Thursday, March 20, 2025

Fun in the Healy Manner -- March 20, 2025

Brooklyn Citizen, 08-March-1925

Comic Ted Healy (not "Healey") and his wife Betty appeared at the EF Albee vaudeville theater in Brooklyn. Their act included stooges. Ted went on to lead the Three Stooges during their early existence.

Brooklyn Citizen, 08-March-1925

The act was called "Fun in the Healy Manner." It included "song, dance and nut comedy and clowning."

Hartford Courant, 29-March-1925

"...a philosopher and a flapper..."

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Buster Keaton -- An Ocean of Laughs! -- March 19, 2025

Iola Register, 09-March-1925

The Navigator is one of Buster Keaton's funniest feature films. His face in the drawing does not look quite right.

Modesto Herald, 21-March-1925

Note that the text of the items above and below is the same.

Modesto Herald, 22-March-1925

Modesto Herald, 22-March-1925


Tuesday, March 18, 2025

This is Undoubtedly the Greatest Charlie Chaplin Comedy Ever Produced -- March 18, 2025

Film Daily, 27-March-1925

100 years ago this month, in March, 1925, Charlie Chaplin was preparing to release his first starring film for United Artists, a company he had helped to found in 1919 with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and DW Griffith. It took Chaplin a while to finish his previous contract with First National.
 
Film Daily, 08-March-1925

Monday, March 17, 2025

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, 2025 -- March 17, 2025

listal.com

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone.

Beautiful Irish-born actress Maureen O'Sullivan says "Erin go bragh."

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Harry Langdon is Scratching His Head -- March 16, 2025

Photoplay, March, 1925

Harry Langdon stepped into big shoes when he was assigned to what was labelled as Charlie Chaplin's old dressing room at the Mack Sennett studio. Others named on the sign are Betty Compson, Ford Sterling, Syd Chaplin, Charlie Murray, I can't read it and Harold Lloyd.

Film Daily, 15-March-1925

100 years ago this month, Mack Sennett didn't have any really big stars, so he used the dreaded "All-Star" label.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Lon Chaney -- A Thriller de Luxe -- March 15, 2025


Los Angeles Times, 11-March-1925

My fiancée, who is now my wife, and I used to go to San Francisco's Avenue Theater, on San Bruno Avenue, where Bob Vaughn accompanied silent movies on the Mighty Wurlitzer every Friday night.

Every year around Halloween, the Avenue showed The Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney. 

San Francisco Examiner, 26-October-1980

We went just about every year, so we probably attended this showing.

Indianapolis Times, 27-March-1925

Carl Laemmle, President of Universal, decided that the film should have its premiere at San Francisco's Curran Theater on Geary near Mason. The Curran now hosts mostly musical theater. I saw Pacific Overtures, Wicked and many others there.

Friday, March 14, 2025

The Iron Horse -- As Big as America Itself! -- March 14, 2025

Los Angeles Evening Express, 14-March-1925

Sid Grauman's Egyptian Theater, which is still open on Hollywood Boulevard, featured John Ford's The Iron Horse, which told the epic story of the building of the transcontinental railroad. 

There was a plethora of special objects and events going on all around and in the theater. In the forecourt, displays included the CP Huntington, Central Pacific Locomotive Number 1, which is beautifully displayed at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. There was also a stagecoach, a replica of Lincoln's log cabin, presumably his birthplace, and teepees erected by Arapahoe and Shoshone native Americans. 

Inside the theater, an elaborate prologue, a stage presentation, included Colonel Tim McCoy, "world's greatest authority on American Indians," who later became a movie star, an overture by the Grauman's Egyptian Orchestra, 30 members of the Arapahoe and Shoshone tribes, including "chiefs, squaws, papooses" performing "war dances" (excuse the racism), tableaux, a reenactment of the Golden Spike ceremony, a cast of 200 singers and dancers and an "Awe-inspiring surprise finish -- a thrill you will never forget during your life." 

Los Angeles Times, 22-March-1925

This article about Tim McCoy makes him sound condescending towards the Native Americans, but if  you read his memoir, Tim McCoy Remembers the West, you will see that he spoke very respectfully of the Native Americans he knew and worked with. "As Big as America Itself!"

Los Angeles Daily News, 29-March-1925