Elgin Lessley
Encyclopedia
Elgin Lessley (June 10, 1883 - January 10, 1944) was an American
hand-crank cameraman of the silent film
era—a period of filmmaking when virtually all special effects work had to be produced inside the camera
during filming. Though Lessley worked earlier with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and later with Harry Langdon
, he is best known for the groundbreaking effects he produced with Buster Keaton
, who dubbed him "the human metronome
" for his ability to crank consistently at any requested speed.
Lessley's most striking effects were in The Playhouse
(1921) and Sherlock, Jr.
(1924). In The Playhouse, through use of a specially shuttered lens and repeated back-cranking and re-cranking, Lessley allowed Keaton to appear as up to nine characters simultaneously, interacting with one another. In Sherlock, Jr., Lessley's careful positioning of camera and actor in various locations produced the effect of a man stuck in a movie where his location keeps changing as he struggles to keep up. Lessley retired from filmmaking after shooting The Cameraman
with Buster Keaton in 1928.
Shelton, a Confederate
Army veteran, farmed and operated a general store
with two sons from a previous marriage.
In 1910, the family relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Elgin worked as a window trimmer in the family's department store
. After Shelton's death in 1911, the family relocated to Los Angeles
.
Lessley possibly met his wife, Blanche Olmstead, in Colorado. They married in 1918, and at some point the couple settled in Culver City, California
.
, brother of Georges Melies
. American Midwest made one-reel Westerns, most of which are now lost. Lessley isn't known to be credited on any of these films, so it is difficult to determine which ones he worked on.
Filming was done entirely outdoors, including interior scenes which were shot on sets built outside and topped with cotton screens to control the sunlight. Thus, Lessley got his start in cinematography in outdoor settings, ideal for working later with Arbuckle and Keaton, who preferred location shoots to studio shoots.
Gaston Milies took his film company touring in the South Seas and Asia
in the summer of 1912. Lessley joined them in Yokohama
in April 1913. He worked there briefly on short documentaries. Again, lacking screen credits, it is difficult to determine exactly which films Lessley himself shot, but likely candidates include A Japanese Funeral, Home Life in Japan, and The Rice Industry in Japan.
Miles wound down the tour and sent his crew back to the United States on May 10, 1913. Lessley returned to Los Angeles, near his sister Nettie, and went to work for Mack Sennett
at Keystone Studios
.
in 1916, but Lessley was seen (and photographed) working on He Did and He Didn't
with Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand
in late 1915. Picture Play writer Will Rex described the workaday life Lessley was part of:
Lessley was on the payroll for $55 per week (compared to Normand's $500 weekly salary, and the head carpenter's $35.) And Arbuckle evidently worked him hard for his money, shooting 10,000 - 15,000 feet of film for a single two-reel comedy.
The rough and tumble atmosphere on an Arbuckle shoot likely went far in preparing Lessley for his later work with Buster Keaton, who had standing orders for his cameramen to keep filming his risky stunts no matter what, until he either yelled "Cut" or was killed.
Arbuckle launched his own studio, Comique, with Joseph Schenck
in 1917. Lessley wasn't part of the original Comique crew, but was busy on other Sennett films. He shot a number of movies starring Arbuckle's nephew, Al St. John, including A Self-Made Hero, The Stone Age, and A Winning Loser. He also did The Dangers of a Bride with Gloria Swanson
, and A Clever Dummy with Ben Turpin
.
, and when Lessley came aboard Comique in 1918, he began their working relationship with The Bell Boy
. Lessley filmed Arbuckle, Keaton, St. John, and Arbuckle's dog Luke in the subsequent Comique films, Back Stage
(1919), The Hayseed
(1919), and The Garage
(1920).
Though busy with Comique, Lessley also continued to work with Gloria Swanson, filming Her Decision
and You Can't Believe Everything
. He also filmed Pauline Stark in Irish Eyes, The Atom, Daughter Angele, and Alias Mary Brown.
When filming The Playhouse in 1921, Keaton was recovering from a broken ankle, and thus was unable to perform his usual death-defying and physically punishing stunts. He decided to focus instead on special effects. He and Lessley went to work on seeing how many Keatons could appear simultaneously using multiple exposure
.
Multiple exposures were nothing new. Keaton had used them as early as 1918, in Moonshine
, with cinematographer George Peters. The cameraman would mask half the lens, film half of the shot, then back-crank, switch the masking, and film the other half of the shot. Keaton and Lessley used this tried-and-true method to film two characters at a time for The Playhouse. At first Lessley balked at the idea of filming more than two Keatons in a single frame of film. Keaton turned his mechanical mind to work and provided Lessley with a workable system.
He built a shuttered box for the camera, with nine slats Lessley could open one by one. Lessley would open the first shutter, film Keaton's performance on the first mark, then close the shutter and back-crank to the starting point. He'd then position Keaton on his next mark, open the next shutter, and crank the second character's performance. They used a metronome and a banjo player on the set to help Keaton keep the rhythm and match each performance to the others.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
hand-crank cameraman of the silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
era—a period of filmmaking when virtually all special effects work had to be produced inside the camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
during filming. Though Lessley worked earlier with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and later with Harry Langdon
Harry Langdon
Harry Philmore Langdon was an American comedian who appeared in vaudeville, silent films , and talkies. He was briefly partnered with Oliver Hardy.-Life and career:...
, he is best known for the groundbreaking effects he produced with Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
, who dubbed him "the human metronome
Metronome
A metronome is any device that produces regular, metrical ticks — settable in beats per minute. These ticks represent a fixed, regular aural pulse; some metronomes also include synchronized visual motion...
" for his ability to crank consistently at any requested speed.
Lessley's most striking effects were in The Playhouse
The Playhouse (film)
The Playhouse is a 1921 silent short film written, directed by, and starring Buster Keaton. The movie runs for 22 minutes, and is most famous for an opening sequence in which Keaton plays every role.- Plot :...
(1921) and Sherlock, Jr.
Sherlock, Jr.
Sherlock, Jr. is an American silent comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton and written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez and Joseph A. Mitchell...
(1924). In The Playhouse, through use of a specially shuttered lens and repeated back-cranking and re-cranking, Lessley allowed Keaton to appear as up to nine characters simultaneously, interacting with one another. In Sherlock, Jr., Lessley's careful positioning of camera and actor in various locations produced the effect of a man stuck in a movie where his location keeps changing as he struggles to keep up. Lessley retired from filmmaking after shooting The Cameraman
The Cameraman (1928 film)
The Cameraman is a 1928 American silent comedy directed by Edward Sedgwick and an uncredited Buster Keaton. The picture stars Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, and others.The Cameraman was Keaton's first film with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
with Buster Keaton in 1928.
Early life
Elgin Lessley was born on June 10, 1883, to Orpha (née Brooks) and Shelton Lessley, joining a household with sisters Annette ("Nettie") and Ora, uncles Herbert and Claude Brooks, and grandfather Burton Brooks. Another sister, Bindy, also joined the family.Shelton, a Confederate
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
Army veteran, farmed and operated a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
with two sons from a previous marriage.
In 1910, the family relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Elgin worked as a window trimmer in the family's department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
. After Shelton's death in 1911, the family relocated to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Lessley possibly met his wife, Blanche Olmstead, in Colorado. They married in 1918, and at some point the couple settled in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
.
Early career
In 1911, at the age of 28, Lessley became a cameraman for American Wildwest, the recently renamed American branch of Meiles-Star Company operated by French filmmaker Gaston MeliesGaston Méliès
Gaston Méliès was the brother of the more-famous French film director Georges Méliès. He also produced and directed a large number of early films in the United States....
, brother of Georges Melies
Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...
. American Midwest made one-reel Westerns, most of which are now lost. Lessley isn't known to be credited on any of these films, so it is difficult to determine which ones he worked on.
Filming was done entirely outdoors, including interior scenes which were shot on sets built outside and topped with cotton screens to control the sunlight. Thus, Lessley got his start in cinematography in outdoor settings, ideal for working later with Arbuckle and Keaton, who preferred location shoots to studio shoots.
Gaston Milies took his film company touring in the South Seas and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
in the summer of 1912. Lessley joined them in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
in April 1913. He worked there briefly on short documentaries. Again, lacking screen credits, it is difficult to determine exactly which films Lessley himself shot, but likely candidates include A Japanese Funeral, Home Life in Japan, and The Rice Industry in Japan.
Miles wound down the tour and sent his crew back to the United States on May 10, 1913. Lessley returned to Los Angeles, near his sister Nettie, and went to work for Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
at Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios was an early movie studio founded in Edendale, California in 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman, owners of the New York Motion Picture Company...
.
The Sennett Years
Lessley joined Keystone Studios in 1913. Since most early silent films are lost, and cameraman often weren't credited on-screen anyway, it's impossible to determine for certain which films Lessley shot. His first screen credit is for The Waiters' BallThe Waiters' Ball
The Waiters' Ball is a 1916 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. Arbuckle's nephew Al St. John has a memorable role as Roscoe's rival.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - The Cook* Al St...
in 1916, but Lessley was seen (and photographed) working on He Did and He Didn't
He Did and He Didn't
He Did and He Didn't is a 1916 short comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. The dark plot, extremely sophisticated for its time, involves a corpulent husband who finds himself consumed with jealousy when his wife's dashingly handsome old schoolmate unexpectedly turns up...
with Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...
in late 1915. Picture Play writer Will Rex described the workaday life Lessley was part of:
The studio was bristling with activity. Roscoe Arbuckle ... was superintending the construction of a set, aided by Ferris Hartman, his co-worker, and a dozen prop men; Elgin Lessley, the intrepid camera man, who has the reputation of turning out the clearest films of any Keystone crank turner, was loading his magazines. A dozen rough and ready comedians were practicing falls down a stairway.
Lessley was on the payroll for $55 per week (compared to Normand's $500 weekly salary, and the head carpenter's $35.) And Arbuckle evidently worked him hard for his money, shooting 10,000 - 15,000 feet of film for a single two-reel comedy.
The rough and tumble atmosphere on an Arbuckle shoot likely went far in preparing Lessley for his later work with Buster Keaton, who had standing orders for his cameramen to keep filming his risky stunts no matter what, until he either yelled "Cut" or was killed.
Arbuckle launched his own studio, Comique, with Joseph Schenck
Joseph Schenck
Joseph Michael Schenck was a pioneer executive who played a key role in the development of the United States film industry.Born in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia to a Jewish household, he and his family-including younger brother Nicholas- emigrated to New York City in 1893, he and Nicholas...
in 1917. Lessley wasn't part of the original Comique crew, but was busy on other Sennett films. He shot a number of movies starring Arbuckle's nephew, Al St. John, including A Self-Made Hero, The Stone Age, and A Winning Loser. He also did The Dangers of a Bride with Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
, and A Clever Dummy with Ben Turpin
Ben Turpin
Ben Turpin was a cross-eyed American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films.-Personal life:...
.
The Comique Years
Arbuckle had already recruited Buster KeatonBuster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
, and when Lessley came aboard Comique in 1918, he began their working relationship with The Bell Boy
The Bell Boy
The Bell Boy is a short film produced and released in 1918 by the Comique film company.The film stars Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton as bellboys in Elk's Head Hotel. They cause trouble with each other and guests. The elevator is powered by a stubborn horse, a sham robbery turns into a real one,...
. Lessley filmed Arbuckle, Keaton, St. John, and Arbuckle's dog Luke in the subsequent Comique films, Back Stage
Back Stage
Back Stage is an entertainment-industry brand aimed at people working in film and the performing arts, with a special focus on casting, job opportunities, and career advice.Back Stage publishes a weekly tabloid-sized trade magazine in the U.S...
(1919), The Hayseed
The Hayseed
The Hayseed is a 1919 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Mailman* Buster Keaton - Manager, general store* Molly Malone - Rural girl* Jack Coogan Sr. - Constable...
(1919), and The Garage
The Garage
The Garage may refer to:Places*The Garage , a small shopping center located in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts*The Garage , a large night club located in Glasgow, Scotland...
(1920).
Though busy with Comique, Lessley also continued to work with Gloria Swanson, filming Her Decision
Her Decision
Her Decision is a 1918 silent drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring Gloria Swanson.-Cast:* Gloria Swanson - Phyllis Dunbar* J. Barney Sherry - Martin Rankin* Darrell Foss - Bobbie Warner* Ann Forrest - Inah Dunbar...
and You Can't Believe Everything
You Can't Believe Everything
You Can't Believe Everything is a 1918 silent drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring Gloria Swanson.-Cast:* Gloria Swanson - Patricia Reynolds* Darrell Foss - Arthur Kirby* Jack Richardson - Hasty Carson* Edward Peil Sr. - Jim Wheeler...
. He also filmed Pauline Stark in Irish Eyes, The Atom, Daughter Angele, and Alias Mary Brown.
The Keaton Years
Once Arbuckle moved to feature films in 1920, Keaton took over the old Comique studio, renamed Buster Keaton Studios, and retained Lessley as his cameraman. Lessley shot all 19 of Keaton's shorts, and six of Keaton's feature films. It was in his work for Keaton that Lessley pushed the limits of special effects.The Playhouse
Multiple exposure
In photography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.-Overview:...
.
Multiple exposures were nothing new. Keaton had used them as early as 1918, in Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine is an illegally produced distilled beverage...
, with cinematographer George Peters. The cameraman would mask half the lens, film half of the shot, then back-crank, switch the masking, and film the other half of the shot. Keaton and Lessley used this tried-and-true method to film two characters at a time for The Playhouse. At first Lessley balked at the idea of filming more than two Keatons in a single frame of film. Keaton turned his mechanical mind to work and provided Lessley with a workable system.
He built a shuttered box for the camera, with nine slats Lessley could open one by one. Lessley would open the first shutter, film Keaton's performance on the first mark, then close the shutter and back-crank to the starting point. He'd then position Keaton on his next mark, open the next shutter, and crank the second character's performance. They used a metronome and a banjo player on the set to help Keaton keep the rhythm and match each performance to the others.
External links
- Elgin Lessley on Find a Grave
- Elgin Lessley at iMDB