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Live Long and Prosper
In an interview with Radio Times, Star Trek actor Simon Pegg had harsh words for adults obsessed with comic book films. He said, "[W]e're essentially all consuming very childish things – comic books,...
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The First Known Pie-in-the-Face Gag
Peter Reitan, author of the Early Sports and Pop Culture History Blog, has written extensively about the origins of the "slipping on a banana peel" gag....
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Book Review: "The Gag Man: Clyde Bruckman and the Birth of Film Comedy"
The highest praise that I could pay to a biographer is to say that the biographer selected a subject that was sufficiently unique and unduly neglected, they acquired their facts through exhaustive...
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The Rise of the Comedy Feature: Introduction
On October 23, Open Road Films will release a new Bill Murray comedy, Rock the Kasbah. This is yet one in thousands of comedy features that have been released in the United States during the course of...
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The Rise of the Comedy Feature, Part 1: The Demi-Clowns of 1915
It is widely believed that Keystone's Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) was the first feature-length comedy film. This is not exactly true. More knowledgeable silent film enthusiasts have tried to...
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The Rise of the Comedy Feature, Part 2: The Year of the Ladies
We left off in my last article at the end of 1915. Nothing particularly notable happened during the next year. John Barrymore starred in an amnesia comedy called The Lost Bridegroom (1916), after...
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The Rise of the Comedy Feature, Part 3: Skirts (1921)
Ford West, Bynunsky Hyman, Harry Gribbon and Rosa Gore in Skirts (1921).The Hippodrome Theatre was a midtown Manhattan landmark from 1905 to 1939. The building's architects, Frederick Thompson and Jay...
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Another Look Up Skirts
Tommie Hicks, the host of a silent film comedy channel on YouTube, sent me an article with additional information on Skirts, a film that I discussed in my last article. This information elaborates...
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Man With A Computer
In a recent Los Angeles Times article, Steve Zeitchik identified a new type of film called the "impressionistic biopic." The article provided the recent biopic Steve Jobs as an example. The film’s...
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The Mirror Routine Ban
Comedy has a rich history. Just the history of the mirror routine has kept me busy turning up a variety of facts. More facts about the routine were recently provided on the NitrateVille forum by Max...
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F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre Writes About Dan Leno
F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre did not endear himself to many of the men and women who are dedicated to the study of silent cinema. His strange offenses may be difficult to understand, but I will do my best...
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Saucy Sue, Rebellious Betty and Other Examples of the Women-Child
Lauren Duca examined film comedy’s woman-child in a Huffington Post article titled "The Rise Of The Woman-Child." The main point of the article was to criticize a perceived double standard in the...
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Old News is Good News
I offer today the latest collection of tidbits that I have come across while researching articles or just casually browsing the Internet.Variety, March 14, 1919The Rossow Midgets were a pair of boxing...
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Book Review: Pamela Tiffin: Hollywood to Rome, 1961-1974 (McFarland)
Tom Lisanti has written before about many different 1960s starlets. He has referred to these women in his book titles as fantasy femmes, drive-in dream girls, and glamour girls. But cult icon...
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Book Review: "The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of...
I just finished reading Kliph Nesteroff's new book, "The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy." Nesteroff proves my long-held opinion that comedy has a rich...
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Manic Pixie Pain in My Ass
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope essentially involves a glumly introverted boy meeting a wildly extroverted girl, who manages through her unremitting antics to teach her new acquaintance how to enjoy...
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The Team of André Deed and Max Linder
Georg Renken, a Max Linder authority, contributed valuable research to my recent article on the mirror routine. Now, Mr. Renken has come forth with additional information on Linder that you might find...
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Fred Stone Rises to Great Heights
Fred Stone and Ella HallI made the point in a recent article that Douglas Fairbanks' comic acrobatics, which included the actor scaling high-rise buildings, had a significant influence on Harold Lloyd....
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Charles Kenna: The Street Fakir
Peter Godfrey in The Two Mrs.Carrolls (1947). Charles Kenna became well-known in vaudeville for his take-off of the sidewalk pitchman. His pitchman character came out on stage with a sample case and a...
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Man-Child Week on Anthony Balducci’s Journal
I welcome you to Man-Child Week on Anthony Balducci’s Journal. My blog will be dedicated for the entire week to celebrating the release of my new book, I Won't Grow Up!: The Comic Man-Child in Film...
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