SilentComedyMafia.com

So what can be better than a Ham and Bud on a Sunday Morning?.............Well, ANYTHING can be better than a Ham and Bud on a Sunday Morning.......

Be that as it may........released by Kalem, February 26, 1915, the last "unofficial" Ham (and Bud) comedy, featuring Lloyd Hamilton, Bud Duncan, and a glimpse of Martin Kinney playing a normal person, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTNABhk8To&list

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Why does The EYE seem to have all of the nice-looking prints?

Gary Johnson wrote:Why does The EYE seem to have all of the nice-looking prints?

I think it's that funny stuff called 35mm nitrate...........

Actually, I have a very nice 16mm fine grain positive of HAM AND THE JITNEY BUS struck off the American negative with the Jans reissue titles inserted from the 1950's, but it is interesting to see the foreign version. I haven't checked for any differences yet, but I doubt they were shooting two cameras on the H and B's, even though they were actually popular overseas.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

So do they have a larger collection of nitrate than most archives or does it just seem that way because their films are online?

Gary Johnson wrote:So do they have a larger collection of nitrate than most archives or does it just seem that way because their films are online?

The latter. Apparently they have digitalized their entire collection with a sizeable grant from their government, and as they just recently got an equally sizeable dressing-down from that same government when it also became apparent that only a small fraction of that digitalized material has been made accessible to the public, which was part of the deal for the grant, suddenly, a lot more material is appearing on Youtube in much larger quantities.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

So it seems sometimes government is good.....

Now when are the other major archives going to get on board. After all, streaming is the wave of the future (so I keep reading about,,,).

And I forgot to mention before but the opening chase between Ham & Bud ends with a very clever Hamilton-like twist. I laughed.

Amazing. When they run out in the street with all the cars it almost looks like it was totally unplanned as one of the motorists drives by with a huge smile on his face.

Louie Despres wrote:Amazing. When they run out in the street with all the cars it almost looks like it was totally unplanned as one of the motorists drives by with a huge smile on his face.

Sometimes those shots were completely unplanned, and done quick on the sly. I've sometimes wondered what it would have been like to have been a Los Angeles resident during the Silent Era, I'd wager just getting up and driving to work many mornings would have entailed coming across a comedy film company shooting on one street or another, even worse if one worked on Culver City, Edendale, or had a business on, say, Larchmont Avenue.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Always enjoy these Ham and Buds for the sheer unadulterated rowdiness.

What's interesting, seeing is the horse drawn wagons trotting in background as are the trolley cars driving up and down the streets. At one time LA had a very good public transport trolley system, but what the hell, got rid of it. Who needs clean air electric driven cars anyway.

Pasquale Ventura

Anytime is the right time for Ham and Bud or Musty Suffer especially before dinner time and doctor visits.