#al st. john

[danyuchou]

合集

[vintage-every-day]

Still from the film 𝑶𝒖𝒕 𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕 from 1918, directed by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and starring Arbuckle, Buster Keaton and Al St. John.

[justbusterkeaton]

Music: Forever Young by Alphaville

[friendlessghoul]

Three Keystone favorites as they will appear in "The Lure of Broadway." Left to Right: Roscoe Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Al John

[boscofuller]

[chaptertwo-thepacnw]

the butcher boy |1917| roscoe arbuckle

[incorrect-oldstar-quotes]

*in the group chat* Al: Does anyone else mix the peanut butter and jelly before they make the sandwich? Mabel: No, you freaky bitch! Buster: Mabel be nice. Roscoe: Let her speak.

[technicolor-times]

Al St. John with a two legged pal 1926

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

(Roscoe Arbuckle / his father William Goodrich Arbuckle / Al St. John / his father Walter St. John)

"The most amazing mess of relationship in current comedy. At the left, one who needs no naming here; standing next him is his father. After the elder Arbuckle, nephew and fellow comedian, Al St. John, who is standing beside his father, the husband of Roscoe's sister."

-Alfred A. Cohn, "He Never Laughs on Sunday," Photoplay, Jun 1919, p.58

He was 13 pounds at birth, and Roscoe's slim father was left to forever doubt his paternity. In a bizarre effort to disavow the boy he named him "Roscoe Conkling" after a stalwart Republican politician whom he particularly hated.

-Timothy Dean Lefler, 2016, Mabel Normand: The Life and Career of a Hollywood Madcap, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, p.50

Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was born March 24, 1887, in a farmhouse near Smith Centre, Kansas, to parents William and Mary, both of whom were likely thirty-eight. He was the youngest of five children; a sixth child died at birth.

Mary Arbuckle devoted most of her time to the struggling business and little to her child. Nevertheless, the youngest Arbuckle was dependent on one person, the one who had not left him—and then he lost her. Roscoe Arbuckle was twelve years old when his mother died at age fifty in 1899. His need for maternal love would carry over into adulthood, when his first wife was a nurturing presence and he developed a strong bond with his first mother-in-law.

After his mother's death, he stayed for several weeks in Santa Ana with his sister Nora, her much order husband, Walter St. John, and their then-five-year-old son Alfred, who would grow up to be a ubiquitous supporting actor in his uncle's movies. Then Arbuckle was sent North to live with the father who had abandoned him.

Shortly after Mary's death, the family patriarch wed another woman named Mary, a widow who went by "Mollie" and had six children of her own. They would have two additional children together, in 1900 and 1903, the last when Mollie was forty-four.

Arbuckle was teased for his weight, a torment compounded by his father's insistence he wear overalss and ragged shoes. One Santa Clara resident remembered, "Whenever a baseball went over the fence or out of the lot, the other lads put up a cry of 'Go get it, Fatty,' and with kicks and punches, sent the big boy on his way after the ball. He always was punched and kicked by the other boys."

"He was aggravatingly lazy as a boy. Neither his father's cuffings nor my pleadings could cure it," his stepmother remembered. "Roscoe didn't seem to fit in anywhere." She spoke openly about what a loveless, frequently terrifying home it was for her stepson: "His father used to beat him—and he often deserved it." In a horrifying glimpse at the brutality, she claimed she saved the boy's life once when "his father was choking him and beating his head against a tree." When the adolescent Arbuckle was fortunate, his alcoholic father would only insult him for his excess weight and not draw his belt or his fists. Still, the sting of words—including William's contention that someone else must have fathered Roscoe—lingered far into adulthood. The abuse boy longed for an escape.

-Greg Merritt, 2016, Room 1219, Chicago Review Press Incorporated, pp.14, 18~21

*Photos

Alfred A. Cohn, "He Never Laughs on Sunday," Photoplay, Jun 1919, p.58

˖◛⁺˖

[classic-film-comments]

From the Roscoe Arbuckle short "The Bellboy"

The Russian text says congratulations

[alfred-st-john]

Today's mood

[vintage-every-day]

Buster Crabbe (left) and Al St. John in 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 (1945).

[justbusterkeaton]

Buster’s first appearance in a film with a train doesn’t look like it had a happy ending for his character, but it clearly didn’t put him off working with trains in the future.

It’s also the first film Buster’s dad Joe was finally convinced to appear in.

A Country Hero (1917) is unfortunately still a lost film.

[friendlessghoul]

Al St. John in Fire Away (1925)

[busterverse]

THICK THURSDAY

[chaptertwo-thepacnw]

al st. john in moonshine |1918|