My old buddy Scott Eyman reviewed SMILEAGE GUARANTEED in his book review column in the PALM BEACH POST on Sept 22, here’s the text, and a copy of the newspaper version (It’s on their website, but that’s not particularly navigable):
GAINING INSIGHT ON ROACH by Scott Eyman
Three or four years ago a large manuscript about the Hal Roach studios landed on my desk. Since I love Laurel and Hardy and I grew up with the Our Gang films, I fell on it, only to find that it didn’t really talk all that much about Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang, on the not unreasonable basis that Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang have been exceedingly well covered elsewhere.
Despite that appalling lack, the book told me all sorts of things I didn’t know about the doings of the Roach studio, founded by a great comic pioneer of the 1920s and 1930s who more or less invented situation comedy, and who I once interviewed at his home in Beverly Hills. (I’m not sure whether that attests to Roach’s great age — he lived to be 100 — or mine.) I thought so much of the book that I wrote an introduction for it.
The book has finally been published under the title “Smileage Guaranteed: Past Humor, Present Laughter.” Author Richard Roberts and his cohorts Robert Farr and Joe Moore have essentially compiled a huge, lavishly illustrated filmography of the Roach studio from its founding in 1914 to 1948, when Roach got out of movies and segued into television production, where he had a quite successful ten 10-year run. There are lengthy essays on such great Roach stars as Charley Chase and Snub Pollard, as well as talents that Roach took on at difficult stages of their career such as Mabel Normand and Harry Langdon.
Roberts’ book is more idiosyncratic than Brent Walker’s similar book on Mack Sennett that was published a few years ago. He means to revalue the comic pecking order and elevate talents like Langdon (agree) and Chase (disagree) to the same level as their more famous coworkers. To a great extent he succeeds, and even if you don’t find all of his arguments absolutely convincing, you’ll be swayed by the bounty of the illustrations and the value of the primary history he’s unearthed.
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RICHARD M ROBERTS