Early Hollywood was a very
different place than today's film making community, a fact which provides
John Bengtson with the background material for his trilogy of books: Silent
Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood through the Films of Buster Keaton,
Silent Traces: Discovering Early Hollywood through the Films of Charlie
Chaplin, and Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood through the
Films of Harold Lloyd. Although the most obvious difference is
that Hollywood, Los Angeles, and the surrounding area has grown in size and
population, there are less obvious areas of change that Bengtson also
covers.
Each of the books follows a
similar format. They open with an introduction to the topic, both in
terms of the way movies were made, what Hollywood was like, and the works of
the specific actor the book is focusing on. Bengtson follows by
providing a film-by-film exploration of the physical, often public, spaces
used by the film makers to create their iconic films. Bengtson uses maps,
both contemporary and period to figure out where streets ran (in some cases
streets which no longer exist), as well as photographs to compare buildings
in the film and in real life. These
images sport a variety of lines and circles to help the reader see what
Bengtson is describing in the text.
Although many of the films
discussed were filmed on location, including in Chicago (for Chaplin’s His
New Job) and New York (for Lloyd’s Speedy),
each book also contains individual chapters devoted to the studios
associated with each actor/director. This
means that the reader can see how buildings were re-dressed for different
movies, such as the different ways the entryway to Chaplin Studios could
appear to suit various needs. Many of the shots, however, were done on city
streets and the streets, and often the buildings, still exist eight decades
later.
In a world in which
Hollywood can create nearly anything it needs inside a computer, it is
refreshing to see how innovative Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd could be in
setting up their shots. Bengtson
points out that all three actors tended to re-use the same streets and
intersections, simply filming in opposite directions to take advantage of
different buildings. Of course, they also would shoot scenes in locations
which could be several blocks, or even miles, apart to create a Hollywood
that met their needs for the film, even if it didn’t exist in real life.
In addition to being a
history of the movies and of Hollywood, Bengtson’s work also illustrates
changing attitudes. One of the
buildings which serves as a background in Buster Keaton’s 1922 short Cops is identified as a “Female Boarding House,” which Bengtson
explains was a euphemism for a brothel. In the same chapter, he points out
the no-longer existent “Negro Alley.” Bengtson also doesn’t limit
himself to the works of his three primary actors.
When discussing Lloyd’s 1927 The
Kid Brother, he points out that the same land was used for other
pictures, such as D. W. Griffith’s 1915 Birth
of a Nation and that the land is now used for the Forest Lawn Hollywood
Hills Memorial Park.
Bengtson does a wonderful
job bringing Hollywood of the 1920s to life and shows a love of the silent
comedies made by Chaplin, Lloyd, and Keaton.
While the stills in the book can’t match the films he describes,
his descriptions will make the reader want to watch the original films with
the books open to the appropriate chapters as the shots and techniques are
explained, adding a new dimension to these classic silent films.
