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The Time Travel Device Catalog
H. G. Wells' famous 1895 novel The Time Machine features a mechanized vehicle that allows the operator to travel to select designations in history. The idea of a time machine was fairly new at the...
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The Black Brute
Cretinetti attaccabrighe per amore (1911) In November, a national spotlight fell on a grand jury hearing in which police officer Darren Wilson testified about his shooting of Michael Brown....
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A Brief Look at Gags and Routines
We all know that, in the history of film comedy, a select number of gags and routines have been recycled endlessly. The recently released Marcel Perez Collection includes a smattering of familiar...
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The Snark
In 2013, the Nerdist website introduced James Bonding, a series of extensive podcast discussions about the long-running James Bond film franchise. I made it a third of the way through an incredibly...
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Hollywood's BS History
Many genres of film satisfy an audience by merely being entertaining. It is sufficient that they present an agreeable and transitory occupation of the mind. But a good true-life drama should not be...
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And Around and Around We Go!
In 1899, the world’s first revolving door was installed at Rector’s, a restaurant in Manhattan's Times Square. It wasn't long after this event that comedians recognized the comic potential of the...
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A Funny Medical Disorder
We are here today to talk about an involuntary contraction of the diaphragm, which is known by doctors as a synchronous diaphragmatic flutter. It may be hard to believe, but this disorder has been a...
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"Pay the Two dollars!"
Eugene and Willie HowardA highlight of the Broadway show "George White's Scandals of 1936" was Willie and Eugene Howard's comedy sketch "A Slight Case of Murder." Literature scholar Jim Bernhard,...
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Fun in a Telephone Booth
Lou Costello in Who Done It? (1942)Today, we will look at the origins of the classic Abbott and Costello routine "Alexander 2222." Here is the routine as I first saw it.All evidence points to the fact...
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Random Bits
Imogene Coca was featured in a version of "Slowly I Turn" included in the "All Fun" revue, which debuted at New Haven's Shubert Theatre on November 21, 1940.In the early days of the Twentieth century,...
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Girls Always Got Laughs
Daphne Pollard in "The Greenwich Villages Follies"The purveyors of entertainment have always been willing to showcase a funny lady. Two funny ladies were singled out for praise by Caroline Caffin in...
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The First Tramp Comedians
Nat WillsBruce Johnson, the official World Clown Association historian, wrote, "The earliest performance of a tramp character I have found is Jim McIntyre and Tom Heath who began their long running...
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Vaudeville's "Ghost in a Pawnshop" Routine
Laurel & Hardy in A Chump at Oxford (1940)A Photoplay reporter, Jack Wade, brought up this Chump at Oxford scene in an article entitled "We Cover the Studios." He wrote, "Done up in Eton jackets...
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The Mirror Routine: From Crocodile Soup to Duck Soup
I return to you today to once again discuss the venerated mirror routine. Not long ago, I joked that I expected to one day find hieroglyphics to prove that this prolific and longstanding routine was...
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The Sweet Spot
I was looking at promotional material for a series of Harry Sweet comedies distributed by Universal in the early 1920s. The plots suggest that Sweet favored larger-than-life comedy situations....
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The Pansy Dutch Act
Sam Bernard was an important comedian of his day. He originated what Variety called the "pansy Dutch [act]," which was successfully copied for decades by other well-known comedians. The "Five Corners"...
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Believe It or Not: Silent Film Comedy Edition
Fact: Billy West, who was billed as "the foremost Chaplin impersonator," got the idea for The Kid before Chaplin did.Review of The Genius, The Moving Picture World (August 11, 1917): "[West] finds...
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Lloyd Hamilton in the News
While browsing through a magazine archive, I came across a few intriguing news articles on Lloyd Hamilton.Let's begin our examination of these articles by going back to September 17, 1915. An article...
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Examining the Origins of Abbott and Costello's Burlesque Routines: Prologue
I am proud to declare the week of May 31, 2015, to be Abbott and Costello Week on Anthony Balducci's Journal. This is the first of seven daily articles that will look into the background of the team's...
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Examining the Origins of Abbott and Costello's Burlesque Routines: A Trip...
Billy K. Wells, a former comedian, wrote, produced and directed "Maids of America," a revue show that was presented in different annual editions from 1915 to 1920. Bobby Barry was the principal...
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