Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

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kittypackard
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Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

Postby kittypackard » Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:53 pm

Hi All!

I've been lurking here for a while now, and haven't ventured into introductions as, quite frankly, I'm a wee bit intimidated by the wealth of knowledge everyone seems to possess! I'm currently working on a project with a partner of mine and am hoping someone out there can help as I’ve rather reached the end of my rope…..

I have been trying to locate a print of a very obscure two-reel Mack Sennett talkie called Match Play! released in 1930 and distributed by Educational Pictures during Sennett's early 1930s tenure with them. This particular short features a roster of relative unknowns (Andy Clyde, Majorie Beebe) as well as golfing champ Walter Hagen, and a famous Los Angeles habidasher named James Oviatt. The Margaret Herrick Library, Pickford Center, and even the Library of Congress have been unsuccessful in locating anything. A historian at the University of Toronto suggested that I see if anyone at SilentComedyMafia has any ideas.

You simply can’t imagine how grateful I would be!

Thanks ever so,
Kitty

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

Postby Richard M Roberts » Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:55 pm

kittypackard wrote:Hi All!

I've been lurking here for a while now, and haven't ventured into introductions as, quite frankly, I'm a wee bit intimidated by the wealth of knowledge everyone seems to possess! I'm currently working on a project with a partner of mine and am hoping someone out there can help as I’ve rather reached the end of my rope…..

I have been trying to locate a print of a very obscure two-reel Mack Sennett talkie called Match Play! released in 1930 and distributed by Educational Pictures during Sennett's early 1930s tenure with them. This particular short features a roster of relative unknowns (Andy Clyde, Majorie Beebe) as well as golfing champ Walter Hagen, and a famous Los Angeles habidasher named James Oviatt. The Margaret Herrick Library, Pickford Center, and even the Library of Congress have been unsuccessful in locating anything. A historian at the University of Toronto suggested that I see if anyone at SilentComedyMafia has any ideas.

You simply can’t imagine how grateful I would be!

Thanks ever so,
Kitty



Well, you're not going to make many friends around here calling Andy Clyde and Marjorie Beebe "relative unknowns". Clyde was a very successful comic and character actor whose career spanned from the late teens into the late 60's, and even today is certainly more well-remembered than either Walter Hagen or James Oviatt.

I'm suprised that LOC can' help you with this, as I think it is most likely in the Zouary collection, with most of the other Sennett Educationals. I may have a video copy, and will dig around and see. Brent Walker may have a video copy of this as well.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sun Sep 20, 2009 6:12 pm

Well, apparently neither I nor Brent Walker has MATCH PLAY, and the Zouary Collection at LOC comes up negative as well. Odd, as this is a regular Sennett Andy Clyde talkie and most of the others exist in one form or another, it's not one of the Sennettcolor shorts or anything else to make it a rarity. All one can say at the moment is to keep looking.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Frank Flood
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Re: Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

Postby Frank Flood » Sun Sep 20, 2009 8:28 pm

MATCH PLAY was included in a package of Educational sound shorts (both Sennett and non-Sennett) that was shown in Detroit on Saturday mornings in the early-mid 1970's, so it presumably is around somewhere. Not a real funny comedy, as I recall. The point seemed to be the novelty of having Hagen and Diegel, "The World's Golf Champions," in a comedy. Spoiler: they are better golfers than Andy Clyde and Bud Jamison.

Frank

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:26 pm

Frank Flood wrote:MATCH PLAY was included in a package of Educational sound shorts (both Sennett and non-Sennett) that was shown in Detroit on Saturday mornings in the early-mid 1970's, so it presumably is around somewhere. Not a real funny comedy, as I recall. The point seemed to be the novelty of having Hagen and Diegel, "The World's Golf Champions," in a comedy. Spoiler: they are better golfers than Andy Clyde and Bud Jamison.

Frank


Ah, you ruined it! Although as a good scotsman, you'd figure Andy Clyde would be a terror on the links. I think Jamison was an avid real-life golfer as well.

That's the Zoary package you're talking about Frank, so I figure it does have to be at LOC somewhere. It may be a matter of deeper digging there, or perhaps checking to see if it's listed under MATCHPLAY instead of MATCH PLAY or some such.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Frank Flood
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Re: Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

Postby Frank Flood » Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:46 am

Educational originally released MATCH PLAY as a "Mack Sennett Special" separately from the Mack Sennett Comedies series (as they had the prior season's JAZZ MAMMAS), so there may have been some quirk in organization in Zouary's hands.

Frank

Brent Walker
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Re: Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

Postby Brent Walker » Mon Sep 21, 2009 2:22 pm

Hi, I've been tied up with the final proofing and indexing for my Mack Sennett Book (Mack Sennett's Fun Factory), which should be coming out from McFarland in the next few months, and between that and some family health issues I have had much time to check in here.

However, I haven't seen any prints of MATCH PLAY around, in archives, personal collections or elsewhere. What Frank says about that and JAZZ MAMAS sounds logical in terms of their both not making it to the Atlas Television package (which is what the Zouary Collection at LOC is made up of).

However (pardon the small soft-sell plug) my book will include a still from MATCH PLAY, with Sennett, Walter Hagen and Leo Diegel on the links (autographed by Walter Hagen, in fact) which was loaned by a friend. The Sennett Collection photo archive at the Margaret Herrick Library most likely contains many stills from the film (as it does for most of Sennett's post-Keystone films).

Also, the year before, 1929, Sennett made another talkie golf short with Andy Clyde called THE GOLFERS, which does survive and is around. This one features a Los Angeles golf pro, Charlie Guest.

MATCH PLAY was filmed around the time of (probably just before) the Los Angeles Open in January 1930, when Hagen and Diegel were in town. I wasn't aware of James Oviatt's appearance in it.

Brent Walker

kittypackard
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Re: Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

Postby kittypackard » Wed Sep 23, 2009 11:47 am

I've been away for the past week and am flabbergasted at the amount of information you have all provided in my absence! Thank you so very, very much for sharing all of your thoughts on the matter.

First I wanted to say to Richard that I meant no disrespect by referring to Mr. Clyde and Ms. Beebe as 'relative unknowns.' It was really very silly of me and I ought to have thought first before saying something so frightfully ignorant--especially since this is a forum filled with experts. I am quite literally in awe of the sheer wealth of your knowledge and am ever so glad that a forum like this exists. (As it happens, I'm working with an acquaintance on revamping his website, which is a tribute to Marjorie Beebe. So I am slowly but surely becoming familiar with her work! It's the only site on the web dedicated to her, so far as we know, so I'll do my best to do it justice...)

And thank you so much for suggesting that there very might well be an organizational error at the LOC. It is indeed quite feasible, isn't it, and I am suddenly bright with hope that I just might track it down after all!

I've read the script which is housed at AMPAS' Margaret Herrick Library, and it does indeed seem rather dull.

Brent, if you are at all interested, I've got a scanned image of a shot from the film in which Mr. Oviatt hams it up on location on Match Play with Walter Hagen looking on--I can email it to you if you'd like to have a look.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you all very sincerely for all of your help on this.

Best,
Kitty

Richard M Roberts
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MATCH PLAY was: Mack Sennett & Education Pictures ...

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:42 am

Just to update an old post, I recently acquired a print of MATCH PLAY, the 1930 Mack Sennett Educational Comedy with Andy Clyde, Bud Jamison, Marjorie Beebe, and Golf pros Walter Hagen and Leo Diegel. It’s a nice old original, unfortunately missing the opening titles, but starting right at the introductory intertitle (there are several in this sound film, as with many early talkies). The short is a pleasant little Sennett talkie, opening with Bud Jamison serenading Marjorie Beebe at the piano as he makes her a bet to play her Dad Andy Clyde a round of golf for either her hand in marriage if he wins, or giving Andy another ten year lease on the Golf Course he runs, and that apparently Bud owns the property it sits on, if Andy wins. The two golf pros get involved in the game, then the rest of the short is set on the links, where real-life avid golfers Clyde and Jamison seem to be having a great time playing with the two pros, who do not show much comic flair or personality, though Hagen is a bit more at ease in front of the camera. It’s all golf gags from there as they get into some outlandish traps, and insult and abuse each other in attempts to win.

Lew Kelly has a running gag as Clyde’s business partner in the Course, who’s practicing his chip shots with a phonograph record made by Hagen, which confuses Clyde during his game. All in all, an enjoyable, low-key Sennett talkie, which I sure any combination golf and comedy fans will especially enjoy.

RICHARD M ROBERTS


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