Showing posts with label Fatty Arbuckle. Show all posts

Monday, March 26, 2018

See If You Can Count The Stars ( Vitaphone )

A publicity item for that challenges you to name the stars of Vitaphone shorts shown here.
Among the stars pictured are Abe Lyman, Shemp Howard, Fatty Arbuckle, Dorothy Lee, Ruth Etting, and Patricia Ellis.

From "The Vitaphone Project" on facebook, and originally from a May 1934 magazine.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Buster Keaton Photos

OH DOCTOR! Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton as Keystone Kops. Not made at Keystone.

Buster Keaton and Anita Page.

Buster Keaton and friends in SPEAK EASILY

Buster Keaton with Dorothy Appleby and Elsie Ames in THE TAMING OF THE SNOOD ( 1940 ). They were two of the actresses he made the most movies with in the sound era.

Jess Barker, Ginny Simms, Red Skelton, Edna Skelton, and Buster Keaton during the cake cutting ceremony on St. Patrick's Day at the Hollywood Canteen.

Buster Keaton with Audrey Totter. 1949.

Rhonda Fleming meets the subject of The Buster Keaton Story (1957).

Buster Keaton and Ann Blyth in a publicity photo for THE BUSTER KEATON STORY.

Buster Keaton and Bobbi Shaw in THE PAJAMA PARTY ( 1964 ). Bobbi Shaw was one of the actresses who worked with Buster Keaton most often during the sound era.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Jewel Carmen

Jewel Carmen was involved with Roland West and "Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café". And early in her career she had made Keystone comedies with Mabel Normand and Fatty Arbuckle.

Jewel Carmen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jewel Carmen

Born	Florence Lavina Quick (1897-07-13)July 13, 1897 Danville, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	March 4, 1984(1984-03-04) (aged 86) San Diego, California, U.S.
Other names	Evelyn Quick Florence La Vinci Jewell Carman
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1912–1926
Spouse(s)	Roland West (m. 1918–35)

Jewel Carmen (July 13, 1897 – March 4, 1984) was an American silent film actress.

Early life and career

Born Florence Lavina Quick in Danville, Kentucky, Carmen made her film debut in the 1912 film The Will of Destiny. She went on to appear in Daphne and the Pirate (1916), opposite Lillian Gish and D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916).

Lawsuits against Fox

In 1917, Carmen contracted with Fox Film Corporation, but finding the deal unsatisfactory opened a new contract with the Keeney Corporation in 1918 while her first contract remained in effect.^[1]^[2] Fox sent Keeney notice of their prior contract, warning that they would hold Keeney responsible for assisting her in breaking it,^[1] promising to indemnify Keeney against legal retaliation.^[3] Carmen launched two lawsuits against Fox, one to attempt to free herself of the obligation of living up to her contract and another to seek redress for their interference with her contract with Keeney.^[3]
Key to the issues was the question of where the contracts had been made: New York or California. Fox's offices were located in New York; Carmen was a resident of California. By California law, Carmen was an adult at the time of signing the contract; by New York law, which granted majority at 21, she was not. If not an adult, she could not be legally held to the document she had signed.^[4] Though Carmen initially won the first lawsuit, having the contracts set aside and receiving damages of $43,500 from Fox, the decision was overturned on appeal because she had "unclean" hands, having herself treated Fox unfairly.^[3]^[5]^[6]^[7] However, she won her second case because Fox's interference with her employment with Keeney had been outside the law, though Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo made clear that he did not approve of the legal loophole that allowed Carmen to break her contract with Fox.^[3]^[8]

Later years and death

Carmen later became known for her connection to the scandal surrounding the death of actress Thelma Todd. She was the wife of Roland West, who had an extramarital affair with Todd and who came under suspicion following Todd's death of carbon monoxide poisoning.^[9]
Todd died in a garage attached to the home where Carmen's parents lived, which Carmen had formerly shared with West.^[10] The death was suspicious for a number of factors, including that Todd was allegedly spotted or spoken to several times the day after her purported time of death; Carmen herself testified before the grand jury that she had seen Todd somewhere with another man.^[11] After the scandal broke, Carmen's marriage to West ended, and she retired from the public eye.^[9]
Carmen died of lymphoma on March 4, 1984 at the age of 86.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1912	The Will of Destiny	Frances	Credited as Florence La Vinci
1913	The Professor's Daughter		Credited as Evelyn Quick
	A Life in the Balance		Credited as Evelyn Quick Alternative titles: Crashing Through Potted Plays No. 7
	Professional Jealousy		Credited as Evelyn Quick
	He and Himself		Credited as Evelyn Quick
	Four Queens and a Jack	The Girl	Credited as Evelyn Quick
	Their Husbands		Credited as Evelyn Quick
1916	Daphne and the Pirate		Credited as Jewell Carman
	Sunshine Dad	Charlotte
	The Children in the House	Jane Courtenay
	Flirting with Fate	Gladys, the Girl	Alternative title: The Assassin
	The Half-Breed	Nellie	Alternative title: The Carquinez Woods
	Intolerance	Favorite of the Harem	Uncredited
	Manhattan Madness	Girl
	American Aristocracy	Geraldine Hicks
1917	The Kingdom of Love	Violet Carson
	A Tale of Two Cities	Lucie Manette
	American Methods	Claire de Beaulieu
	To Honor and Obey	Rose Delvane
	The Conqueror	Eliza Allen
	When a Man Sees Red	Captain Sutton
	Les Misérables	Cosette at age 18
1918	The Girl with the Champagne Eyes	Nellie Proctor
	The Bride of Fear	Ann Carter
	Confession	Mary Anderson
	Fallen Angel	Jill Cummings	Alternative title: Paying the Piper
	Lawless Love	LaBelle Geraldine	Alternative title: Above the Law
1921	The Silver Lining	The Angel
1921	Nobody	Little Mrs. Smith
1923	You Can't Get Away with It
1926	The Bat	Miss Dale Ogden

The Kingdom of Love, 1917
The Girl with the Campagne Eyes, 1918

Notes

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b American Law Reports Annotated, 1211.
Jump up ^ Kaufman, 228.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Kaufman, 229.
Jump up ^ American Law Reports Annotated, 1212.
Jump up ^ American Law Reports Annotated, 1210, 1213.
Jump up ^ Carmen v. Fox Film Corp. 269 F. 928 (2nd Cir., 1920); cert denied, 255 U.S. 569, 41 S.Ct. 323 (1921)
Jump up ^ Field, Richard H.; Benjamin Kaplan; Kevin M. Clermont (2007-04-10). Civil Procedure- Materials for a Basic Course. New York, New York: Foundation Press. pp. 1077–79. ISBN 978-1-59941-145-3. Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
Jump up ^ Cf. American Law Reports Annotated.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Wright, David (2002). Joyita: Solving the Mystery. Auckland University Press. p. 3. ISBN 1-86940-270-7.
Jump up ^ Donati, William (2000). Ida Lupino: A Biography. University Press of Kentucky. p. 39. ISBN 0-8131-0982-5. .
Jump up ^ Nash, Jay Robert (2004). Great Pictorial History of World Crime. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 250. ISBN 1-928831-22-2.

Sources

Burdett A. Rich and M. Blair Wailes, ed. (1921). American Law Reports Annotated 15. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
Kaufman, Andrew L. (1998). Cardozo. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-09645-2.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jewel Carmen.

Jewel Carmen at the Internet Movie Database
Jewel Carmen at AllRovi
Jewel Carmen at Find a Grave

* * *

Like Mae Busch, Jewel Carmen made Keystone comedies in the silent era and then went on to stardom in dramatic films, but Jewel Carmen became wealthy enough to retire, while Mae Busch returned to comedies once more when her days as a star ended.

I had the good fortune to be able to communicate with Rudy Schafer, the son of the manager of the Sidewalk Café. His father had been married to Jewel Carmen's sister Alberta. Rudy told me a little about the Carmens. He said that they were actually from Oregon, and that their mother was an Indian. " 'Aunt' Jewel was a rather exotic looking lady with a rather distant, sophisticated personality," he said. In the movies, Jewel Carmen was a blonde leading lady who I suppose might be compared to other blondes of the period.

Rudy Schafer recalled that his aunt liked to read. "I have one of her books- ELMER GANTRY, by Sinclair Lewis. There were lots of books around the West home, but I didn't take much note of them. Remember I was just a kid then. It seemed to me that Jewel quite often had a book in hand--something which looked "arty". I don't recall seeing any murder mysteries or similar material." As for Jewel's relationship with Thelma, Rudy never saw them together, so he was unaware as to how they got along.

In 1939, Jewel Carmen took Roland West to court over money. She said that in 1935 she had advanced him $28,000.00 to be advanced in stocks, bonds, and the restaurant business*. Roland West responded that from June of 1933 to June of 1934, she had given him $34,000.00 and that she already had $70,000.00 invested in a shared annuity from which they both profited. West eventually settled out of court.

Jewel Carmen spent her final years out of the limelight, perhaps in part because her time in the limelight had not always been happy.

*Jewel Carmen put up the money for Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café, according to testimony made during the investigation of the death of Thelma Todd.

THE BAT was cited by Bob Kane as an inspiration for his character Batman.

Jewel Carmen, Emily Fitzroy, Louise Fazenda et Eddie Gribbon

Jewel Carmen in 1939.

Jewel Carmen postcard

The "Joyita" was actually named after Jewel Carmen - the name means "little jewel" in Spanish -

and so was "Joya's" - the private dining room upstairs at the Sidewalk Café - "Joya" means "Jewel".

The Sidewalk Café actually had the names of both Thelma Todd and Jewel Carmen on it.

RAGTIME BAND was one of the Keystone comedies Jewel Carmen was in.

Jewel Carmen:

http://books.google.com/books?id=LQsB66qPGmgC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=jewel+carmen+thelma+todd&source=bl&ots=aqkq3Lr_Q2&sig=ven5sbn4x5_p1GEX4U2D37N57_U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Kwj1UpTlC-GqyAG1oYC4BA&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=jewel%20carmen%20thelma%20todd&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=Td3_d9o81QMC&pg=PA3&dq=jewel+carmen+thelma+todd&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hwn1Uvv1FYifyQH-oYDYAg&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=jewel%20carmen%20thelma%20todd&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=oYx13-wI72oC&pg=PA279&lpg=PA279&dq=jewel+carmen+evelyn+quick&source=bl&ots=R6tVZlzLMk&sig=S3XeQjFnKOTD9_1AyincMO1dftQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9Wb1UpezEI3YyAG-1YHgDw&ved=0CFoQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=jewel%20carmen%20evelyn%20quick&f=false

Joyita:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/04/joyita.html

Keystone Comedies:
http://scatcat.fhsu.edu/~laevans2/Final%20Projed/Index.html

Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/01/thelma-todds-sidewalk-cafe.html

Roland West:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/02/roland-west.html

A

Monday, March 4, 2013

The Hollywood Girls Series

The Hollywood Girls series featured three girls in a series of two reel comedies. The "Three Stooges" angle went further than that. One of the girls in this series would go on to be a regular in the early films of that team.

Phyllis Crane, Rita Flynn, Virginia Brooks in THE LURE OF HOLLYWOOD.

"The Hollywood Girls" series revolved around the efforts of three young ladies to make it in the movies. These films are full of slapstick and can be seen as similar to silent movie comedies, with the addition of sound.

The series was directed by Fatty Arbuckle, who had turned to directing after being barred from acting due to a scandal in the 1920's. He was credited as "William Goodrich" and so audiences at the time would not have been aware of his participation, although his alias was known throughout the motion picture industry.

There were some changes in the cast over time, but the series would continue pretty much the same reguardless of the changes.

Leota Lane

Leota Lane, who appeared in the first film of the series, was one of the famous Lane sisters

( she is second from left in the photo above ), but this would be one of her only film appearences. During the second World War she would enlist in the Wacs.

Phyllis Crane

Phyllis Crane appeared in the first three films in the series. In 1931, shortly after the series began, she appeared in ALOHA with Thelma Todd, who soon began a series of her own with Zasu Pitts. She was also in Pat DiCicco's only movie, NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS, in 1935. But today she is best known for her work with the Three Stooges at Columbia. She can be seen in several of their early films, including A PAIN IN THE PULLMAN, which was a remake of the Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd comedy SHOW BUSINESS. Perhaps her most famous role was as Professor Nichols' daughter in HOI POLLOI who Moe Howard tries to romance. While talking to him, she coos that he will find the "eternal spring", unaware that he has already found it. A spring sprung from the couch, which he shortly shares with Curly, leading to further complications.

Rita Flynn

Rita Flynn in a still from THE PUBLIC ENEMY, her most famous movie. She appeared in every episode in the "Hollywood Girls" series, but her career seems to have ended with the close of that series. Prior to entering the movies she had been Miss San Francisco of 1925.

Betty Grable

Betty Grable appeared in CRASHING HOLLYWOOD, HOLLYWOOD LUCK, and HOLLYWOOD LIGHTS. At that time she was billed as "Frances Dean", as in the picture. Betty Grable also worked with Wheeler and Woolsey in the 1930's. She would become the top pinup girl of the second World War and was a top star at the box office during the same period. In private life she was associated with George Raft, who has sometimes been mentioned in connection with Pat DiCicco and others allegedly associated with the underworld.

Addie McPhail

Addie McPhail was in HOLLYWOOD LUCK, 1932. Here you see her with Fatty Arbuckle, who directed that film. They would later marry and she was Arbuckle's last wife: he would die in 1933 after making a successful comeback in Vitaphone comedies. Like Phyllis Crane, Addie McPhail was in the movie ALOHA with Thelma Todd: she would also appear with her in CORSAIR the same year.

HOLLYWOOD GIRLS SERIES FILMOGRAPHY

1932Hollywood Lights (short)

1932Hollywood Luck (short)

1931Queenie of Hollywood (short)

1931The Lure of Hollywood (short)

1931Crashing Hollywood (short)

1931Three Hollywood Girls (short)

Although the Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd series at Roach was conceived as a sort of female Laurel and Hardy series which teamed two women, the tail end of the series would see Rosina Lawrence as a regular along with Lyda Roberti and Patsy Kelly. So that they might also be thought of as a trio. And the last movie that they were in together had a story that saw the three girls becoming involved in making movies in Hollywood.