Al Joy May Have Competition............
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 7:28 am
During the last few months, a print came to the Roberts Collection that was a wee bit of a mystery, a lovely, amber-tinted old original of a two-reel comedy that had no recognizable performers, no original opening titles, original intertitles that bore no production company name, listed no actor names when introducing characters, and featured no company logo, no recognizable design, merely a cartoon of a smiling sun at the top. It had a refilmed and replaced opening title from whatever Kodascope or rental library to which it had once belonged that called the film HOW STUPID!, but upon seeing the film, it seemed to be a title commenting more on the film itself rather than something to do with the plot.
We ran it at our regular weekly Movie Night group, where it was received with stony silence and occasional cries of “what the hell is this?” from the group. It was an comedy obviously shot in the early 1920’s, somewhere on the East Coast, at a beachside amusement park of some sort in the first half, then in the second half a wooded area, also beachside, featuring definitely indigenous trees to the Eastern Coast and a few small palm trees that looked fresh from pots. The “star”, was a blond-haired, stocky-set gentleman looking to be in his thirties (he seemed to me to resemble Gary Crosby, son of Bing), sort of playing a romantic sort of comedian, who has a sidekick more comedically dressed as a sort of rube. The star goes to see a fortune teller who tells him of future romantic adventures, while also telling the leading lady of similar future happenings. All involved run around this anonymous amusement park/pier until hero and sidekick et all board a WWI-era Curtiss Seaplane and head to a “desert isle” populated by people in bad blackface headed by a Queen, also in bad blackface, who takes a shine to the hero and wants to make him King. More unfunny antics ensue as Hero makes his escape from Queen and her Guards, and all finally ends well (well…..ends) with Hero and leading lady reunited and escaping the island. Two reels worth, and not a laugh in either reel.
Yet of course, the Silent Comedy Researcher in me wanted to know what in the hell this was, and digging progressed in search of the name of a film comic so dreary as to potentially topple Al Joy from his lofty position as most unfunny comedian of all time. Some time it took, as we had no leads name-wise, and the title HOW STUPID!, though a great title for a silent comedy, appeared to be not only not the title of this particular film, but not one any comedy producer of the 1920’s ever grabbed to adorn one of their product, but in the course of time, the veils parted, and the mystery became clear.
This most unfunny comic proved to be---------drum roll please------Jimmy Callahan!
We’ll give most of you the moment to go----“who?”.
Yes, Jimmy Callahan, who, just like Al Joy became an independent producer/comedy auteur when he formed the Callahan Film Company in 1921 to star in his own series of twenty-six two-reelers to be released by The Film Market, a New York-based states-rights independent distributor. Callahan’s bio states that he is a “well-known comedian who has toured the big-time vaudeville circuits and made a name for himself wherever the two-a-day is known” (anyone have any record of him appearing in vaudeville, I could find none).. Callahan’s leading lady is Florence Dixon, and his second leading lady is listed as Lottie Kendall (she plays the blackface queen). The General Director of the comedies is Ralph D. Whiting, assisted by D. W. MacReynolds and the Cameraman is Charles Downs. The biggest name associated with the series appears to be Tom Bret, the title writer, who was indeed a well-known East Coast title writer who had been busy at Vitagraph and elsewhere in the teens.
The comedies were actually shot in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Callahan had leased space at the Curtis Airport Grounds and Hangars where he retooled an Airplane Hangar into a movie studio (I knew that Curtis Seaplane would be a clue). The comedies were advertised to be clean and “censor-free” and the first one, JIMMY’S LAST NIGHT OUT, was to be released on Decoration Day of 1921.
However, the story goes a bit south from there, The Film Market, run by it’s President and former film producer Robert W. Priest, was not the longest living of the independent concerns, it seems to have lasted barely a year, and there is little sign that ANY, much less twenty-six Jimmy Callahan Comedies hit the independent market in 1921. Cut to four years later, in 1925, when the Aywon Film Corporation, another small states-righter surviving mostly on reissues and very low-budget B westerns, announces the release of nine Jimmy Callahan comedies, including several titles that had been mentioned in the Film Market press releases like THE LUCKY DOG, THE WONDERFUL WALLOP, and HUCKLEBERRY GULCH, as well as the film that turned out to be the one in my possession: ON THE ISLE OF SAP .
Aywon must have picked up these films in some sort of bankruptcy sale, and it appears that they only ever released nine of them, so it’s most likely that was all that were actually made before Jimmy Callahan went bust. Apparently Callahan did share one thing in common with Harold Lloyd in seriously injuring himself digitally for his art, sometime around July 1st of 1921, while shooting an airplane stunt on his fourth comedy with the working title KING FOR AN HOUR (which may actually be the one released as ON THE ISLE OF SAP), something went wrong that caused Callahan to lose the ends of three of the fingers on his left hand, necessitating the creation of false fingertips for that hand. All similarities to Harold Lloyd, including levels of talent, end there.
As does the trail of Jimmy Callahan, at least that I could find. I leave it to the mafia to fill in any further details they might know about him, but at least we do have a sample of his work extant and preserved for the ages, it will be sitting in the vaults here, not likely to be brought out often, unless someone makes a crack about how lousy the Ham and Bud short I just showed them was, the fools, that’ll learn `em, all be warned that Al Joy may indeed no longer be the lowest depths.
RICHARD M ROBERTS
We ran it at our regular weekly Movie Night group, where it was received with stony silence and occasional cries of “what the hell is this?” from the group. It was an comedy obviously shot in the early 1920’s, somewhere on the East Coast, at a beachside amusement park of some sort in the first half, then in the second half a wooded area, also beachside, featuring definitely indigenous trees to the Eastern Coast and a few small palm trees that looked fresh from pots. The “star”, was a blond-haired, stocky-set gentleman looking to be in his thirties (he seemed to me to resemble Gary Crosby, son of Bing), sort of playing a romantic sort of comedian, who has a sidekick more comedically dressed as a sort of rube. The star goes to see a fortune teller who tells him of future romantic adventures, while also telling the leading lady of similar future happenings. All involved run around this anonymous amusement park/pier until hero and sidekick et all board a WWI-era Curtiss Seaplane and head to a “desert isle” populated by people in bad blackface headed by a Queen, also in bad blackface, who takes a shine to the hero and wants to make him King. More unfunny antics ensue as Hero makes his escape from Queen and her Guards, and all finally ends well (well…..ends) with Hero and leading lady reunited and escaping the island. Two reels worth, and not a laugh in either reel.
Yet of course, the Silent Comedy Researcher in me wanted to know what in the hell this was, and digging progressed in search of the name of a film comic so dreary as to potentially topple Al Joy from his lofty position as most unfunny comedian of all time. Some time it took, as we had no leads name-wise, and the title HOW STUPID!, though a great title for a silent comedy, appeared to be not only not the title of this particular film, but not one any comedy producer of the 1920’s ever grabbed to adorn one of their product, but in the course of time, the veils parted, and the mystery became clear.
This most unfunny comic proved to be---------drum roll please------Jimmy Callahan!
We’ll give most of you the moment to go----“who?”.
Yes, Jimmy Callahan, who, just like Al Joy became an independent producer/comedy auteur when he formed the Callahan Film Company in 1921 to star in his own series of twenty-six two-reelers to be released by The Film Market, a New York-based states-rights independent distributor. Callahan’s bio states that he is a “well-known comedian who has toured the big-time vaudeville circuits and made a name for himself wherever the two-a-day is known” (anyone have any record of him appearing in vaudeville, I could find none).. Callahan’s leading lady is Florence Dixon, and his second leading lady is listed as Lottie Kendall (she plays the blackface queen). The General Director of the comedies is Ralph D. Whiting, assisted by D. W. MacReynolds and the Cameraman is Charles Downs. The biggest name associated with the series appears to be Tom Bret, the title writer, who was indeed a well-known East Coast title writer who had been busy at Vitagraph and elsewhere in the teens.
The comedies were actually shot in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Callahan had leased space at the Curtis Airport Grounds and Hangars where he retooled an Airplane Hangar into a movie studio (I knew that Curtis Seaplane would be a clue). The comedies were advertised to be clean and “censor-free” and the first one, JIMMY’S LAST NIGHT OUT, was to be released on Decoration Day of 1921.
However, the story goes a bit south from there, The Film Market, run by it’s President and former film producer Robert W. Priest, was not the longest living of the independent concerns, it seems to have lasted barely a year, and there is little sign that ANY, much less twenty-six Jimmy Callahan Comedies hit the independent market in 1921. Cut to four years later, in 1925, when the Aywon Film Corporation, another small states-righter surviving mostly on reissues and very low-budget B westerns, announces the release of nine Jimmy Callahan comedies, including several titles that had been mentioned in the Film Market press releases like THE LUCKY DOG, THE WONDERFUL WALLOP, and HUCKLEBERRY GULCH, as well as the film that turned out to be the one in my possession: ON THE ISLE OF SAP .
Aywon must have picked up these films in some sort of bankruptcy sale, and it appears that they only ever released nine of them, so it’s most likely that was all that were actually made before Jimmy Callahan went bust. Apparently Callahan did share one thing in common with Harold Lloyd in seriously injuring himself digitally for his art, sometime around July 1st of 1921, while shooting an airplane stunt on his fourth comedy with the working title KING FOR AN HOUR (which may actually be the one released as ON THE ISLE OF SAP), something went wrong that caused Callahan to lose the ends of three of the fingers on his left hand, necessitating the creation of false fingertips for that hand. All similarities to Harold Lloyd, including levels of talent, end there.
As does the trail of Jimmy Callahan, at least that I could find. I leave it to the mafia to fill in any further details they might know about him, but at least we do have a sample of his work extant and preserved for the ages, it will be sitting in the vaults here, not likely to be brought out often, unless someone makes a crack about how lousy the Ham and Bud short I just showed them was, the fools, that’ll learn `em, all be warned that Al Joy may indeed no longer be the lowest depths.
RICHARD M ROBERTS