2020 Short Film Challenge - Larry Semon

Larry Semon (9 February 1889 - 8 October 1928)

I think I got a little more than I bargained for with this one.

Let's start with the easiest part of this installment of the 2020 Short Film Challenge. Here is list of films already viewed:

Dunces and Danger (1918)
Romans and Rascals (1918)
The Saw Mill (1922)
The Show (1922)
Horseshoes (1923)
The Cloud Hopper (1925)

Instead of looking at individual films, I think we need to look at his body of work, which has reoccurring themes and gags....and problems. Here are the films viewed, all of which can be found on YouTube.

Huns and Hyphens (1918)
Frauds and Frenzies (1918)
The Grocery Clerk (1919)
The Bell Hop (1921)
Golf (1922)
Kid Speed (1924)
A Simple Sap (1928)

First, it seems that his early material, from 1915 to 1919, uses an "And" in the title. Titles like those above and others like "Big Bluffs and Bowling Balls" (1917), "Noisy Naggers and Nosey Neighbors" (1917) and "Bathing Beauties and Big Boobs" (1918) dominate his filmography.

The films use a lot of the same elements. The Gags involving people constantly being hit was some kind of sticky liquid, paint or mud, often cleaning up just to be hit again. Larry rarely receives the same treatment. If someone is not being "soiled", they are falling out of second floor windows or off barn roofs. Larry usually hits the hay wagon, not all did, though. Some even hit a waiting mud puddle.

Plots often involve plots. "The Bell Hop" centers around German spies trying to steal papers in a hotel safe. "A Simple Sap" involves the theft of $25,000 in bonds. "Huns and Hyphens" has Larry as an inventor of a new gas mask that enemy agents want. And so on....

Add some outrageous stunts involving race cars, airplanes and falling towers and you have a Larry Semon comedy, running about 20 to 30 minutes.

There are things that sets them apart from others of the period. Mainly, we are talking about the cast. Two future stars can be found (normally alone) in many of his earlier film, namely, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Each was usually cast as the heavy, heading up the spies or menacing Larry. This makes Semon's films a study in the development of these two who, together, would change the world of film comedy.

Stan Laurel

Oliver "Babe" Hardy

In "Kid Speed", a blacksmith was played by Jack Jefferies. Jefferies was heavyweight boxing champion from 1899 to 1905. In 1910, he was goaded into returning to the ring to face Jack Johnson, the current heavyweight champ, who was African American. He took the fight for $120,000. Jefferies was knocked down twice. His corner threw in the towel in the 15th, ending the fight with Johnson's title intact.

This was Jefferies first screen role as an actor.

In 1925, Larry Semon, bankrolled a version of "The Wizard of Oz". The film was a flop. Couple this with his already strained financial position, and Semon was on the ropes. He put out a number of films after 1925, but his debts continued to grow. An article in the New York Daily News (7 Oct 1928) stated that he owed nearly $500,000. 

Semon collapsed in late August, 1928 (The Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, 22 Aug 1928).  He had developed either Tuberculosis or Pneumonia, depending on the newspaper. He also, reportedly, suffered a nervous breakdown. His wife, Dorothy Dwan, closed their house and moved in with her mother, when Larry was sent to a "health ranch". Taking refuge in the Mojave Desert Sanitarium near Victorville, California, it hit the papers that he had died on 5 October. His doctor refuted these claims stating that he was "very low." (Rock Island (Illinois) Argus, 6 Oct 1928)

On the 8th, Semon's was reported to have died. An article in the Reading (Pa) Times dated 9 October, says that there was a private funeral service held at the San Bernardino mortuary and the body was to be shipped to Philadelphia for burial in a family plot. This was stated by Nancy Smith, mother of Dorothy Dwan.

In a search through Find-a-Grave.com, Semon's Father died in 1901 and was buried at Mikveh Israel Cemetery in Philadelphia. His mother died in 1906 and was buried at Fernwood Cemetery in Fernwood, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia. Larry's sister, Elizabeth, died in 1941 and was buried in Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, also outside of Philadelphia. His wife of the time (Dorothy Dwan) died in Ventura, California and was cremated in 1981. Absent from all this is Nancy Smith. No mention of her as mother or wife is noted on the site. 

Reading over IMDb's bio of Semon, they point out that he was cremated. Not only that, per his instructions, there were no witnesses to this event, including his wife, who, to her dying day, does not know what happened to his body. She never saw it. No one knows where his ashes are. 

Who knows?

Thanks to YouTube, IMDb, Find-a-Grave.com and Newspapers.com for all the insight.

Number of films viewed: 7
Total films viewed: 109

Next week, I celebrate the Emperor's Birthday (23 Feb) with short films from Japan.