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Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.
Born in Danville, Quebec, he started acting in films in the Biograph Company of New York City in 1908, and later opened Keystone Studios in Edendale, California in 1912. Keystone possessed the first fully enclosed film stage, and Sennett became famous as the originator of slapstick routines such as pie-throwing and car-chases, as seen in the Keystone Cops films. He also produced short features that displayed his Bathing Beauties, many of whom had acting careers.
After struggling with bankruptcy and the dominance of in the early 1930s, Sennett was presented with an honorary Academy Awards in 1938 for his contributions to the film industry, with the academy describing him as a "master of fun, discoverer of stars, sympathetic, kindly, understanding comedy genius".
He lived for a while in Northampton, Massachusetts, where, according to his autobiography, he first got the idea to become an opera singer after seeing a vaudeville show. He said that the most respected lawyer in town, Northampton mayor (and future President of the United States) Calvin Coolidge, as well as Sennett's mother, tried to talk him out of his musical ambitions. In New York City, he took on the stage name Mack Sennett and became an actor, singer, dancer, clown, set designer, and director for the Biograph Company. A distinction in his acting career, often overlooked, is that he played Sherlock Holmes 11 times, albeit as a Parody film, between 1911 and 1913.
Dubbed the King of Hollywood's Fun Factory, Sennett's studios produced slapstick comedies that were noted for their hair-raising car chases and custard pie warfare, especially in the Keystone Cops. The comic formulas, however well executed, were based on humorous situations rather than the personal traits of the comedians; the various social types, often grotesquely portrayed by members of Sennett's troupe, were adequate to render the largely "interchangeable routines: "Having a funny moustache, or crossed-eyes, or an extra two-hundred pounds was as much individualization as was required."Film historian Richard Koszarski qualifies "fun factory" influence on comedic film acting:
Sennett's first female comedian was Mabel Normand, who became a major star under his direction and with whom he embarked on a tumultuous romantic relationship. Sennett also developed the Kid Comedies, a forerunner of the Our Gang films, and in a short time, his name became synonymous with screen comedy which were called "flickers" at the time. In 1915, Keystone Studios became an autonomous production unit of the ambitious Triangle Film Corporation, as Sennett joined forces with D. W. Griffith and Thomas Ince, both powerful figures in the film industry.
Many of Sennett's films of the early 1920s were inherited by Warner Bros. after Warner had merged with the original distributor, First National. Warner added music and commentary to several of these short subjects, and the new versions were released to theaters between 1939 and 1945. Many of Sennett's First National films physically deteriorated due to inadequate storage. Hence, many of Sennett's films from his most productive and creative period no longer exist.
Sennett's enthusiasm for sound on film was such that he was the first to get a talking two-reel comedy on the market. The Lion's Roar, starring Johnny Burke and Billy Bevan, was released by Educational in December 1928, launching a four-year succession of Mack Sennett sound comedies. Sennett occasionally experimented with color as well.
In 1932, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in the comedy division for producing The Loud Mouth (with Matt McHugh, in the sports-heckler role later taken in Columbia Pictures remakes by Charley Chase and Shemp Howard). Sennett also won an Academy Award in the novelty division for his film Wrestling Swordfish, also in 1932. He directed at least two two-reel comedies under the pseudonym Michael Emmes (the "Emmes" representing Sennett's initials): Hawkins and Watkins Inc. and Young Onions (both 1932).
Mack Sennett often clung to outmoded techniques, making his early-1930s films seem dated and quaint: he dressed some of his actors in eccentric makeups and loud costumes, which were amusing in the cartoonish silent films but ludicrous in the new, realistic atmosphere of talking pictures. Sennett was also having financial problems during the Great Depression. One of his biggest stars, Andy Clyde, left the studio after Sennett, wanting to economize, tried to cut Clyde's salary.
In 1932, Sennett attempted to re-enter the feature-film market on a grand scale with Hypnotized. Remembering the successful campaign for his very first feature-length comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance, which in 1914 was the longest comedy film ever produced, Sennett planned Hypnotized along similar lines as an epic production that would be shown first-run in select roadshow engagements. Sennett announced that Hypnotized would run 15 reels, or two-and-a-half hours, more than twice the length of a typical comedy feature of the day. Sennett wanted W. C. Fields to star as a carnival hypnotist, but Fields declined, and the role went to Ernest Torrence, sharing the spotlight with blackface comedians Moran and Mack, "The Two Black Crows". Production was completed in August 1932, but fell far short of Sennett's grandiose predictions. The finished film ran an ordinary 70 minutes and was released through ordinary channels by World Wide Pictures (Educational's feature-film outlet) in December 1932.
Sennett was also having differences with his distributor, Earle Hammons of Educational. Jack White, Educational's leading producer, explained, "We put Mack Sennett out of business. Theaters had our comedies booked solid. Sennett was very temperamental and wanted the exhibitor to do certain things, but they wouldn't stand for it. Sennett wouldn't stand for Hammons not telling him how much money he was cutting out of the grosses for himself. Sennett told him to go to hell." Sennett left Educational and signed with Paramount Pictures.{
Sennett's sound comedies usually starred young featured players like Frank Albertson or established stage comics like Walter Catlett, but Sennett didn't establish any new star names until he signed both Bing Crosby and W. C. Fields for two-reel comedies. Crosby starred in six; Fields wrote and starred in four. Two other Sennett shorts were made with Fields scripts: The Singing Boxer (1933) with Donald Novis and Too Many Highballs (1933) with Lloyd Hamilton. Despite Paramount's wide distribution of the Crosby and Fields shorts, Sennett's studio did not survive the Depression. Sennett's partnership with Paramount lasted only one year and he was forced into bankruptcy in November 1933. His former protege Bing Crosby, whose popularity and income had skyrocketed, helped Sennett during a period of financial hardship. This act prompted columnist Lloyd Pantages to refer to Crosby as Sennett's "guardian angel."
On January 12, 1934, Sennett was injured in an automobile accident that killed blackface performer Charles Mack (of Moran and Mack) in Mesa, Arizona.
His last work, in 1935, was as a producer-director for Educational, in which he directed Buster Keaton in The Timid Young Man and Joan Davis in Way Up Thar. Sennett was not connected with the 1935 Vitaphone short subject Keystone Hotel, which featured several alumni from the Sennett studios, including Ben Turpin, Ford Sterling, Hank Mann, and Chester Conklin. The film was directed by Ralph Staub.
Sennett made one last attempt to continue wor in the comedy field. By this time he had been supplanted as the major producer of two-reel comedies by Jules White at Columbia Pictures. White's brother, Jack White, recalled: "When Jules and I were at Columbia in the 1930s, Sennett tried to come to Columbia but they wouldn't have him. He was finished, and the studio was happy with Jules." Sennett did sell some scripts and stories to Jules White, receiving screen credit under his "Michael Emmes" alias. Columbia really didn't need Sennett's services; the studio already had four producers and six directors on its short-subject payroll.
Mack Sennett went into semi-retirement at the age of 55, having produced more than 1,000 silent films and several dozen talkies during a 25-year career. His studio property was purchased by Mascot Pictures (later part of Republic Pictures), and many of his former staffers found work at Columbia.
In March 1938, Sennett was presented with an honorary Academy Award: "for his lasting contribution to the comedy technique of the screen, the basic principles of which are as important today as when they were first put into practice, the Academy presents a Special Award to that master of fun, discoverer of stars, sympathetic, kindly, understanding comedy genius – Mack Sennett.".
Sennett did appear in front of the camera, however, in Hollywood Cavalcade (1939), a thinly disguised version of the Mack Sennett-Mabel Normand romance.
In 1949, he provided film footage for the first full-length comedy compilation film, Down Memory Lane (1949), written and narrated by Steve Allen. Sennett made a guest appearance in the film, and received a special "Mack Sennett presents" credit.
Sennett wrote a memoir, King of Comedy, in collaboration with Cameron Shipp. The book was published in 1954, prompting TV producer Ralph Edwards to mount a tribute to Sennett for the television series This Is Your Life. ; Sennett made a cameo appearance (for $1,000) in Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955).
Sennett's last appearance in the national media was in the NBC radio program Biography in Sound, relating memories of working with W.C. Fields. The program was broadcast February 28, 1956. Aired February 28, 1956. Narrated by: Fred Allen just before his death March 17, 1956; with Edgar Bergan, Errol Flynn (1909–1959), Ed Wynn (1886–1966), and Mack Sennett
On March 25, 1932, he became a United States citizen.
The building of Sennett's original studio in Echo Park was deemed a historical landmark by The City of Los Angeles in 1982. historicplacesla.org
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