by Gary Meyer

Robert Youngston’s When Comedy Was King  (1960) played the Uptown Theatre in Napa and featured the antics of Charlie Chaplin, among others.  I didn’t know one could laugh so hard.  That’s when I realized there was a history to the movies.  Starved for more, I couldn’t believe my pre-teen eyes when Silents Please appeared on TV with 25-minute versions of the great silent movies.  Another TV show, Fractured Flickers (1963) used clips from mostly silent movies with a new narration for comic effect created by Jay Ward (Rocky and Bullwinkle).  It ran for one season and while purists have criticized it, the show provided developing cineastes images we hungered to see.  Continue reading →