Editing Mack Sennett (section)

==Keystone Studios==
[[File:Keystone Studios (00069483).jpg|thumb|The Mack Sennett [[Keystone Studios]] in 1915|222x222px]]
With financial backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman of the [[New York Motion Picture Company]], Sennett founded [[Keystone Studios]] in [[Edendale, Los Angeles, California|Edendale, California]] &ndash; now a part of [[Echo Park, California|Echo Park]] &ndash; in 1912. The original main building which was the first totally enclosed film stage and studio ever constructed,<ref name=":8" /> is still standing, as of 2023.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Lank |first=Barry |date=2023-01-27 |title=The real Mack Sennett studio in Echo Park - the one you never see |url=https://www.theeastsiderla.com/neighborhoods/echo_park/the-real-mack-sennett-studio-in-echo-park---the-one-you-never-see/article_00ab5cf0-9794-11ed-9f01-db8cee58be77.html |access-date=2023-08-09 |website=The Eastsider LA |language=en}}</ref> Many successful actors began their film careers with Sennett, including [[Marie Dressler]], [[Mabel Normand]], [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Harry Langdon]], [[Roscoe Arbuckle]], [[Harold Lloyd]], [[Raymond Griffith]], [[Gloria Swanson]], [[Charley Chase]], [[Ford Sterling]], [[Andy Clyde]], [[Chester Conklin]], [[Polly Moran]], [[Slim Summerville]], [[Louise Fazenda]], [[The Keystone Cops]], [[Carole Lombard]], [[Bing Crosby]], and [[W. C. Fields]].<ref>Sinnott, 1999: “Sennett trained a coterie of clowns and comediennes that made the Keystone trademark world famous: Mabel Normand, Marie Dressler, Gloria Swanson, Fatty Arbuckle, Harry Langdon, Ben Turpin, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and W.C. Fields among them. Such important directors as Frank Capra, Malcolm St. Clair, and George Stevens also received experience under Sennett’s tutelage.”</ref><ref>Silver, 2009: "His gift was in providing a haven or school for ambitious young talents."</ref>

{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|align=left|fontsize=90%|salign=right|quote="In its pre-1920s heyday [Sennett's Fun Factory] created a vigorous new style of motion picture comedy founded on speed, insolence and destruction, which won them the undying affection of the French [[Dada]]ists…" —Film historian Richard Koszarski<ref name="koz 54"/>}}

Dubbed the King of Hollywood's ''Fun Factory'',<ref>Walker, 2010 p. 7</ref> Sennett's studios produced [[slapstick]] comedies that were noted for their hair-raising car chases and [[custard pie]] warfare, especially in the [[Keystone Cops|''Keystone Cops ''series]]. The comic formulas, however well executed, were based on humorous situations rather than the personal traits of the comedians; the various social types, often grotesquely portrayed by members of Sennett's troupe, were adequate to render the largely "interchangeable routines: "Having a funny moustache, or crossed-eyes, or an extra two-hundred pounds was as much individualization as was required."<ref>Silver, 2009: “Fatty’s persona as the “jolly fat man” constrained him from being something more than that. The more conventionally good-looking Chaplin and Keaton could eventually aspire to roles that were more promising, leading to their ultimate transcendence of slapstick.” And: “I have felt that Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton rose to the heights of screen comedy by distancing themselves from their Sennett/Normand/Arbuckle roots.”</ref><ref name="koz 54">Koszarski, 1976 p. 54</ref>{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|align=right|fontsize=90%|salign=right|quote= "It is an axiom of screen comedy that a Shetland pony must never be put in an undignified position. People don't like it...immunity of pretty girls doesn't go as far as the immunity of the Shetland pony...you can have her fall into mud puddles. They will laugh at that. But the spectacle of a girl dripping with pie is unpleasing...movie fans don't like to see pretty girls smeared up with pastry. Shetland ponies and pretty girls are immune."— Max Sennett, from ''The Psychology of Film Comedy'', November 1918<ref>Koszarski, 1976 p. 54: ''From Motion Picture Classic''</ref>}}Film historian [[Richard Koszarski]] qualifies "fun factory" influence on comedic film acting:

{{blockquote |"While Mack Sennett has a secure and valued place in the history of screen comedy, it is surely not as a developer of individual talents... Chaplin, Langdon, and Lloyd were all on the lot at one point or another, but developed their styles only in spite of Sennett, and grew to their artistic peaks only away from his influence... screen comedy followed Chaplin's lead and began to focus more on personality than situation."<ref>Koszarski, 1976 p. 54: "Sennett is [incorrectly] credited with developing most of the great comic talent of the silent film."</ref>}}

Sennett's first female comedian was Mabel Normand, who became a major star under his direction and with whom he embarked on a tumultuous romantic relationship.<ref name=":4" /> Sennett also developed the ''Kid Comedies'', a forerunner of the ''[[Our Gang]]'' films, and in a short time, his name became synonymous with screen comedy which were called "flickers" at the time.<ref name=":4" /> In 1915, Keystone Studios became an autonomous production unit of the ambitious [[Triangle Film Corporation]], as Sennett joined forces with [[D. W. Griffith]] and [[Thomas H. Ince|Thomas Ince]], both powerful figures in the film industry.<ref>{{cite book |last=Booker |first=Keith M. |title=Historical Dictionary of American Cinema |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y04MQEgHbZsC&q=Keystone+Studios+became+an+autonomous+production&pg=PA205 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |date=2011-03-17 |isbn=978-0-8108-7459-6}}</ref>{{clear}}

===Sennett Bathing Beauties===
[[File:MackSennetBathingBeauties.JPG|thumb|300px|Sennett Bathing Beauties]]
{{main|Sennett Bathing Beauties}}
Also beginning in 1915, Sennett assembled a bevy of women known as the Sennett Bathing Beauties to appear in provocative bathing costumes in comedy short subjects, in promotional material, and in promotional events such as [[Venice, Los Angeles#Venice Beach|Venice Beach]] beauty contests.<ref name=":0" /> The Sennett Bathing Beauties continued to appear through 1928.<ref name=":1" />

[[File:Mabel's Dramatic Career 1913.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|Movie theatre audience members Roscoe Arbuckle and Sennett square off while watching [[Mabel Normand]] onscreen in ''[[Mabel's Dramatic Career]]'' (1913).]]
[[File:The Fatal Mallet.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Mabel Normand, Sennett, and Charlie Chaplin in ''[[The Fatal Mallet]]'' (1914)]]
[[File:Love, Speed and Thrills - Walter Wright - 1915, Keystone Film - EYE FLM39508 - OB 685625.webm|300px|thumb|[[Silent film]] ''Love, Speed and Thrills'' (1915), directed by Walter Wright and produced by Sennett, is a chase film in which a man (named Walrus) kidnaps the wife of his benefactor, but the so-called "Keystone Cops" are also chasing down Walrus.]]