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Many years ago -- around 1973 -- a TV executive at WPIX in New York was trying to launch a series of silent comedy shorts and he screened a beach comedy that starred Glen Lambert for a test audience. Sorry I don't recall the title but I remember the credits listed Lambert as the star. Previous to th...

The OUR RELATIONS CD would be worth owning if just for the extended version of "Fancy This" (familiar as the tune heard in COUNTY HOSPITAL, when Ollie instructs Stan to cut the leg off his trousers). All of the numbers included are delightful, though, and the Dick Bann booklet is invaluabl...

Larry took the advice of a mid-1920s fan magazine a little too literally when it was suggested that Semon should slow down the tempo, and observe how Harry Langdon plays a scene to milk his gag sequences. Larry didn't lessen his pace much but you can see his attempts to imitate Langdon in his final ...

Break out the second printing of the book -- Watz has chimed in. You know what pull he has over the sauerkraut noshing, stein toasting, tuba blasting, German contingent of film lovers out there. When I can show THE PIP FROM PITTSBURGH to a battalion of Dutchmen who laugh in all the right places and...

For me, Stroheim's talent (and his entertainment value) comes to the fore in the dozens of cheap B features he appeared in, mostly in France but also the U.S. and elsewhere. No longer in control as director/producer and in need of quick money, Stroheim thought on his feet and enriched many of these ...

It is interesting the remakes and re-treads you come across in film comedy. We watched several surviving reels from HORSESHOES (1927) with Monty Banks at our Movie NIght last week and realized that the whole premise of those reels (Monty and strange woman on train mistaken for newlyweds and forced ...

Ed, Frank Cullen cited you as source information 2 or 3 times in the section on Bob Woolsey in his book. It's the reason I quoted it in my response to Eric; I thought you might have something to do with the information being reliable. Thanks Mike, I'm glad to hear this. I was able to read several W...

Some time during an English tour (20's or earlier) Catlett stepped into the HMV studio and cut a record. I've seen a copy but have never heard it - and can't recall what it was! Eric, I believe that Walter Catlett's HMV recording was released in 1917, offhand I don't recall the title, either. I use...

Thanks Mike for the heads-up. Frank Cullen paraphrased what I had researched and written concerning the professional relationship between Walter Catlett and Robert Woolsey in my book, WHEELER & WOOLSEY (McFarland & Company, 1994). Mr. Cullen included these remarks in a later, revised edition...

Thanks Richard for the alert - I just shared Leonard's appreciative reviews with friends & fiends alike, on FaceBook. And Congrats to both you and Steve Massa!