Classic Comedy Heroes

L to R, surrounding the star of Time For Beany: Daws Butler, Stan Freberg, Bob Clampett, Jack Benny





After enjoying last weekend's Harry Langdon tribute (redux: Harry's silent features, Mack Sennett and Educational Pictures talkie short subjects are absolutely wonderful classic comedies, the Hal Roach series very odd and less wonderful, the Columbia 2-reelers frequently not-so-wonderful) we shall - yet again - pay tribute to the many classic comedy heroes who made us laugh out loud.



L to R: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Milton Berle, Joe Penner, Victor Moore, Benny Rubin








A plethora of the very best lithographs portraying classic comedy heroes were created by the one, the only Al Hirschfeld. . . the great artist and chronicler of 20th century show business. Dearly love the Al Hirschfeld Foundation website, and, among other pieces, his lithographs of the Algonquin Round Table. How many classic comedy heroes and NINAs can you find in this one illustration?



©HIRSCHFELD Al Hirschfeld Foundation



The multi-talented and prolific comics artist, writer, illustrator, author of graphic novels and designer Kit Seaton is one serious silent comedy fan - and digs Charlie Chaplin as much as we do at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog.



We love the following ilustration she created featuring some formidable classic comedy heroes: Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Stan & Babe, Harold Lloyd, Charley Chase and Max Linder.


©Kit Seaton


We are aficionados of Kit's work across many fields and particularly love her Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd illustrations - and love knowing that somebody who's a lot younger than the baby boomers who comprise the majority of film buff-dom loves classic movies! Perusing Ms. Seaton's illustrations and seeing young people at such events as the San Francisco Silent Film Festival gives this 20th century art, music, literature and filmmaking enthusiast hope for the future.



Another silent movie comedian who was highly regarded by his peers - no less than Chaplin and Keaton paid tribute - was Lloyd "Ham" Hamilton.



Most of his starring vehicles, unfortunately, burned up in the infamous Fox film vault fire at Little Ferry, NJ on July 9, 1937. Ham's surviving films reveal a very funny, original, subtle and rather rakish persona within his overgrown boy/shameless slacker characterization. The more subtle and rakish he is, the funnier Hamilton is.




Thankfully, some Hamilton Comedies are available on DVD, thanks to efforts by silent comedy specialists Looser Than Loose Publishing and film historians Dave Glass and David Wyatt.



Those intrepid comediennes of silent movies deserve their due as well.









The films of Century Comedies headliner Alice Howell, now lovingly restored and brought back from The Nitrate Twilight Zone by Undercrank Productions, demonstrate her wacky albeit endearing personality, fearless nature and pronounced flair for physical comedy.





In many of the films on the aforementioned Alice Howell DVD collection, including her appearances with Keystone and L-Ko comedies (featuring Billie Ritchie and other comics), it is not uncommon for Alice to steal the show as a supporting player.



Shifting gears entirely and indelicately, we'll finish today's comedy-obsessed post with a trip decades after the end of the silent era to the world of standup. Asking who the first woman to succeed in the cutthroat and competitive world of standup comedy was immediately brings to mind Jackie "Moms" Mabley, who reputedly was doing standup comedy laced with satire and social commentary as early as 1933. Author Kliph Nesteroff wrote about her in Moms Mabley - Agitation in Moderation. As far as this writer knows, there are few films or recordings of Ms. Mabley's act from back in her 1930's and 1940's heydey, although she did appear frequently on TV in the latter 1960's. Here is one glimpse of her act; she even busts a move at the end.



The second female standup comedienne (we know of) and the one who blazed trails for women in the field was Jean Carroll. Have not watched the very popular current TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but hear that one of the comedy pioneers the main character was based on, indeed, was Ms. Carroll. The following clips reveal that Jean Carroll was a one-liner machine, in that rat-a-tat-tat tradition first associated with Henny Youngman, later associated with Phyllis Diller and Totie Fields - and especially with the king of the one-liner, the great Rodney Dangerfield.





The Marvelous Ms. Carroll lived to be 98 and hopefully received her fair share of kudos, bravos and huzzahs by later generations of comediennes. Jean Carroll, no doubt, as Moms Mabley did, provided inspiration to quite the group of classic and current comedy heroes.