“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”-Samuel Johnson.
Quote
Reply
Daily Archives: January 17, 2012
A Year in Books/Day 17: King of Comedy
- Title: King of Comedy
- Author: Mack Sennett with Cameron Shipp
- Year Published: 1954/This Edition: 1990 (Mercury House)
- Year Purchased: 1994/1995
- Source: Walden Books
- About: This autobiography of one of the progenitors of film-and the creator of The Keystone Kops and
Image via Wikipedia
Sennett Bathing Beauties-needs to be taken with a generous grain of salt. Fortunately, even a well-scrubbed telling of the heady early days of Hollywood-where Sennett oversaw Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand at the start of their careers-remains considerably more entertaining than fiction.
- Motivation: Mabel Normand, Mabel Normand, Mabel Normand! Oh, and a genuine-behind-the-scenes peek at movie-making when it was still being invented and defined.
- Times Read: 3
- Random Excerpt/Page 138: “We became scientists in custard. A man named Greenburg, who ran a small restaurant-bakery near the studio, became a pie-throwing entrepreneur. Our consumption was so enormous that this man got rich. After several experiments he invented a special Throwing Pie, just right in heft and consistency, filled with paste and inedible. He lost most of his eating customers when he began to sell them throwing custards by mistake.”
- Happiness: 9 for atmosphere/6 for veracity
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 