The Century, Rainbow, and Stern Brothers Comedies of Julius and Abe Stern

13/09/2024

There are any number of motion picture directors who are more than happy to tell stories about their earlier, pre-industry lives and exploits, and often entertainingly so. And then there are some who go to lengths to hide their former, less savory lives from public exposure. Silent comedy director Scott Pembroke was one of the latter.

Scott Pembroke (1889-1951; born Percy Stanley Pembroke) is not what you’d call a household name, given that his run as a film director was confined primarily to the silent era, and almost exclusively to short comedies. His most prolific runs were for Hal Roach, Joe Rock, and the Stern Brothers, with the random film for others helped to fill in the gaps. There was the occasional feature as well, such as FOR LADIES ONLY (1927; co-directed with Henry Lehrman!) and THE DIVINE SINNER (1928). The earlier films frequently credit him as “Percy Pembroke” rather than the more common “Scott Pembroke.”

Pembroke’s start in the industry, however, was in front of the camera in films for Essanay at their Niles studio in later 1914, remaining with that company up until its close in 1916, with some side jobs for the Liberty Film Company in San Mateo in early 1915. Described as a “strong, manly type,” Pembroke found work with Kalem as well, where he starred in their THE HAZARDS OF HELEN serial. By 1917 he was with Universal, where he described his duties as “racing driver and actor,” and avoided being drafted by claiming exemptions of “dependents and crippled hand.” Pembroke would continue to appear in films into the mid-1920s for Universal, Metro, Balboa, and Bison, alternating from 1920 with his stints as director.

It's Pembroke’s earlier, darker years that seem to have been lost to history, or at least until I tracked it down for my book on the Stern Brothers, TIME IS MONEY! Born in Oakland, California to Samuel J. Pembroke and his wife, Marian Scott Pembroke, Percy soon fell in with a gang of his peers which came to be known as the “Jim Crow” gang. This didn’t end up well, when Pembroke and two of his friends were charged with the robbery and grizzly murder of an employee of a grocery store that took place in 1905, one of a series of crimes the youths were involved in. Pembroke turned on his two friends and gave evidence that resulted in their life sentences in prison. After two hung juries, sixteen-year-old Pembroke was acquitted during a third trial. The law didn’t give up on him, however, charging him in connection with a robbery that took place two years earlier. Found guilty and awaiting sentencing, the seemingly unfazed Pembroke made an unusually brazen and self-confident announcement, as reported in the San Francisco Call:

“Percy Pembroke today announced his intention to go on the stage as soon as he has obtained his freedom. He said that there was no necessity of a youth working hard who had had the advertising he had secured during the course of his five trials, and that he intended to utilize his notoriety to the best advantage.
‘There are plenty of courts this thing can go through,’ said Percy in speaking of his chances of appealing his case. ‘There is even the Supreme Court at Washington. If the bond is not too high—that is, in the neighborhood of $40,000 or $50,000—I can easily have my freedom while I can go on the road with a stock company which I have been planning to organize.’”

Self-confident little bu**er, huh?

Pembroke’s plans would be delayed for a while, however, when the now seventeen-year-old was sentenced in March 1907 to ten years in San Quentin.

As it turned out, Pembroke DID have some previous stage experience, having acted in actress Olga Nethersole’s production of SAPHO back in 1906. Four years later in 1910, Nethersole came to his aide and successfully applied to Governor Gillett for a pardon for Pembroke, and by 1914 he had received a full pardon. With his release, Pembroke resolved to stay on the straight and narrow, and by 1913 was working as a traveling sales rep for an Oakland-based outlet of the Regal Motor Car Company. There was some theatre work as well with roles at San Francisco’s Alcazar Theatre. And then he struck cinematic gold, entering the film industry and quietly sweeping his more sordid past under the carpet.

Pictured here: Photos of Pembroke are difficult to come by, but here are a few clipped from the trades. The caption of each provides the context.

If you’d like to learn more about Pembroke and his work in film, it’s covered in my book TIME IS MONEY! THE CENTURY, RAINBOW, AND STERN BROTHERS COMEDIES OF JULIUS AND ABE STERN (Thomas Reeder; BearManor Media, 1921).

20/08/2024

KICKSTARTER CLOSING SOON!

We are just under ten days from the end of the Kickstarter campaign for the great book HOMETOWN TINSEL. If you are a fan of Laurel & Hardy, or of movies in general, you’ll want this book. The story of Virginia Karns’ career from the stage to her time in Hollywood to her work in radio and television is told in an interesting and engaging way by someone who knew her.

Kickstarter campaigns and are all or nothing! We need you to support this project for it to happen, so please do not hesitate to join in. Split Reel LLC looks to provide access to books on film that are not the “same old, same old” but rather interesting, well researched books on the lesser lights of Hollywood. Supporting this book helps the next one get published. See details below, and do please make a pledge….

A NEW BOOK FOR LAUREL & HARDY DEVOTEES!

Although Virginia Karns' performing career has been primarily defined by her role as "Mother Goose'' in Laurel & Hardy's 1934 comic operetta BABES IN TOYLAND, this multifaceted entertainer's many other accomplishments have been little documented - at least until now! In a new biography of the singer-actress titled HOMETOWN TINSEL, film historian Jim Kerkhoff skillfully chronicles Virginia's fascinating life, career, and friendships with countless show business personalities - some of whom include fellow Hal Roach Studios performers like Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Billy Gilbert, Charley Chase, and Betty Mack.

HOMETOWN TINSEL is written not only from the perspective of a film historian but also from the personal insight of a close friend having access to Virginia's scrapbook. Bolstered by in-depth research that provides details about her intriguing life, HOMETOWN TINSEL is an excellent follow-up to Randy Skretvedt's recent book profiling the making of BABES IN TOYLAND and includes many additional details about her involvement in its filming. In fact, Randy has been kind enough to write the foreword for HOMETOWN TINSEL.

Support this KICKSTARTER campaign launched by Split Reel LLC to get Virginia's book into print and you can obtain an advanced copy by becoming a backer! Not only that, but all proceeds received by the author from this campaign and future royalties will be donated to the NORMAN STUDIOS SILENT FILM MUSEUM in Jacksonville, Florida, in honor of Oliver "Babe" Hardy - a personal friend of Virginia's who began his film career in that great city some 110 years ago! Jim Kerkhoff is on the museum's board of directors and very much dedicated to helping to preserve Jacksonville's silent film legacy!

To learn more about our the KICKSTARTER campaign be sure to go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/split-reel/new-book-on-hal-roach-studios-actress-virginia-karns to make a pledge!

Thank you!

HOMETOWN TINSEL: The Life, Career, and Friendships of Virginia Karns by Jim Kerkhoff

26/06/2024

Julius and Abe Stern, who had taken over ownership of the L-Ko Komedy Kompany brand in mid-1916, cleaned house of most of former owner Henry Lehrman’s stock company. One who survived this purge was Alice Howell, who had attained prominence as the company’s star female comedienne.

Lehrman had lured the thirty-year-old Howell away from Keystone back in 1915, one of several acquisitions from the Keystone studios around that time. Born on May 20, 1886, in New York City, and a former vaudevillian, the five foot two inch, one hundred thirty-pound Howell had been forced to seek work when her second husband and fellow performer Richard “Dick” Smith contracted tuberculosis, bringing their act to an end. Bit parts at Keystone followed in 1914, and her comedic talents and rough-and-tumble willingness were quickly noted.

With the Sterns’s takeover of the studio and the aforementioned jettisoning of the bulk of L-Ko’s comedians, the company’s one constant and all-around workhorse was Alice Howell, whose initial appearance on film was in FATHER WAS A LOAFER (1915). Howell starred in a total of thirty-five comedies during 1915 and 1916, that latter year including A BUSTED HONEYMOON, THE GREAT SMASH, TILLIE’S TERRIBLE TUMBLE, THE BANKRUPTCY OF BOGGS AND SCHULTZ, PIRATES OF THE AIR, HIS TEMPER-MENTAL MOTHER-IN-LAW, and TATTLE-TALE ALICE. So successful were these comedies that Julius decided that Howell deserved a studio of her own and the success that would go with it, rather than continuing to churn out comedies for L-Ko where she was only one cog in the larger wheel.

Beginning with 1917’s BALLOONATICS, Howell and her director John G. Blystone churned out eight comedies released over a ten-month period before the release of the ninth, IN DUTCH, released on this date—June 26—in 1918. IN DUTCH features Howell as a wooden-clogged stowaway who ends up marrying one of her shipboard protectors, later landing a dancing gig at the night club where he serves as a waiter. Howell has plenty of opportunity to shine in this film, her various attempts to steal food from two below-deck sailors—one of them an uncredited Jimmy Finlayson—while stowed away in a crate is an extended delight, as are her charming little dances in the night club, one of them sped up to such a degree by under-cranking that her moves become a visual blur. Her co-stars, Hughie Mack as her waiter husband and Neal Burns as a persistent suitor, take part in another sequence that is one of the film’s highlights. When Howell spurns Burns after his repeated attempts to woo her, he decides to kill himself. Mack, eager to have this nuisance out of the way, impatiently waits outside for him to do so, barring both the owner and a waiter from entering until the deed is done. Burns’s attempts all fail. First, his pistol jams and then the hammer slams on his finger, so he tosses it away. Mack quickly replaces it with his own pistol, but it turns out he forgot to load it, so then Mack sneaks in a large knife. It bends when Burns attempts to plunge it into his chest. Frustrated, Mack enters and tries to club Burns with a coat tree, but Burns exits while the tree is hung up in a drape. The sequence is a hoot!

We are fortunate that two of the initial nine comedies—NEPTUNE’S NAUGHTY DAUGHTER (1917) and IN DUTCH—have both survived, and are available on DVD, courtesy of UnderCrank Productions’ THE ALICE HOWELL COLLECTION. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy!

If you’d like to learn more about Alice Howell and her comedies for both L-Ko and Century, look no further than my books MR. SU***DE: HENRY “PATHE” LEHRMAN AND THE BIRTH OF SILENT COMEDY and TIME IS MONEY! THE CENTURY, RAINBOW, AND STERN BROTHERS COMEDIES OF JULIUS AND ABE STERN (by Thomas Reeder, BearManor Media).

16/06/2024

LIONS’ JAWS AND KITTENS’ PAWS, released on this date—June 16—in 1920, is another lucky survivor of the ravages of time, the print held by the Museum of Modern Art a showcase for young Harry Sweet’s considerable talents and comic timing. Written and directed by William Watson, this is another of the seemingly endless string of “lions on the loose” comedies churned out by Julius and Abe Stern’s Century Comedies for release through Universal, 1919-22.

Sweet and wife Edna (yes, Edna; not Ena) Gregory live in an apartment building upstairs from “Ladies Tailor” Zip Monberg and his wife, played by Merta Sterling. Zip takes measurements of Edna for a fitting, and proceeds to flirt with her. Merta observes this and brings it to Sweet’s attention. Sweet arrives, pistol in hand, and after some verbal threats a chase ensues, Sweet’s pistol spewing forth what seems like dozens, if not hundreds, of bullets. Sweet eventually tires of the chase, but follows up by unloading a truckload of caged lions into the apartment house. The beasts bound up and down staircases, crash through doors, and leap through open transoms, terrorizing every one of the building’s occupants. Zip and Merta eventually flee to their bed and cover themselves, a bunch of lions quickly joining them. There’s a dissolve from the lions to a bunch of kittens on the bed, the whole film—or at least the lion portion of it—turning out to have been a bad dinner-induced dream.

Sweet, who gained a lot of weight within a few years of these early comedies, is pleasantly slim in this one. His single-minded determination to kill Monberg is surprisingly bloodthirsty, especially given the latter’s essentially non-threatening flirtation with Sweet’s wife. Monberg plays his role as the tailor comparatively straight in this one, a far cry from his ruthless thug in the Sterns’s ALL FOR THE DOUGH BAG. Edna Gregory is an attractive presence, but sadly given little to do here. And then there are the two black janitors, on board here for the obligatory—for the era, at least—sequence where they are scared out of their wits by the marauding lions. One of them jumps into a furnace to escape the lions, while the other garners some good laughs with a close-up of his terrorized face, going through all sorts of eye-bugging, cheek-puffing contortions before the closing shot where he shrinks and un-shrinks multiple times in a clumsily, not-so-special effect shot. As for those lions, director William Watson’s handling of them is competently executed, or reasonably so, with lions seemingly everywhere making numerous breath-taking leaps. These sequences are occasionally marred by some poorly executed double exposures, the lions “crossing” that dividing line into the other half with the actors, their snouts and heads momentarily “disappearing” as they cross the matted line.

As Monberg’s jealous wife, Merta Sterling was another transplant from the Sterns’ earlier L-Ko brand, having appeared in nearly two dozen comedies for that company before switching brands. Wisconsin-born Sterling (1892-1944) had been a stenographer in the office of Klaw and Erlanger, supposedly managing to convince producers to let her take part in a revival of THE PRINCE OF PILSEN. Success in this role led to some work in vaudeville, after which she joined up with Kalem in 1915 and appeared in films for that company (as Myrtle Sterling) before moving over to L-Ko and Phil Dunham’s unit in films such as A LIMBURGER CYCLONE and THE FAT LITTLE RASCAL (both 1917), and later in Vin Moore’s CANNIBALS AND CARNIVALS (1918). Her first for Century was A LION IN THE HOUSE, followed by a handful more which included ROMEO AND JOLLY JULIETS (1919), GOOD LITTLE BROWNIE (1920), and LIONS’ JAWS AND KITTENS’ PAWS, all directed by William Watson.

If you’d like to learn more about the Stern Brothers and their various comedy brands, look no further than my book TIME IS MONEY! THE CENTURY, RAINBOW, AND STERN BROTHERS COMEDIES OF JULIUS AND ABE STERN (by Thomas Reeder, BearManor Media, 2021).

14/04/2024

From the Shameless Self-Promotion Department:

POVERTY ROW ROYALTY: THE FILMS OF PRODUCER SIGMUND NEUFELD AND HIS BROTHER, DIRECTOR SAM NEWFIELD, my (Thomas Reeder) latest, soon-to-be-published book, details the films and careers of two of Poverty Row’s long-ignored key figures. With careers that spanned that spanned most of the silent era and lasted well into the 1950s, the brothers were collectively responsible for more than 300 films that we know of, dozens more from the earliest years released without credit.

From a start at Carl Laemmle’s IMP in 1911 and an education in all aspects of filmmaking with the Stern Brothers’ comedy studios 1916-29, the 1930s were an extremely prolific period that resulted in films starring the Tiffany Chimps, Tim McCoy, Bob Steele, Kermit Maynard, and many others. The brothers’ critical importance to the success, and comparative longevity of, the studio that would become Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) 1939-46 is documented in detail, followed by a final decade of films for studios that included Lippert, Film Classics, Regal Films, and Associated Film Releasing Corp., along with several series for television.

The Neufeld and Newfield families provided considerable support to the writing of this book, most importantly with the frank and detailed recollections of Sig’s son, Sig Jr., and Sam’s son, Joel, both of whom were frequent observers of, and occasional participants in, many of the films produced from 1939 on. Dozens of never-before-published photos from the families’ albums help to illustrate the text.

POVERTY ROW ROYALTY will be published in the next few months by Split Reel Books. If you are interested in pre-ordering a signed copy of the book, and would like to contribute to the Kickstarter campaign currently running to fund its publication, details can be found here:

POVERTY ROW ROYALTY: The Films of Producer Sigmund Neufeld and His Brother, Director Sam Newfield

23/03/2024

When it comes to the “big names” in silent comedy production, Mack Sennett and Hal Roach top the list, with Al Christie trailing far behind. But then there are guys like Julius and Abe Stern who, while not household names, were extremely prolific and successful producers during the 1910s and 1920s.

Julius Stern, born on this day—March 22, 1886—in Flieden, Germany, immigrated to the U.S. at the encouragement of his brother-in-law Carl Laemmle, Julius’s sister Recha’s husband. For the next quarter century, Laemmle and Stern were inextricably linked, Stern serving first as manager of Laemmle’s Chicago-based White Front theatre, and soon after as assistant manager of the Laemmle Film Exchange. When Laemmle dove into production in 1909 with his New York-based Independent Moving Pictures Company—aka IMP—Stern was involved both financially and, by 1911, as general manager of same. Within a year IMP had become an integral part of the newly organized Universal Film Manufacturing Company, and by 1916 Stern the manager of Universal’s East Coast operations.

Stern retired later that same year to join brother Abe on the West Coast at the L-Ko Komedy Kompany, replacing Abe’s former partner Henry Lehrman as head of that brand’s comedy shorts. “Retirement” in name only, since Laemmle would continuously enlist Julius’s behind-the-scenes help with Universal operations in the years that followed, a festering bone of contention that only grew with time.

Over the next thirteen years, Julius and Abe would produce an endless stream of hundreds of modestly budgeted comedies, first with L-Ko, and later with the Century, Rainbow and, ultimately, the Stern Brothers brands. All were released through Universal, and while most of their stars were lesser knowns such as Alice Howell, Wanda Wiley, Harry Sweet, and others of similar “status,” the Sterns finally hit it comparatively big—for a short while, at least—with child star Baby Peggy Montgomery, the only one of their stars to advance to, and headline, feature films.

By 1929, however, after a falling out with Laemmle and the looming imperative of a switchover to sound production, the Stern brothers decided to call it quits, retiring as millionaires, sound investments allowing them to remain as such through the Depression and the decades that followed.

Interested in learning more about the Stern Brothers and their comedies? Look no further than TIME IS MONEY! THE CENTURY, RAINBOW, AND STERN BROTHERS COMEDIES OF JULIUS AND ABE STERN by Thomas Reeder (BearManor Media; 2021), available through Amazon.com and BearManorMedia.com.

22/03/2024

08/03/2024

Abe Stern, the younger, publicity-avoiding brother of producer Julius Stern, was born on this day—March 8—back in 1888. Abe was Henry Lehrman’s partner for the creation of the L-Ko Komedy Kompany back in 1914, his older brother Julius replacing Lehrman in that capacity a mere two years later. Abe and Julius would continue running L-Ko up until its end in 1919, creating Century Comedies in the interim in 1917, and replacing L-Ko—albeit briefly—with Rainbow Comedies (1919-20). Century would evolve into Stern Brothers Comedies in 1926, which soldiered on until 1929, avoiding the coming of sound.

Despite Abe’s continuous low profile, publicity-wise, his salary by September 1921 would, in today’s dollars, amount to somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,885,750. Not too shabby for a second- (or third?) tier comedy outfit.

Pictured here: Portraits of Abe Stern, along with his fancy new, chauffeur-driven limo in 1914.

Interested in learning more about the Abe and Julius Stern and their comedies? Look no further than TIME IS MONEY! THE CENTURY, RAINBOW, AND STERN BROTHERS COMEDIES OF JULIUS AND ABE STERN by Thomas Reeder (BearManor Media; 2021), available through Amazon.com and BearManorMedia.com.

03/03/2024

Julius and Abe Stern’s biggest catch of the 1923-24 season was unquestionably the newcomer Wanda Wiley (1901-1987), an attractive and athletic young lady with very limited prior film experience. Born Roberta Prestine Wiley on April 21 in New Boston, Bowie County, Texas, Wanda’s participation in a 1923 dance hall contest in San Antonio supposedly caught sponsor Rudolph Valentino’s eye. As the story goes, Valentino was impressed with Wanda, suggested that she go to Hollywood, and wrote her a letter of introduction. She packed her bags and eventually landed a job at the Universal City lot. Spotted by the Stern brothers in several episodes of THE LEATHER PUSHERS series, the Sterns hired her and placed her in six initial films, soon giving her starring roles with the Century Follies Girls in SAILOR MAIDS, STARVING BEAUTIES, and HER CITY SPORT. By 1926, Wiley was the Sterns’ biggest star, headlining one of their four “Star Series” units.

One of the few Wiley films that survives from this year—or at least its second reel—is the Edward Luddy-directed FLYING WHEELS (March 3, 1926). The absence of reel one pretty much precludes any sort of extended character development, but reel two makes up for it in a typical, Wileyesque action sequence. The race car driver scheduled to pilot her father’s car in the Annual Dealer’s Cross Country Auto Race fails to show. Wiley takes matters in her own hands, commandeering the race car without permission and heading off to the race. Having a late start, Wiley intends to catch up, but encounters numerous obstacles along the way: She drags a traffic cop a block or two; she plows through a row of tents, leaving their long-johned tenants hopping mad; she clips a lineman’s ladder, depositing him into a water trough; she gets a flat tire, but encourages a fellow using s***f to repeatedly sneeze into a funnel which re-inflates the tire; she plows into a huge haystack which covers the car until knocked loose by a tree, leaving Wiley to toss out “passenger” chickens left and right; and finally drives between two quarreling lovers, whisking the woman’s skirt and the fellow’s pants away with her. And then she wins the race.

LOS ANGELES TIMES’s film critic Kenneth Taylor described Wiley as possessing “one of the most expressive sets of features in comedy today…[and] while Miss Wiley is not exceptional as a comedienne, she has personality enough to bind all the many parts into one compact whole.” Wiley’s arguable comedic abilities aside, FLYING WHEELS’s second reel provides and entertaining ten minutes of fast-paced mayhem.

Pictured here: A series of lobby cards for the Century Comedy FLYING WHEELS (03/03/1926).

Interested in learning a whole lot more about Wanda Wiley’s life and film career? Look no further than my book TIME IS MONEY! THE CENTURY, RAINBOW, AND STERN BROTHERS COMEDIES OF JULIUS AND ABE STERN by Thomas Reeder (BearManor Media, 2021).

26/12/2023

When Alice Howell—Century Comedies’ star performer and raison d’etre—departed in 1919, Julius and Abe Stern scrambled to fill the void with an uninspired roster of third-tier comedians, lions, orangutans, and other “stars” of the non-human variety. It would be another two years before the celluloid gods smiled upon them and delivered a year-and-a-half old tyke named Peggy Montgomery, a cute-as-a-button, mop-topped cherub they quickly dubbed “Baby Peggy.”

Once her stunning popularity with filmgoers became evident, Baby Peggy was unofficially teamed with the studio’s canine star, Brownie the Wonder Dog, in a series of comedies that included PLAYMATES, PALS, GOLFING, BROWNIE’S BABY DOLL, A MUDDY BRIDE, and CHUMS (all 1921); other films featured Charles Dorety and Harry Sweet as her full-grown co-stars. Fred Fishback (aka Hibbard) directed Peggy in most of these films, but by 1922 Arvid Gillstrom was assigned to help lessen the load on Fishback’s sagging, scandal-associated shoulders.

By 1923, Alf Goulding had become her director of choice—not her choice, of course, but the Sterns’s choice—with titles that included PEG O’ THE MOVIES, SWEETIE, THE KID REPORTER, and MILES OF SMILES (all 1923). And then the Sterns had a brainstorm: “She’s a kid, right? Let’s star her in a bunch of fairy tales and other kid-friendly stories…and we won’t have to pay for the rights to them!” (Full disclosure: That isn’t an actual quote.)

Plans for a series of Baby Peggy fairy tales were announced, with potential titles such as HANSEL AND GRETEL, JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, SNOW WHITE, THE THREE BEARS, THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL, LITTLE BO PEEP, LITTLE BOY BLUE, THE LITTLE MERMAID, and ALICE IN WONDERLAND all thrown out as enticement. “This will be the first time in history,” wrote MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY, “that as young a child as 3-year-old Peggy will be able to carry through such parts, as they have always been played by older folk made up to look like children.” Ambitious plans, but as it turned out only the first three would make it onto film.

HENSEL AND GRETEL (released on this date—December 26—in 1923) and JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (1924) made it to theater screens, but LITTLE RED RIDING, the first to these to be filmed, was much delayed when its second reel was destroyed in a fire. Arriving in theaters more than three years after its originally announced release date (and with LITTLE dropped from its title), it was a bittersweet end to the aborted series, Baby Peggy by now long gone from the studio and starring in features for producer Sol Lesser.

Pictured here: Julius Stern and his little money-maker pose for the studios’ cameraman (note that all three photos where Julius is wearing a hat were taken on the same day); MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) president and so-called “film czar” Will Hays gets into the act for one of them.

Would you like to learn more about Baby Peggy Montgomery and her films for the Stern Brothers? Check out my book TIME IS MONEY! THE CENTURY, RAINBOW, AND STERN BROTHERS COMEDIES OF JULIUS AND ABE STERN (Thomas Reeder; BearManor Media, 2021).

19/10/2023

Julius and Abe Stern were always on the lookout for home-grown talent, and to that end would, on occasion, promote employees who had proven their worth and shown signs of imagination, creativity, and an innate sense of humor. Former actors Sam Neufeld/Newfield and Scott Pembroke were both advanced to direction, as was cinematographer Francis Corby (1893-1960).

Corby was an experienced and respected cameraman long before he turned to direction. A member of the American Society of Cinematographers, early work behind the camera included films for Universal and the Sterns at Century, as well as director Robert Hill’s feature THE BRAND OF COURAGE, entries in the Star Comedy series, and others. By late 1922 he had gone to work in Fred Fishback’s unit for Jack White’s Mermaid Comedies, where he received an intensive education in short comedy construction. Corby lensed films starring Cliff Bowes, such as PLUS AND MINUS and THE LIMIT (both 1923), and others starring Lige Conley, which included AIR POCKETS and NECK AND NECK (both 1924).

Hired by Universal in 1925, Corby was given the opportunity to direct several episodes in “The Gumps” series, and was loaned out to Sierra Pictures to shoot the Earle Douglas comedy HERE HE COMES. He then went to work for the Sterns at Century, specifically to direct. He was assigned to the Edna Marian unit, where he was responsible for THE BIG CITY, SAY IT WITH LOVE, MOVIE MADNESS, and WAIT A BIT (all 1926), among others. Having adequately demonstrated his capabilities with the Marian unit, Corby was then bounced around to whichever series needed assistance. Some diverse examples include entries in the “Let George Do It,” the “Buster Brown,” and the “What Happened to Jane?” series. Corby’s next ongoing assignment was directing the new “Mike and Ike” series, based on the popular Rube Goldberg comic strip series “Mike and Ike (They Look Alike).” Corby’s contributions included THE DANCING FOOLS, THERE’S A WILL (both 1927), and NO BLONDES ALLOWED (1928).

ALL FOR UNCLE, released on this date – October 19 – in 1927, and one of the few lucky films of the Sterns to survive, provides a representative example of the series. Ike’s fiancé dumps him when she thinks he’s a philanderer and a cheapskate, which causes a big problem when Uncle Dudley sends a telegram offering $10,000 if he approves of the fiancé. In a panic over Dudley’s imminent arrival, Mike is forced to dress in drag as “Mildred.” Dudley falls for “Mildred” and flirts shamelessly with her, much to Mike’s discomfort.

While filled with a lot of familiar situations and gags, ALL FOR UNCLE is competently handled by Corby, and provides plenty of laughs. There’s some nice camera work likely added at Corby’s insistence, one a backward tracking shot as the duo walks down the sidewalk, reversing course as Mike stops and follows a pretty girl headed the other way. A later scene where Ike holds a little girl upside down and violently shakes her to retrieve the engagement ring she has swallowed, is at once both funny and rather startling, the little girl clearly sobbing at this humiliating treatment. All in all, a pleasant, laugh-filled little comedy. A contemporary review in FILM DAILY speaks volumes about Corby’s film: “Francis Corby, who directed this third one of the ‘Mike and Ike’ series, [knows] how to get the best of the material and principals he has to work with, and they—the principals, at least—in turn make his job none too distressing, for Charles King and [Charles] Dorety in the roles of the twins, are troupers down to their toes.” Well said.

Interested in learning more about the Sterns and their comedy companies? Look no further than my book TIME IS MONEY! THE CENTURY, RAINBOW, AND STERN BROTHERS COMEDIES OF JULIUS AND ABE STERN (Thomas Reeder; BearManor Media, 2021).