| Dubbing this man "the king of comedy," would not be an understatement. I, personally, like to call my all-time favorite actor, John Candy, the king of comedy. That is my opinion however. Noone can dispute the facts, and the facts are, this man was truly the king of comedy. Why?? Because he introduced comedy to the film world. Producing 575 films, directing 332, and acting in 338, Mack is legendary and his story begins now... He was born Michael Sennett on January 17, 1880 in Richmond, Qu�bec, Canada. He was the son of Irish immigrants...his father a blacksmith and mother a homemaker. Even before he could walk, he was entertaining. As a baby it would seem, making faces or movements on purpose to the amusement of everyone else. He had discovered the limelight as a baby, and he was loving it! Once he was old enough to walk and talk, he was singing and dancing. He lived to entertain others, especially in his household. At age 17, his parents moved to East Berlin, Connecticut and he became an ironworker. He never lost the passion to entertain though and when he met a young actress named Marie Dressler, he moved to New York to try his hand at stage acting. There he managed to secure small parts on stage and in chorus. In 1908, he landed a job at Biograph films acting in small roles. He worked there until 1911 when he decided he wanted his own chunk in the filmmaking process and to be the "exec in charge" of that chunk. In 1912, he, along with two other investors, founded Keystone Film Company. The investors gave him sole reign of the company, and were to be cashing in on their share of the profits. He brought Mabel Normand, a prominent established actress he met while at Biograph, with him and soon added "Fatty" Arbuckle, Chester Conklin, Minta Duffee and Charles Chaplin. He told Chaplin: "We have no scenario--we get an idea then follow the natural sequence of events until it leads up to a chase, which is the essence of our comedy". Chaplin kept this advice close to his thought process for the remainder of his career. Sennett launched Chaplins career, and directed him in 35 films in 1914 alone. Sennett stayed on with his Keystone Pictures until 1916. He had built up a name for himself that was more famous than his studio in itself. He sold out Keystone Pictures in 1917, and moved on to produced independantly. Paramount Pictures quicky snapped up and distributed his films. In the 1920's, Sennett's films were in great demand. He started pumping multiple films out all at once. Sometimes working on three films in one day. In 1925, Sennett switched to Path� distributors, which turned out to be a very bad move. Path� distributors had a bad habit of handling too many comedies at once, including the comedies of Hal Roach. The returns were good though and Paramount and MGM both saw opportunity in this. In 1927, Paramount and MGM both got back into their own distribution and production. Roach signed up with MGM, leaving Sennett now by himself at Path�, but they were now on hard times because the hundreds of exhibitors that used to take their shorts had switched to the new MGM or Paramount. In 1928, Sennett bought property in the San Fernando Valley on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, where his founded company Keystone Studios sat. Less than successful films such as "Hypnotized" were done in the early 1930s near the end of his career when he sold his backlog of films to Warner Brothers. As moviegoers' tastes changed, Warner used it for occasional stock footage and eventually destroyed them when they took up too much space. Today many Sennett films, especially from his most productive and creative period, very sadly, no longer exist. Sennett continued to make unpresidented quality comedy films until 1948, when he retired from filmmaking. Sennett disappeared from the limelight he had known from a baby. His last film was released in 1949. Quaintly titled, "Down Memory Lane," the film portrays basically the filmmaking of Sennett, a compilation, with narration by Steve Allen, of comedies from the old Sennett silent studio. Sennett, himself, appears in a cameo at the end of the film. After retirement, Sennett appeared only one more time publicly. That was when, on March 10, 1954, he was honored in an episode of "This Is Your Life" (the show consisted of an unsuspecting celebrity would being lured by some ruse to a location near the studio. He would then be surprised with the news that he was to be the featured guest. Next he was escorted into the studio, and one by one people significant in the guest's life would be brought out to offer anecdotes. At the end of the show family members and friends would gather about the guest who would then be presented with some gifts. These usually included jewelry, a scrapbook of memories, and a home 16 mm projector and camera....all hosted by Ralph Edwards). On the 5th of November, 1960, the limelight dimmed permanantly on a legend but not a legacy. Sennett passed away peacefully of natural causes at his home. Sennett brought his ideas to Hollywood and started a laughter that Hollywood still follows today. R.I.P. Mr. 'King of Comedy' Sennett - your legacy is remembered everytime Hollywood makes someone laugh! Visit Mr. Sennett's grave and leave flowers! TRIVIA: He was portrayed by Dan Aykroyd in the 1992 biographical film Chaplin. GREAT page on Mack! cool link |
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| Mack Sennett Hollywood Innovater/Keystone Films |
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