Category: Libraries
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Buster Keaton and the Collapsing Lavatory
Joseph “Buster” Keaton (above, centre as a teenage vaudeville star) is today renowned as a comic actor and director of brilliance. His silent films of the 1920s, from “One Week” to “The Cameraman”, rank amongst the funniest and cleverest ever…
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A Very Fine Exhibition of Clog-Wallopping or How Charlie Chaplin Found His Feet
“The boys roamed the streets for diversion, Syd wearing a pair of shoes as “holey as Gruyere cheese” and a worn out jacket. Charlie wore a pair of his mother’s red stage stockings… how the other children laughed at them.” …
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The Wrong Trousers: Making Laurel and Hardy’s “Liberty”
“Liberty” was released in January 1929 and was the 28th short comedy Laurel and Hardy had made together. It stands today as one of their funniest achievements but also as an important transitional moment in their film-making. By the time…
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Silent Comedy: Where Do I Start?
At both my recent talks I’ve been approached by curious audience members in their 20s and 30s coming up to me and asking which movies they should watch now I’ve made them aware of the brilliance of silent comedy. These…
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The Noisy Silent Cinema
Silent cinema was never actually silent. You’ll probably know from your parents or grandparents that a large organ might rise up in front of the screen of the local cinema, not in a rude way, and entertain the audience between…
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The Laurel and Hardy Bookcase
Many words have been spilled documenting and explaining the lives and careers of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and there are plenty of books out there to delve into. John McCabe met the boys backstage when they were touring England…
