Semon On The Mount

                 The fabulous and forgotten factotum - that could do just about   anything, brilliantly.

When people of this day in age think about the comedians who made their mark in silent films, their more likely first thoughts on the subject, would plausibly be Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd. There was however, a lesser sung master of the form, and his name was Larry Semon. 

                           The Genius Clown

The Mississippi born funnyman, left the world just shy of his fortieth birthday in 1928, but what he accomplished during his few decades of living would astonish anyone.

Semon, innately devilishly gifted, developed as a child, a virtuoso level soprano voice, however he also had a knack for playing sports, and would go on to join his high school football team, until a scrimmage would be culpable for a serious neck injury that left poor Larry withoutthe option of recovering his cherubic voice.

                                        A self-caricature of Mr S

Larry's mater and pater were respectively a comedienne and magician (Larry's father's stage name was Zera the Great), and were a nomadic travelling vaudevillian couple. Willing son Larry was often pulled right up on the stage as part of one of their acts during their early 20th century tours of America and Canada. This would be the time in which he would sharpen his natural vocal chops, and precocious as they come, Semon would already be a professional vaudevillian himself by the time he reached the age of twelve.

                             Vitagraph would soon be calling...

Semon's parents were both polymaths and multi-faceted in the genius department, one of their mastered crafts would be art. The doting parents, noticed their son took so intrinsically to a pencil and paintbrush. During Larry's teenage years, when his  father would suffer a terminal illness  and ultimately be on death's bed, his very last wish was that young Larry attend art school and make  something concrete of his raw talent. And so it would be art that Semon would study at a  New York City institute, where he would focus on the medium of cartooning.  Upon graduating he found work in the newspaper circuits, cartooning strips for various New York publications, namely the New York Herald and The New York Sun. 

                   Chappy, wasn't the only silent comedic genius on the block

Semon's cartooning during his years at The New York Sun, would soon attract the eye of a representative from Vitagraph, who was also interested in the fact that Larry, as a youngster was gifted in the art of pantomime. This serendipitous realization would inspire him to teach Larry  the proverbial ropes of pantomime as done in film, feeling that he would excel in this special realm.

                                                                The above clip is from 1918's Dunces and Dangers. 

                                                                Keaton himself was perplexed as to how Larry 

                                                                could accomplish such feats.

Honing this new medium, lickety-split, Semon would officially join Vitagraph around the year 1913,  where he would begin starring in Vitagraph studio shorts, usually in comedy kabuki and in farcical fashion, clad in clownish regalia and white-face. Larry was such a devastating natural, Vitagraph encouraged him to move on to directing - and he followed his leaders - and to immediate perfection.

    Sadly this 1925 version of The Wizard Of Oz  is today acknowledged for Oliver  Hardy and not Mr. Semon.                
                                   

                             

One of the over one hundred films he would direct, was the feature Wizard Of Oz (1925) this would star Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man and Semon himself starred as The Scarecrow.


Despite doing most of the work in Wizard of Oz , and his affiliation in  prior Laurel and Hardy vehicles, that Semon also himself starred in,  this would ultimately be to his detriment, as years after , it would be through his association with the now iconic duo that he would be known for, despite being the talk of the town in his day. In his time, they considered him, with also over 100 films that not only did he direct, but wrote and starred in and indeed more prolific that his contemporaries and more than  earning his place among the greats,  but tragically, it would also be due to his early demise as a result of fatal pneumonia, that his star would wane.

                                             An example of how Larry would be undermined

One peek at 1924's Kid Speed, which Larry also wrote and helmed, will bring testament to my words of how very instrumental he was  in the silent-era. Buster Keaton himself was flabbergasted at how Semon accomplished most of his stunts, and felt there was an unusual magic in this man.


So I ask you perhaps the next time you think of the art of silent comedy, and who pioneered the funny aesthetic of those unspoken films, why not let it be the name Larry Semon, for had he lived, Chaplin may have just had to sit in that certain seat called second chair.