Vernon Bruce Dent (February 16, 1895 – November 5, 1963) was a comic actor who appeared in over 400 films in his career. He co-starred in many short films for Columbia Pictures, frequently as the foil to the Three Stooges.

Early career[link]

In the early 1920s, Dent was a fixture at the Mack Sennett studio, working with comedians Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, and especially Harry Langdon. Dent alternately played breezy pals and blustery authority figures opposite Langdon's timid character. Sennett voided all contracts when it came time to retool his studio for sound, and Dent moved to Educational Pictures in 1929. Dent's supporting performances were frequently funnier than the sometimes uninspired antics of the nominal stars. When Educational hired Harry Langdon for a series of two-reelers in 1932, Vernon Dent resumed his place as Langdon's co-star.

Columbia Pictures[link]

Dent joined Columbia Pictures' short-subject department in 1935, and achieved his greatest success there. He went on to work with practically every star on the payroll, including Andy Clyde, Charley Chase, and Eddie Quillan (all fellow Mack Sennett alumni), as well as Buster Keaton, El Brendel, Barbara Jo Allen (Vera Vague), Hugh Herbert, Schilling and Lane, Harry von Zell, and Bert Wheeler. Dent appeared very occasionally in feature films, including Million Dollar Legs, Chip Off the Old Block, Kill the Umpire, The Harvey Girls and Rockin' in the Rockies, but was much more visible in two-reel comedies.

Dent was most often featured in the Three Stooges films; in fact, he made more appearances in their films than any other supporting actor. Dent also appeared with The Three Stooges on a live CBS Television broadcast of The Frank Sinatra Show on January 1, 1952. Through his association with the Stooges, Dent became close friends with Shemp Howard.

Diabetes and death[link]

Dent suffered from diabetes later in life, and eventually went blind. Amazingly, he continued to act in Columbia shorts, in a stationary or seated position, through 1954. His final appearance with the Stooges was in Knutzy Knights; as the film was a remake of 1948's Squareheads of the Round Table, Dent was only needed for a few new shots, and was also uncredited. Every Three Stooges film short with his name that was produced after this used stock footage from his earlier shorts; as such, his last "appearance" was 1957's Guns a Poppin!. By the time Dent retired from film in 1954, he had appeared in over 400 films.

Dent attended Shemp Howard's funeral in 1955. At the time, he was completely blind, and had to be led to Howard's casket. Character actor Emil Sitka was one of many who did not know Dent had lost his sight:

Vernon came into the parlor, wearing a yarmulke like everyone else since this was a Jewish ceremony. He was led in by his arm, and brought up to Shemp's casket. The man accompanying Vernon told him, 'This is Shemp.' Vernon was staring straight ahead at the wall — it was then that I realized he was blind. Vernon felt Shemp's hand, then his face very gently. Everyone else had been filing past the casket quickly, but Vernon took his time, giving a last goodbye to his friend. It was one of the most moving things I ever saw.^[1]

Dent's diabetes worsened after his retirement, limiting his activities. He died of a heart attack on November 5, 1963.

Selected filmography[link]

• Half Shot Shooters (1936)
• Slippery Silks (1936)
• Dizzy Doctors (1937)
• Back to the Woods (1937)
• Wee Wee Monsieur (1938)
• Tassels in the Air (1938)
• Mutts to You (1938)
• Three Little Sew and Sews (1939)
• A Ducking They Did Go (1939)
• Yes, We Have No Bonanza (1939)
• Saved by the Belle (1939)
• Nutty But Nice (1940)
• How High Is Up? (1940)
• From Nurse to Worse (1940)
• No Census, No Feeling (1940)
• So Long Mr. Chumps (1941)
• Dutiful But Dumb (1941)
• I'll Never Heil Again (1941)
• An Ache in Every Stake (1941)
• In the Sweet Pie and Pie (1941)
• Loco Boy Makes Good (1942)
• Cactus Makes Perfect (1942)
• Matri-Phony (1942)
• Three Smart Saps (1942)
• Even As IOU (1942)
• They Stooge To Conga (1943)
• Back From the Front (1943)
• Higher Than a Kite (1943)
• Crash Goes the Hash (1944)
• Busy Buddies (1944)
• Idle Roomers (1944)
• No Dough Boys (1944)
• Three Pests in a Mess (1945)
• Booby Dupes (1945)
• Idiots Deluxe (1945)
• Beer Barrel Polecats (1946)
• A Bird in the Head (1946)
• Three Little Pirates (1946)
• Half-Wits Holiday (1947)
• Out West (1947)
• Sing a Song of Six Pants (1947)
• Shivering Sherlocks (1948)
• Squareheads of the Round Table (1948)
• Fiddlers Three (1948)
• Heavenly Daze (1948)
• Mummy's Dummies (1948)
• Hokus Pokus (1949)
• Fuelin' Around (1949)
• Malice in the Palace (1949)
• Punchy Cowpunchers (1950)
• Studio Stoops (1950)
• Three Arabian Nuts (1951)
• Scrambled Brains (1951)
• The Tooth Will Out (1951)
• Pest Man Wins (1951)
• A Missed Fortune (1952)
• Listen, Judge (1952)
• Booty and the Beast (1953)
• Rip, Sew and Stitch (1953) (stock footage)
• Income Tax Sappy (1954)
• Musty Musketeers (1954)
• Pals and Gals (1954) (stock footage)
• Knutzy Knights (1954)
• Of Cash and Hash (1955) (stock footage)
• Bedlam in Paradise (1955) (stock footage)
• Flagpole Jitters (1956) (stock footage)
• Rumpus in the Harem (1956) (stock footage)
• Hot Stuff (1956) (stock footage)
• Guns a Poppin! (1957) (stock footage)

Biography portal

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Cassara, Bill (2010). Vernon Dent: Stooge Heavy. Albany: BearManor Media ISBN 978-1-59393-549-8

External links[link]

• Vernon Dent at the Internet Movie Database
• Vernon Dent at threestooges.net
• Vernon Dent at Find a Grave

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

Hank Mann (born David William Lieberman, May 28, 1888 - November 25, 1971) was a comedian and silent screen star who is best known as the last surviving member of the Keystone Cops. According to fellow actor and original member of the ensemble Edgar Kennedy, Mann was the originator of the idea for the Keystone Cops.

Career[link]

Hank Mann was born in Russia,^[1][2][3] but emigrated to New York City with his parents and siblings in 1891.^[3] He was one of the earliest of film comedians, working first for Mack Sennett as an original Keystone Cop, and later for William Fox, in silent film comedies. With the advent of motion picture sound and the "talkies", he became a popular bit player and background extra in many quintessential motion picture dramas as well as comedies, including The Maltese Falcon (one of a group of reporters) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (as a photographer). One of his most famous bits was as the "glass door man" in the Three Stooges' short Men in Black. Later in his career he continued to play bit parts in TV comedies, and made some appearances in several Jerry Lewis film comedies in the 1960s. Although he never really retired completely from the film industry, his later years were spent as an apartment building manager with his wife, Dolly, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.

Death[link]

Hank Mann died on 25 November 1971 in South Pasadena, California.^[4] He is interred in the Hall of David Mausoleum in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.^[5]

Awards[link]

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Hank Mann has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard.^[6]

Selected filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Hank Mann at the Internet Movie Database
• Hank Mann at Find a Grave

James Welch (born March 17, 1938 in Anson, Texas) is a former professional American football player who played nine seasons in the NFL.

This biographical article relating to an American football defensive back born in the 1930s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Andy Clyde (March 25, 1892 — May 18, 1967) was a Scottish movie and TV actor whose career spanned more than four decades. He broke into silent films in 1925 as a Mack Sennett comic. Born Andrew Allan Clyde, he was the fifth of six children of Scottish theatrical actor, producer and manager John Clyde.^[1] Both his brother David and sister Jean also became screen actors.^[2][3]

Career[link]

Andy Clyde first went to America in 1912 on tour in a company performing a play called The Concealed Bed. At the invitation of his close friend James Finlayson, he went back to the United States in the early 1920s to join producer Mack Sennett's roster of comedians.^[4]

Clyde's mastery of makeup allowed him tremendous versatility; he could play everything from grubby young guttersnipes to old crackpot scientists. He hit upon an "old man" characterization in his short comedies, which were immediately successful. Adopting a gray wig and mustache, he used this makeup for the rest of his short-subject career, and the character was so durable that he literally grew into it. He starred in short comedies longer than any other actor: 27 years.

He remained with Mack Sennett and made a successful transition to sound films. In 1932, when the Sennett studio was facing financial problems, Sennett cut Clyde's salary. Clyde objected and Sennett put the "old man" costume on character actor Irving Bacon. Audiences saw through it and Sennett abandoned the character. Sennett's distributor, Educational Pictures, took over the Andy Clyde series, which continued for two more years.

Columbia Pictures launched its short subject department in 1934 and Andy Clyde was one of the first comedy stars signed by producer Jules White. Unlike many of the Columbia short-subject comedians who indulged in broad facial and physical gestures, Clyde was subtler and more economical: his comic timing was so good that he could merely lift an eyebrow, shudder slightly, or mutter "My, my, my" for humorous effect. His work for Columbia was so prolific that, from the mid-1940s, the studio was able to produce lower-budgeted remakes, editing older scenes into the new ones. You Were Never Uglier (1944) was remade with the same principals in 1953 as Hooked and Rooked, for example. Clyde was such an audience favorite that he continued to star in Columbia shorts through 1956. He outlasted every comedian on the Columbia payroll except The Three Stooges.^[5]

Andy Clyde also kept busy as a character actor in feature films; for example, he played a sad provincial postman in the Katharine Hepburn film The Little Minister and Charles Coburn's drinking buddy in The Green Years. In the 1940s, he gravitated toward outdoor and western adventures. Clyde is well remembered for his roles as a comic sidekick, usually teaming with William Boyd in the Hopalong Cassidy series (as "California Carlson") or with Whip Wilson in Monogram Pictures' low-budget western movies (as "Winks").^[5] Clyde also worked on the Hopalong Cassidy "record readers" issued by Capitol Records in the 1950s.^[6]

Clyde's last theatrical film was released in 1956, after which he worked in television, having appeared on Rod Cameron's early syndicated series City Detective. He also had recurring roles on CBS's Lassie and ABC's The Real McCoys. In the latter he was the foil for another veteran character actor, Walter Brennan; Clyde played friendly neighbor "George McMichael" to Brennan's "Grandpa Amos McCoy." Madge Blake played Flora, the sister of George McMichael, on The Real McCoys. As Frank Myers on The Andy Griffith Show (1961), Clyde played Henry Squires in a 1962 Gunsmoke titled Durham Bull. Clyde played an eccentric old man who the town tries to evict. Clyde appeared as "Grandpa", a series regular, on the 1964-1965 ABC military comedy No Time for Sergeants, starring Sammy Jackson. The series was inspired by an earlier Andy Griffith film of the same name.

Personal life[link]

Clyde married Elsie Maud Tarron, once one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties, on 23 September 1932 in Ontario, San Bernadino, California.^[4] Jules White recalled that Clyde became a father in middle age, and was devastated when his nine-year-old son John Allan Clyde died.^[4]

Clyde continued to perform on television until his death.^[5]

Andy Clyde has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Andy Clyde at the Internet Movie Database
• Andy Clyde at Find a Grave
• Andy Clyde's entry on Helensburgh Heroes website