Catching It All

“I went from playing ball, to catching it all … I was the man behind the lens.”  I Shot Broncho Billy, Michael McNevin

Charlie Chaplin with Rollie Totheroh (center) on location in Truckee, California, during filming of "The Gold Rush" (1925).

The entire world is familiar with the films of Charlie Chaplin, but only hardcore Chaplin fans know of the man behind the lens, Rollie Totheroh, one of the men most responsible for the Little Tramp’s success. Totheroh, who was born 120 years ago today on November 29, 1890, was a true pioneer in the field of cinematography, and was Chaplin’s principal cameraman for the better part of four decades!

Charlie Chaplin first rose to stardom in 1914 at Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles. During the year he was at Keystone, Chaplin appeared in 35 films, and went from obscurity to worldwide fame in the process. At the start of 1915, Chaplin went to work for Essanay Studios, which was owned by two men, George K. Spoor and “Broncho” Billy Anderson, one of the first Western stars of silent film. (Their initials, “S and A,” gave their studio its name.) Essanay was based in Chicago, but had a studio in the East Bay area of Northern California, in the town of Niles. Essanay was able to hire Chaplin away from Sennett by giving him a boost in salary to $1250 per week from the $150 per week he was making at Keystone. It was in Niles that Chaplin made such films as The Champion and The Tramp.

Totheroh was a former semi-pro baseball player who had first joined Essanay in 1911 as a “ringer” for the company baseball team. He was quickly put to work acting in some of the four hundred Westerns produced at the studio before moving behind the camera. In those days the work of the cameraman was a grueling one, requiring the steady cranking of the camera with one hand, while focusing the lens with the other. When Chaplin joined Essanay, Totheroh was assigned to be his personal cameraman, and the relationship stuck. They ended up working together until 1952, when Chaplin was exiled from America.

Chaplin was unimpressed with the facilities in Niles and left for greener pastures the following year, taking Totheroh with him. Before leaving Niles, Totheroh got married and had a son named Jack, who in 1915 appeared as a nine-month old female infant in the Broncho Billy film, The Bachelor’s Baby. 92 years later, Jack appeared in the feature, Weekend King. His nine-decade-plus film career is the longest in history, earning Mr. Totheroh a spot in the Guinness Book of Records. Jack is still with us at age 95, living in the Santa Paula area. He and his son David appeared in cameo roles in the 1992 film Chaplin, starring Robert Downey, Jr.

In Newhall, California, on the weekend of February 5, 2011, Kimi and I will be helping to host the 2011 Santa Clarita Valley ChaplinFest to honor the 75^th anniversary of the release of his epic silent feature, Modern Times. Chaplin came to the Santa Clarita Valley to capture the last scene of the film nearby. It was the final scene of the entire silent era.

Rollie Totheroh, of course, was behind the lens that day.

Rollie Totheroh's grave in North Hollywood's Vallhalla Cemetery.

For more information about ChaplinFest, check out www.scvchaplinfest.org. You can also friend us on Facebook at “Modern Times” Plaque – Santa Clarita Valley ChaplinFest.”

BTW, if you would like to hear the phenomenal Michael McNevin perform live, we hope to have him at ChaplinFest. Click here to see a clip of Michael playing Two Feet Ahead of the Train for us in Niles.

Pity the Clown

Yesterday I wrote about Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which began the process of freeing the slaves. But as history continues to point out, 145 years of legal freedom doesn’t always translate into equal opportunity for many African-Americans.

This has certainly been the case for most of Hollywood’s history.

I was reminded of this recently when I watched a schlocky “horror” film from 1932 called The Monster Walks, about a killer ape. (Blame insomnia.) There was nothing memorable about the movie except for a curious entry in the credits which listed the person playing the character “Exodus” as someone named “Sleep n’ Eat.”

Just as I feared, Sleep n’ Eat turned out to be an African-American man playing a stereotypically lazy, dim-witted chauffeur who jumps at everything that goes bump in the night.

The man who was relegated to these roles was actually named Willie Best, who was born in 1916 in Sunflower, Mississippi (a town I’m sure was nowhere near as delightful as its name suggests). Best was discovered on stage by a talent scout and came to Hollywood in 1930. He eventually appeared in over 100 films, including High Sierra with Humphrey Bogart. He had great comic timing, but was never able to rise above the role of the ‘comic-relief’ servant. It’s a real shame too, because Bob Hope and Hal Roach, two men who certainly knew comedy, considered him to be one of the greats.

Best appeared on some long-running early television series, but by the latter period of his career, his work was increasingly vilified by civil rights activists who viewed his work as representative of a racist era in Hollywood. It didn’t seem to matter that he was just earning a living at the time, and was better than his material.

Like many of his contemporaries, Best ended up trapped between eras in Hollywood, and was underappreciated by both. As his Wiki-bio points out, “Best was alternately loved as a great clown, then reviled, then pitied, finally virtually forgotten.”

The story of Willie Best makes me wonder how many great Denzel Washington-caliber careers of the past were lost due to prejudice. Which goes to show that when opportunity isn’t equally shared … everyone suffers.

Willie Best's grave in Burbank's Valhalla Cemetery.

The Silent Voices of Valhalla

 

Valhalla’s voice of “Elmer Fudd,” Arthur Q. Bryan.

Jiminy Cricket, Betty Ruble, and Elmer Fudd all died and went to Valhalla. … No, it’s not the start of a animated Scandinavian mythology joke, but what actually became of the voice stars Cliff Edwards (Jiminy Cricket), Bea Benaderet (Betty Ruble), and Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd), who all became permanent residents of Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood upon death.

Cliff Edwards, nicknamed “Ukelele Ike” – incorrect spelling and all – was a Jazz musician who single-handedly popularized the ukulele in the 1920s. He had several hit songs, but none so enduring as When You Wish Upon a Star, which he sang as Jiminy Cricket in the Walt Disney animated classic Pinocchio. A year later he had another hit as the chief crow in Disney’s Dumbo with When I see an Elephant Fly. Edwards died penniless in 1971 and Disney paid for his grave marker.

Bea Benaderet is best known today for starring as Kate Bradley, the owner of the Shady Rest Hotel in the 1960s television comedy Petticoat Junction. Previously, she nearly landed the roles of Ethel Mertz in I Love Lucy, and Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies. (She was considered too buxom for the latter character, but did appear on the show as Cousin Pearl, Jethro Bodine’s mother.) Two decades before her television work made her famous, Benaderet starred at Warner Bros.’ cartoon unit “Termite Terrace” as the voice of a different Granny, this time in the Tweety Bird cartoons. During her time on Petticoat Junction she did double-duty as the voice of Betty Rubble for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Flintstones alongside her old WB co-star Mel Blanc, who supplied the voice of Betty’s husband Barney. She died from lung cancer in 1968 and on the day of her funeral her husband died suddenly, and the two are now interred in the same crypt.

Arthur Q. Bryan (the “Q” stands for Quirk, no lie.) was the original voice of Elmer Fudd, the poster child for speech thewapy. Bryan died of a heart attack in 1959 at the age of 60 after a 20-year career in cartoons. He rarely got screen credit, and as a result, many people believe Mel Blanc created the voice of Elmer Fudd (along with Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig – to name a few). Blanc (among others) did become the voice of Fudd after Bryan’s passing.

In case you’re wondering, you won’t find Mel Blanc at Valhalla, but at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. His is the grave that says, “That’s All, Folks!”

Legendary voice-artist Mel Blanc’s gravesite at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.