Harry Langdon: From Medicine Shows to Movie Stardom – (Travalanche) (Travalanche) The observations of actor, author, comedian, critic, director, humorist, journalist, m.c., performance artist, playwright, producer, publicist, public speaker, songwriter, and variety booker Trav S.D. Menu Skip to content Home About June 15, 2010 June 15, 2020 travsd Harry Langdon: From Medicine Shows to Movie Stardom Something about America’s Breadbasket produced a lot of silent comedians: Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle were both born in Kansas. Harry Langdon came from Council Bluffs, Iowa. Born in 1884, Langdon ran away as a teenager to join Dr. Belcher’s Kickapoo Indian Medicine Show, and other traveling operations. Over the next few years he worked a variety of medicine shows and circuses, doing acrobatics, singing in blackface**, and performing lightning sketches (drawing pictures really fast). He also developed a chair balancing act, climbing to the top of a mountain of chairs and bottles, and making the whole assemblage sway back and forth precariously. Early in the 20th century he launched the act for which he was famous over the next twenty years, which would eventually become known as “Johnny’s New Car”. With his wife and comedy partner Rose Frances Mussolf, Langdon would appear onstage in a stalled car, and attempt to get it going again. The act featured lots of hilarious crosstalk and a certain amount of slapstick, including some elements of the car that would fall off or explode. The act took the Langdons all the way from small time, to big time, to the Palace itself, and then Broadway. Langdon was a funny little man with a baby face and a slow reaction time, forever scratching his head and pursing his lips in underplayed consternation while appalling things happened around him. He began to bring this quality to the screen in 1923 in a couple of shorts for Sol Lesser. The following year he was traded to Keystone and that is where he became a star. Working with a team that included Frank Capra, Harry Edwards, and Arthur Ripley. Langdon developed his character further, into a sort of “baby man”, a very strange clownish character that had some of the qualities of a child and some of an adult. (Some assert that his character was the basis of Stan Laurel’s more famous later work; I think there is a strong argument to be made that this at least partially true). In the late twenties, Capra and Langdon began to do features. The first three The Strong Man; Tramp, Tramp, Tramp; and Long Pants) were very successful, but then Langdon, emboldened by his success, fired Capra and began to direct his own pictures. His career began a rapid descent from that point, but contrary to popular opinion (to the extent that there is one on the subject of Langdon) he was far from finished. Read my post about Langdon’s career in talkies here at Feet of Mud. I have also blogged about many of his silent films; find those posts (and others related to Langdon) here. Harry Langdon died in 1944. To learn more about silent and slapstick comedy and great comedians like Harry Langdon, please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc, and to find out about the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold. ****Obligatory Disclaimer: It is the official position of this blog that Caucasians-in-Blackface is NEVER okay. It was bad then, and it’s bad now. We occasionally show images depicting the practice, or refer to it in our writing, because it is necessary to tell the story of American show business, which like the history of humanity, is a mix of good and bad. Share this: Facebook LinkedIn Print Pinterest Twitter Tumblr Reddit Email More Skype Telegram Pocket WhatsApp Like this: Like Loading... Related Acrobats and Daredevils Harry Langdon Hollywood (History) Silent Film Stars of Slapstick Stars of Vaudeville Vaudeville etc. act actor actors automobile background big time biography car career clown comedians comedies comedy film films Harry Langdon movie movies silent stage star stars theater theatre vaudeville Published by travsd Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival. View all posts by travsd Post navigation Previous Poodles Hanneford: Scion of a Circus Dynasty Next On the Early Solo Stage and Screen Career of Stan Laurel 7 comments Image of the Week – 13 December 2020 – Beau Chumps Tent of Sunderland UK says: December 14, 2020 at 4:17 pm […] turned out countless comedy classics featuring Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, Our Gang, Harry Langdon, Max Davidson, et al. Among the better known ones are Big Business (1929), Laughing […] LikeLike Reply Stars of Vaudeville #259: Ned Sparks « Travalanche says: November 19, 2010 at 7:08 am […] His 8 year Broadway career culminated with the review Jim Jam Jems (1920) starring Frank Fay, Harry Langdon and Joe E. Brown. After another revue, which flopped, Sparks concentrated on films. He made several […] LikeLike Reply Stars of Vaudeville #39: Joe E. Brown « Travalanche says: July 20, 2010 at 4:19 pm […] revues and book shows—he is a hit in every one. Examples include the 1920 show Jim Jam Jems with Harry Langdon and Frank Faye, and the Greenwich Village Follies (1921-23). He did a popular sketch in vaudeville […] LikeLike Reply A Slapsticon Debriefing « Travalanche says: July 19, 2010 at 9:23 pm […] I Don’t Remember is a hilarious talkie short featuring Harry Langdon done for Columbia in 1935. He plays a guy who can’t remember anything. The climax has him and […] LikeLike Reply Stars of Vaudeville #196: Dave Chasen « Travalanche says: July 18, 2010 at 8:01 am […] a move sometimes known as “the Idiot’s Salute”, and also associated with Harry Langdon and Stan Laurel. Born on this day in 1898, Chasen passed away in 1973. His restaurant survived him […] LikeLike Reply Slapsticon 2010 « Travalanche says: July 15, 2010 at 6:28 am […] comedy-westerm feature The Round-Up. A couple of silent movies starring Edward Everett Horton! A Harry Langdon talkie short! Some previously unseen Chaplin footage! A movie starring the chimp actor Snooky the […] LikeLike Reply Stars of Vaudeville #176: Stan Laurel « Travalanche says: June 16, 2010 at 6:30 am […] producer, publicist, public speaker, songwriter, and variety booker Trav S.D. « Stars of Vaudeville #175: Harry Langdon Stars of Vaudeville #177: Lupino Lane […] LikeLike Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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