Silent comedienne Wanda Wiley (1902-1987) starred in nearly 50 silent movies for the Stern Brothers at Universal between 1924 and 1927. As we wrote here, Universal unthinkably destroyed most of their silent movie archive in the ’40s, but in recent years some of Wiley’s shorts have been rediscovered, causing something of a buzz among the silent film comedy community. She gets a paragraph in Steve Massa’s book Slapstick Divas; and even more extensive coverage in Thomas Reeder’s new book Time is Money: The Century, Rainbow and Stern Brothers Comedies of Julius and Abe Stern; also The Silent Comedy Watch Party has screened her works; and there have been enthusiastic articles on sites like The Lost Laugh and Silent Locations. She has been described as a sort of female Harold Lloyd.
Tonight, New Yorkers will get a rare chance to see a bill of Wanda Wiley’s surviving pictures screened live. That Slapstick Show will be bringing What Happened to Wanda Wiley? to QED and I know it’ll be an amazing experience, since I had such a blast at their most recent presentation there! If you love this stuff, and I know you do, you won’t want to miss it. Tickets and information are here.
(Travalanche) 
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