Author Description

The Joker Comedies unit was created by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in mid-1913, specifically to compete with the surprising success of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Comedies. Versatile and multi-talented Allen Curtis was selected to helm the Joker Comedies, new to the film industry but with more than a decade’s comedic experience touring the Midwest and West with his popular Allen Curtis Musical Comedy troupe. Curtis assembled a talented group of jokesters to star in his new comedies, featuring Max Asher and Harry McCoy in the leads, with strong support from Bobby Vernon and Louise Fazenda. Beginning with the release of The Cheese Specialin October 1913, it quickly became evident to filmgoers that this newcomer—only the second comedy brand devoted solely to comedies of the slapstick, knockabout sort—was heady competition to the Keystones. Sennett took note, and within a year he had lured McCoy, Vernon, and Fazenda away from Joker. Undaunted, Curtis supplemented the sidesplitting antics of Max Asher with talented newcomers Gale Henry, Billy Franey, Milburn Morante, Lillian Peacock, and Charles “Heinie” Conklin. With only a few exceptions, this revised stock company would remain in place for the rest of Joker’s prolific existence, which came to an end in November 1917 primarily due to America’s involvement in the war. Curtis, who was responsible for most of the first two years’ comedies, would direct more than 250 single-reel shorts during Joker’s four-year run, an output of well over a film per week. William Beaudine was hired in late 1916 when Curtis took ill, handling the bulk of Joker’s output during its final year, with more than 50 films to his credit. There were other directors along the way, none of whom directed more than a dozen or so comedies released as Jokers, and some with only one or two films to their credit. These few-and-done directors included Grace Cunard, Roy Clements, Archer McMackin, William Wolbert, John Blystone, Roy McCray, Roy