Some attention today for Fred C. Newmeyer (1888-1967). Originally a pro baseball player (1909-1913), in 1916 he began working for Hal Roach in small roles in Harold Lloyd’s “Lonesome Luke” comedies. He continued to act in Lloyd comedies through 1919. In 1920 he started directing Snub Pollard shorts, moving up to Lloyd films within months. Newmeyer was to helm (or co-helm) some of Lloyd’s best known and loved films starting with ambitious late shorts like Number Please? (1920), Never Weaken (1921) and the near-feature A Sailor Made Man (1921), and continuing on with all of Lloyd’s features through 1925’s The Freshman. After this he began directing comedians at other studios, directing Douglas Maclean in George M. Cohan’s Seven Keys to Baldpate (1925), Larry Semon in The Perfect Clown (1925), and W.C. Fields in The Potters (1927), among others. In the sound era he directed several undistinguished melodramas before coming back to Roach in the mid 30s to direct several Our Gang/ Little Rascals shorts. His last film was an obscure western musical cheapie called Rodeo Rhythm, released in 1942.
To find out more about silent and slapstick comedy please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
(Travalanche) 