The Architechts Of Mythology

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I found some silent movie pie fights on youtube which I had not seen before. The blog at http://anthonybalducci.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-silent-film-rule-pies-go-splat-but.html lists a number of pie fights in the films of this period, so these same films might be mentioned there.

Our Gang Comedy




Snub Pollard Comedy




Christie ( ? ) Comedy

1900s Epic Diner Pie Fight! 

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The Architechts Of Mythology

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The Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties group on facebook had this picture from the Smithsonian Institute, which has made many public domain pictures from it's collection available online. A number of  Sennett's comedians are depicted including Ben Turpin and Ford Sterling, and Larry Semon ( right ) is about to have his face decorated with a pie.


Perils of Pauline Keystone Cops NPG-9300768B_1

Pauline of Perils fame can be seen to have been put in place of Mabel Normand in BARNEY OLDFIELD'S RACE FOR A LIFE ( below ).

It is likely that all the characters here were drawn from photographs.

The 1947 film "The Perils of Pauline" had the Pauline character getting involved in a pie fight 

with Hank Mann, Chester Conklin, and Jimmy Finlayson, something that Pearl White never did in the original. 

 . 

Chester Conklin was also depicted in the mural above, as one of the Keystone Kops ( the one on the left ). But if the date of 1941 that the Smithsonian has on it is correct, the picture predates 1947 movie. Both seem to have combined different elements in a similar fashion, but it doesn't appear that one is derived directly from the other.  .

Smithsonian releases public domain images:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/smithsonian-releases-28-million-images-public-domain-180974263/



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The Architechts Of Mythology

Something that I remembered that was related to the pie fight business was that Larry Semon was said to have had such fights in hs films. Sometimes he was said to have had big pie fights in them.


Pie throwing is mentioned in this review.

MPW Bakery review 1921



When watching Larry Semon comedies, I have seen them throw jam and paste as well as pies, so I'll mention that in the interest of accuracy. Throwing all such things can be seen as similar, and in Larry Semon comedies there were sequences where the charachters were fighting with their food.





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The Architechts Of Mythology

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The myth that girls were not tied to the railroad tracks in silent movies has been dealt with on another site, which also deals with the one having to do with a paucity of pie fights in the same period.

A SILENT FILM RULE: PIES GO SPLAT BUT DAMSELS NEVER DO

http://anthonybalducci.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-silent-film-rule-pies-go-splat-but.html



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Richard W. Bann on restoration of Hal Roach library

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Richard W. Bann of facebook:

I never saw this, until today, six years later. This was filmed (but by whom?) at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, during the great SONS OF THE DESERT international convention mounted by Bob Satterfield. Listen carefully, and you'll hear Randy Skretvedt laughing...at something. I think this was the day I was rushing to the convention, ran a red light, got my photo taken at the intersection, then took an open-air mini-tour bus of L&H locations (just to participate), had a pigeon -- one of those flying rats -- crap on my head from a tree, all preface for the coup de grace when the costumed Oliver Hardy impersonator sitting behind me got sick with all the starting and stopping and threw up on both yours truly and the late Eric Caiden (whose father owned the Masterpiece Package, including STAGECOACH, TO BE OR NOT TO BE, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, etc.). So on this fine, but less than perfect day, I had been living out my own version of HELPMATES. As in, "Well, I guess there's nothing else I can do...." But the show must go on! It ends here, however, before Jeff Joseph's appearance. During the intervening years, working with Scott MacQueen at UCLA, Jeff followed through with his institutional restoration and preservation (what we had performed, before giving the HRS nitrate to Rob Stone at UCLA, was commercial preservation for the Eastern Hemisphere copyright proprietor in Munich, without the additional step of the by then less expensive digital restoration), culminating in the BluRay boxed set happily just announced, with a street date on Stan Laurel's birthday in June. You can pre-order your present, now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWRqNs-nKUM&list=PLkOtHslmk9fzZS0Q2EtgfYhh5_vShQoHB&index=28&fbclid=IwAR3rLsbqkRVYep78Q0GnxJ4Yx7wcSixcgH-5oKXQD4hr7-znChlk-tV1Zeo

Video

Richard W. Bann on restauration of Hal Roach library holding a speech at Egyptian theatre in the screening room. Donate for our restoration project of histor...

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Thelma Todd In London

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Thelma Todd went to England in 1933 to promote a movie she made wih Laurel and Hardy ( FRA DIAVOLO ), and while she was there she made a movie with Stanley Lupino ( YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU ). She can also be glimpsed in this film.



Full titles read: "MORTON DOWNEY - The famous American, Radio, Film and Recording Star. Filmed at Cafe de Paris, London." Intertitle reads: "Midnight - and though suburban roads may be quiet and lonely, dancing feet throng the floor here - (To the music of Jack Harris and his boys)." Very Good shots of the guests and stars dancing to the jazz music of Jack Harris. There are numerous celebrities at the venue including the film star Thelma Todd, Nelson Keys, Dorothy Dickson, Ruth Roland and the composer Horatio Nicholls. Good L/S's and M/S's of Morton Downey sitting at piano singing 'Stormy Weather' FILM ID:1076.14

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SILVER SCREEN Oct. 1932

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More from the same issue of SILVER SCREEN.

Thelma Todd married Pat DiCicco in 1932. Austin Parker was someone she had been seeing. Harpo Marx was one of the Marx Brothers, who had been working with her in HORSEFEATHERS.

Pictures of Thelma Todd from SPEAK EASILY, one of them with it's star, Buster Keaton.

The HORSEFEATHERS review makes a "Toddy" reference.

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Nicknames SILVER SCREEN Oct. 1932

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The article about nicknames.

Jack Oakie, Susan Fleming, and Lyda Roberti appeared in MILLION DOLLAR LEGS in 1932. Lyda Roberti would later replace Thelma Todd at the Hal Roach Studio.

The caption for the photo on the right tells us that Thelma Todd's nickname was "Hot Toddy". More on that later.

On the lower left it says Thelma Todd's nickname was "Hot Toddy" and gives an explanation.

                                             SEEIN' STARS Jan 4, 1934 had the same story.


Some fans don't want anyone to call Thelma Todd "Hot Toddy", although she was called that in her publicity and even in one of her films*.  Some fans also don't want anyone to call Fatty Arbuckle "Fatty" even though he was called that in some of the movie titles. The whole thing is strange, and not likely to endear the supposedly serious fans responsible for this behavior with the general public.


*LOVE FEVER.


LOVE FEVER:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022089/

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Ad for Nicknames SILVER SCREEN 1932

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Ad for an article on nicknames in the Sept. 1932 issue of SILVER SCREEN with Thelma Todd, 

                                             which tells us that her nickname was "Hot Toddy"

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The Dame in the Kimono

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 In THE MALTESE FALCON ( 1931 ) there is a scene where Thelma Todd ( "Ivy Archer" ) spots Bebe Daniels ( as Brigid O'Shaughnessy ) in Sam Spade's apartment and cries, "Say, who's that dame in my kimono?", Later plans to rerelease it had to be scrapped because the Production Code found this objectionable*, and the whole affair then inspired the name of a book on censorship.

  

  

I don't always approve of everything in films, pre-code or otherwise. But I have not read this book and can offer no opinion on it.

* It was later released to television as DANGEROUS FEMALE.


THE MALTESE FALCON ( 1931 )
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022111/

 

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MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC JULY 1928

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Pages from a Classic motion picture magazine, scanned by an ebay seller. It says so right on it.

Nancy Carroll

Thelma Todd.  The kimono business was used in THE MALTESE FALCON in 1931. That was the first film version, and Thelma Todd was in it, but not in a kimono, although she did refer to one as being hers. 

Dolores Del Rio

F W Murnau was a famous director

Phyllis Haver worked with Buster Keaton in BALLOONATIC. 

Joan Crawford was in TRAMP TRAMP TRAMP with  Harry Langdon. 

Dorothy Sebastion and Anita Page both worked with Buster Keaton. 

Polly Ann Young was one of Loretta Young's sisters.

And Beth Lammle was the niece of Carl Lammle, who was at that time the head of Universal Picures.

Joan Crawford again.

  

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Thelma Todd's Will

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Thelma Todd's Last Will & Testament. Posed by Adam Tunney in the Thelma Todd Fans group on facebook.

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Thelma and Pasquale DiCicco's marriage license and marriage certificate

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Posted by Jenny Matta in the Thelma Todd Fan Group on facebook.

Thelma and Pasquale DiCicco's official marriage license and marriage certificate in the state of Arizona.

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Thelma's Birth Listed In The Massachusetts Birth Records

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Posted by Jenny Matta in the Thelma Todd Fan Group on facebook

Thelma's birth listed in the Massachusetts Birth Records.

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THE AIR HOSTESS ( 1937 )

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Not related to the 1933 movie Air Hostess, except for the title, which is a a faded phrase once used in reference to airline stewardesses.

Since the Air Hostess in this story is a little girl with blonde hair, her character can be seen as related to Shirley Temple, who was popular at the time.

The pilot is also a little kid in this story, which seems appropriate in this cartoon fantasy.

Neither Thelma Todd or Evalyn Knapp appear, but Mae West does. The cartoonists liked to draw Mae West and frequently used her as a character. 

Watch The Air Hostess

Air Hostess ( 1937 ) :
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146411/

Air Hostess and Air Fright:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/07/air-hostess-and-air-fright.html

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AIR HOSTESS LC

AIR HOSTESS was a 1933 Columbia production starring James Murray, Evalyn Knapp, and Thelma Todd, who once again played the "other woman" in the story.

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