MR. SUICIDE: HENRY "PATHE" LEHRMAN AND THE BIRTH OF SILENT COMEDY (paperback)

ISBN  9781629331614 Comedy is no laughing matter, as the true story of film pioneer Henry “Pathe” Lehrman proves.    Today’stelevision sitcoms and $100 million comedy feature films owe everything to thedaring film pioneers that blazed a bawdy trail before them. Henry Lehrman beganworking at the influential Biograph in 1908 as an actor-for-hire, idea man, andsometime consultant along with legendary director D. W. Griffith. Lehrmanadvanced from a vibrant stint making Kinemacolor films to an interval at IMPbefore joining Mack Sennett and Mable Normand making Keystone comedies. Lehrmaneven directed Charlie Chaplin in his first film, Making a Living (1914). The roughhouse, knockabout style of many ofLehrman's early silent movie comedies earned him the nickname “Mr.Suicide.”   By1919, Lehrman’s meteoric rise led to the realization of his dreams: fullindependence and artistic control . . . and then it all collapsed. Hisinvolvement in the notorious scandal surrounding Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle