Yesterday, we talked about the start of the movies. And today, we have more about those early beginnings.
The silent years. Most of those movies seem ridiculous to watch now. The acting was over-the-top. It had to be. There weren’t things, such as voice inflections or sound effects, to convey the dramatic nature of the scene. So it all had to hinge on the physical work of the actors.
And some of them were amazing at this.
A short list of the best of the best.
Douglas Fairbanks
Buster Keaton
Charlie Chaplin
Mary Pickford
Lillian Gish
Harold Lloyd
Fatty Arbuckle
Greta Garbo
Wallace Reid
Clara Bow
Rudolph Valentino
And more.
But by far. The two greatest, in my opinion, were Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. If you’ve never seen a movie by either one, it is worth the time to watch their talent in a few YouTube clips.
https://youtu.be/zqzWurPE01Y
https://youtu.be/yOo_ZUVU_O8
My dad introduced me to both of these actors. He told of his childhood experiences of selling newspapers and Smales soft pretzels to earn money for the family. But he would also hold back a little so he and his sister could go to the movies on occasion. It cost 25¢ to get in, but then they stayed all day.
Anyway, his favorites were Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. And for good reason. They were the kings of stunts, performing ungodly tricks on film. No stunt doubles. These guys devised their own moves and carried them out.
Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin were known as the “Big Three” of the Silent Generation of Movies.
Let’s look.
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank Keaton was born in Piqua, Kansas on October 4, 1895. It wasn’t because they lived there. His mother, Myra Keaton (née Cutler), was a dancer and singer, and that is where she was when she went into labor.
And so it was that Keaton was born into a vaudeville family. His dad, also named Joseph, had worked with Harry Houdini. It would be a natural fit that Buster would join the family business. Little Joseph began performing with his parents on stage at the age of three. A great act, they were known as The Three Keatons.
In 1917, when he was 21 years old, Buster went from vaudeville to silent films. He quickly became a hit at the box office. For the next 50 years, Buster Keaton became one of Hollywood’s most famous faces. He starred in nearly 150 pictures. Amazingly, he wrote and/or directed many of those. His masterpiece was the 1926 movie, The General, which Orson Welles deemed “one of the greatest films ever made.”
Interestingly, Harry Houdini gave Buster Keaton the “Buster” nickname. Apparently, the baby Joseph fell down a flight of stairs when he was six months old. They picked him up and dusted him off, and that is when Houdini said, “That was a Buster,” referring to the great fall. And from then on, the name stuck.
Keaton died of lung cancer on February 1, 1966, aged 70. He didn’t know his lung cancer was a terminal illness. He had expected to get better.
Harold Lloyd
Lloyd was born on April 20, 1893, in Burchard, Nebraska. He was the son of James Darsie Lloyd and Sarah Elisabeth Fraser. Their marriage was an unhappy one. In 1910 Lloyd’s parents divorced. Harold and his dad then moved to San Diego, California. But Lloyd had been interested in theater as a child and did some acting all the while he was growing up.
Lloyd worked with Thomas Edison’s motion picture company at the very start of his career. His first role was a small part as an Indian in the movie The Old Monk’s Tale. In 1913, Lloyd moved to Los Angeles. He took various roles in several Keystone Film Company comedies.
Then in 1917, Lloyd began work on a new character. It became his “signature” character throughout his career. He fashioned those round glasses, his straw hat, and an unkempt suit. Lloyd became a star.
Yet. Things turned in the wrong direction. In 1919, at the height of his early fame, he suffered a tragedy. He was posing for a photograph and grabbed what he thought was a fake bomb. He leaned over and lit the thing with his cigarette. Well. It was real. The bomb went off in his hand, costing him a thumb and a forefinger.
The story hit the headlines. Everyone said it would be the end of this daredevil’s career. But Lloyd would not give up that easily. He bounced back and made dozens of more films. Actually, his later films were among his best and most highly acclaimed. Titles such as Safety Last (1923) and Speedy (1928).
I would like to note something else about his personal life. Harold Lloyd and silent movie star Mildred Davis were married in 1923. They were happily in love. They stayed married until her death in 1969. And throughout the years, Harold and Mildred were frequent co-stars. Lloyd died of prostate cancer on March 8, 1971.
So there is a little look at those movies, and actors, long gone. Without them, our movies would not be what they are today.
I am thankful for all sorts of pioneers, making their in our world.
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“The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.”
― Albert Einstein
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“Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from.”
— Jodie Foster
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“A human being is a single being. Unique and unrepeatable.”
— Eileen Caddy
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The men who defied gravity. Stuntly.
