Early British Comedy

The British Studios

Perhaps the most famous comedy director of all time was working for the Biograph comedy unit as actor-directed, Mack Sennett who, by late 1911, was already heading the Keystone studio. The Hepworth Company, run by Cecil Hepworth at Walton-On-Thames though did have The Tilly Girls series which ran from 1908 -1911 starring Alma Taylor and Chrissie White which were of superior quality regarding content than the rather staid rest.

In 1912 things started to look up for British comedy. The EcKo Film Company was formed with the assistance of acrobat Will P. Kellino and the Egbert brothers, this outfit produced and released one film per week often featuring a music hall comedian, one of which was Lupino Lane in his first films. EcKo’s did not rely on performers repeating their acts for the camera, they encouraged the use of new material, Seth and Albert Egbert, who’s broad humour was well suited to the silent medium, made a series of slapstick comedies between 1912 and 1916 unrelated to their ‘Happy Dustmen’ music hall personas.

Will Evans was now making more substantial short subjects for the Sunny South Film Company and new characters were invented specifically for the screen, Sam T. Poluski’s Nobby was one of the first, unfortunately only one example of ‘Nobby’ survives. Most of these character names were as bizarre as the characters themselves. Jack Spratt came from the Clarendon Film Company and Winkey, played by Reginald Switz was invented by the Yorkshire company Bamford, makers of lantern slides, picture postcards and short films which included some knock about comedies. Bamfords no longer make films or lantern slides but they still produce their postcards. Cecil Hepworth produced his one reel ‘Tubby’ comedies, The Exploits Of Tubby with John Butt in the title role and featuring Chrissie White and Violet Hopson, but the most famous and enduring film comic in Britain at the time was Fred Evans’ Pimple.