I have written previously about how the Old Spaghetti Factory in Old Town Portland, Oregon influenced me cinematically in the early 1970s. As my family waited for a table to enjoy a large plate of spaghetti and meatballs with warm garlic bread dripping with melted butter, a 16mm projector played black and white shorts in the lobby starring silent film comedians like Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops. In the men's bathroom, giant posters of Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Rudolph Valentino as the Sheik stared at you from all corners. There was one poster of a silent film comedian that overshadowed all the other posters. It was a poster of a young man in a suit with round black rimmed glasses, dangling from a clock high above a busy big city street. The photo was not photoshopped or created by AI. It was real. That young man was silent film comedian Harold Lloyd. It was a still photo blown up from Lloyd's silent comedy SAFETY FIRST! (1923).
While the public remembers silent comedy film titans like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd is the forgotten third member of that elite silent film comedy club. Chaplin had his signature little black moustache and Keaton his perennial droopy sad face. Lloyd was the clean-cut All-American alternative with the horn rimmed glasses and perfect white teeth. Chaplin had his Little Tramp character. Lloyd's alter ego was referred to as the Glasses character. Lloyd made over 200 film comedies in his lifetime including full length hits like THE FRESHMEN (1925), THE KID BROTHER (1927), and SAFETY FIRST! (1923) At one time, Lloyd was more famous and popular than either Chaplin or Keaton, his films outgrossing both of them, allowing Lloyd to build one of the biggest mansions in Hollywood, the 45,000 square foot estate called Greenacres.
With a screenplay by Hal Roach, Sam Taylor, and Tim Whelan and directed by Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor (with plenty of uncredited input from Harold Lloyd on both story and direction), SAFETY FIRST! (Lloyd's third full-length film) begins with ambitious country hayseed Harold - The Boy (Harold Lloyd) packing his suitcase and telling his girlfriend Mildred - the Girl (Mildred Davis) that he's leaving their little hick town of Great Bend for the big city to make his fortune. In the big city, Harold shares a room with his pal Limpy Bill (Bill Strother), a construction worker where they struggle to make enough to pay for the monthly rent. Harold lands a job at De Vore Department store where he works as a lowly clerk. He writes letters to Mildred every day, exaggerating his importance at the department store to impress her. Harold's nemesis at the department store is the floor manager (or floorwalker) Mr. Stubbs (Westcott B. Clarke) who keeps a close eye on Harold.
After working a half day on Saturday, Harold prepares to hang out with Bill but runs into a friendly cop (Chester A. Bachman) outside the department store that he knew back in Great Bend. Harold convinces Bill to help pull a prank on the friendly cop. Only they accidentally pull the prank on the wrong cop - Officer Jim Taylor (Noah Young) leading to Officer Taylor chasing after Bill who climbs up the side of a building like a human fly to escape the law. Harold uses his week's pay to buy a pendant for Mildred and mails it to her back in Great Bend. Mildred decides to travel to the big city and surprise Harold. The department store is having a dress goods sale. Harold is swarmed by a mob of women shoppers, becoming disheveled from all their grabbing and pulling. Mildred arrives at the store and locates Harold. Mildred tells Harold how proud she and her mother are with his success, not realizing he's just a fabric salesman. Harold pretends that he's more important than he really appears, ordering his co-workers around to impress Mildred. Harold receives a complaint card from Stubbs for his earlier disheveled appearance. Harold must go to the General Manager's office.
Harold waits for the real General Manager to exit his office before bringing Mildred in. Mildred thinks Harold is the general manager. Harold presses a series of buttons on the General Manager's desk which beckons all the employees to show up, further impressing Mildred. The employees all leave when they realize the General Manager's not in his office. Harold manages to usher Mildred out of the office before he returns. Mildred realizes she's forgotten her purse back in the office. Harold returns to fetch the purse and overhears the General Manager's Assistant (William Gillespie) talking to a press agent that he will pay $1000 for a new idea to attract customers to the De Vore Department Store. Harold remembers his friend Bill scaling a tall building to avoid Officer Taylor. Harold pitches the idea to the General Manager's Assistant. He agrees to give Harold's idea a chance. Harold calls the local pool hall where Bill hangs out. Harold asks Bill if he'll climb the 12 floors of the Bolton Building for $500 for a publicity stunt for De Vore Department Store. Harold will receive the other $500. Bill agrees to the stunt. With a large amount of money nearly in his possession, Harold promises Mildred they will be married the next day.
The press promotes the stunt in numerous newspapers. They coin the man who will climb the skyscraper the "Mystery Man." Officer Taylor reads the headline. He knows the identity of the "Mystery Man." He knows it's Bill. Officer Taylor waits for Bill to show his face so he can arrest him. Thousands of the public come to watch the stunt. Harold and Bill arrive and see Officer Taylor. Harold tries to distract Officer Taylor. He tricks a Drunk Man (Earl Mohan) into kicking Officer Taylor. Taylor begins to chase the drunk then remembers his original plan. Bill suggests Harold take his place and climb up to the second floor window where Bill will switch with Harold at that point. Only Officer Taylor spots Bill and chases him into the building. Every time Bill tries to switch with Harold, Taylor almost catches Bill. Harold's forced to keep climbing higher and higher. Harold has bird seed spilled on him and he's attacked by pigeons. Harold finally finds Bill waiting for him next to a giant clock on the corner of the skyscraper. Bill accidentally knocks Harold onto the clock face where Harold famously hangs on one of its hands. After some more hair raising stunts, Harold manages to extricate himself from the clock and ledge of the building and reunites with Mildred at the very top.
Chaplin had his Little Tramp character. Keaton was the perennial lovable loser. For Harold Lloyd, his "Glasses character" like the Boy in SAFETY LAST! was his signature persona. Lloyd was the All-American, Everyman looking kid with a suit, horn rimmed glasses, and a straw hat. Like most of Lloyd's successful silent films from 1922 to 1928 including SAFETY LAST!, the Boy strives to make his life better, a noble cause that moviegoers related to. Only in his efforts to become successful, the Boy instigates all kinds of hilarious predicaments that threaten to derail his ambitions and test his mettle. The Boy lies to his sweetheart in his letters to her, bragging of deals and promotions that are a mirage, bringing her to the big city to witness his supposed achievements. The Boy adroitly maintains the charade, using his wits to solve his problems like appearing to be the general manager in front of his Girl when he's just a lowly clerk. The Boy's scaling the skyscraper in SAFETY LAST'S! jaw dropping climax is a metaphor for the Harold literally climbing the corporate ladder to success.
Having only seen the poster of Lloyd hanging from the large clock face high above the city streets, I never knew the context of the image until I viewed SAFETY LAST! How Lloyd ends up hanging to the clock is just a piece of SAFETY LAST'S! big climax which involves much more. Lloyd's the Boy isn't even supposed to climb the building. He enlists his friend and roommate Bill to be the "Mystery Man" meant to scale the department store building as a publicity stunt and split the $1000. Only Bill has the very angry Office Taylor chasing him up each floor after one of the Boy's practical jokes inadvertently involving Officer Taylor goes horribly wrong. The climbing of the skyscraper set piece is a tour de force of comic ingenuity mixed with jaw dropping scares. The Boy's ascent includes battling pigeons, a badminton net dropped from the sporting goods floor, the giant clock, a vicious dog tied to a long leash, overzealous gawkers who won't let the Boy back into a window, a tiny mouse that finds itself in the Boy's pant leg, two painters and a board, and a wind gauge. SAFETY LAST'S! final stunt is even more dangerous looking than the Boy hanging from the clock face. It's Lloyd swinging back and forth like a pendulum with a rope tied around his foot high above the street and crowd below.
I had always assumed that Harold Lloyd did the entire climbing and stunts on his own in SAFTY LAST! Lloyd may have disseminated that notion to the press himself. It's not true. A combination of clever photography and a couple of stunt men besides Lloyd contributed to the harrowing sequence. Fake building facade sets built on three different sized buildings in downtown Los Angeles provided the perspective of dizzying heights allowing Lloyd to seemingly tip toe on ledges and cling to a clock stories above the busy sidewalks below. It wasn't until Lloyd died in 1971 that stunt man Harvey Parry revealed he stood in for Lloyd on long shots where it appeared Lloyd was performing the dangerous stunts himself. Bill Strothers who plays Lloyd's buddy Limpy Bill also doubled for Lloyd in some long shots where the Boy scrabbles up the building. It was Strothers who Lloyd saw perform the human fly stunt earlier, scampering up a tall building that gave Lloyd the idea for the finale for SAFETY LAST! Lloyd still did all the gags and pratfalls that were in medium and close ups including the famous clock set piece.
Actress Mildred Davis aka Mildred the Girl in SAFETY LAST! first began appearing with Lloyd in FROM HAND TO MOUTH (1919) replacing Lloyd's previous leading lady Bebe Daniels who wanted to be a star on her own. Davis has that classic silent film starlet look with an expressive face and curly hair. Davis was afraid of heights, yet she performed her scenes flawlessly atop the building in SAFETY LAST! as Lloyd attempts to reach his love at the top of De Vore Department store in the film's climax. After SAFETY LAST!, Davis retired from making films with Lloyd (she did make three more films without him before giving up acting in 1927). Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis were married in 1923 and had two children and adopted a third child.
Bill Strothers who plays the Boy's friend and roommate Limpy Bill in SAFETY FIRST! provided the inspiration to Lloyd for the daredevil climbing stunt in the film's final reel. Lloyd had seen Strothers perform his "human fly" stunt where he climbed a building without ropes or harnesses months earlier. Ironically, before filming SAFETY LAST! began, Strothers had been recovering from breaking his left leg. Despite doubts from Lloyd and his producer Hal Roach, Strothers insisted he could still climb and double for Lloyd in long shots on the real building's facade which he did. Watch closely when Strothers runs and climbs in the film. He favors his left leg. The writers humorously gave Strothers character the name Limpy Bill in SAFETY LAST! good naturedly poking fun at his recent injury. One of the most recognizable faces in SAFETY LAST! is Noah Taylor who plays Officer Jim Taylor - the Law. Taylor was a regular in Harold Lloyd films (FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE), playing either dumb cops or dumb villains. Taylor's film career ended with the dawn of talkie films.
Some final Harold Lloyd tidbits. In the ultimate comedy gag irony, Lloyd accidentally lost his right thumb and forefinger in 1919 when a prop bomb he was handed for a publicity photo turned out to be a real explosive and blew up in his hand. Afterwards, Lloyd wore a specially made prosthetic glove in future films like HAUNTED SPOOKS (1920) that hid his injury. For a good part of his career, Lloyd's films were produced by Hal Roach (who also contributed on the creative side to Lloyd's films). Lloyd and Roach rose up together in the silent film comedy industry becoming huge successes after struggling early in their careers. Lloyd and Roach eventually parted ways with Roach concentrating on a new kids comedy franchise called OUR GANG (retitled THE LITTLE RASCALS for television) and a new comedy duo known as Laurel and Hardy. Before Harold Lloyd came up with his successful "Glasses" character in 1917, Lloyd appeared early in his career as a Charlie Chaplin knockoff known as "Lonesome Luke" complete with little black moustache (except with a part in the middle of the moustache). Thankfully, Lloyd moved on to a more original and enduring persona.
In his heyday in the 1920s, Harold Lloyd was more famous and successful than either Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. Yet, the legacies of Chaplin and Keaton endured after the demise of silent films and the emergence of sound films while the career of Harold Lloyd was largely forgotten. Some attribute Lloyd's fading from the public's memory due to Lloyd himself owning and controlling all his films, keeping them out of the public eye for decades while Chaplin and Keaton's films still ran at revival houses to a new generation of fans. It wasn't until Lloyd began to show his films at film festivals and retrospectives in the 1960s (and finally on television) that a new generation of fans discovered the versatility and innovation of Harold Lloyd in films like SAFETY LAST! Like the title of the 1989 English documentary about Lloyd's career, Harold Lloyd was "the Third Genius" of silent film comedians, up there with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
