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I have been researching with hopes of completing a dual biography of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, whose careers spanned a phenomenal range from 1877 to 1940. Often described simply as vaudeville comedians, in fact they were theatrical producers as well as performers. They managed to work in all the medias of their time including silent films, talkies, and radio. They made several films for Mack Sennett in 1915-1916, among others, but to my consternation, NONE of their silents seem to have survived. Of course, I am hoping I am mistaken and something is not only out there but can be viewed.

Any leads will be deeply appreciated. Thanks. (In case, you're wondering, W&F were good friends of George Arliss!)

I found the following listings for Weber and Fields in the FIAF database:

THE CHILDREN OF MIKE AND MEYER ELOPE (1915): Library of Congress (16mm)
MIKE AND MEYER IN JAIL (ca. 1915): Library of Congress (35mm nitrate pos.; non-access)
MIKE AND MEYER IN THE STORE (ca. 1915): Library of Congress (16mm acetate dupe negative; non-access)
+ another unidentified Weber & Fields MIKE AND MEYER film (16mm acetate dupe negative; non-access)
THE WORST OF FRIENDS (1916): Eastman House (35 mm master positive; non-access)
[UNIDENTIFIED FERGUSON NO. 022532. COMEDY] (1920): Library of Congress (35mm)

~Roger

Mike and Meyer in Jail and Mike and Meyer in the Store are both Kinemacolor productions - so that's Weber and Fields not only silent but in colour too.

While I can't help on the silents, I can suggest several things for your very worthy project. My friend Marc Fields (who is a great nephew or something along those lines) of Lew Fields, co-wrote a great book on the transition from music hall to vaudeville and Broadway called FROM THE BOWERY TO BROADWAY. It uses W&F as focal point. I can give you Marc's contact info if you'll email me off line.

The team also made a 1923 DeForest Phonofilm and a 1933 NYC filmed feature BEER IS HERE.

Hey, Bob, good luck on your project. I know it'll be great. I'm waiting in line.

Don't forget to look at the Irene and Vernon Castle materials, which are in the theater collection of the NY Public Library- Vernon was an important player in the Field company.

The team also made a 1923 DeForest Phonofilm and a 1933 NYC filmed feature BEER IS HERE.[/quote]

And of course both appeared in 1940's TIN PAN ALLEY.

Hal Erickson wrote:The team also made a 1923 DeForest Phonofilm and a 1933 NYC filmed feature BEER IS HERE.

We have negatives on both of these films in the Blackhawk library.


David Shepard

DShepFilm wrote:

Hal Erickson wrote: The team also made a 1923 DeForest Phonofilm and a 1933 NYC filmed feature BEER IS HERE.

We have negatives on both of these films in the Blackhawk library.

David Shepard

According to my old Blackhawk Bulletins, Beer is Here was only 29 minutes, so it's not a feature.

There are also several W&F phonograph recordings extant. All are available in the "Music From the New York Stage 1890 - 1920" 12 disc collection. You might also look here.

Reel 2 of FATTY AND THE BROADWAY STARS, in somewhat fragmentary form, survives at the National Library of Norway. Steve Massa and I helped them unscramble the footage, which was completely out of order, and this edit was run at Slapsticon in 2008.

A scene in which W&F and Polly Moran stage a scene for a movie being shot is in this footage (see frame grab below).

Ben Model

I want to thank everyone who provided some great leads. I don't live too far from the Library of Congress in D.C. but I'm wondering what the term "non-access" means in the listings?

The screen grab from the Arbuckle film is fabulous. I had heard that this one in particular was lost. Joe Weber on the extreme left is obviously in costume (he was rail thin) but Weber standing next to him is not.

Thanks again.

What an interesting coicidence, I am up in Rochester this week and literally watched THE WORST OF FRIENDS this last afternoon. I was pleasantly suprised by it, Weber and Fields fit far more comfrably into the Keystone style than I expected them,and there was also some nice character comedy built into those scenes as well. Joe Weber got more comedy business out of a fake beer gut than anyone ever got with a real one. Mae Busch had a nice part in it as well, as did an early incarnation of the bathing beauties.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

bobfells wrote:I want to thank everyone who provided some great leads. I don't live too far from the Library of Congress in D.C. but I'm wondering what the term "non-access" means in the listings?

The screen grab from the Arbuckle film is fabulous. I had heard that this one in particular was lost. Joe Weber on the extreme left is obviously in costume (he was rail thin) but Weber standing next to him is not.

Thanks again.

Non-access usually means that there is not yet a preservation print made for viewing. It is either nitrate or a one-of-a-kind safety print.

Richard, thanks for the report on WORST OF FRIENDS! Did you get a chance to watch BAFFLES, GENTLEMAN BURGLAR or MABEL'S AWFUL MISTAKE?

If you plan to go as far as to research their emulators I suggest Kolb & Dill. They did the same type of film work but ran it out to features (Wid Gunning hated them for that) but Clarence Kolb was good enough to hang around into the 50's, playing on TV's MY LITTLE MARGIE.

...and Kolb's last film role was playing his own much younger self in the Chaney biopic Man of a Thousand Faces in 1957.

Actually, I hadn't planned to cover Kolb & Dill because they were basically "an act" whereas W&F had their own theater on Broadway and produced their own musicals, hiring OTHER comedians to augment the laughs, pioneered the parody of dramatic works, plus restarted the careers of Lillian Russell and Fay Templeton from glamour queens to farceurs. Not bad for a couple of comics.

That said, I think Clarence Kolb did one of the most remarkable jobs of reinventing himself as a performer, playing authority characters in films such as TOAST OF NEW YORK to being a foil for Bob Hope in CAUGHT IN THE DRAFT.

Did a great turn as the mayor in HIS GIRL FRIDAY. It's always a shock the first time you see that someone you thought played one role in a tv series had a career long before. The first person it hit me with was William Demarest. Clarence Kolb was another.

Bob

I had that experience when watching TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE a few months back. In one of the scenes between Fred MacMurray and Sylvia Sydney it suddenly hit me that she would guest star on MY THREE SONS some 30 years later.

A slightly different take is where actors had separate sidelines. Alan Hale (Sr) is credited with inventing the reclining movie theater seat; Warren William had patented a number of inventions including an improved type of vacuum cleaner. And Donald Crisp served on the advisory Board of Directors for the Bank of America!

Add Hedy Lamarr the inventor

boblipton wrote:Did a great turn as the mayor in HIS GIRL FRIDAY. It's always a shock the first time you see that someone you thought played one role in a tv series had a career long before. The first person it hit me with was William Demarest. Clarence Kolb was another.

Bob

William Frawley also goes way back to the Teens in films. There are a number of people like Thurston Hall and Alice Brady who I saw for many years as character actors in talkies before realizing they were major stars on Broadway and in earlier silents.