KING OF COMEDY

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 18, 1954

An I-remember of Hollywood's pre-cheesecake custard pie cycle is a sentimental, genial reminiscence of the early days in cloud-cuckoo country and many of the people who shared with him in making the first films. Canadian born, and a boiler-maker for a time, a letter from Marie Dressler took Sennett to New York, Belasco, burlesque, and finally pictures. In New York he met Mabel Normand (and this book is a special tribute to her) who went with him West with the launching of Keystone Comedies, was an unpredictable object of his affections, but never married him. The achievement of his ambitions- a big bathtub (it eventually cost several thousand dollars) and the production of his comedies; the discovery of Charlie Chaplin; his (or rather Mabel's) accidental contribution to the cineplastic art- pie-throwing; the Bathing Beauties; the scandal of William Desmond's murder in which Mabel was involved--- and finally her death, all this is part of a true-life two-reeler in which a showman uses very little grease-paint for his curtain call.

Pub Date: Nov. 18, 1954

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1954

Categories: NONFICTION