Did you know?
Eagle-eyed Chase fan Jonathan Berk snapped this
picture of the intersection of Charles & Chase in Charley's native
Baltimore. Although there are various stories and theories of how
director Charles Parrott changed his name to become comedian Charley
Chase (including, as related in Brian Anthony and Andy Edmonds' Chase
biography Smile When the Raindrops Fall, Parrott picking a
random name out of the Los Angeles phone directory), this one seems to
be the most convincing. It is doubtful that the similarity between this
intersection and Charley's adopted name is purely a coincidence.
Baltimore-born Parrott must have been aware of this busy intersection
in his natal city, and, noting the comedy-ready name, took it and made
it his own.
Here is a thirties-era advertisement for the film humor magazine "Film Fun" using a
still from the 1933 Charley Chase comedy Arabian Tights. This ad,
which is from the magazine "Radio Stars", was generously donated by Chase buff
and comedy aficionado Bill Cappello.
The actual date that this ad appeared in "Radio Stars" is uncertain, but Bill
explains:
"I don't know the date of this magazine (none had covers or
table of contents pages), but since the movie Arabian Tights was
released in June 1933, and this ad refers to the January issue of FILM FUN
being available 'now', my guess is that the ad is from late
1933."
Charley Chase fan and friend of this website Jonathan
Berk was certainly not on the wrong trek when he snapped this beautiful
photograph of Charley's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So you can
see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard! Though Chase's
star may surprise some, it was actually one of the first thousand stars
granted when the Hollywood Walk of Fame project began in 1958. The
first thousand were all dedicated to pioneers of early film, including
our very own Mr. Parrott. For all you Chase bloodhounds, Charley's star
can be found near Selma Street on Hollywood Boulevard.
The Foreign Language Versions of the Charley
Chase Talkies
During sound film's first couple of years, Charley Chase, like other
Hal Roach performers, made foreign language versions of his comedies to
be distributed to theaters overseas. This practice was abandoned after
1931 because it was very time consuming and too expensive. The
following is a list of Charley Chase's foreign language films and their
English counterparts. The first film is the standard English version,
the second is the Spanish version of the same film, and the last (if
applicable) is the French version. It is very possible that Chase also
made German versions of his shorts (like Laurel & Hardy did), but,
as of now, it is unclear which shorts were remade in German and what
their official German titles were.
All Teed Up = El Jugador de Golf, Le Joueur
de Golf
Fast Work = Lucoras de Amor
Girl Shock = Huye, Faldas!, Timide Malgr
Lui
Dollar Dizzy = El Principe del Dolar, Les
Chercheuses d'or
Looser Than Loose = Una Cana al Aire, Gare la Bombe!
Thundering Tenors = El Alma de la Fiesta
The Pip From Pittsburgh = La Senorita de Chicago
Rough Seas = Monerias
Charley Chase Remakes
Throughout his long film career, Charley Chase reused some of the
plotlines of his shorts. Other comedians, notably at Columbia Pictures,
also took their inspiration from earlier Charley Chase short subjects.
Re-Chase: Chase remakes Chase
The Columbia film The Heckler (1940) was remade by Shemp
Howard as Mr. Noisy.
The votes are in! Chase fans' favorite silent short by Charley is...drumroll please...Mighty Like a Moose! The classic 1926 Chase farce was only a few votes ahead of his legendary short comedy Limousine Love (1928). Take a look at the chart below to see how other shorts fared.
The Chase fans have spoken! The Pip From Pittsburg
is, unsurprisingly, fans' favorite Charley Chase talkie comedy. The
classic 1931 short garnered 62% of the votes in this website's poll.
The runner up, Chase's celebrated Columbia two-reeler The Heckler (1940), got 19% of the vote. The chart below shows the results for a few other Chase talkies.
DID YOU KNOW?
...that the leading lady who was in the most Charley Chase talkies was Thelma
Todd? She was in 12 Chase films (on and off), starting with Snappy
Sneezer in 1929 and concluding with The Nickel Nurser in
1932. Second place is tied between Muriel Evans and Betty Mack, both in 9 Chase
talkies.
...which films have the most number of songs in them? The answer is
High C's (1930) and Rough Seas (1931). Both have
four songs in them, both are three reels long, and both are musical comedies.
Rough Seas is also the sequel to High C's and the
only Charley Chase sequel ever made.
...which was the first Charley Chase film to be released through MGM? It's
The Sting of Stings, released on September 3, 1927. The last film
released through Pathe was Assistant Wives, released on December
12, 1927.
...that Chase was in the first comedy feature film ever made? The film was,
of course, Tillie's Punctured Romance and Chase had a small part
as a detective in the film, which also starred Charlie Chaplin, Marie Dressler,
and Mabel Normand.
...that some of the melodies of Charley's songs appear as the background
music in some Laurel & Hardy films? The song Charley sings in the beginning
of Fate's Fathead, "Another Cup of Coffee", appears as background
music in the Laurel & Hardy short The Live Ghost, right before
the part when Stan and Ollie think that they have shot Arthur Houseman. The song
Charley sings in Four Parts, "Auntie's Got Ants In Her Pantry",
appears as background music in another Laurel & Hardy film, Them Thar
Hills, during the scene where Stan and Ollie are preparing a meal in
their trailer.
...that in Charley's 1929 silent, Movie Night, a poster can be
seen of Buster Keaton's MGM film, The Cameraman, released in the
previous year?
...that in the film Neighborhood House (1936), which was
supposed to be Chase's breakthrough as a feature performer (although released as
a two-reel short), there is a sign on the theatre marquee that reads "Four
Features plus Major Studio Preview"? This is Charley's comment on the death
of short subjects!
...that Chase wore glasses on-screen in 1925 in his film Be Your Age? This is one of the first times he did so before 1932 when he
would wear them for almost every film appearance.
...that it was Charley Chase's brother James Parrott (AKA
Paul Parrott), not Charley, who appeared in a bit part in Stan Laurel's
solo film, Just Rambling Along (1918). The confusion
between the brothers is quite common, and certainly caught this
webmaster offguard in a previous incarnation of this site, claiming
that it was indeed Chase in the film!
...that Charley Chase made a comedy that resembles his mature work from the
late 1920's almost ten years before its time? He filmed Married To
Order
in 1918 at the King Bee Studio while Billy West was recovering from a
bout of influenza (there was a vicious outbreak in 1918). Oliver Hardy
was in it, and it contained the typical Chase story that would be used
in the late 20's. The film was made right before the studio went out of
business and a company called ReelCraft bought the film and released it
two years later in 1920.
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