Born on this day in 1902: the "daredevil comedienne", stuntwoman and comic actress Wanda Wiley, star of very funny films for Century Comedies and Bray Productions. Starting her movie career doing stunt work in westerns, Wanda, a cross between the winsome comedienne and an action hero, made 50 films between 1924 and 1927.
Way too many silent movie comediennes were entirely ignored for decades and decades, primarily because they did not star in comedies produced by Hal Roach Studios and Mack Sennett or feature films.
The Century Comedies star and stuntlady is in the jaunty heroic mold of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Harold Lloyd, who she shares the 4/20 birthday with.
From San Antonio, Wanda Wiley's sensibility is that of gal next door who happens to be a daredevil, not dissimilar from Madcap Mabel Normand in A Dash Through The Clowds (1912) - and yes, she races cars in FLYING WHEELS!
She is not the traditional comedienne turned leading lady (Billie Rhodes, Bebe Daniels), the glamour girl who sometimes does pratfalls (Marion Davies, Carole Lombard), a feisty "don't you mess with me" firebrand (Fay Tincher) or the "baggy pants comedienne" persona seen from Gale Henry, Louise Fazenda and Alice Howell to Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. Possibly Wanda's characterization was modeled on the ever-plucky Constance "Dutch" Talmadge, tied with Mabel Normand as silent cinema's top comedienne in feature films. She does share charisma, spunk and athleticism with Talmadge and Fay Tincher.
As seen in her extant films, WandaVision 1925 is a very cool place!
One of the funniest extant Wanda comedies remains the action-packed A Thrilling Romance.
In 1926, Wanda appears to have been demoted from star of her own series to secondary player in a new series. Why? Who knows? This was not unheard of at Universal, where top comedienne Alice Howell transitioned from headliner to supporting player.
Perhaps the powers that were at Universal feared Wanda would ask for a raise and a promotion. The subsequent What Happened To Jane? series Wanda co-starred in shifts the focus to the male leads.
The much less talented and interesting (a.k.a. dull as dishwater) male leads make Wanda a second banana in the What Happened To Jane? series.
Yes, that's right, Universal and Stern Brothers productions discontinued Wanda Wiley's starring vehicles but, hoping to compete with Sennett's The Smith Family series and Hal Roach's Our Gang, launched The Newlyweds & Their Baby series, featuring Sunny Jim McKeen as Snookums. These short subjects and Sunny Jim can be excruciating, and come across more as funny-weird than funny-humorous.
How Wanda Wiley, the personalty plus girl, did not attract the attention of Universal head Carl Laemmle and continue her career into talkies, we'll never know. This brings to mind the question of how many of the LOTS and LOTS of silent film comediennes starred for Universal and who produced these fast-paced, sight gag-filled 2-reelers.
The answer to the former includes Wanda Wiley, Alice Howell, Fay Tincher, Baby Peggy Montgomery, Edna Marion and many more. The answer to the latter would be Julius Stern and Abe Stern, who produced over 900 films.
The outstanding cinema detective, author and film historian Thomas Reeder has focused two books on the comedy that emerged from Universal in the teens and 1920's - and the second one, Time is Money! The Century, Rainbow, and Stern Brothers Comedies of Julius and Abe Stern, covers their lives and movie career in detail. It would appear from the surviving footage that Wanda Wiley's best films were from the first year of her Universal series produced by the Stern brothers in 1924-1925.
Alas, and unfortunately, Hal Roach, Mack Sennett and Jack White (at Educational Pictures) did not step in at the point in 1927-1928 and hire Wanda to headline a series. Too bad - maybe the unexpected impact of The Jazz Singer was a factor. In a move that got me thinking of Paramount Pictures and the Fleischer brothers, Universal cut ties with the Stern Brothers in 1929.
Wanda made a few more movies, very briefly returned to vaudeville, then married well and gave up showbiz in 1933.
Bravos, kudos and huzzahs to Mr. Reeder, Mr. Massa, Mr. Ross (and The Lost Laugh) and, for much of the footage in today's post, the Library Of Congress. We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog applaud the excellent research that has brought the spotlight back to Wanda Wiley, the superb daredevil comedienne. Now we'll watch a slew of super-talented comediennes and character actresses who are still with us in April 2024 get big laughs in the Palm Royale series.
The past year has had at least one prominent thing going for it: the full-fledged return of film festivals after an extended lockdown-related hiatus. The 2024 version of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival opened earlier this week at the Palace Of Fine Arts Theatre, in San Francisco's Marina district. Do we seek a Star Trek teleportation device that would make attending these screenings a breeze? Yes.
The Laurel & Hardy Show - Saturday, April 13 at 10:00 a.m.
Buster Keaton in Sherlock Jr - Saturday, April 13 at 7:00 p.m. The Gorilla 1927 version starring Charlie Murray - Sunday, April 14 at 10:00 a.m.
Harold Lloyd in The Kid Brother - Sunday, April 14 at 12:15 p.m. Live music by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. Roxy Cinema NYC, 2 Avenue of the Americas (lower level) and Cartoons On Film presents Peculiar Puppets vol. V (16mm) The press release elaborates: Roxy Cinema hereby presents a fifth retrospective screening featuring various peculiar examples of puppet films from the 1920s through the 1950s. Warning: You may find some of the offerings to be rather unsettling, possibly even creepy!
This event is programmed by early animation archivist and historian Tommy José Stathes, and prints are hand-selected from his personal 16mm film archive. The 90 minute film program with intermission will be followed by a live Q&A session with Stathes. Click here for more info & advance tickets.
On April 18-21, 2024, TCM Classic Film Festival returns to the Holly-woods. Venues include the Egyptian Theatre, the Chinese Multiplex House 1-6, and, of course, Club TCM at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. It is the 15th edition of this epic festival and features lots and lots of classic movies along with more recent fare which, by this point, April 2024, were definitely long time ago. . . make that a very long time ago. Many special guests, still living movie stars and various favorite scholars and historians we know will be on hand. Still miss Robert Osborne! For way more on past TCM festivals, check out the TCM YouTube channel.
Still thinking of the late, great Joe Flaherty, who did excellent William F. Buckley and Kirk Douglas impersonations and whose fellow SCTV cast members were also incredible mimics, Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog now turns to the topic of impressionists. Rang in 2024 on the blog with a January 1 post largely devoted to old school impressionists - John Byner, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr and Australia's best, Keith Scott, included.
Those of us who have long since passed retirement age, such as this "ok, boomer" blogmeister, remember seeing impressionists regularly on TV. Such popular and ubiquitous stand-up comedians of the day - Jack Carter, Shecky Greene, Guy Marks - featured impersonations prominently in their acts.
The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and The Dean Martin Show featured superlative impressionists.
Way back in the 1950s and 1960s, it hadnt been that long since arger-than-life movie stars - Humphrey Bogart, Mae West, W.C. Fields, Jack Benny, Greta Garbo, Edward G. Robinson, Peter Lorre, Jimmy Cagney, Groucho Marx, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum - dominated both the silver screen and the cathode ray tube. Many of the aforementioned Hollywood stars were very much still with us then and could either love or despise the impressions. Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett would book the likes of Jack Benny and Groucho Marx on their late-night shows whenever they could.
Along with The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dean Martin Show, it was arguably the last TV variety program to provide mimics a showcase. The late 1970's On Location series by HBO did at least gave impressionists an extended opportunity to do their standup comedy acts.
And, speaking of The Dean Martin Show, how this blogmeister actually forgot to include the aforementioned Guy Marks (1923-1987), one of the very best and funniest of the old school impressionists back in the 1960's, we'll never know! Let's rectify that error now!
Since the demise of the TV variety program and such showcases as The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1970's, the last place where actual impressionists could be found is late night TV: SCTV (a.k.a. Second City Television), Late Night With David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and to a lesser degree Fridays, In Living Color and Mad TV. Frank Caliendo was the impressions guy on Mad TV.
Saturday Night Live has explored that "improv meets impressions" space from John Belushi's Marlon Brando as The Godfather impersonation to Gilda Radner's Lucy to the dead-on mimicry and comedy acting genius of Eddie Murphy, uncrowned and unheralded king of celebrity and politician voices Darrell Hammond - and the "micro-impressions" of the great Dana Carvey.
The Saturday Night Live casts have featured numerous stand-up comedians who do impressions over the decades - the infamous Season 6 featured three, Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo and Gilbert Gottfried - and a favorite 21st century SNL stalwart and new school impressionist is Bill Hader.
Sometimes Jimmy Fallon's musical impressions make it into The Tonight Show; we would also occasionally get a glimpse of them during his SNL stint in the early oughts. He's a musician who happens to be an improv comic and clearly most at home with a guitar in his hand. Jimmy Fallon's impressions of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen are my favorite bits of his.
Fellow SNL alum Melissa Villaseñor is also an amazing new school impressionist.
As is the case with Maya Rudolph, we have the impression that Melissa Villaseñor has many, many more impressions yet to be heard.
Melissa's celebrity impersonations (musical and otherwise) are a highlight of the current version of The Tonight Show, especially the Wheel of Musical Impressions feature. Now, has anyone gotten Melissa and Dolly Parton together?
The current SNL cast features two bonafide impressionists in James Austin Johnson and Chloe Fineman.
While eating a delicious sandwich on National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day and checking Ebay daily for Star Trek teleportation devices in good condition (even knowing it's likely that Bill Shatner and Patrick Stewart have cornered the market on them), the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog also yearn to see more showcases for comedians and comediennes with the gift of mimicry - and the gift of gab.
A key function and reason for being of this blog is to pay tribute to favorite comedians, comediennes and animators from decades gone by; we love the spectacular, the merely great and just occasionally great who take us to "the laughing place." Right now, we're reeling from the passing earlier this week of one of the all-time greats, Second City and SCTV troupe member Joe Flaherty, while also celebrating the natal anniversary of the hilariously funny Grady Sutton (1906-1995).
Could have celebrated the 100th birthday of Grady Sutton, another all-time favorite, especially as a foil to all-time great W.C. Fields, when I started this blog way back in 2006. Why not? I don't know! Shall tip our battered top hat worn by William Claude Dukenfeld to Grady Sutton, born April 5, 1906, today!
Rather amazingly, Grady Sutton, over a 55 year career, both appeared in silent films and played the role of the principal in ROCK N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. That's right - that means he had a show business career that crossed paths with both W.C. Fields and The Ramones. His first claim to fame was a continuing role in the early 1930's Hal Roach Studios series The Boy Friends.
On a YouTube channel devoted to the career of ace movie stuntman Dave Sharpe and, lo and behold, there's The Boy Friends in AIR-TIGHT. Grady was, along with former Our Gang star Mickey Daniels, the top comic in the series, while dapper Dave Sharpe acted as the leading man.
There are two comedy shorts we know of titled THE KNOCKOUT. Most dyed-in-the-wool silent movie buffs have seen the 1914 Keystone Comedy featuring Roscoe Arbuckle and a young Edgar "Slow Burn" Kennedy (with hair!) as pugilists and none other than Charlie Chaplin as the referee. The second is a Hal Roach Studios 2-reeler featuring The Boy Friends; Grady's dancing at 0:54 is a hoot!
Very likely as a direct result of appearing in The Pharmacist, produced by Mack Sennett, Grady Sutton also appeared in the following Mack Sennett Star Comedy - Husbands' Reunion.
When Hal Roach Studios cameraman George Stevens moved on from The Lot Of Fun to RKO Radio Pictures in 1933, he launched a short subjects series, The Blondes & The Redheads, featuring Grady along with cartoon voice artist Carol Tevis (you know her when you hear that high-pitched squeaky voice) and leading ladies June Brewster and Dorothy Granger.
The Blondes & The Redheads comedies are very enjoyable 2-reelers and, having fallen into the public domain, all available on YouTube, in some cases as a playlist.
Grady Sutton is best known to classic movie buffs and comedy fans for his supporting roles in W.C. Fields films.
He is consistently hilarious in the 1939 Fields vehicle You Can't Cheat An Honest Man.
Fields subsequently cast Grady as the unbelievably dense Og Oggilby in THE BANK DICK (1940).
Grady Sutton continued working in TV and movies through the 1970's. As there are so many guest appearances and walk-ons in movies and sitcoms through the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's, it is difficult to say where to begin, He was one of the co-stars of The Pruitts Of Southampton a.k.a. The Phyllis Diller Show, featuring standup comedienne Diller, along with a host of talented character actors (including Grady, Reginald Gardiner and the ubiquitous Richard Deacon, post-Dick Van Dyke Show role as subject of scorn Mel Cooley).
While on the topic of comedians who brought the writer of this blog a million laughs, we're saddened to hear that Joe Flaherty, writer, teacher, director, improv expert and cast member in Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's favorite sketch comedy show, SCTV, has passed at the age of 82.
Here, two cast members from that great series, Joe and John Candy, appear on Late Night With David Letterman.
One SCTV character who never fails to crack up the crew here is Guy Caballero!
Another is Count Floyd.
Monster Chiller Horror Theatrne's House Of Cats remains a favorite!
Mr. Flaherty, a Pittsburgh-born cornerstone of the Second City troupe and the National Lampoon radio show, brought the comedy-centric gang here a million laughs on SCTV and a slew of other television programs and movies (Freaks & Geeks, Happy Gilmore, Maniac Mansion).
And Grady Sutton, our often befuddled assistant in navigating the distictive world of W.C. Fields in The Pharmacist, The Man On The Flying Trapeze, You Can't Cheat An Honest Man and The Bank Dick did the same, getting big laughs from this comedy fan on everything from pre-code 2-reelers to MGM's Ziegfeld Follies to many TV shows and the latter-day likes of I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, Support Your Local Gunfighter and Rock N' Roll High School.
A week from today, April 6, the Psychotronix Film Festival returns to the Orinda Theater for a scintillating springtime extravaganza.
We celebrate April Fool's Day a few days late and the birthday of movie comedian Grady Sutton a day early!
Time to celebrate Easter retroactively and the right way - the Psychotronic way, starting with Bugs Bunny!
The Psychotronix Film Festival is baaaaaaaaaaaack - with yet another devastatingly delirious deluge drawn from Our Celluloid Past!
The April 6 program will be as refreshing as springtime!
And, indeed, what would spring be without pickles?
Our overstocked 16mm archive is bursting at the acetate seams yet again with some of the coolest odd-ball films you are likely to see.
What would a Psychotronix Film Festival be without classic TV ads and Soundies?
And kidvid gone wrong, terribly wrong?
The place: Orinda Theater 2 Orinda Theatre Square, Orinda, CA 94563 The time: 8:30 p.m. PST
Orinda Theater Movieline: (925) 254-9060
Attendees at the Orinda Theater show note: a few weeks after kicking off April with a cool Psychotronix show there, we shall get the merry month of May off to a roaring start with a KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College in the Los Altos Hills.
Yes, Virginia Mayo and Virginia Weidler, there will be a "Mayday" KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival - 31 years, 5 months after our first show - at Room 5015 on Foothill College on May 4.
It dawns on us, stuck for a topic as usual, that today, March 22, is International Goof Off Day. Yes, the experienced goof-offs at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog here are not kidding - there actually is a International Goof Off Day. Thank you, Sandra Boynton, for the following apt International Goof Off Day illustration!
Shall devote International Goof Off Day to weapons-grade goofing off by a certain favorite character from Walt Disney Productions, not Mickey Mouse. Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Clarabelle Cow or even the 1920's version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit but (drum roll). . . Goofy.
The Goof debuted in the 1932 Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Revue as the chortling "Dippy Dawg."
We'll kick this International Goof Off Day tribute off with one of Disney's best short cartoons, Tiger Trouble!
There are three names I associate with The Goof. First and foremost, need to pay tribute to the artist responsible for designing the character's angular style and specific movements: the brilliant and gifted animator Art Babbitt. While it is difficult to determine where to begin, given Art Babbitt's many contributions to Disney animation history, Michael Barrier's interview with Art is a fantastic place to start.
Jack had a knack for directing the best of the best Goofy cartoons, starting with Goofy’s Glider. Kinney's direction, splendid animation and the always florid and sternly stentorian narration of the Jack Barrymore-esque John McLeish equals laughs.
Goofy then became, after the hilarious How To Ride A Horse segment in The Reluctant Dragon, the ultimate sports champion. Such classic "Sport Goofy" cartoons as The Art Of Skiing, Art Of Self Defense, How To Fish, How To Play Baseball, How To Play Football, The Olympic Champ, Tennis Racquet and Goofy Gymnastics followed.
Last but not least, the third name we associate with the Goof is the one, the only, the incomparable voice of the Goof, vaudeville and circus performer Pinto Colvig.
Very few in animation excelled as storyman, gag writer, musician, songwriter and voice artist. Colvig was all of the above with Disney, Lantz and Fleischer Studios.
Pinto's distinctive voice even turns up in a few Warner Brothers and Tex Avery MGM cartoons.
The Southern Oregon Historical Society devoted a one hour episode of The Southern Oregon History Show to Pinto Colvig
Big time thanks for the laughs, all of you, from Walt to Art to Fred Moore to Jack's brother Dick and pal Roy Williams to Pinto to Jack Kinney's crew of ace animators (John Sibley, Ed Aardal, Hugh Fraser and Jack Boyd, sometimes supplemented by "Nine Old Men" luminaries Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball and Woolie Reitherman)!
One of the key things, in addition to our pets, that got this household through many months of lockdown in 2020-2021 was watching The Silent Comedy Watch Party, presented with wit and panache by intrepid film historians, authors and curators Ben Model and Steve Massa on Sundays.
On this Sunday, St. Patrick's Day, the series will return to YouTube for its 4th anniversary extravaganza and episode #100 - HOORAY!
One of the many things I love about the series is that, unlike 99% of silent era comedy programs, The Silent Comedy Watch Party does not limit the focus strictly to The Big 3, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
While we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog love those guys, unquestionably the other silent movie laughmakers, lesser known but often hilarious, richly deserve kudos, bravos and huzzahs for their contributions to film humor.
It's noteworthy that acrobatic Al St. John, the ever-persnickety Johnny Arthur and wacky redhead of silents Alice Howell - all very funny performers - are featured in Silent Comedy Watch Party episode #100.
The following graphic for Silent Comedy Watch Party episode 50 shows just a few of the amazing comics featured in the series.
The dyed-in-the-wool silent comedy aficionados at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog extend big time thanks to The Silent Comedy Watch Party for repeatedly delivering big laughs during 2020, a difficult time (even for those fortunate enough to not lose family members and friends to coronavirus) and continuing to do so with good-natured enthusiasm in only slightly less bat guano crazy 2024.
There is a treasure trove of vintage comedy and animation screenings going on right now in New York City, with very cool shows across the country from The Empire State in Orinda, California from my friends from the Psychotronix Film Festival happening on April 6.
Tomorrow night, classic comedy expert Nelson Hughes celebrates the tenth anniversary of his series That Slapstick Show with TEN hilarious Pre-Code 2-reelers, some featuring the poet laureate of "the slow burn," character actor/comedian/director Edgar Livingston Kennedy, at QED Astoria in Queens.
Prints are courtesy of the Library of Congress! Tickets are available for That Slapstick Show: Pre-Code Comedieshere. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Classic comedy films begin at 7:00.
If you happen to be the most intrepid and physically hardy of film buffs, reside in NYC and have the time free, you could attend the two matinee shows of sheer animated splendor from the Max Fleischer Cartoons: The Art & Inventions Of Max Fleischer retrospective at MoMA and then head for QED Astoria for big laughs courtesy of Edgar Kennedy and his world-class comedian pals!
Say hello to intrepid curators Thad Komorowoski and Nelson Hughes if you have a chance - and dig those excellent Hal Roach comedies and Fleischer cartoons!
Cartoons by Fleischer Studios are, peg boards down, the all-time favorites of the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog.
When it comes to classic cartoon goodness, Uncle Max delivers!
Saturday, April 6 the Psychotronix Film Festival crew, led by Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Scott Moon and Robert Emmett from KFJC, shall rock the house with an evening of big screen fun at the Orinda Theatre.
Yours truly, who unfortunately lacks a working Star Trek teleportation device or an unlimited travel budget, will, much to his chagrin, not be there for the psychotronic festivities at Orinda or the April 10-14 shows by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, but shall be on hand (with 16mm reels) - trains, planes and automobiles willing - for the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College on May 4.
And, if current cinema floats the glass bottom boat for San Francisco Bay Area cineastes, South Bay residents can check out San Jose's Cinequest film festival this weekend. The 2024 edition of Cinequest extends through St. Patrick's Day.
