Nitrateville Answer Dept: HER BOY FRIEND (1924)

[Richard M Roberts]

So Ray Faiola asked Nitwitvile if anyone knew of a two-reel print of Larry Semon’s HER BOY FRIEND (1924) surviving:

https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35313

I gave them more than a week, but you knew he wouldn’t get a proper or correct answer there.

Okay, here goes, most and possibly all of the existing prints of Larry Semon’s HER BOY FRIEND (1924), his first comedy short for Educational Pictures derive from the one-reel Kodascope version, it was one of the few Semon comedies offered by Kodascope, and possibly the only one from Educational (they also had two Vitagraphs: THE SAWMILL (1922) and GOLF (1922)), some of the other Semon Educationals were offered by the Bell and Howell Show-at-Home Library. For some reason, Kodascope had only a one-reel version of HER BOY FRIEND, they did sometimes arbitrarily edited two-reelers down to one, as they did with a handful of Mack Sennett comedies like GIDDAP (1925), A SEA DOG’S TALE (1926) , THE GOLF NUT (1927), and some Hal Roach Our Gangs like DOG DAYS (1925) and MONKEY BUSINESS (1926) among others.

However, there is interesting evidence to indicate that the one-reel Kodascope version of HER BOY FRIEND may be actually the complete film. The copyright deposit on the film indicates it’s footage count to be 1011 feet in 35mm, which would make it a VERY short two-reeler indeed, with just a little over 500 feet on each reel. It is listed in the short comedy trade schedules as a two-reeler, with no mention of the actual footage, but the Educational advertising is actually somewhat coy in its publicity as to the length of the film, listing it as a “Larry Semon Special Comedy” only in its main trade ad, though it had referred to the whole series of four Larry Semon Special Comedies as two-reelers in its larger general ad for the whole series.

It could be possible that Semon, in a bit of a financial bind after the failure of his first feature, THE GIRL IN THE LIMOUSINE, banged out his first short for Educational quickly (GIRL IN THE LIMOUSINE had been released by First National in July 1924, HER BOY FRIEND was released by Educational in September 1924) and shot only enough footage to give it the absolute minimum footage to have it be considered a two-reeler, giving him a film to make a few dollars on while giving him time to make his next Educational Comedy, KID SPEED (released in November, 1924) a full two-reels. Educational would probably have accepted it because he was a major star for them at the time, and actually, a number of Educational silent two-reelers from both Jack White and Al Christie have lower footage counts closer to making them closer to a reel and a half in length rather than a full two-reels (a number of Columbia Comedies from the 30’s through the 50’s are the same way), so it may have not have been that big a deal for them in general.

So HER BOY FRIEND may be one of the shortest two-reelers of all time (even Film Daily’s review of the film calls it a “short-reeler”). My Kodascope print is packed to the edges on a small-hubbed 400 foot reel, and Kodascope lists their print as being 404 feet, so it would be the 16mm equivalent of 1011 feet in 35mm. Unless an original 35mm print turns up on the film, which I have never known one to have done, even in a foreign archive so far, we may never know for sure. In any event, in the form it survives, it is one of Semon’s better late comedies, and should be enjoyed by fans in whatever form is put in front of them.

RICHARD M ROBERTS