Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.
Keystone Studios was an early film studio founded in Edendale, California on July 4, 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from actor-writer Adam Kessel (1866–1946) and Charles O. Baumann (1874–1931), owners of the New York Motion Picture Company. The company, referred to at its office as The Keystone Film Company, filmed in and around Glendale and Silver Lake, Los Angeles for several years, and its films were distributed by the Mutual Film Corporation between 1912 and 1915. The Keystone film brand declined rapidly after Sennett went independent in 1917.
Gordon S. Griffith was an American assistant director, film producer, and one of the first child actors in the American movie industry. Griffith worked in the film industry for five decades, acting in over 60 films, and surviving the transition from silent films to talkies—films with sound. During his acting career, he worked with Charlie Chaplin, and was the first actor to portray Tarzan on film.
Edendale is a historical name for a district in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, in what is known today as Echo Park, Los Feliz and Silver Lake. In the opening decades of the 20th century, in the era of silent movies, Edendale was known as the home of most major movie studios on the West Coast. Among its many claims, it was home to the Keystone Cops, and the site of many movie firsts, including Charlie Chaplin's first movie, the first feature-length comedy, and one of the first pies-in-the-face. The Edendale movie studios were mostly concentrated in a four-block stretch of Allesandro Street, between Berkeley Avenue and Duane Street. Allesandro Street was later renamed Glendale Boulevard.
The Little Billy films are a series of short films produced by Keystone Studios, revolving around the character of a small boy, portrayed by Paul "Little Billy" Jacobs.
Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life is a 1913 silent comedy short, directed and produced by Mack Sennett. It stars Sennett, Mabel Normand, Ford Sterling, The Keystone Cops and Barney Oldfield as himself, in his film debut. It was distributed by the Keystone Film Company, and released in the United States on June 3, 1913. The film is preserved and was released as part of a DVD box set, titled Slapstick Encyclopedia, and is frequently featured in silent film festivals.
Sidney Smith, known on-screen as Sid Smith, was an American actor and director who appeared in short comedy films. Smith entered the motion picture industry in 1911, and eventually performed in 187 releases- most of them short silent film comedies, directing six shorts in total. Smith had his own starring series, but also worked in support of such comics as Monty Banks at Warner Bros. and Billy Bevan at the Mack Sennett studio. Smith died of alcohol poisoning, attributed to his consumption of bad liquor at a Malibu beach party. Perhaps because of the Prohibition laws then in effect, one of the few trade papers covering Smith's passing gave the cause of death as “heart trouble.”
Gentlemen of Nerve is a 1914 American comedy silent film directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring Chaplin and Mabel Normand, and produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios.
William Carl Hauber was an American silent film actor and much-in-demand stunt performer, known as one of the original Keystone Cops, and for his decade-long association with comic actor Larry Semon, both as a supporting player and as the star's frequent stunt double. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1913 and 1928.
Blanche Payson was an American film actress.
Virginia Kirtley was an American film actress and writer during the silent era. She appeared in more than 50 films in the 1910s and 1920s.
Ora Carew, was an American silent film actress. She starred in several films between 1915 and 1925. She was known as one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties.
The L-KO Kompany, or L-KO Komedies, was an American motion picture company founded by Henry Lehrman that produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919. The initials L-KO stand for "Lehrman KnockOut".
Wife and Auto Trouble is a 1916 American film directed by Dell Henderson and Mack Sennett. It was made by the "Tri-Stone Film Company", an evolution of "Keystone Triangle" which in turn evolved from the famous Keystone Film Company.
Sennett Bathing Beauties was a bevy of women performing in bathing costumes assembled by film producer Mack Sennett during the silent film era.
Hollywood Cavalcade is a 1939 American film featuring Alice Faye as a young performer making her way in the early days of Hollywood, from slapstick silent pictures through the transition from silent to sound.
Charles O. Baumann was an American film producer, film studio executive, and pioneer in the motion picture industry.
Frank D. Williams was a pioneering cinematographer who was active in the early days of the motion picture industry. He developed and patented the traveling matte shot.
Adam Kessel, Jr. (1866–1946) was a film company executive. He partnered with Charles Baumann in a series of film distribution and production companies.
Phil Whitman (1893–1935) was an American screenwriter, cinematographer and film director. During the silent era he scripted and directed a large number of short films for Mack Sennett including those starring Billy Bevan. In the early sound era he began directing feature films for studios such as Monogram Pictures.
