In the San Francisco Examiner, Thomas Gladysz talks about the recently released biography of silent film comedian Lloyd Hamilton:
"Chances are, if you’re a fan of early film or early comedic actors, you’re only dimly aware of Lloyd Hamilton. Though he was never as popular as his silent film contemporaries Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Charley Chase, he was admired and even praised by those same greats. Some have called Hamilton a ‘comedian’s comedian.’ And pretty much everyone who has seen his films agrees he was an original talent.
"The reputation of Lloyd Hamilton – a once popular baby-faced comic with a trademark checkered cap – has not fared well since his death at the age of 43 in 1935. The reasons why are many."
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Among the reasons cited by Gladysz are Hamilton’s alcoholism, a troubled private life, and changing audience tastes. For my part, I’m totally unfamiliar with Lloyd Hamiliton’s work, though I’m quite sure I’ve seen him host one of the “Screen Snapshots” shorts of the early 1930s.
First-time author Anthony Balducci’s Lloyd Hamilton: Poor Boy Comedian of Silent Cinema is being published by McFarland.
Don’t give a darn what Chaplin was jealous of Hamilton, He was one of the original greatest silent comedians of all time, I’m really looking forward seeing his own classic comedies restored and remastered so he will never be forgotten, Can someone make a biopic about him.
Lloyd Hamilton was a damn good comedian. I never expected it to be even enough information about him for such a book. I recommend it highly, as well as the Lloyd Hamilton dvd set from Looser Than Loose (www.looserthanloose.com).
20-year old fan.