by Annette D’Agostino Lloyd

In April of 1919, Harold Lloyd signed an important new contract with Pathe distributors, calling for a new series of two-reel comedies. These two-reel comedies solidified Lloyd’s place among the finest comics of the day. As such, an increased advertising blitz was arranged, which called for new photographs and new portraits.

One Sunday afternoon, August 24, 1919, Harold Lloyd arrived at Witzel Photography Studio, in Los Angeles, to pose for a series of stills which would be used in ads for magazines, and posters.
Earlier that month, Pathe had been testing some potent bombs for a thrill sequence in a non-Lloyd film. The bombs were tested in a park, and when one proved too potent (shattering a heavy oak table), it was determined that they would be too dangerous for on-screen use, and were discarded.
At Witzel’s, along with Lloyd and some of his gagmen, was a box of props, to be used in some of the shots. Among these props were some papier mache bombs, very similar in appearance to the potent real bombs tested by Pathe earlier in the month. Somehow (and a definitive explanation has never been arrived at), one real bomb got mixed in with the fakes — most likely due to their close resemblance. One of the poses called for Lloyd, then 26, to light a cigarette from one of these phoney bombs, in a pose which was to characterize his on-screen persona: devil-may-care, never intimidated by the obstacles that life presented to him. In a twist of fate, the only real bomb in the batch was the one handed to him. Continue reading “New Series Of Two-Reel Comedies”