SilentComedyMafia.com

From the Deutsche Kinemathek archive, a sampling of their poster holdings is online. A smattering of interesting graphics, I only listed the silent comedians that were included in these sets. The Lupino Lane one sheet is a 1922 US-issued Fox original for MY HERO. The Larry Semon one sheet also featu...

Buster Keaton’s Italian Villa and Harold Lloyd’s Greenacres may be off limits to vacationers, but Monty Banks’ private estate in Cesena, Italy, is an available alternative! "Villa Monty Banks is a rare 1939 Art Deco villa in Cesena, built by a Hollywood silent-film star and designed with Britis...

CHICO MARX, THE LINK FOR ACT AND AUDIENCE by Walter Kerr The New York Times, February 23, 1981 I'VE always wanted to sponsor a Chico Marx film festival. The only thing is, I've never been able to figure out how to do it. Those other two busybodies keep getting in the way. The problem, you see, is t...

Charley Chase, Silent Film’s Overlooked Comic Genius The actor and director deserves to be remembered alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of Hollywood’s comedy pioneers. By Tim Page July 15, 2026 at 3:43 pm ET Whenever we watch a silent film, it is helpful to remember that we are enc...

UCLA restoration of HER MAN was just posted:

https://youtu.be/r5qGUo8ZnWg?is=zhSCbb0l6u1owUZu

About fifteen minutes after finishing the podcast, I ordered the book! Great stuff. I'd recently finished Mr. Curtis' bio of Spencer Tracy, so I knew I was in for some good reading. William, I'd also recommend Jim Curtis's biographies of Keaton, Fields, James Whale and Preston Sturges, they are all...

Thanks for sharing the podcast Paul, it was delightful! I’d like to share my Amazon review of Jim’s latest book with you all (though I imagine everyone here has probably gotten it already!): Best Book About The Making Of An Epic Hollywood Blockbuster (which also happens to be a comedy) Reviewed in t...

The book took a little time to cross the big pond (I know that Bor Enots was doing his best to save overseas subscribers some money - which was much appreciated). I received my copy recently and must agree with William Ferry, John McElwee and Trav S.D. - the book is terrific, and the amount of uncov...

Ordered on July 16th, received my copy in Germany today from an eBay seller at a very reasonable price.

Looking forward to diving into this updated Monty set tonight - thank you for all the hard work Dave, we appreciate it (and appreciate you!).

Well-intentioned documentary focusing on Chaplin’s exile and eventual return to the USA in 1972. I tried to attach screenshots of Charlie’s reunion with Groucho but online image hosting seems to be down everywhere. You can see them together briefly after the 8-minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/wa...