“… as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”Egged On (Charles R. Bowers, Harold L. Muller + Ted Sears, 1926)
Jan
17
inventions
Charley working his Rube Goldberger-esque egg-rubberizing contraption.
An invention for Benjamin Franklin's birthday. Inventor Charley (Charles R. Bowers) comes up with an ingenious method to make eggs break-proof for transport by rubberizing them.
– Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography
Bowers was an almost-forgotten silent era comedian, filmmaker, and animator. In more recent years, his groundbreaking stop-motion comedy has found a new, well-deserved, interest.
slapstick
His Wife's Mistakes (Roscoe Arbuckle, 1916)
Aug
4
National Water Balloon Day
Janitor Roscoe uses the comedy staple seltzer bottle to fill a balloon with some spritz!
The great Roscoe Arbuckle just can't help himself while at the wonderfully hedonistic Oriental Café in this delightful short slapstick.
“I'm trying to teach you to run it – not wreck it!” Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Charles Reisner + Buster Keaton, 1928)
Mar
23
National Near Miss Day
A production photo showing the moment the façade crashing down towards Keaton. The photographer is standing to the right of Keaton at a very safe distance. The thickness of the wall is clearly, frightfully, visible. Even with the open window moving towards him, this blink-and-you-miss-it shot cannot guarantee a happy ending for Keaton or his movie persona William Canfield Jr. DPs: Bert Haines & Devereaux Jennings.
In Steamboat Bill, Jr., former vaudevillian Keaton narrowly escapes the façade of a house crashing down around him.
– William 'Steamboat Bill' Canfield
Both the man and the stunt lived on, probably most famously in Keaton aficionado #JackieChan's Project A Part II (HK, 1987).
Despite all the well-meant tributes, none of the later stunts are as nail biting as the pre-OSHA original.