L-KO Kompany
Encyclopedia
The L-KO Kompany, or L-KO Komedies, was an American motion picture company
founded by Henry Lehrman
that produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919. The initials L-KO stand for "Lehrman KnockOut".
By the Spring of 1914, Henry "Pathé" Lehrman had directed several important Keystone Kops
comedies including The Bangville Police
(1913) and Kid Auto Races at Venice
(1914), Charlie Chaplin
's debut. After a disagreement with producer Mack Sennett
, Lehrman left Keystone, along with star performer Ford Sterling
, to found Sterling Comedies under the umbrella of the Universal Film and Manufacturing Co., later Universal Pictures
. After a couple of months, Lehrman suffered a break with Sterling as well and founded L-KO as a separate unit within Universal. L-KO's first comedy star was veteran English comic Billie Ritchie, who had played the role of the drunk in Fred Karno
's stage production A Night in the English Music Hall before Chaplin did. Ritchie made his film debut in the first L-KO production, Love and Surgery, which was released October 25, 1914. Also making their first films in this venture were Gertrude Selby, a comedienne who became the main female foil in L-KO comedies, and Fatty Voss, L-KO's answer to Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Louise Orth, who had appeared in some Biograph
comedies and would go on to appear in many L-KO's, was also aboard for the first release. Before long this group of performers was joined by Hank Mann
and other disaffected talent from Mack Sennett's "fun factory," such as Alice Howell
, Harry Gribbon
and ultimately Mack Swain
, whose "Ambrose" character continued at L-KO for a time. Henry Bergman
had made one picture with Phillips Smalley
before turning up at L-KO; not long after he would join Charlie Chaplin's regular troupe of character actors.
Lehrman proved even more frugal with budget than Sennett had been, and he favored a rough-and-tumble style of slapstick that reputedly resulted in injury. Author Kalton C. Lahue reported that there were stunt persons and bit players of the time who would not answer a call from L-KO owing to the possibility of danger. Lehrman eventually brought on directors John G. Blystone
, Harry Edwards
and David Kirkland to help raise the total output of L-KO, but stingily refused to award directors credit for L-KO films.
As the result of yet another dispute—this time with executives at Universal—Lehrman left L-KO towards the end of 1916 and took over the Sunshine Comedies unit at Fox
. After Lehrman's departure, John G. Blystone headed L-KO for a few months but he ultimately went to Fox Sunshine as well. L-KO nonetheless kept going for quite some time and proved a valuable training ground for new or developing comedy talent. Director Charles Parrott, better known as Charley Chase
, came onto the L-KO lot in August 1918 and directed a few subjects through to near the end of L-KO's existence. Dapper comic Raymond Griffith
made his film debut at L-KO in 1915 and comedienne Eva Novak
did so in 1917. Even Fatty Voss managed to direct one two-reeler, Fatty's Feature Fillum, just before his untimely death in 1917, his whole film career spent at L-KO. What finally brought around the end of L-KO was not Lehrman's departure, nor declining receipts for L-KO's product, but an outbreak of the Spanish influenza bug on the lot that forced Universal to shut the whole studio down. L-KO's last release, An Oriental Romeo (1919) starring Chinese funnyman Chai Hong, was released on September 24, 1919, but the studio had already been closed for good in May.
in July, 1917, L-KO managed to outlast Keystone by a year. However, it remains an extremely obscure Silent Comedy brand. Although L-KO produced around 300 titles in its five year existence, only a few of these films are known to exist today. Given Lehrman's preference for violent sight gags and Ritchie's confrontational style of humor, surviving L-KO films stand as some of the edgiest and darkest entries in the annals of American Silent Comedy.
Company
A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...
founded by Henry Lehrman
Henry Lehrman
Henry Lehrman was an American actor, screenwriter and film director and producer.Born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Lehrman emigrated to the United States at a young age and although he is best remembered as a film director, he began his career as an actor in a 1909 Biograph Studios production...
that produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919. The initials L-KO stand for "Lehrman KnockOut".
History
Keystone Kops
The Keystone Kops were incompetent fictional policemen, featured in silent film comedies in the early 20th century. The movies were produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917. The idea came from Hank Mann who also played police chief Tehiezel in the first film...
comedies including The Bangville Police
The Bangville Police
The Bangville Police is a 1913 comedy short starring Mabel Normand and the Keystone Kops . The film, notable for being regarded as the seminal Keystone Cops short, was directed by Henry Lehrman...
(1913) and Kid Auto Races at Venice
Kid Auto Races at Venice
Kid Auto Races At Venice is a 1914 American-made motion picture starring Charlie Chaplin in which his "Little Tramp" character makes his first appearance.-Synopsis:...
(1914), Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
's debut. After a disagreement with producer 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"...
, Lehrman left Keystone, along with star performer Ford Sterling
Ford Sterling
Ford Sterling was an American comedian and actor best known for his work with Keystone Studios. One of the 'Big 4' he was the original chief of the Keystone Cops.-Biography:...
, to found Sterling Comedies under the umbrella of the Universal Film and Manufacturing Co., later Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
. After a couple of months, Lehrman suffered a break with Sterling as well and founded L-KO as a separate unit within Universal. L-KO's first comedy star was veteran English comic Billie Ritchie, who had played the role of the drunk in Fred Karno
Fred Karno
Frederick John Westcott , best known by his stage name Fred Karno, was a theatre impresario of the British music hall. Karno is credited with inventing the custard-pie-in-the-face gag. Among the young comedians who worked for him were Charlie Chaplin and Arthur Jefferson, who later adopted the...
's stage production A Night in the English Music Hall before Chaplin did. Ritchie made his film debut in the first L-KO production, Love and Surgery, which was released October 25, 1914. Also making their first films in this venture were Gertrude Selby, a comedienne who became the main female foil in L-KO comedies, and Fatty Voss, L-KO's answer to Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Louise Orth, who had appeared in some Biograph
Biograph Studios
Biograph Studios was a studio facility and film laboratory complex built in 1912 by the Biograph Company, formerly American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, at 807 E. 175th Street, in the Bronx, New York....
comedies and would go on to appear in many L-KO's, was also aboard for the first release. Before long this group of performers was joined by Hank Mann
Hank Mann
Hank Mann was a comedian and silent screen star who is best known as the last surviving member of the Keystone Cops. According to fellow actor and original member of the ensemble Edgar Kennedy, Mann was the originator of the idea for the Keysotne Cops...
and other disaffected talent from Mack Sennett's "fun factory," such as Alice Howell
Alice Howell
Alice Howell , was a silent film comedy actress from New York City.Early reviews of her movies describe her as the scream of the screen....
, Harry Gribbon
Harry Gribbon
Harry Gribbon was an American film actor. He appeared in 144 films between 1915 and 1938.He was born in New York, New York, and died in Los Angeles, California. He was the brother of actor Eddie Gribbon....
and ultimately Mack Swain
Mack Swain
Mack Swain was an American actor and vaudevillian, prolific throughout the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s.-Film career:...
, whose "Ambrose" character continued at L-KO for a time. Henry Bergman
Henry Bergman
Henry Bergman was an American actor of stage and film, known for his long association with Charlie Chaplin....
had made one picture with Phillips Smalley
Phillips Smalley
Wendell Phillips Smalley was a prolific American silent film director and actor.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Smalley began his career in vaudeville and acted in more than 200 films between 1910 until his death in 1939...
before turning up at L-KO; not long after he would join Charlie Chaplin's regular troupe of character actors.
Lehrman proved even more frugal with budget than Sennett had been, and he favored a rough-and-tumble style of slapstick that reputedly resulted in injury. Author Kalton C. Lahue reported that there were stunt persons and bit players of the time who would not answer a call from L-KO owing to the possibility of danger. Lehrman eventually brought on directors John G. Blystone
John G. Blystone
John G. Blystone was an American film director. He directed 100 films between 1915 and 1938.He was born in Rice Lake, Wisconsin and died in Los Angeles, California from a heart attack. His grave is located at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.-Relatives:John Blystone's brother was actor Stanley...
, Harry Edwards
Harry Edwards (director)
Harry Edwards was a Canadian-born American film director best known for his work from the 1910s to the 1952.He once worked for the now largely forgotten L-KO Kompany during the silent era. In his later years at Columbia Pictures, Edwards established a reputation as the studio's worst director...
and David Kirkland to help raise the total output of L-KO, but stingily refused to award directors credit for L-KO films.
As the result of yet another dispute—this time with executives at Universal—Lehrman left L-KO towards the end of 1916 and took over the Sunshine Comedies unit at Fox
Fox Entertainment Group
The Fox Entertainment Group is an American entertainment industry company that owns film studios and terrestrial, cable, and direct broadcast satellite television properties...
. After Lehrman's departure, John G. Blystone headed L-KO for a few months but he ultimately went to Fox Sunshine as well. L-KO nonetheless kept going for quite some time and proved a valuable training ground for new or developing comedy talent. Director Charles Parrott, better known as Charley Chase
Charley Chase
Charley Chase was an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his work in Hal Roach short film comedies...
, came onto the L-KO lot in August 1918 and directed a few subjects through to near the end of L-KO's existence. Dapper comic Raymond Griffith
Raymond Griffith
Raymond Griffith was one of the great silent movie comedians.Griffith was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He lost his voice at an early age, causing him to speak for the rest of his life in a hoarse whisper...
made his film debut at L-KO in 1915 and comedienne Eva Novak
Eva Novak
Eva Barbara Novak was an American film actress, being quite popular during the silent film era. She was the younger sister of actress Jane Novak and daughter of Joseph, an immigrant from Bohemia, and Barbara Novak....
did so in 1917. Even Fatty Voss managed to direct one two-reeler, Fatty's Feature Fillum, just before his untimely death in 1917, his whole film career spent at L-KO. What finally brought around the end of L-KO was not Lehrman's departure, nor declining receipts for L-KO's product, but an outbreak of the Spanish influenza bug on the lot that forced Universal to shut the whole studio down. L-KO's last release, An Oriental Romeo (1919) starring Chinese funnyman Chai Hong, was released on September 24, 1919, but the studio had already been closed for good in May.
Legacy
While L-KO never had a break-out star as prominent as Charlie Chaplin, in nearly every other way it was successful in competing with Keystone; moreover, as Mack Sennett broke with the Triangle Film CorporationTriangle Film Corporation
Triangle Film Corporation was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in the summer of 1915 in Culver City, California, and envisioned as a prestige studio based on the producing abilities of filmmakers D. W. Griffith, Thomas Ince and Mack Sennett...
in July, 1917, L-KO managed to outlast Keystone by a year. However, it remains an extremely obscure Silent Comedy brand. Although L-KO produced around 300 titles in its five year existence, only a few of these films are known to exist today. Given Lehrman's preference for violent sight gags and Ritchie's confrontational style of humor, surviving L-KO films stand as some of the edgiest and darkest entries in the annals of American Silent Comedy.
Confirmed Extant Films
- Love and Surgery (1914) directed by Henry Lehrman and starring Billie Ritchie
- Partners in Crime (1914) directed by Henry Lehrman and starring Billie Ritchie
- Poor Policy (1915) directed by Harry EdwardsHarry Edwards (director)Harry Edwards was a Canadian-born American film director best known for his work from the 1910s to the 1952.He once worked for the now largely forgotten L-KO Kompany during the silent era. In his later years at Columbia Pictures, Edwards established a reputation as the studio's worst director...
and starring Billie Ritchie - Silk Hose and High Pressure (1915) directed by Henry Lehrman and starring Billie Ritchie
- Love and Sour Notes (1915) directed by John G. Blystone and starring Billie Ritchie
- A Tale of Twenty Stories (1915) directed by Vin MooreVin MooreVin Moore was an American film director, actor and writer. He directed 83 films between 1915 and 1938.He was born in Mayville, New York, and died in Hollywood, California.-External links:...
and starring Billie Ritchie (fragment only) - Sin on the Sabbath (1915) starring Billie Ritchie
- Cold Hearts and Hot Flames (1916) directed by John G. Blystone and starring Billie Ritchie
- Live Wires and Love Sparks (1916) directed by Henry Lehrman and starring Billie Ritchie
- The Sign of the Cucumber (1917) directed by Richard Smith and starring Eva NovakEva NovakEva Barbara Novak was an American film actress, being quite popular during the silent film era. She was the younger sister of actress Jane Novak and daughter of Joseph, an immigrant from Bohemia, and Barbara Novak....
External links
- IMDB entry on L-KO
- Museum of MOdern Art (MOMA), Cruel and Unusual Comedy Blog
- Images Journal: Slapstick Encyclopedia Vol. 4
- Cincecon screening: The Sign of the Cucumber
- Slapsticon bio: Billie Ritchie