The Keystone Cops are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917.
Adolph Zukor was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures. He produced one of America's first feature-length films, The Prisoner of Zenda, in 1913.
Virginia Caroline Rappe was an American model and silent film actress. Working mostly in bit parts, Rappe died after attending a party with actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was accused of manslaughter and rape in connection with her death, though he was ultimately acquitted of both charges.
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago. 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. Ending film production in 1918, the business, based on its film production animals, became an animal and prop supplier to other studios and a zoo and amusement park attraction in East Los Angeles until the Great Depression in the 1930s. In 1947, William Selig and several other early movie producers and directors shared a special Academy Honorary Award to acknowledge their role in building the film industry.
Harold A. Lockwood was an American silent film actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most popular matinee idols of the early film period during the 1910s.
Al St. John was an early American motion-picture comedian. He was a nephew of silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, with whom he often performed on screen. St. John was employed by Mack Sennett and also worked with many other leading players such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Mabel Normand. His film career successfully transitioned from the silent era into sound, and by the late 1930s and 1940s he was working predominantly in Westerns, often portraying the scruffy comedy-relief character "Fuzzy Q. Jones". Among his notable performances in that role are in the "Billy the Kid" series of films released by the Producers Releasing Corporation from 1940 to 1946 and in that company's "Lone Rider" series from 1941 to 1943.
Emma Catherine Rigby is an English actress. After rising to prominence for her role as Hannah Ashworth in Hollyoaks, she later played Gemma Roscoe in the BBC One drama series Prisoners' Wives and as the Red Queen in the American fantasy-drama Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. She also played the lead role of Angie in Movies 24's A Cinderella Christmas, directed by Tosca Musk.
Carter DeHaven was an American film and stage actor, film director, and screenwriter.
Lowell J. Sherman was an American actor and film director. In an unusual practice for the time, he served as both actor and director on several films in the early 1930s. He later turned exclusively to directing. Having scored huge successes directing the films She Done Him Wrong and Morning Glory, he was at the height of his career when he died after a brief illness.
Thomas B. Ricketts was an English-born American stage and film actor and director who was a pioneer in the film industry. He portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in the first American film adaptation of A Christmas Carol (1908), and directed one of the first motion pictures ever made in Hollywood. After directing scores of silent films, including the first film to be released by Universal Pictures, Ricketts became a prominent character actor.
Maclyn Arbuckle was an American screen and stage actor. He was the brother of actor Andrew Arbuckle and cousin of comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
Willis Palmer Sweatnam, Sr. was a Broadway show actor and minstrel show performer.
Are You a Mason? is a 1915 American silent comedy film produced by Adolph Zukor and Charles Frohman, and distributed through Paramount Pictures. Directed by Thomas N. Heffron, it starred John Barrymore as a young husband who pretends to join the Masons as an excuse to get out of the house. It was based on a 1901 play by Leo Ditrichstein.
The Man from Mexico is a 1914 silent film produced by the Famous Players Film Company and Daniel Frohman. It starred John Barrymore in his second feature film and was remade in 1926 as Let's Get Married starring Richard Dix. The film was rereleased by Paramount in 1919 as part of the company's "Success Series" reissue of early successes. The Man from Mexico is now a lost film.
Yolanda is a 1924 American silent historical drama film produced by William Randolph Hearst and starring Marion Davies. Robert G. Vignola directed as he had Enchantment (1921) and several other Davies costume films. The film began production as a Metro-Goldwyn film, with the company becoming Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in May 1924.
Jim the Penman is a 1915 silent film crime drama produced by the Famous Players Film Company and released through Paramount Pictures. It was the first movie based on a well-known stage play, Jim the Penman by Charles Lawrence Young, about a forger in Victorian Britain. The film was directed by Edwin S. Porter and starred stage actor John B. Mason, in his debut film, in line with Adolph Zukor's efforts to recruit famous stage actors for films. Co-starring with Mason was the young up-and-coming favorite Harold Lockwood. Mason had played the part on the stage in the 1910 season on Broadway.
The National Red Cross Pageant (1917) was an American war pageant that was performed in order to sell war bonds, support the National Red Cross, and promote a positive opinion about American involvement in World War I. It was also an all-star revue silent film, now considered a lost film, directed by Christy Cabanne.
David Harum is a 1915 American silent comedy-drama romance film written and directed by Allan Dwan, produced by Famous Players Film Company and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the 1899 novel of the same name by Edward Noyes Westcott and the 1900 Broadway play based on the novel, starring William H. Crane. Crane agreed to star in the film only if the film was written exactly as the play. David Harum is the only film of Dwan's for Famous Players that still survives. A print is preserved at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York and the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.
Why Smith Left Home is a 1919 American silent film farce directed by Donald Crisp and starring Bryant Washburn. Famous Players-Lasky produced the film with distribution through Paramount Pictures. This film is based on the turn of the century play, Why Smith Left Home, by George Broadhurst. The play starred Maclyn Arbuckle in the Washburn role.
The County Chairman is a 1903 comedy play by George Ade, which was one of his greatest successes. Produced by Henry W. Savage, it played for 222 performances on Broadway at Wallack's Theatre. It was also adapted to film in 1914 and 1935.
