Originally published in 1954, this was the first factual history of comedy films and the men and women who had since 1894 kept us laughing in the cinema. It traces the beginning of comic motion pictures and the pioneer work of Paul, Gaumont, Hepworth, Pathe and Zecca. Then comes the picture palace craze and the success of the early Italian and French comedies and trick films. The work of Al Christie and Mack Sennett in America, and the rise of American films, is fully described, as knockabout gives way to slapstick, and salaries and box-office receipts soar.
Now come Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and all the other bright figures of the Roaring Twenties, with favourites like Buster Keaton and Will Rogers to the fore. The development of sound and its effect on the comedians is explained, and the story comes up to date through the thirties and forties to 1954.
Some of the hundreds of names to whom tribute is paid include Mabel Normand, Larry Semon, Roscoe Arbuckle, Monty Banks, Max Linder, Harry Langdon, Will Hay, the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Fernandel and Alec Guinness. These are only a few of the many whose careers are traced. The book is illustrated by a number of carefully selected photographs, many of which are unique.
This edition, first published in 1968 has been revised but the period it covers remains the same, 1894-1954, sixty years of film humour.
Preface by Norman Wisdom. Foreword. 1. The First Comedies 2. The Hepworth Story 3. The Fun Continues 4. Early Film Studios 5. The Rise of the American Film 6. The Keystone Touch 7. Chaplin – The Perfect Clown 8. Harold Lloyd 9. The Roaring Twenties 10. The End of Visual Comedy 11. All Talking! 12. The Thirties 13. The British Quota Boom 14. Crosby and Company 15. Walt Disney 16. The Eccentrics 17. The Forties 18. The Summing Up 19. Flashback. Acknowledgements. Index of Names.
Biography
John Montgomery
Reviews for the original 1954 edition:
"Loaded with facts, names, titles, biographies and anecdotes, but trotting along easily enough to make reading comfortable, I can’t think of any other book devoted to the cheerful screen which bundles together not only the internationally famous English-speaking comics, but also the great army of good comedians, the multitude of players and the multitude of films too." Dilys Powell wrote in The Sunday Times
"Highly informative and interesting and, for the middle-aged, almost unbearably nostalgic," said the New Statesman
"A little monument to painstaking research made readable by unswerving love," wrote Paul Dehn
"A valuable and fascinating book," said Maryvonne Butcher in The Tablet
