1909, actor)
• The Slave (1909, actor)
• A Strange Meeting (1909, actor)
• The Mended Lute (1909, actor)
• They Would Elope (1909, actor)
• Mr. Jones' Burglar (1909, actor)
• The Better Way (1909, actor)
• With Her Card (1909, actor)
• Mrs. Jones Lover; or 'I Want My Hat (1909, actor)
• His Wife's Visitor (1909, actor)
• The Indian Runner's Romance (1909, actor)
• The Seventh Day (1909, actor)
• Oh, Uncle (1909, actor)
• The Mills of the Gods (1909, actor)
• The Sealed Room (1909, actor)
• The Little Darling (1909, actor)
• The Hessian Renegades (1909, actor)
• Getting Even (1909, actor)
• The Broken Locket (1909, actor)
• In Old Kentucky (1909, actor)
• A Fair Exchange (1909, actor)
• The Awakening (1909, actor)
• Pippa Passes; or, The Song of Conscience (1909, actor, first film to be reviewed by New York Times)
• The Little Teacher (1909, actor)
• A Change of Heart (1909, actor)
• His Lost Love (1909, actor)
• The Expiation (1909, actor)
• In the Watches of the Night (1909, actor)
• Lines of White on a Sullen Sea (1909, actor)
• What's Your Hurry (1909, actor)
• The Gibson Goddess (1909, actor)
• Nursing a Viper (1909, actor)
• The Light that Came (1909, actor)
• Two Woman and a Man (1909, actor)
• A Midnight Avenue (1909, actor)
• The Open Gate (1909, actor)
• The Mountaineer's Honor (1909, actor)
• The Trick that Failed (1909, actor)
• In the Widow Recess (1909, actor)
• The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period (1909, actor)
• Through the Breakers (1909, actor)
• The Red Man's View (1909, actor)
• A Corner in Wheat (1909, actor)
• In a Hempen Bag (1909, actor)
• A Trap for Santa Clause (1909, uncredited)
• In Little Italy (1909, actor)
• To Save Her Soul (1909, actor)
• The Day After (1909, actor)
• Choosing a Husband (1909, actor)
• Choosing a Husband (1909, actor)

1910[link]

This year Sennett was in 69 films.

• The Dancing Girl of Butte (1910, actor)
• All Account of the Milk (1910, actor)
• The Call (1910, actor)
• The Last Deal (1910, actor)
• The Cloister's Touch (1910, actor)
• The Women From Mellon's (1910, actor)
• One Night, and Then -- (1910, actor)
• The Englishman and the Girl (1910, actor)
• Taming a Husband (1910, actor)
• The Newlyweds (1910, actor)
• The Thread of Destiny (1910, actor)
• In Old California (1910, actor)
• The Converts (1910, actor)
• The Love of Lady Irma (1910, actor)
• Faithful (1910, actor)
• The Twisted Trail (1910, actor)
• Gold Is Not All (1910, actor)
• The Two Brothers (1910, actor)
• As It Is in Life (1910, actor)
• A Rich Revenge (1910, actor)
• The Way of the World (1910, actor)
• Up a Tree (1910, actor)
• The Gold Seekers (1910, actor)
• Love Among the Roses (1910, actor)
• Over Silent Paths (1910, actor)
• An Affair of Hearts (1910, actor)
• Ramona (1910, actor)
• A Knot in the Plot (1910, actor)
• In the Season of Buds (1910, actor)
• The Purgation (1910, actor)
• A Victim of Jealously (1910, actor)
• In the Border States (1910, actor)
• The Face at the Window (1910, actor)
• Never Again (1910, actor)
• The Marked Time Table (1910, actor)
• A Child's Impulse (1910, actor)
• A Midnight Cupid (1910, actor)
• What the Daisy Said (1910, actor)
• A Child's Faith (1910, actor)
• A Flash of Light (1910, actor)
• Serious Sixteen (1910, actor)
• As the Bell's Rang Out! (1910, actor)
• The Call to Arms (1910, actor)
• An Arcadian Maid (1910, actor)
• Her Fathers Pride (1910, actor)
• A Salutary Lesson (1910, actor)
• The Userer (1910, actor)
• When We Were in Our Teens (1910, actor)
• Witful Peggy (1910, actor)
• The Modern Prodigal (1910, actor)
• The Affair of an Egg (1910, actor)
• Muggsy Becomes a Hero (1910, actor)
• Little Angels of Luck (1910, actor)
• A Mohawks Way (1910, actor)
• A Summer Tragedy (1910, actor)
• Examination Day at School (1910, actor)
• The Iconoclast (1910, actor)
• A Gold Necklace (1910, actor)
• The Masher (1910, actor)
• A Lucky Tootache (1910, actor and writer)
• The Broken Doll (1910, actor)
• The Passing of a Grouch (1910, actor)
• Love in Quarantine (1910, actor)
• The Song of the Wildwood Flute (1910, actor)
• Not So Bad as it Seemed (1910, actor)
• Effecting a Cure (1910, actor, writer and director)
• Happy Jack a Hero (1910, actor)
• His Wife's Sweethearts (1910, actor)
• After the Ball (1910, actor)

1911[link]

In this year Sennett did more directing, but still starred in films. He was involved in 59 films this year.

• The Italian Barber (1911, actor)
• His Trust 1911, actor)
• His Trust Fulfilled (1911, actor)
• Three Sisters (1911, actor)
• Priscilla's Engagement Ring (1911, actor)
• Fisher Folks (1911, actor)
• His Daughter (1911, actor)
• A Decree of Destiny (1911, actor)
• Comrades (1911, actor, writer and director)
• Cured (1911, actor)
• The Spanish Gypsy (1911, actor)
• Paradise Lost (1911, actor and director)
• Misplaced Jealousy (1911, actor, writer and director)
• Cupid's Joke (1911, actor and director)
• The Country Lovers (1911, actor)
• The New Dress (1911, actor)
• The Manicure Lady (1911, actor and director)
• The White Rose of the Wilds (1911, actor)
• Dutch Gold Mine (1911, actor and director)
• Bearded Youth (1911, actor and director)
• The Ghost (1911, actor)
• The Beautiful Voice (1911, actor and director)
• Mr. Peck Goes Calling (1911, actor director)
• That Dare Devil (1911, actor and director)
• The $500 Reward (1911, actor and director, Early Sherlock Holmes film, Sennett plays Sherlock.)
• The Village Hero (1911, actor and director)
• Too Many Burglars (1911, actor and director)
• Mr. Bragg, a Fugitive (1911, actor and director)
• Trailing the Counterfeiter (1911, actor and director)
• Through His Wife's Picture (1911, actor and director)
• The Inventor's Secret (1911, actor and director)
• Their First Divorce Case (1911, actor and director)
• Caught with the Goods (1911, actor and director)
• Priscilla and the Umbrella (1911, director)
• Curiosity (1911, director)
• Theit Fates 'Sealed' (1911, director)
• Dave's Love Affair (1911, director)
• The Delayed Proposal (1911, director)
• The Wonderful Eye (1911, director)
• Stubbs' New Serveants (1911, director)
• Jinks Joins the Temperance Club (1911, director)
• An Interrupted Game (1911, director)
• The Diving Girl (1911, director)
• The Villain Foiled (1911, director)
• The Baron (1911, director)
• The Lucky Horse Shoe (1911, director)
• When Wifey Holds the Purse Strings (1911, director)
• A Convenient Burglar (1911, director and writer)
• Josh's Suicide (1911, director)
• A Victim of Circumstance (1911, director)
• Won Through a Medium (1911, director)
• Dooley's Scheme (1911, director)
• Resourceful Lovers (1911, director)
• Her Mother Interfers (1911, director)
• Why He Gave Up (1911, director and supervisor producer)
• Abe Gets Even with Father (1911, director)
• Taking His Medicine (1911, director)
• Her Pet (1911, director)
• A Mix-up in Rain Coats (1911, director)

1912[link]

Sennett was involved in 83 films this year.

• Did Mother Get Her Wish? (1912, actor and director)
• The Fatal Chocolate (1912, actor and director)
• A Message from the Moon (1912, actor and director)
• A String of Pearls (1912, actor)
• A Spanish Dilemma (1912, actor and director)
• Hot Stuff (1912, actor and director)
• These Hicksville Boys (1912, actor and director)
• Their First Kidnapping Case (1912, actor and director)
• The Brave Hunter (1912, actor and director)
• The Furs (1912, actor and director)
• Helen's Marriage (1912, actor and director)
• Tomboy Bessie (1912, actor and director)
• The New Baby (1912, actor and director)
• Man's Genesis (1912, actor uncredited)
• The Speed Demon (1912, actor and director)
• The Would-Be Shriner (1912, actor and director)
• What the Doctor Ordered (1912, actor and director)
• The Tourist (1912, unconfirmed of he was in picture, director and producer)
• The Water Nymph (1912, actor, director and producer)
• Cohen Collects a Debt (1912, actor, director and producer)
• The New Neighbor (1912, actor, director and producer)
• Riley and Schultz (1912, actor, director and producer)
• Pedro's Dilemma (1912, actor, director and producer)
• The Flirting Husband (1912, actor, director and producer)
• Ambitious Butler (1912, actor, director and producer)
• At Coney Island (1912, actor, director and producer)
• Ay it Again (1912, actor, director and producer)
• The Deacon's Troubles (1912, actor, director and producer)
• A Temperamental Husband (1912, actor, director and producer)
• The Rivals (1912, actor, director and producer)
• Mr. Fix-It (1912, actor, director and producer)
• A Bear Escape (1912, actor, director and producer)
• Pat's Day Off (1912, actor, director and producer)
• The New York Hat (1912, actor)
• A Family Mix Up (1912, actor, director and producer)
• Hoffmeyers Legacy (1912, actor, director and producer)
• The Duel (1912, actor, director and producer)
• Who Got the Reward (1912, director)
• The Joke on the Joker (1912, director)
• Brave and Bold (1912, director)
• With a Kodak (1912, director)
• Pants and Pansies (1912, director
• Lily's Lover (1912, director)
• A Near Tragedy (1912, director)
• Got a Match (1912, director)
• Priscilla's Capture (1912, director)
• The Engagement Ring (1912, director)
• A Voice from the Deep (1912, director)
• Those Hickville Boys (1912, director)
• Oh, Those Eyes (1912, director)
• Help! Help! (1912, director)
• Won by a Fish (1912, director)
• The Leading Man (1912, director)
• The Fickel Spaniard (1912, director)
• When the Fire Bells Rang (1912, director)
• A Close Call (1912, director)
• Neighbors (1912, director)
• Katchem Kate (1912, director)
• The New Baby (1912, director)
• A Dash Through the Clouds (1912, director)
• Trying to Fool Uncle (1912, director)
• One Round O'Brien (1912, director)
• His Own Fault (1912, director)
• Stern Pappa (1912, director)
• He Must Have a Wife (1912, director)
• His Own Fault (1912, director)
• Willie Becomes an Artist (1912, director)
• The Would-Be Shriner (1912, director)
• Tragedy of the Dress Suit (1912, director)
• An Interrupted Elopment (1912, director)
• Through Dumb Luck (1912, supervising director)
• He Must Have a Wife (1912, director)
• The Beating He Needed (1912, director and producer)
• Stolen Glory (1912, director and producer)
• The Grocery Clerk's Romance (1912, director and producer)
• Mabel's Lovers (1912, director and producer)
• A Desperate Lover (1912, director and producer)
• An Absent Minded Burglar (1912, unconfirmed of directed by Mack)
• A Midnight Elopment (1912, director and producer)
• Useful Sheep (1912, unconfirmed of it was directed by Sennett)
• Mabel's Adventures (1912, director and producer)
• The Drummer's Vacation (1912, director and producer)
• Mabel's Stratagem (1912, director and producer)

1913[link]

• How Hiram Won Out (1913, actor, director and producer)
• The Mistaken Masher (1913, actor, director and producer)
• The Elite Ball (1913, actor, director and producer)
• The Battle of Who Run (1913, actor, director and producer)
• The Stolen Purse (1913, actor, director and producer)
• The Jealous Waiter (1913, actor, director and producer)
• Mabel's Heroes (1913, actor, director and producer)
• A Landlord's Troubles (1913, actor, director and producer)
• The Sleuth's Last Stand (1913, actor, director and producer)
• The Sleuth's Floral Parade (1913, actor, director and producer)
• A Strong Revenge (1913, actor, director and producer)
• The Rube and the Baron (1913, actor, director and producer)
• At Twelve O'Clock (1913, actor, director and producer)
• Her New Beau (1913, actor and producer)
• Those Good Old Days (1913, actor, director and producer)
• Murphy's I.O.U. (1913, actor and producer)
• His Ups and Downs (1913, director and producer, unconfirmed of he was a actor in film)
• Mabel's Awful Mistake (1913, actor, director and producer)
• Their First Exucition (1913, actor, director and producer)
• Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life (1913, actor, director, producer)
• The Hansome Driver (1913, actor, director and producer)
• Peeping Pete (1913, actor, director and producer)
• His Crooked Career (1913, actor, director and producer)
• Rastus and the Game Cock (1913, actor, director and producer)
• The Firebugs (1913, actor, director and producer)
• Mabel's Dramatic Career (1913, actor, director and producer)
• A Healthy Neighborhood (1913, actor, director and producer)
• Love Sickness at Sea (1913, actor, director, producer)
• Saving Mabel's Dad (1913, director and producer)
• A Double Wedding (1913, director and producer)
• The Cure that Failed (1913, director and producer)
• Sir Thomas Lipton Out West (1913, director and producer)
• For Lizzie's Sake (1913, director and producer)
• The Deacon Outwitted (1913, director and producer)
• Just Brown's Luck (1913, director and producer)
• Her Birthday Present (1913, director and producer)
• Heinz's Resurrection (1913, director and producer)
• Forced Bravery (1913, director and producer)
• The Professor's Daighter (1913, director and producer)
• A Tangled Affair (1913, director and producer)
• A Red Hot Romance (1913, director and producer)
• A Doctored Affair (1913, director and producer)
• The Rural Third Degree (1913, director and producer)
• The Man Next Door (1913, director and producer)
• A Wife Wanted (1913, director and producer)
• The Chief's Predicament (1913, director and producer)
• Jenny's Pearls (1913, director and producer)
• On His Wedding Day (1913, director and producer)
• Hide and Seek (1913, director and producer)
• A Game of Poker (1913, director and producer)
• A Life in the Balance (1913, director and producer)
• A Fishy Affair (1913, director and producer)
• The New Conductor (1913, director and producer)
• His Chum the Baron (1913, director and producer)
• That Ragtime Band (1913, director and producer)
• A Little Hero (1913, director and producer)
• Hubby's Job (1913, director and producer)
• The Foreman of the Jury (1913, director and producer)
• Feeding Time (1913, director)
• The Speed Queen (1913, director and producer)
• The Waiter's Picnic (1913, director and producer)
• A Bandit (1913, director and producer)
• The Largest Boat Ever Launched Sideways (1913, director and producer)
• Safe in Jail (1913, director and producer)
• The Telltale Light (1913, director and producer)
• A Noise from the Deep (1913, director and producer)
• The Riot (1913, director and producer)
• Mabel's New Hero (1913, director and producer)
• The Gypsy Queen (1913, director and producer)
• The Fatal Taxicab (1913, director and producer
• What Dreams Come True (1913, director and producer)
• The Bowling Match (1913, director and producer)
• Schnitz the Tailor (1913, director and producer)
• The Making of an Automobile Tyre (1913, director and producer)
• A Muddy Romance (1913, director and producer)
• Cohen Saves the Flag (1913, director and producer)
• The San Francisco Celebration (1913, director and producer)
• The Gusher (1913, director and producer)
• A Bad Game (1913, director and producer)
• Zuzu the Bandleader (1913, director and producer)
• Some Nerve (director and producer)
• The Champion (1913, producer)
• His Sister's Kids (1913, producer)
• Fatty's Flirtation (1913, producer)
• The Horse Thief (1913, producer)
• A Ride for a Bride (1913, producer)
• The Rogue's Gallery (1913, producer)
• The Woman Haters (1913, producer)

Tributes[link]

For his contribution to the motion picture industry Sennett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6712 Hollywood Blvd. Also in 2004, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

The Keystone legacy[link]

Some historians credit Sennett's films with having been responsible for municipal police forces across North America altering their uniforms to include military style officers' caps since by the 1920s tall, British-style hats had become so indelibly associated with slapstick comedy.^{[citation needed]}

A line in a Henry Kuttner science fiction short story, Piggy Bank, reads "Within seconds the scene resembled a Mack Sennett pie-throwing comedy." ^[10]

Henry Mancini's score for the 1963 film, The Pink Panther, the original entry in the series, contains a segment called "Shades of Sennett". It is played on a silent film era style "honky tonk" piano, and accompanies a climactic scene in which the incompetent police detective Inspector Clouseau is involved in a multi-vehicle chase with the antagonists.

In 1974, Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman wrote the musical Mack & Mabel, chronicling the romance between Sennett and Mabel Normand. Sennett also was a leading character in The Biograph Girl, a 1980 musical about the silent film era.

Peter Lovesey's 1983 novel Keystone is a whodunnit set in the Keystone Studios and involving (among others), Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle and the Keystone Cops.

Dan Aykroyd portrays Mack Sennett in the 1992 movie Chaplin. Marisa Tomei plays Mabel Normand.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

References[link]

1. ^ "Give Citizenship to Mack Sennett". http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19320325&id=ZoUSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3fQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2954,5607197. Retrieved 2010-04-23. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Academy Awards Database at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
3. ^ "Splashes of Fun and Beauty", Hilde d'Haeyere, collected in Slapstick Comedy by Rob King, page 205
4. ^ One reel a week By Fred J. Balshofer, Arthur C. Miller, page 81
5. ^ Silent Stars By Jeanine Basinger, page 205
6. ^ An encyclopedic dictionary of women in early American films, 1895-1930 By Denise Lowe, page 308
7. ^ The fun factory: the Keystone Film Company and the emergence of mass culture By Rob King, page 211
8. ^ This Is Your Life, broadcast March 10, 1954. at the Internet Movie Database
9. ^ Thomas, Bob (1954). "Sennett Takes Sentimental Journey in Past at Reunion". Panama City News, March 12, 1954. Retrieved from Looking for Mabel Normand on 2012-02-03.
10. ^ A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, vol.2, Anthony Boucher (ed.) Doubleday & Co., 1959.

Further reading[link]

• Lahue, Kalton (1971); Mack Sennett's Keystone: The man, the myth and the comedies; New York: Barnes; ISBN 978-0-498-07461-5

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mack Sennett

• Mack Sennett at the Internet Movie Database
• Mack Sennett at Find a Grave
• Mack Sennett at Virtual History

Mabel Normand
Born	Amabel Ethelreid Normand (1892-11-09)November 9, 1892 New Brighton, Staten Island, U.S.
Died	February 23, 1930(1930-02-23) (aged 37) Monrovia, California, U.S.
Other names	Mabel Normand-Cody
Occupation	Actress, comedian, director, screenwriter, producer
Years active	1910–1927
Spouse	Lew Cody (1926–1930)

Mabel Normand (November 9, 1892^[1] – February 23, 1930) was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios^[2] and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors.^[3] Onscreen she co-starred in commercially successful films with Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle more than a dozen times each, occasionally writing and directing movies featuring Chaplin as her leading man.^[4] At the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s, Normand had her own movie studio and production company.

Throughout the 1920s her name was linked with widely publicized scandals including the 1922 murder of William Desmond Taylor and the 1924 shooting of Courtland S. Dines, who was shot by Normand's chauffeur with her pistol. She was not a suspect in either crime. Her film career declined, possibly due to both scandals and a recurrence of tuberculosis in 1923, which led to a decline in her health, retirement from films and her death in 1930 at age 37.^[5][6]

Early life and career[link]

Mabel Normand, 1918

Born Amabel Ethelreid Normand in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York, she grew up in extreme poverty. Her father, Claude Normand, was sporadically employed as a carpenter at Sailors' Snug Harbor home for elderly seamen. Before she entered films at age 16 in 1909, Normand worked as an artist's model, which included posing for postcards illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the Gibson Girl image. She met director Mack Sennett while at D. W. Griffith's Biograph Company and embarked on a tumultuous affair with him; he later brought her across when he founded Keystone Studios in 1912. Her first films portrayed her as a bathing beauty, but Normand quickly demonstrated a flair for comedy and became a star of Sennett's short films. Normand appeared with Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle in many short films.

She played a role in starting Chaplin's film career and acted as his leading lady and mentor in a number of films, sometimes co-writing and/or co-directing films with him. Chaplin had considerable initial difficulty adjusting to the demands of film acting and his performance suffered for it. After his first film appearance in Making a Living, Sennett felt he had made a costly mistake.^[7] Most historians agree it was Normand who persuaded him to give Chaplin another chance.^[8]

In 1914 she starred with Chaplin and Marie Dressler in Tillie's Punctured Romance, the first feature-length comedy. Later that same year, Chaplin first played his Tramp character in Mabel's Strange Predicament, although it wound up being the second Tramp film released. In 1918, as her relationship with Sennett came to an end, Normand signed a $3,500 a week contract with Samuel Goldwyn and opened a film studio in Culver City. Her breakup with Sennett seems to have caused Normand to re-evaluate her life and she embarked on a program of self-education, developing keen and lasting interests in reading and books.

Scandals[link]

Autographed photo of Mabel Normand by Fred Hartsook (1876–1930), taken circa 1918.

Director William Desmond Taylor shared her interest in books and the two formed a close relationship. According to author Robert Giroux, Taylor was deeply in love with Normand, who had originally approached him for help in curing her cocaine dependency. Based upon Normand's subsequent statements to investigators, her repeated relapses were devastating for Taylor. According to Giroux, Taylor met with Federal prosecutors shortly before his death and offered to assist them in filing charges against Normand's cocaine suppliers. Giroux expresses a belief that Normand's suppliers learned of this meeting and hired a contract killer to assassinate the director. According to Giroux, Normand suspected the reasons for her lover's murder, but did not know the identity of the triggerman.^[9]

On the night of his murder, Normand left Taylor's bungalow at 7:45 p.m. in a happy mood, carrying a book he had given her as a loan. They blew kisses to each other as her limousine drove away. Normand was the last person known to have seen Taylor alive.

The Los Angeles Police Department subjected Normand to a grueling interrogation, but ruled her out as a suspect.^[10] Most subsequent writers have done the same. However, Normand's career had already slowed and her reputation was tarnished by revelations of her addiction, which was seen as a moral failing. According to George Hopkins, who sat next to her at Taylor's funeral, Normand wept inconsolably throughout the ceremony.^[11]

Dines shooting[link]

In 1924 her chauffeur Joe Kelly shot and wounded millionaire oil broker and amateur golfer Courtland S. Dines with her pistol.^[12][13] At the time Dines was romantically involved with Normand's friend (and frequent Chaplin co-star) Edna Purviance. Ms. Purviance was also the next door neighbor of William Desmond Taylor.

Who's Who in the Film World, 1914

Later career and death[link]

She continued making films and was signed by Hal Roach Studios in 1926 after discussions with director/producer F. Richard Jones, who had directed her at Keystone. At Roach she made the film Raggedy Rose plus four others which were released with publicity support from the Hollywood community (including her friend Mary Pickford).

In 1926 she married actor Lew Cody, with whom she had appeared in Mickey in 1918.^[14] They lived separately in nearby houses in Beverly Hills before Cody moved in with her. However, Normand's health was in decline. After an extended stay in a sanitarium she died from tuberculosis in Monrovia, California at the age of 37.^[15] She was interred as Mabel Normand-Cody at Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles.

Legacy[link]

Mabel Normand has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard.

Her film Mabel's Blunder (1914) was added to the National Film Registry in December 2009.^[16]

In June 2010, the New Zealand Film Archive reported the discovery of a print of Normand's film Won in a Closet (exhibited in New Zealand under its alternate title Won in a Cupboard), a short comedy previously believed lost. This film is a significant rediscovery, as Normand directed this movie as well as starring in the lead role, so it is a showcase for her talents on both sides of the camera.^[17]

Quote[link]

• Say anything you like, but don't say I love to work. That sounds like Mary Pickford, the prissy bitch.^[18] (Normand and Pickford were close friends; this was meant jokingly.)

Cultural references[link]

A nod to Normand's celebrity in early Hollywood came through the name of a leading character in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, "Norma Desmond", which has been cited as a combination of the names Mabel Normand and William Desmond Taylor.^[19][20] The 1974 Broadway musical Mack & Mabel (Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman) fictionalized the romance between Normand and Mack Sennett. Normand was played by Bernadette Peters and Robert Preston played Mack Sennett.

Normand is played by actress Marisa Tomei in the 1992 film Chaplin, by Morganne Picard in the motion picture Return to Babylon (2008), and by Penelope Lagos in the first bio-pic about her life, a 35-minute dramatic short film entitled Madcap Mabel (2010).

Selected filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Basinger, Jeanine (2000). Silent Stars. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6451-1. http://books.google.com/?id=pd4nAQAAIAAJ&dq=isbn%3A9780879101589. Retrieved 2010-07-29. 
• Harper Fussell, Betty (1992). Mabel: Hollywood's First I-Don't-Care Girl (Illustrated ed.). Limelight Editions. ISBN 978-0-87910-158-9. http://books.google.com/?id=pd4nAQAAIAAJ&dq=isbn%3A9780879101589. Retrieved 2010-07-29. 
• William Thomas Sherman (2006), Mabel Normand: A Source Book to Her Life and Films

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mabel Normand

• Mabel Normand at the Internet Movie Database
• Mabel Normand at the TCM Movie Database
• Madcap Mabel: Mabel Normand Website
• Mabel Normand Source Book (pdf file)
• Mabel Normand: A Grand-Nephew's Memoir
• Normand and the William Desmond Taylor murder^{[dead link]}
• Mabel Normand at Find a Grave
• Bibliography
• Stephen Normand's website

Ford Sterling (November 3, 1882 – October 13, 1939) was an American comedian and actor best known for his work with Keystone Studios. One of the 'Big 4' he was the original chief of the Keystone Cops.

Biography[link]

Born George Franklin Stich in La Crosse, Wisconsin, he began his career in silent films in 1911 with Biograph Studios. When director Mack Sennett left to set up Keystone Studios, Sterling followed him. There, he performed what is probably his most remembered role as 'Chief Teeheezel' in the Keystone Cops series of slapstick comedies in a successful career that spanned twenty-five years.

Making a smooth transition to talking films, Ford Sterling made the last of his more than two hundred and seventy film appearances in 1936. He died in 1939 of a heart attack (following long standing diabetes) in Los Angeles, California and is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Ford Sterling has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6612 Hollywood Blvd.

With Marvel Rea and Alice Maison

Selected filmography[link]

• Safe in Jail (1913)
• Murphy's I.O.U. (1913)
• His Chum the Baron (1913)
• That Ragtime Band (1913)
• The Foreman of the Jury (1913)
• The Gangsters (1913)
• Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life (1913)
• The Waiters' Picnic (1913)
• Peeping Pete (1913)
• A Bandit (1913)
• For the Love of Mabel (1913)
• Love and Courage (1913)
• Professor Bean's Removal (1913)
• The Riot (1913)
• Mabel's Dramatic Career (1913)
• The Faithful Taxicab (1913)
• When Dreams Come True (1913)
• Two Old Tars (1913)
• The Speed Kings (1913)
• Fatty at San Diego (1913)
• Wine (1913)
• A Ride for a Bride (1913)
• Fatty's Flirtation (1913)
• Some Nerve (1913)
• Cohen Saves the Flag (1913)
• A Game of Pool (1913)
• A Misplaced Foot (1914)
• In the Clutches of the Gang (1914)
• A Robust Romeo (1914)
• Between Showers (1914)
• Tango Tangles (1914)
• That Minstrel Man (1914)
• The Sea Nymphs (1914)
• Hogan's Romance Upset (1915)
• That Little Band of Gold (1915)
• Court House Crooks (1915)
• Fatty and the Broadway Stars (1915)
• The Day of Faith (1923)
• Hollywood (1923) cameo
• Wild Oranges (1924)
• He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
• Stage Struck (1925)
• Mantrap (1926)
• The Show Off (1926)
• The American Venus (1926)
• Casey at the Bat (1927)
• For the Love of Mike (1927)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928)
• Sally (1929)
• Show Girl in Hollywood (1930)
• Bride of the Regiment (1930)
• Keystone Hotel (short subject) (1935)
• The Headline Woman (1935)

Bibliography[link]

• Wendy Warwick White, Ford Sterling - His Life and Films (McFarland & Company, 2007) ISBN 0-7864-2587-3
• Simon Louvish, Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennett (Faber & Faber, 2005) ISBN 0-571-21100-3

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Ford Sterling at the Internet Movie Database
• Ford Sterling at Find a Grave
• Literature on Ford Sterling

Virginia Vale (20 May 1920 - 14 Sep 2006) was an American film actress. She starred in a number of B-movie Westerns but took a variety of other roles as well, notably in The Blonde Comet (1941), in which she played a race car driver.

Vale was born Dorothy Howe, and was credited under that name in several of her earlier films. The name Virginia Vale had been chosen in advance for the female winner of the 1939 "Gateway to Hollywood" contest, a nation-wide talent search sponsored by producer Jesse Lasky -- as noted (somewhat indignantly) then by another Virginia Vale^[1] a syndicated columnist covering the film industry.^[2] Vale edged out Rhonda Fleming in the 1939 contest.^[3]

After her film career, she became an executive secretary at Lockheed, but also a competition judge for the US Figure Skating Association. She was eventually honored by the USFSA for 50 years of service in that role.^[4][5] Before becoming a judge, she'd also briefly been a competition skater.^[4] Her life in film and skating was featured at the 2002 U.S. figure skating championships^[6] and a memorial trophy for "most outstanding performance" was given in her name at the 2007 California Championships.^[7]

Partial filmography[link]

• King of Alcatraz (1938)
• Her Jungle Love (1938)
• Disbarred (1939)
• Unmarried (1939)
• Crime, Inc. (1945)
• Blonde Comet (1941)

Bibliography[link]

• Boyd Magers, Michael G. Fitzgerald (1999), Westerns Women: Interviews With 50 Leading Ladies Of Movie And Television Westerns From The 1930s To The 1960s, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co., ISBN 0-7864-2028-6
• Herb Fagen (1996), White Hats and Silver Spurs: Interviews With 24 Stars of Film and Television Westerns of the Thirties Through the Sixties, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co., ISBN 0-7864-0200-8

References[link]