Live-streamed silent comedies event today!

[donnie]

Wanda was from San Antonio. Here's a nice little clip about her roots there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FaU0KnDVQE

[BettyLouSpence]

Thanks for that info! 60 lost. My goodness! And unfortunately, I guess none of these other extant ones are available to view?

Yes, what a loss... it's apparently quite rare to be able to watch her comedy shorts at all. Thanks for that clip! I hope more interest in her work is generated after the Watch Party episode.

Donnie, you might be interested in this review of Queen of Aces by an IMDb user who watched it at Slapsticon in 2013.

[donnie]

Donnie, you might be interested in this review of Queen of Aces by an IMDb user who watched it at Slapsticon in 2013.

Good review. Thanks for the link!

The thought occurs to me that, with several of these extant in different places, a Wanda Wiley dvd compilation might make an excellent Kickstarter project for Undercrank Productions. I wonder if Ben would be interested?

[BettyLouSpence]

Some good news! I found some more info on Wanda's surviving output here:

"...a search of the FIAF database turned up the following leads on some more of her films:

EVEN UP (1927) - George Eastman House (Rochester)
HIS TAKING WAYS (ca. 1925) - Library of Congress (Washington), 35 mm; New Zealand Film Archive (Wellington); note: not listed in the IMDb.
JANE'S TROUBLES (1926) - Library of Congress (Washington), 35 mm; Deutsches Filminstitut-DIF (Wiesbaden)
LOST IN A PULLMAN (1927) - Museum of Modern Art (New York)
PUNCHES AND PERFUME (1926) - George Eastman House (Rochester); Museum of Modern Art (New York); UCLA Film and Television Archive (Los Angeles), 35 mm nitrate positive
THE SPEED HOUND (1927) - Library of Congress (Washington), 35 mm, 16 mm
A THRILLING ROMANCE (1926) - Library of Congress (Washington), 35 mm; National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Canberra), 35 mm, 16 mm
[UNIDENTIFIED CENTURY COMEDY] (US, 1924-1925) - Museum of Modern Art (New York)
uncertain: The Academy Film Archive (Beverly Hills) has a 16 mm print of a film called WEAK KNEES. No further information is given in the FIAF database, and the IMDb lists two silent-era films with this title. One of them (1927) featured Wanda Wiley; the other one (1925) did not.

This title is not in FIAF, but apparently CUSTARD'S LAST STAND (1927) also exists."

Looks like some more shorts may survive than previously thought.

[BettyLouSpence]

Lineup for tomorrow:

Oranges and Lemons (1923) w/ Stan Laurel

The Bathtub Bandit (1917) w/ Ham and Bud

The Rink (1916) w/ Charlie Chaplin

[donnie]

Good work on searching out that info on Wanda's films. Looks like a good set might be possible if a lot of that could be pulled together, doesn't it?

On tomorrow's lineup, I've seen Oranges and Lemons and remember not being impressed with it at all (despite the cool title). But that was quite a while back. It will be interesting to watch it again and see if my opinion holds. The other two I'm not familiar with, nor have I heard of Ham and Bud.

[BettyLouSpence]

I just finished watching the stream. I was a bit underwhelmed with Oranges and Lemons, but I still chuckled at quite a few gags. Bathtub Bandits was bizarre Off hand but I really liked the dress worn by the Sea Salt Inn proprieter's daughter. The Rink was my favorite short of the stream. Loved the skating sequences and the slapstick while serving guests. And I loved the opening with the cat!

[donnie]

I was also (again) underwhelmed with the Oranges and Lemons. It seems to be a continuous stream of slapstick gags with zero plot, and the gags are not even really that funny. I love Stan Laurel's later work, but he hadn't arrived here.

Bathtub Bandits I couldn't make any sense of at all. I wonder if someone was on something when that one was hatched. I'm glad you liked the dress, at least. I'll have to go back and look at it. All I remember is that it was white.

The Rink was much better, but for some reason, I've never really been that much of a Chaplin fan. I did admire his skating prowess, though. All in all, this show didn't seem to have as appealing a collection of shorts as some other ones.

In Steve's talk about The Rink, he mentioned Henry, the associate and friend of Chaplin's who owned a restaurant. That rang a bell because he and the restaurant are mentioned in one of my very favorite docu-shorts, Round About Hollywood (1931). I've watched that thing a bazillion times (don't know why I like it so much), and have posted it on here before, but I'm going to post it again, anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtrSEvo5GwE&list=PLxPy3_1zQ1KNk7pnOshBeTOzIjnsWcisN

[Kitty]

I saw that this is now blocked. Did you guys get to see this?

[donnie]

I saw that this is now blocked. Did you guys get to see this?

You mean today's episode? I was busy with some things I had to do and only half-watched some of it. It doesn't seem to be posted—not sure why. The earlier episodes still seem to be up.