Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.
The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.
Universal City is a neighborhood within the San Fernando Valley of the City of Los Angeles which includes portions of unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Approximately 415 acres (168 ha), within and immediately outside the area is the property of Universal Pictures, one of the five major film studios in the United States: about 70 percent of the studio's property is inside this unincorporated area, while the remaining 30 percent is within the Los Angeles city limits. Universal City is nearly surrounded by Los Angeles, with the area's northeastern corner touching the city of Burbank.
Thomas Edwin Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He was one of Hollywood's first Western stars and helped define the genre as it emerged in the early days of the cinema.
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.
Francis Winter Boggs was an American stage actor and pioneer silent film director. He was one of the first to direct a film in Hollywood.
William Nicholas Selig was a vaudeville performer and pioneer of the American motion picture industry. His stage billing as Colonel Selig would be used for the rest of his career, even as he moved into film production.
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Selig Polyscope also established Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles.
Josephine M. Workman better known by her stage name, Princess Mona Darkfeather was an American actress who starred in Native American and Western dramas. During the silent era of motion pictures, from 1911 to 1917, she appeared in 102 movies. She is best known for her role as Prairie Flower in The Vanishing Tribe (1914).
Natalie Kingston was an American actress.
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.
Betty Harte (1882–1965) was a leading lady during the heyday of the silent film era, starring in nine feature films and 108 short films. She is credited with writing four screenplays. She chose Betty Harte as her professional name in honor of her favorite author, Bret Harte.
A film studio is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, they are mostly financing and distribution entities. Additionally, they may also have their own privately owned studio facility or facilities; however, most firms in the entertainment industry have never owned their own studios, but have rented space from other companies. The day-to-day filming operations are generally handled by their production company subsidiary.
Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent era filmmaker and media proprietor. Ince was known as the "Father of the Western" and was responsible for making over 800 films.
Fred LeRoy Granville was born in Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia, in 1896, and educated in New Zealand. The 1 February 1922, issue of American Cinematographer stated that he was "a bloody Britisher by birth" and "first saw the light at Worton Hall, Isleworth, Middlesex, England." Granville became interested in photography as a boy. His first experience with cinematography came in 1913 under the guidance of James Crosby at the Selig Polyscope studio in Edendale, near downtown Los Angeles. Granville photographed the documentary Rescue of the Stefansson Expedition (1914) and a number of features and serials for Universal, including Liberty, A Daughter of the USA (1916) and The Heart of Humanity (1918). He also shot several of cowboy actor Tom Mix's early Fox features. The last two films he directed were produced in France.
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".
Charles O. Baumann was an American film producer, film studio executive, and pioneer in the motion picture industry.
Louella Maxam was an American actress who performed in over 50 silent films from 1913 until 1921. She was often cast in comedies and Westerns, most notably being identified in 1915 as a "leading lady" in a series of shorts starring Tom Mix, who during the silent and early sound eras was promoted as the "Cowboy King of Hollywood". Later, she was a female lead in other films for various studios, including several productions featuring another early cowboy star, Franklyn Farnum. Following her departure from acting, Maxam worked in county and municipal government in California, including service with the Burbank police department, where in 1943 she was hired as that city's first "police woman".
William S. Campbell was a film director, scenarist and producer of Hollywood's silent and early talkies era, recognized for his skill in working with children and animals.
Giddap! is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by Del Lord. A Mack Sennett production for Pathe films, it stars Billy Bevan and Yorke Sherwood in the lead roles. The cast also features Helen Mehrmann and Kathryn McGuire. The film had two reels, only one of which seems to have been preserved. The film was released on 23 March 1925. It revolves around two men, Gaspard and Cornelius trying to justify bruises they received during a Purity League raid.