In 2007, when the independent film studio Cineville merged with the DVD distributor Westlake Entertainment, the companies named their joint enterprise Keystone.[7]. Charlie Chaplin got his start at Keystone when Sennett hired him fresh from his vaudeville career to make silent films. In 1912 Sennett founded the movie studio that would forever change comedy, Keystone Studios. "[12], In sport, the term has come into common usage by television commentators, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland. [2][3] The company, referred to at its office as The Keystone Film Company, filmed in and around Glendale and Silver Lake, Los Angeles for several years, and its films were distributed by the Mutual Film Corporation between 1912 and 1915. Sennett possessed an intuitive, almost uncanny understanding of film comedy. Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops, "© Chester Conklin - Silent and Sound Movie Star - goldensilents.com", "Ford Sterling - Silent Film Star - goldensilents.com", "The Legion of Decency: The Canadian Who Created Comedy Legends", "Making Beatlemania: A Hard Day's Night at 50", "Emu killed the video star, | Digital Video", "Mack Sennett: The Father of Slapstick Cinema", "Americas | Chertoff castigated over Katrina", "The Angle of Post and Bar: The Art of Defending", "NBC duo of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth adds comic relief, perfect laugh track to NY Jets' follies during Thanksgiving blowout", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keystone_Cops&oldid=1001874927, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Basinger, Jeanine, (1999), chapter on Keystone Kops (also covers. In 1915, Keystone Studios became an autonomous production unit of the Triangle Film Corporation with D. W. Griffith and Thomas Ince. "Keystone Cops" Ford Sterling ; Edgar Kennedy ; Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Al St.John poses for a portrait in circa 1913. The original main building, the first totally enclosed film stage & studio in history, is still there. He was the creative force behind the Keystone Cops (a madcap mockery of the police force), the Sennett Bathing Beauties, and custard-pie fights in motion pictures. "It’s a direct steal of the American Keystone Kops [sic], but this is Sydney, Australia, in the late 1960s and who cares..." said creator/star Hull. The original Keystone Studios lot was an explorable location, as well as a major plot element, in the 2011 video game L.A. Noire, published by Rockstar Games. But before The General andModern Times, there were the bumbling Keystone Cops, the touchstone of Keystone Studios, and its brilliant, if somewhat single-minded founder, Mack Sennett. The phrase "Keystone cops defending" has become a catchphrase for describing a situation in an English football match where a defensive error or a series of defensive errors leads to a goal. Charlie Chaplin at Keystone Studios is a 1993 compilation of some of the most notable films Chaplin made at Keystone, documenting his transition from vaudevilleplayer to true comic film actor to … Many other important actors also worked at Keystone toward the beginning of their film careers, including Marie Dressler, Harold Lloyd, Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle, Gloria Swanson, Louise Fazenda, Raymond Griffith, Ford Sterling, Ben Turpin, Harry Langdon, Al St. John and Chester Conklin. Directed by Henry Lehrman, everybody thinks that 1913's Bangville Police was the first appearance of the Keystone Cops. It was filmed in 1914 and stars Ford Sterling, Mack Swain, Edgar Kennedy, and Al St. John and includes a previously unknown appearance of Charlie Chaplin as a Keystone Kop.[7]. Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett and Charles Chaplin in The Fatal Mallet (1914), Keystone Studios building, Echo Park - Present Day, Media related to Keystone Studios at Wikimedia Commons, American film studio (Los Angeles; 1912–1935), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keystone_Studios&oldid=1008289566, Entertainment companies established in 1912, Mass media companies disestablished in 1935, Film production companies of the United States, Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles, Entertainment companies based in California, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2020, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 22 February 2021, at 15:23. The Keystone Cops (often spelled "Keystone Kops") are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917. The rugby commentator Liam Toland uses the term to describe a team's incompetent performance on the pitch. Keystone Cops. Keystone Studio - Then & Now by Bryant Arnett (click on any image for a larger picture) Chaplin's autobiography describes the Mack Sennett Keystone Studio as existing in a suburb of Los Angeles called Edendale. Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'.. Born in Melbourne, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in the Biograph Company of New York, and later opened Keystone Studios in Edendale, California in 1912. Last updated January 22, 2021The Keystone Cops in The Stolen Purse(1913). One of the 'Big 4' he was the original chief of the Keystone Cops. Charlie Chaplin got his start at Keystone when Sennett hired him fresh from his vaudeville career to make silent films. The "Cops" were created by Sennet in 1913 and targeted law and order with their special brand of comedy gags; a photograph of the founder of Keystone Studios, and first-film maker of Chaplin, Keaton, "Fatty" Arbuckle and others, inscribed and signed To Ken Browne Best Wishes Mack Sennett; and a 1917 photograph of a favorite "Cop", inscribed and signed To my friend Dutch Wishing him all kinds of good luck from "Cupid" chief of Keystone cops. Keystone cops were the bumbling police in the slapstick silent movies produced by Keystone Studios, formed in 1912 in Edendale, Calif., by Canadian-born U.S. film director Mack Sennett (1884-1960). Mack Sennett continued to use the Keystone Cops intermittently through the 1920s, but their popularity had waned by the time that sound films arrived. 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