Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary ''Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55.
One of the most influential film comedians of the silent era, Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and
talkies
A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...
, from 1914 to 1947. His bespectacled "glasses character" was a resourceful, ambitious go-getter who reflected the
zeitgeist
In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' (; ; capitalized in German) is an invisible agent, force, or daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. The term is usually associated with Georg W. F ...
of the 1920s-era United States.
His films frequently contained "thrill sequences" of extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats. Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street (dangerous, but risk exaggerated by camera angles) in '' Safety Last!'' (1923) is considered one of the more enduring images in cinema. Lloyd performed lesser stunts himself despite having injured himself in August 1919 while doing publicity pictures for the Roach studio. An accident with a bomb mistaken as a prop resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand (the injury was disguised on future films with the use of a special
prosthetic
In medicine, a prosthesis (: prostheses; from ), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth (Congenital, congenital disord ...
glove, and it was almost undetectable on the screen).
Early life
Lloyd was born on April 20, 1893, in Burchard, Nebraska, the son of James Darsie Lloyd and Sarah Elisabeth Fraser. His paternal great-grandparents were Welsh. In 1910, after his father had several business venture failures, Lloyd's parents divorced. Lloyd and his father moved to
San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
, where he attended
San Diego High School
San Diego High School (SDHS) is an urban public high school located on the southern edge of Balboa Park, San Diego, California, Balboa Park in San Diego, California, United States. It is the oldest high school in the San Diego Unified School Dist ...
.
Lloyd became interested in theater as a child, and worked in repertory companies. He often experimented with makeup to disguise his youthful appearance.
Career
Silent shorts and features
Lloyd worked with
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...
's motion picture company, and his first role was a small part as a
Yaqui
The Yaqui, Hiaki, or Yoeme, are an Indigenous people of Mexico and Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe, who speak the Yaqui language, a Uto-Aztecan language.
Their primary homelands are in Río Yaqui valley in the no ...
Indian in the production of '' The Old Monk's Tale''. At the age of 20, Lloyd moved to Los Angeles and took juvenile roles in several Keystone Film Company comedies.
He tried to find work at the Universal studio, but "the gatekeeper was a crabby old soul who let me understand that it would be a great pleasure to keep me out", as Lloyd recalled in his 1928 memoir. He solved his problem with the ingenuity of his later screen character: "The next morning I brought a makeup box. At noon I dodged behind a billboard, made up, mingled with the xtrasand returned with them through the gate without challenge."
Lloyd soon became friendly with aspiring filmmaker
Hal Roach
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach Sr. Skretvedt, Randy (2016), ''Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies'', Bonaventure Press. p.608. (January 14, 1892 – November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer, director and screenwriter, ...
. Lloyd began collaborating with Roach, who had formed his own studio in 1913. Roach and Lloyd created "Lonesome Luke", a comic character inspired by the success of
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
. Luke was a comic grotesque with loud clothes and a false moustache, similar to many early screen comics, but the young Lloyd gave the character great energy and enthusiasm. His antics won a popular following, and his one-reel, 10-minute comedies were soon expanded to two-reel, 20-minute comedies. Hal Roach hired Bebe Daniels to support Lloyd in 1914; Lloyd and Daniels became involved romantically and were known as "The Boy" and "The Girl".
By late 1917, Lloyd had tired of Lonesome Luke and wanted to develop his screen presence beyond an imitation of his contemporaries. He envisioned an entirely new character, not a costumed clown but an everyday young man in street clothes who faced comic situations with resourcefulness. To make the look of the new character distinctive, he adopted a pair of lensless, horn-rimmed glasses.
Lloyd thought that
Pathé
Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe.
It is the name of a network of Fren ...
, Roach's distributor, would resist the new character because the Lonesome Luke films were proven moneymakers, and the company didn't want to lose that revenue. "Privately I believed that Pathé would conclude to hire another comedian and carry on with Lonesome Luke", wrote Lloyd. "Roach, however, argued my case better than I could have done." Lloyd agreed to a compromise: He would continue to make Lonesome Luke two-reelers, but he would introduce his new "Glass" character in less expensive one-reel shorts. As the new character caught on, Lonesome Luke was phased out.
The "Glass" character (often named "Harold" in the silent films) was a much more mature comedy character with greater potential for sympathy and emotional depth, and was easy for audiences of the time to identify with. "When I adopted the glasses", Lloyd recalled in a 1962 interview with
Harry Reasoner
Harry Reasoner (April 17, 1923 – August 6, 1991) was an American journalist for CBS and American Broadcasting Company, ABC ABC News (United States), News, known for his adroit use of language as a television commentator and as one of the origin ...
, "it more or less put me in a different category because I became a human being. He was a kid that you would meet next door, across the street, but at the same time I could still do all the crazy things that we did before, but you believed them. They were natural and the romance could be believable."
Unlike most silent comedy personae, "Harold" was never typecast to a social class, but he was always striving for success and recognition. Within the first few years of the character's debut, he had portrayed social ranks ranging from a starving vagrant in '' From Hand to Mouth'' to a wealthy socialite in '' Captain Kidd's Kids''.
In 1919, Bebe Daniels declined to renew her contract with Hal Roach, leaving the Lloyd series to pursue her dramatic aspirations. Later that year, Lloyd replaced Daniels with Mildred Davis after being told by Roach to watch Davis in a movie. Reportedly, the more Lloyd watched Davis, the more he liked her. Lloyd's first reaction in seeing her was that "she looked like a big French doll". Lloyd and Davis married in 1923.
On August 24, 1919, while posing for some promotional still photographs in the Los Angeles Witzel Photography Studio, he picked up what he thought was a prop bomb and lit it with a cigarette. It exploded and mangled his right hand, causing him to lose a thumb and forefinger. The blast was severe enough that the cameraman and prop director nearby were also seriously injured. Lloyd was in the act of lighting a cigarette from the fuse of the bomb when it exploded, also badly burning his face and chest and injuring his eye. Despite the proximity of the blast to his face, he retained his sight. As he recalled in 1930: "I thought I would surely be so disabled that I would never be able to work again. I didn't suppose that I would have one five-hundredth of what I have now. Still I thought, 'Life is worth while. ''Just to be alive''. I still think so."
Beginning in 1921, Roach and Lloyd moved from shorts to feature-length comedies. These included the acclaimed '' Grandma's Boy'', which (along with Chaplin's '' The Kid'') pioneered the combination of complex character development and film comedy, the highly popular '' Safety Last!'' (1923), which cemented Lloyd's stardom (and is the oldest film on the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
's List of 100 Most Thrilling Movies), and '' Why Worry?'' (1923). Although Lloyd performed many athletic stunts in his films, Harvey Parry was his stunt double for the more dangerous sequences.
Lloyd and Roach parted ways in 1924, and Lloyd formed his own independent production company, the Harold Lloyd Film Corporation, He now made feature films exclusively, releasing them first through Pathé, then
Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS.
**Paramount Picture ...
. These included his accomplished comedies '' Girl Shy'', '' The Freshman'' (his highest-grossing silent feature), '' The Kid Brother'' and '' Speedy'', his final silent film. All of these films were enormously successful and profitable, and Lloyd eventually became the highest-paid film performer of the 1920s.
Talkies and transition
In 1929, Lloyd had completed the silent feature '' Welcome Danger'', but talking pictures had become a sensation. He decided to remake the entire film with sound, using a new, stage-trained supporting cast for the dialogue exchanges. The silent version was made available to theaters that had not yet converted to sound, but the talking version became the standard edition of the film. ''Welcome Danger'' was a huge financial success, with audiences eager to hear Lloyd's voice on film.
Lloyd survived the transition to sound and made several talking comedies, including '' Feet First'', with a similar scenario to ''Safety Last'', which found him clinging to a skyscraper at the climax; '' Movie Crazy'' with Constance Cummings; '' The Cat's-Paw'', which was a dark political comedy and a big departure for Lloyd; and '' The Milky Way'', which was Lloyd's only attempt at the fashionable genre of the screwball comedy film.
To this point, the films had been produced by Lloyd's company. However, his go-getting screen character was out of touch with
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
movie audiences of the 1930s. Lloyd's rate of film releases, which had been one or two a year in the 1920s, slowed to about one every two years. As his absences from the screen increased, his popularity declined, as did the fortunes of his production company. His final film of the decade, '' Professor Beware'' (1938), was made by the Paramount staff, with Lloyd functioning only as actor and partial financier.
In 1931 he co-founded the 400-seat Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals. Gladys Lloyd Cassell (wife of Edward G. Robinson), Sam Hardy, and Lloyd's mother raised funds for it.
On March 23, 1937, Lloyd sold the land of his studio, Harold Lloyd Motion Picture Company, to
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...
. The location is now the site of the
Los Angeles California Temple
The Los Angeles California Temple (formerly the Los Angeles Temple), the tenth operating and the second-largest Temple (LDS Church), temple operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), is on Santa Monica Boulevard i ...
.
Lloyd produced a few comedies for
RKO Radio Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...
in the early 1940s, including
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...
's ''A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob'' in 1941, but otherwise retired from the screen until 1947. He returned for an additional starring appearance in '' The Sin of Harold Diddlebock'', an ill-fated homage to Lloyd's career, directed by
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director.
He is credited as being the first screenwriter to find success as a director. Prior to Sturges, other ...
and financed by
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
. This film had the inspired idea of following Harold's
Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a period from 1920 to the early 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles gained worldwide popularity. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz. Originating in New O ...
, optimistic character from ''The Freshman'' into the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
years. ''Diddlebock'' opened with footage from ''The Freshman'' (for which Lloyd was paid a royalty of $50,000, matching his actor's fee) and Lloyd was sufficiently youthful-looking to match the older scenes quite well. Lloyd and Sturges had different conceptions of the material and fought frequently during the shoot; Lloyd was particularly concerned that, while Sturges had spent three to four months on the script of the first third of the film, "the last two-thirds of it he wrote in a week or less." The finished film was released briefly in 1947, then shelved by producer Hughes. Hughes issued a recut version of the film in 1951 through RKO under the title '' Mad Wednesday''. Such was Lloyd's disdain that he sued Howard Hughes, the California Corporation, and RKO for damages to his reputation "as an outstanding motion picture star and personality", eventually accepting a $30,000 settlement.
Radio, nude photography and retirement
In October 1944, Lloyd emerged as the director and host of ''The Old Gold Comedy Theater'', an NBC radio anthology series, after Preston Sturges, who had turned the job down, recommended him for it. The show presented half-hour radio adaptations of recently successful film comedies, beginning with '' Palm Beach Story'' with
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert (koʊlˈbɛər/ kohl-BAIR, born Émilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin (ʃoʃwɛ̃/ show-shwan); September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway theater, Broadway productions dur ...
and Robert Young.
Some saw ''The Old Gold Comedy Theater'' as being a lighter version of '' Lux Radio Theater'', and it featured some of the best-known film and radio personalities of the day, including
Fred Allen
John Florence Sullivan (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian. His absurdist topically-pointed radio program '' The Fred Allen Show'' (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forw ...
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...
,
Ralph Bellamy
Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17, 1904 – November 29, 1991) was an American actor whose career spanned 65 years on stage, film, and television. During his career, he played leading roles as well as supporting roles, garnering acclaim and award ...
Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrener; June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975) was an American actress best known for her film portrayals of women that were based on true stories.
After working as a fashion model for the Walter Clarence Thornton, Walt ...
Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman ( ; born Sarah Jane Mayfield; January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007). was an American actress. A star of both movies and television, she received an Academy Award for Best Actress, four Golden Globe Awards and nominations for two Pr ...
and Alan Young. But the show's half-hour format—which meant the material might have been truncated too severely—and Lloyd's sounding somewhat ill at ease on the air for much of the season (though he spent weeks training himself to speak on radio prior to the show's premiere, and seemed more relaxed toward the end of the series run) may have worked against it.
''The Old Gold Comedy Theater'' ended in June 1945 with an adaptation of '' Tom, Dick and Harry'', featuring June Allyson and Reginald Gardiner, and was not renewed for the following season. Many years later, acetate discs of 29 of the shows were discovered in Lloyd's home, and they now circulate among old-time radio collectors.
Lloyd remained involved in a number of other interests, including civic and charity work. Inspired by having overcome his own serious injuries and burns, he was very active as a Freemason and Shriner with the
Shriners
Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic body, Masonic society. Founded in 1872 in New York City, it is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, and has over ...
Hospital for Crippled Children. He was a Past Potentate of Al-Malaikah Shrine in Los Angeles, and was eventually selected as Imperial Potentate of the Shriners of North America for the year 1949–50. At the installation ceremony for this position on July 25, 1949, 90,000 people were present at Soldier Field, including then sitting U.S. President
Harry S Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th Vice president of the United States, vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Frank ...
, also a 33° Scottish Rite Mason. In recognition of his services to the nation and Freemasonry, Lloyd was invested with the Rank and Decoration of Knight Commander Court of Honour in 1955 and coroneted an Inspector General Honorary, 33°, in 1965.
He appeared as himself on several television shows during his retirement, first on
Ed Sullivan
Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American television host, impresario, sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the ''New York Daily News'' and the Chicago Tribune New York News ...
's variety show '' Toast of the Town'' June 5, 1949, and again on July 6, 1958. He appeared as the mystery guest on ''
What's My Line?
''What's My Line?'' is a Panel show, panel game show that originally ran in the United States, between 1950 and 1967, on CBS, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent American revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists ...
'' on April 26, 1953, and three times on '' This Is Your Life'': in 1954 for a tribute to Mack Sennett and another for Bebe Daniels, and in 1955, when he was surprised for his own tribute.
On November 6, 1956, ''The New York Times'' reported "Lloyd's Career Will Be Filmed". It said, as the first step, Lloyd would write the story of his life for Simon and Schuster. Then, the movie would be produced by Jerry Wald for
20th Century-Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film production and distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Com ...
, limiting the screenplay to Lloyd's professional career. The tentative title for both was ''The Glass Character'', based on the glasses which were Lloyd's trademark. Neither project materialized.
Lloyd studied colors and
microscopy
Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view subjects too small to be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of microscopy: optical mic ...
, and he was very involved with photography, including 3D photography and color film experiments. Some of the earliest two-color
Technicolor
Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...
tests were shot at his Beverly Hills home (these are included as extra material in the ''Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection'' DVD Box Set). He became known for his nude photographs of models, such as
Bettie Page
Bettie Mae Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008) was an American model who gained notoriety in the 1950s for her pin-up model, pin-up photos.Dixie Evans, for a number of men's magazines. He also took photos of
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...
lounging at his pool in a bathing suit, which were published after her death.
In 2004, his granddaughter Suzanne produced ''Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D!'', a book of selections from his photographs.().
Lloyd also provided encouragement and support for a number of younger actors, such as
Debbie Reynolds
Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer and entrepreneur. Her acting career spanned almost 70 years. Reynolds performed on stage and television and in films into her 80s.
She was nom ...
,
Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner Jr. (born February 10, 1930) is an American actor. He is known for starring in the television shows ''It Takes a Thief (1968 TV series), It Takes a Thief'' (1968–1970), ''Switch (American TV series), Switch'' (1975–1978), ...
and particularly
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, he was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in comedy-drama films. He received num ...
, whom Harold declared as his own choice to play him in a movie of his life and work.
Renewed interest
Lloyd kept copyright control of most of his films and re-released them infrequently after his retirement.
Lloyd did not grant cinematic re-releases because most theaters could not accommodate an organist to play music for his films, and Lloyd did not wish his work to be accompanied by a pianist: "I just don't like pictures played with pianos. We never intended them to be played with pianos." Similarly, his features never were shown on television as Lloyd's price was high: "I want $300,000 per picture for two showings. That's a high price, but if I don't get it, I'm not going to show it. They've come close to it, but they haven't come all the way up." As a consequence, his reputation and public recognition suffered in comparison with Chaplin and Keaton, whose work generally has been more widely distributed. Lloyd's film character was so intimately associated with the 1920s era that attempts at revivals in 1940s and 1950s were poorly received when audiences viewed the 1920s (and silent film in particular) as old-fashioned.
In the early 1960s, Lloyd produced two compilation films, '' Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy'' and '' The Funny Side of Life'', featuring scenes from his old comedies. The first film premiered at the 1962
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
, where Lloyd was fêted as a major rediscovery. In 1965 he was interviewed by the
Social Security Administration
The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government that administers Social Security (United ...
.
The film was well received by most critics and audiences as a reminder of Lloyd's creative output as the third (with Chaplin and Keaton) of the "Big Three" great silent comedy filmmakers.
The renewed interest in Lloyd helped restore his status among film historians. Throughout his later years, he screened his films for audiences at special charity and educational events, to great acclaim, and found a particularly receptive audience among college audiences: "Their whole response was tremendous because they didn't miss a gag; anything that was even a little subtle, they got it right away."
Following his death, and after extensive negotiations, most of his feature films were leased to
Time-Life
Time Life, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and Direct marketing, direct ...
Films in 1974. As Tom Dardis confirms: "Time-Life prepared horrendously edited musical-sound-track versions of the silent films, which are intended to be shown on TV at sound speed 4 frames per second and which represent everything that Harold feared would happen to his best films". Time-Life released the films as half-hour television shows, with two clips per show. These were often near-complete versions of the early two-reelers, but also included extended sequences from features such as ''Safety Last!'' (terminating at the clock sequence) and ''Feet First'' (presented silent, but with Walter Scharf's score from Lloyd's own 1960s re-release). Time-Life released several of the feature films more or less intact, also using some of Scharf's scores which had been commissioned by Lloyd. The Time-Life clips series included a narrator rather than intertitles. Various narrators were used internationally: the English-language series was narrated by Henry Corden.
The Time-Life series was frequently repeated by the BBC in the United Kingdom during the 1980s, and in 1990 the documentary ''Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius'' was produced by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, following two similar series based on Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Composer Carl Davis wrote a new score for ''Safety Last!'' which he performed live during a showing of the film with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to great acclaim in 1993.
The Brownlow and Gill documentary was shown as part of the PBS series ''American Masters'', and created a renewed interest in Lloyd's work in the United States, but the films were largely unavailable. In 2002, the Harold Lloyd Trust re-launched him with the publication of the book ''Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian'' by
Jeffrey Vance
Jeffrey Vance (born May 21, 1970) is an American film historian and author who has published books on movie stars including Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
Career
While working as an archivist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists he met El ...
and Suzanne Lloyd, and a series of feature films and short subjects called "''The Harold Lloyd Classic Comedies''" produced by Jeffrey Vance with executive producer Suzanne Lloyd and Harold Lloyd Entertainment. The new cable television and home video versions of Lloyd's great silent features and many shorts were remastered with new orchestral scores by Robert Israel. These versions are frequently shown on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable channel. A DVD collection of these restored or remastered versions of his feature films and important short subjects was released by New Line Cinema in partnership with the Harold Lloyd Trust in 2005, along with theatrical screenings in the United States, Canada and Europe.
Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...
has acquired the home video rights to the Lloyd library and has released ''Safety Last!'', The ''Freshman'', '' Speedy'', and ''The Kid Brother''.
In the June 2006, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Silent Film Gala program book for ''Safety Last!'', film historian Jeffrey Vance stated that Robert A. Golden, Lloyd's assistant director, routinely doubled for Harold Lloyd between 1921 and 1927. According to Vance, Golden doubled Lloyd in the bit with Harold shimmy shaking off the building's ledge after a mouse crawls up his trousers.
Personal life
Lloyd married leading lady Mildred Davis on February 10, 1923, in Los Angeles. They had two children together: Gloria Lloyd (1924–2012) and Harold Clayton Lloyd Jr. (1931–1971). They also adopted Gloria Freeman (1924–1986) in September 1930, whom they renamed Marjorie Elizabeth Lloyd but was known as Peggy for most of her life. Lloyd discouraged Davis from continuing her acting career. He later relented, but by that time her career momentum was lost. On August 18, 1969, Davis died in St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, from a heart attack two years before Lloyd's death. Though her real age was a guarded secret, a family spokesperson at the time indicated she was 66 years old. Other sources claim she was 68 years old at the time of her death.The reference book ''Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory'' gives Davis's birth date as January 1, 1900. Their son, Harold Clayton Lloyd Jr., who was also an actor, died from complications of a stroke three months after his father.
In 1925, at the height of his movie career, Lloyd became a
Freemason
Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
at the Alexander Hamilton Lodge No. 535 of Hollywood, advancing quickly through both the York Rite and
Scottish Rite
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is a List of Masonic rites, rite within the broader context of Freemasonry. It is the most widely practiced List of Masonic rites, Rite in the world. In some parts of the world, and in the ...
, and then joined Al Malaikah Shrine in Los Angeles. He took the degrees of the Royal Arch with his father. In 1926, he became a 32° Scottish Rite Mason in the Valley of Los Angeles, California. He was vested with the Rank and Decoration of Knight Commander Court of Honor (KCCH) and eventually with the Inspector General Honorary, 33rd degree.
Lloyd's Beverly Hills home, Greenacres, was built in 1926–1929, with 44 rooms, 26 bathrooms, 12 fountains, 12 gardens and a nine-hole golf course. A portion of Lloyd's personal inventory of his silent films (then estimated to be worth $2 million) was destroyed in August 1943 when his film vault caught fire. Seven firemen were overcome while inhaling chlorine gas from the blaze. Lloyd was saved by his wife, who dragged him to safety outdoors after he collapsed at the door of the film vault. The fire spared the main house and out-buildings. After attempting to maintain the home as a museum of film history, as Lloyd had wished, the Lloyd family sold it to a developer in 1975.
The grounds were subdivided but the main house and the estate's principal gardens remain and are frequently used for civic fundraising events and as a filming location, appearing in films like ''
Westworld
''Westworld'' is an American science fiction dystopia media franchise that began with the Westworld (film), 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild West, Wild-West-th ...
'' and ''
The Loved One Loved Ones, Loved One, The Loved Ones, or The Loved One may refer to:
Films
*The Loved One (film), ''The Loved One'' (film), a 1965 American satire based on the Evelyn Waugh novel
*The Loved Ones (film), ''The Loved Ones'' (film), a 2009 Australia ...
''. It is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
Lloyd was a Republican who campaigned for Thomas E. Dewey and
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
. He was also a founding member of the Hollywood Committee for Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
Death
Lloyd died of prostate cancer on March 8, 1971, at the age of 77 in his Greenacres home in Beverly Hills, California. He was interred in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. His former co-star Bebe Daniels died eight days after him, and his son Harold Lloyd Jr. died three months after him.
Honors
In 1927, his was the fourth concrete ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, preserving his handprints, footprints and autograph, along with the outline of his famed glasses (which were actually a pair of sunglasses with the lenses removed). The ceremony took place directly in front of the
Hollywood Masonic Temple
Hollywood Masonic Temple, now known as the El Capitan Entertainment Centre and formerly known as Masonic Convention Hall, is a building on Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, U.S. ...
, which was the meeting place of the Masonic lodge to which he belonged.
In 1953, Lloyd received an
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards (previously called the Special Award, which was first presented at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929) – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Mot ...
for being a "master comedian and good citizen". The second citation was a snub to Chaplin, who at that point had fallen foul of
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...
and had his entry visa to the United States revoked. Regardless of the political overtones, Lloyd accepted the award in good spirit.
Lloyd was honored in 1960 for his contribution to motion pictures with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...
located at 1503 Vine Street. In 1994, he was honored with his image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist
Al Hirschfeld
Albert Hirschfeld (June 21, 1903 – January 20, 2003) was an American caricaturist best known for his black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars.
Early life and career
Al Hirschfeld was born in 1903 in a two-story duplex apa ...
.
Lloyd's birthplace in Burchard, Nebraska is maintained as a museum and open by appointment.
Filmography
See also
*
List of American comedy films
This is a list of American comedy films.
Comedy films are separated into two categories: short films and feature films. Any film over 40 minutes long is considered to be of feature-length (although most feature films produced since 1950 are co ...
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...