Happy Birthday, Harold Lloyd

You’d know him if you saw him, he of the round glasses and the quiet-yet-effective slapstick comedy. This silent film series is a celebration of his 120th birth anniversary (as they like to say on public radio). Saturday was a double bill of “Why Pick on Me?” (1918) and “The Kid Brother” (1927).

The house opens about a half hour before the short begins. We’re greeted with views of early-era glass film slides—a precursor to “coming attractions”—accompanied by theater-organ music. In the pre-show announcements, we learned that the organ music we heard was played by Lee Erwin, for many years the house organist at the Carnegie Hall Cinema. One of my favorite glass slides, converted to film, was for “Some Wild Oats” (apparently there were reels only to be shown to male audiences and reels only to be shown to female audiences). The other title that piqued my interest was “Oh, Is She Dumb!” (It’s so hard to type while holding my tongue.)

“Why Pick on Me?” was early in Lloyd’s career and introduced us to the kid with the round-framed glasses. The character was just developing and was heavily into the physical comedy (heavy-handed slaps, kicks, pratfalls, etc.) but still pretty darn funny. Harold is on the beach with some bathing beauties. They leave him for some lifeguard types. Harold spots “the girl,” but she’s on the arm of a fat cat type. Harold steals the girl and mayhem ensues with the fat cat, several cops, and a seaside spinning floor attraction. A one-reel comedy with sight gags strung together, but funny.

“The Kid Brother” has Harold (still with the round-framed glasses but a lot smoother, both as a character and as a comedian) as the baby brother in a family of rough-housing he-men out west. Dad and the older brothers are involved with local commerce and local politics. When Kid Brother tries to be included, no dice. Dad’s a sheriff, Kid Brother impersonates sheriff, mayhem ensues. When Kid Brother allows a Wild West Show to set up shop in town, dad (the real sheriff) is not happy. Dad is entrusted with money to build a dam (see politics, above), the money is stolen, and dad and he-men brothers stand accused. Kid Brother saves the day (and gets the girl, natch) and “The End.”

But there’s lots of fun involved along the way, including Kid Brother subduing the real thief (by using life preservers) and bringing justice to the wild, wild west.

Of note, in the pre-show announcements, we learned that this particular feature is readily available on DVD (apparently Mr. Lloyd kept a tight rein on his body of work) and our host, Bruce Lawton, was impressed that a large crowd would come to see the film in a real live the-ay-ter! Steve Massa’s program notes were tremendously informative—but kudos go, once again, to Ben Model for his lively, impeccably informed live piano accompaniment to the silent films. The films might be silent but the experience is not. There’s piano accompaniment—and there’s laugh-out-loud laughter.

An absolutely wonderful afternoon.

ConcertMeister