Posted on 12/02/2017 4:35:51 PM PST by Twotone
This week's movie date takes us back to the dawn of Hollywood, and a December night one hundred years ago - 1917 - at about four in the morning, when an automobile doing 60 miles per hour down Wilshire Boulevard crosses over to the wrong side of the road and hits an oncoming car near the intersection with Vermont Avenue.
Everyone survived with minor injuries, except the driver of the speeding vehicle who was killed instantly. Because of his huge size, it took five hours to get him out of the wreckage. And, when they identified him, a stellar screen career was over almost as soon as it began. The deceased was a 37-year-old man called Eric Campbell, and at the time he was one of the best-known faces on the planet - if only because in those days, sans television and the Internet, even well-known faces were only locally known. But Campbell appeared in the most popular movies of the day, and, because they were silent, they were popular not just in America and England and Australia but in France and Argentina and China. And Campbell's face remained recognizable for decades afterwards, as every film of an eleven-film career proved to have a far longer life than he did.
Who is Eric Campbell? Well, he's the heavy guy towering over Charlie Chaplin in all but one of the twelve films Chaplin made for the Mutual Film Corporation in 1916 and 1917.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
‘Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.’ - Mel Brooks
Tragedy + Time = Comedy.
L
At least there is one great writer left in America. Even if he had to emigrate for Canada.
Can I quote Him on That?
Cool article. I’ve never read or heard anything from Steyn other than political. (There is a nice little political dig in the middle of this piece, but it is mostly historical.)
Reading Steyn’s recount of these events is like taking a ride in a time machine with a tour guide. He did an incredible job.
Campbell, sure is an interesting character:
**Eric moved out of their house [1917], and took a room at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, next door to his friend Charlie Chaplin. On December 20th of that year, returning home from a party, Eric Campbell was killed in an automobile accident. He was cremated, and his ashes remained in a closet first at the mortuary and later at a cemetery, since no one paid the funeral bill. Finally, in 1952, an office worker at the Rosedale Cemetary arranged for the burial of Eric Campbell’s ashes. But there is no record of the location of his final resting place. As part of the documentary “Chaplin’s Goliath: In Search of Scotland’s Forgotten Star,” a memorial plaque finally commemorates the life of Charlie Chaplin’s friend and co-star.**
He died just a few months after Florence La Badie died tragically in an auto accident at the peak of her career.
Actually, Steyn LOVES music (did you know he put out his own CD?) & does regular pieces on songs & singers as well as movies. He understands that culture is part of the problem in this country today. Try going to his website & see what’s there, or go to YouTube where you can see many other interviews with songwriters & singers. Steyn is all-around terrific!
Didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing. I just signed up for his email newsletter. Good stuff.
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