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Ben Turpin (1869-1940)
Ben Turpin (1869-1940)

Ben Turpin (September 19, 1869[1] – July 1, 1940) was a cross-eyed comedian, best remembered for his work in silent films. Events 335 - Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle Constantine I. Year 1869 ( MDCCCLXIX) is a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year "July 1st" redirects here For the Ayumi Hamasaki song see H (song. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience primarily by making them laugh

Contents

Birth

Turpin was born Bernhard Turpin or Bernard Turpin in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of a candy store owner. New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water to which a variety of flavorings and colorants is added [1]

Vaudeville

He worked in vaudeville, burlesque, and circuses. Vaudeville was a Genre of variety entertainment prevalent on the stage in the United States and Canada, from the early 1880s Burlesque is theatrical entertainment of broad and parodic humor which usually consists of comic skits (and sometimes a strip tease) A circus is most commonly a traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, Clowns trained animals trapeze acts Hoopers, tightrope walkers Turpin had a distinctive appearance, with a small wiry frame, a brush mustache, and crossed eyes. Strabismus (from Greek: στραβισμός strabismos, from στραβίζειν strabizein "to squint" from στραβός strabos Turpin's famous eyes, he said, only crossed as a young adult after he suffered an accident. Turpin was convinced that the crossed eyes were essential to his comic career; his co-workers recalled that after he received any blow to the head he made a point of looking himself in the mirror to assure himself that they had not become uncrossed. Turpin was a devout Catholic. and his workmates would occasionally goad him by threatening to pray that Turpin's eyes would uncross, thus depriving him of his livelihood.

Turpin famously bought a $25,000 insurance policy with Lloyd's of London, payable if his eyes ever uncrossed. For the film see Lloyd's of London (film. Lloyd's of London is a British Insurance market (How serious this was is open to question: such publicity stunts centered around a performer's "trademark" were common at the time. ) He developed a vigorous style of physical comedy, including an ability to stage comic pratfalls that impressed even his fellow workers in the rough-and-tumble world of silent comedy. One of his specialties was a backward tumble he called the "hundred an' eight'" (probably a corruption of "one hundred and eighty," referring to a 180-degree somersault).

Film

Ben Turpin (center) with two Mack Sennett Studios "bathing beauties"
Ben Turpin (center) with two Mack Sennett Studios "bathing beauties"

Ben Turpin first appeared on film in 1907 for Essanay Studios in Chicago in various small parts and comic bits; in addition to his on-screen work, Turpin worked as a janitor for Essanay. Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was a motion picture studio founded on August 10, 1907 in the neighborhood of Uptown Chicago, IL Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. By 1912 he was an established if not major screen personality, giving interviews and writing articles for the new fan magazines (the first of which had started the year before). The year 1912 in film involved some significant events Events Mack Sennett, who had previously worked as an actor and comedy director with D

Charlie Chaplin joined the Essanay company in 1915, and the studio made Turpin his second banana. Chaplin was maturing as a filmmaker, working slowly and intuitively. Turpin, however, was impatient with Chaplin's methods. The earthy Turpin understood straightforward slapstick more than comic subtlety. The Chaplin-Turpin duo didn't last long, with Chaplin abandoning Chicago for California. Turpin does share one additional credit with Chaplin: after Chaplin filmed Burlesque on Carmen in two reels, Essanay filmed new scenes with Ben Turpin to pad the picture into a featurette, doubling its length.

Essanay did not survive Chaplin's departure and remained solvent for only a few more years. Turpin may have been aware of Essanay's instability; he left Essanay for the Vogue comedy company, where he starred in a series of two-reel comedies. Former Essanay comedian Paddy McQuire supported him. Many of Turpin's Vogue comedies were re-released under different titles, to cash in on Turpin's subsequent stardom.

Mack Sennett and stardom

In 1917 Ben Turpin joined the leading comedy company, the Mack Sennett studio. Mack Sennett ( January 17, 1880 &ndash November 5, 1960) was an Academy Award -winning director and was known as the innovator Turpin's aptitude for crude slapstick suited the Sennett style perfectly, and Sennett's writers often cast the ridiculous-looking Turpin against type (a rugged Yukon miner; a suave, worldly lover; a stalwart cowboy; a fearless stuntman, etc. ) for maximum comic effect. Through the 1920s his roles often spoofed serious actors and celebrities of the time -- e. g. , "The Shriek" for "The Sheik" -- and Turpin became one of film's most popular comics. Turpin appeared in both short subjects and feature films for Sennett. Delighted with his own success, he took to introducing himself with the phrase, "I'm Ben Turpin; I make $3000 a week. "

Sennett terminated most of his staff's contracts in 1928, and closed the studio to retool for the new talking pictures. Turpin was signed by the low-budget Weiss Brothers-Artclass company, perhaps the most ambitious coup Artclass ever attempted. Turpin made two-reel comedies there for one year. Artclass usually traded on his peculiar vision with titles like Idle Eyes and The Eyes Have It.

Turpin in the sound era

The year 1929 saw many silent-film stars uncertain about their future employment, with the new talking pictures requiring new skills and techniques. Ben Turpin chose to retire. He had invested his earnings in real estate, and being highly successful at this, had no financial need for more work. Real estate is a legal term (in some jurisdictions notably in the USA, United Kingdom Producers soon sought him out for gag appearances in films. He commanded a flat fee of $1000 per appearance, regardless of whether it was a speaking role or a fleeting cameo. He starred in only one more film, Keystone Hotel (Warner Brothers, 1935), a two-reel reunion of silent-era comedians. Warner Bros Entertainment Inc (or Warner Bros, Warner Bros Pictures) is one of the world's largest producers of Film and Turpin's speaking voice, incidentally, was a gritty, rasp that retained elements of the New Orleans "Yat" accent of his youth. Yat refers to a unique collection of Dialects of English spoken in New Orleans Louisiana. His last film role was in the Laurel and Hardy film Saps at Sea in 1940, in which his cross-eyed face served as a joke punchline. Laurel and Hardy were the popular American -based comedy team of thin British-born Stan Laurel (1890-1965 and heavy American-born Oliver Hardy (1892-1957 Saps at Sea is a Laurel and Hardy film released in 1940. It was directed by Gordon Douglas, distributed by United Artists and their He was paid his $1000 for one quick shot of his face and just 16 words of dialogue.

Death

Ben Turpin died in 1940 and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately-owned Cemetery in Glendale, Los Angeles, in the United States. Glendale ( is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States.

Turpin's crossed eyes

Turpin and Sennett both appeared as themselves (in Technicolor) in Hollywood Cavalcade, a partly fictionalized movie about the silent-film era. Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation This movie contains a sequence in which Turpin reports for work and prepares to go onto the set in character. In the dressing room he picks up a hand mirror and checks his reflection as he deliberately crosses his eyes as extremely as possible. In this sequence, it can be seen that Turpin's left eye was actually normal when he was not performing, and that he intentionally crossed it (to match his misaligned right eye) as part of his screen character.

In the film The Comic, Mickey Rooney plays a fictional silent-film comedian named Cockeye Van Buren who is genuinely cross-eyed; although this character does not otherwise resemble Turpin, the handicap given to Rooney's role is clearly inspired by Turpin. The Comic is a 1969 drama / Black comedy film co-written co-produced and directed by Carl Reiner. Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr; September 23, 1920) is an American Film Actor and Entertainer whose

Timeline

See also

References

  1. ^ a b His birth date was given as September 19, 1869 but other years were used at various times in his Hollywood publicity material. Age fabrication occurs when an individual deliberately misrepresents his or her true age Events 335 - Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle Constantine I. Year 1869 ( MDCCCLXIX) is a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year In the 1900 US Census he used the year "1869", and his death certificate used "1869", and that year will be used here. Encyclopædia Britannica wrongly lists the year of his birth as "1874". The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc The New York Times obituary mentions the alternate years as fabrications. His death certificate lists his birthday as "September 19, 1869" and lists his mother's maiden name as "Buckley". The Internet Movie Database lists his birthday properly as "September 19, 1869".

External links

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