Charley Chase

For those of you planning to come to the Cauliflower Alley Club in June, it is already 25% sold out. Please make your reservations soon. Visit their site at www.caulifloweralleyclub.org; it will give you all the details.--Percival

Charley Chase was born Charles Joseph Parrott in Baltimore, Maryland on October 20, 1893. To support the family at age 10, Charley worked odd jobs and entertained on street corners. He soon began performing in local theaters, becoming a neighborhood celebrity in the process.

In 1912, he went to California to study under Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Parrott later joined the Fox Film Corporation in 1917 as director of two-reel comedies. The following year, Parrott left the studio and pursued a new part of his career. During this period, Parrott directed such stars as Lloyd Hamilton, Chaplin imitator Billy West, and a young Oliver Hardy.

In 1920, Charley was hired as director at the Hal Roach Studios, directing comic Snub Pollard. In late 1921, Parrott was made director general of the studio, supervising nearly the entire Roach product of the time. In 1923, Parrott changed his name to Charley Chase and began a new career in front of the cameras.

His style of comedy was entirely different than what was being portrayed by other top stars of the era, including Harold Lloyd. Chase emphasized sophisticated comic situations and character rather than gags.

Although he was instrumental behind the scenes throughout his career, it was only in the mid-1930’s that Chase began to get credit as director of his own work (as Charles Parrott). Although Chase's field was the short subject, he made two important features in the 1930s. One was a hilarious guest appearance in Laurel and Hardy's Sons of the Desert (1933), in which he portrayed an obnoxious conventioneer fond of practical jokes.

The other was in Kelly The Second (1936), as the more down-to-earth J. Willoughby Klum. Charley Chase did not abandon the short subject field. He went on to star in his own series of two-reelers at Columbia Pictures and directed other stars such as The Three Stooges.

Discussions about great film comedians would instantly include Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and maybe even Harry Langdon, but the name Charley Chase rarely, if ever, enters the discussion.

Unlike the other aforementioned comedians, Charley Chase didn't have a funny looking persona. He didn't wear baggy pants like Chaplin. He didn't have the blank, deadpan look of Keaton. He wasn't manic like Lloyd, and he didn't move with a hesitant, unsure gait like Langdon. Charley Chase looked and acted pretty much like any normal person. Even the trade advertisements of the time played upon this difference: "Don't blush, Charley, but you're a good looking sunamagun. You aren't a cartoon or a caricature. Your face ain't lopsided, you look like a real human and you act like one." Charley never made the move to feature films, and that may explain his relative obscurity.

Chase was only 47 when he died in 1940. Throughout his career, Chase suffered from a drinking problem. On numerous occasions, his doctors advised him to stop, but the lure of the bottle was too strong. He led a fast lifestyle that constantly took its toll on his health. Known for womanizing and alcoholism, Chase was a habitual partier who rarely listened to his doctors--even when they warned him about his stomach ulcers.

He ended up in the Mayo Clinic, but that only slowed him momentarily before he was back drinking again. The dapper image he cut in the '20s quickly turned wrinkled and gray in the '30s. In many of his movies, he looks at least a decade older than his actual age. But, he loved his lifestyle and he wasn't willing to compromise.

Charley was a man that I enjoyed on the big screen. His talent has never been equaled, nor challenged. He always left the audience longing for more of him or anyone that he was directing. He was a true professional of the film industry.

This is just another of the people that I looked up to and called my hero while growing up. Thank you, Charley "Chase" Parrott.

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers
2004 CAC Honoree