Suzanne Lloyd was raised by her grandparents, Harold and Mildred Lloyd, at their home Greenacres. As a teenager, she attended Lloyd film tributes, listened to her grandfather speak at colleges, and even helped rewind nitrate prints.

Harold recognized Suzanne’s aptitude for business and left specific provisions in his will that she would be the family representative working on all matters related to his films, his image and his legacy. He died in 1971 leaving his 19 year-old granddaughter one of three trustees to his film library.

The Harold Lloyd Trust licensed edited versions of the films to Time Life and later films to Thames Television. The deals were not what her grandfather would have wanted, but Suzanne was out voted. “He had very specific wishes for his films.” Lloyd remembers. “He felt that commercials broke up the rhythm of the comedy; and he disliked piano scores. The films were never shown that way originally.”

In the 1990’s, Suzanne petitioned the court and became the sole trustee of her grandfather’s legacy. Finally, in 2001 the entire library, 85 surviving titles, came back under her control. She created Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc. to license the films as her grandfather would have wished.

Lloyd approached over 15 studios and DVD producers and was met with the same response. “They either wanted to cherry pick titles like the Thames deal, or they weren’t willing to
pay for the restoration and orchestral scores that the movies needed.” recalls Lloyd.

The Harold Lloyd library is one of the largest privately held film libraries devoted to one performer. The films, many of them 80 years old, were in need of restoration, a daunting project for any individual to undertake. With the help of UCLA and the Packard Humanties Foundation, Lloyd began the arduous task of restoring the classic films. To preserve them for a new generation, the original nitrate negatives were digitally restored and new orchestral scores were composed.

In 2002, the comedy of Harold Lloyd was reintroduced to the United States when Turner Classic Movies stepped forward and licensed the newly remastered films for their cable channel.

 

Jeff Blake at Sony saw the films on TCM and offered to release the Lloyd films theatrically. In April 2005, Sony Pictures Releasing premiered newly restored prints at the Film Forum in New York. Currently, the films are touring the country and playing in theaters for the first time in over 50 years.With all the major titles preserved, Lloyd was ready to once again pursue a DVD deal.

Guy Stodel at New Line became a fan of Harold Lloyd after seeing the Time Life versions as a child. He introduced Suzanne Lloyd to New Line in 2004. “New Line understood everything I wanted for these films,” says Lloyd. “They have gone out of their way to include the most incredible special features on their 28 title box set.”

Ron Halpern at Studio Canal has since optioned the library for French release: TV, DVD, and theatrical. Universal will distribute DVDs internationally. “We’re still looking to sell international TV and theatrical,” says Lloyd. “Then we can restore the remaining 50 titles.”

Helping Lloyd the last five years is writer/producer Chuck Johnson. Together they’ve pitched Harold Lloyd remakes to some of the major producers in town. Last year, SONY optioned the rights to SAFETY LAST! with producer Mark Gordon. A director is currently being sought.

“Harold has the perfect image for merchandising,” says Johnson. “The commercial possibilities are endless.” The Trust controls over 4000 production stills some of which have recently been displayed at gallery showings in London and Los Angeles.

Then there are the 3d slides — close to 300,000. Harold traveled the world with his 3D camera. “Harold photographed Marilyn Monroe in the early 50s.” says Johnson. “Limited edition prints were introduced with great enthusiasm at the Monroe auction in June,2005.”

The website TheHaroldLloydCollection.com showcases the photography of Harold Lloyd. It includes the Monroe photographs along with pinup icon Bettie Page. Harold’s travel photography and stills from his films are also featured.

In 2004, with Johnson’s help, Lloyd released the pinup book, HAROLD LLOYD’S HOLLYWOOD NUDES IN 3D. (Black Dog and Leventhal). Her previous books include3-D HOLLYWOOD (Simon and Schuster) and HAROLD LLOYD MASTER COMEDIAN, (Abrams).

During the 1920’s Harold Lloyd was one of the world’s most successful film stars. When he died, an important film legacy was bestowed upon his granddaughter. Suzanne Lloyd considers it an honor, “When I see these films introduced to a new generation, families, little kids laughing at the guy in the glasses, I know Harold would be so pleased.”

Harold Lloyd was to the 1920’s what Cary Grant was to the 30’s and 40’s, Jimmy Stewart was to the 50’s and 60’s, and what Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks are to the present day. He was an Everyman.

Harold Lloyd was the cinema’s “first man in space.” He was a product of the movies. His comedy wasn’t imported from Broadway or the British Music Hall. He began his career just as the art form was created. He learned to use the camera the way other comics used a bowler hat or a funny walk. He was the first filmmaker to put an average guy up on the screen –a guy with faults, and fears, “the boy next door.”

Of all the silent film comedians, Harold Lloyd was the most profitable. His films out grossed Chaplin and Keaton put together. He pioneered new camera techniques and was the first filmmaker to preview his films to a test audience. He was the number one box office star two years in a row. His movies were adored. He was a world famous star. Even today, at film festivals around the world, the response to his comedy attests to Lloyd’s comic genius.

In recent years, his work is often overlooked. Not because his films are dated, or that his humor is no longer funny. Lloyd is unknown because in later years, Harold refused to let his films be shown on television. His humor built one joke on top of another, a roller coaster ride, and he didn’t want his movies chopped up by commercial interruption. Because Harold Lloyd owned all his films, he was free to do as he pleased.

In his later years, he devoted his time to running the Shriner’s Hospitals for Crippled Children and introducing his films to college campuses. In 1952 he received and honorary Oscar for being a “Master Comedian and Good Citizen.” He died in 1971 at the age of 77.

In a film career that spanned more than 35 years, Harold Lloyd made more than 200 comedies. Today over 80 titles still exist. Virtually all of Harold’s classic feature works survive. In the last few years, the films have been restored by UCLA and The Harold Lloyd Trust. Both Safety Last! (1923) and The Freshman (1925) are on the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry.

Included in the new DVD set, The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection is a featurette with Suzanne Lloyd filmed at Sue’s childhood home, Greenacres. Sue was interviewed in the courtyard outside the breakfast room and around the magnificent grounds for hours talking about the house and what it was like growing up in this fabulous estate. Here are some of the behind-the-scenes photos from that day.

I personally was overwhelmed by the house and grounds. The place is massive. Today, the house sits on six acres. I couldn’t possibly imagine what it was like when it was just over sixteen acres!

Construction began on Greenacres in 1926 and was completed in 1929. At a cost of $2 million dollars, the Italian Renaissance mansion had forty-four rooms built in a square around a central court yard. The living room featured a 35mm projection booth and a 30 rank Aeolian Duo-Art pipe organ.

The lush grounds that surrounded the house featured seven formal gardens, twelve fountains, and a nine-hole golf course. There was a waterfall that plummeted down a mountainside into the canoe run. A tunnel ran completely around the Olympic-size swimming pool and featured underwater windows to view and photograph swimmers.
According to Suzanne, there wasn’t one of the 500 trees on the estate that Harold didn’t personally shop for, and he knew every one by name and species if anyone ever asked.

Greenacres was a self-contained world. It had its own 50,000 gallon reservoir well that supplied spring water for the swimming pool and all the fountains and lakes. Sixteen full time gardeners maintained the grounds with plantings supplied from nearly two acres of greenhouses. An additional fifteen servants took care of the family, from chauffeurs, cooks, and butlers to several men who looked after the 80 plus Great Danes.

I’m happy to report that over 75 years later, the house and remaining acres are in spectacular shape. They are maintained with the utmost care. The playhouse, stables and clock tower looked like they had been built yesterday. Certainly there was no indication that the playhouse was almost 80 years old.

We filmed in the rose garden, the poplar garden, the tennis court, Gloria’s playhouse and the beautiful circular front courtyard. As the home is no longer owned by the Lloyd Estate, we weren’t given permission to film inside the house, (I did peek into as many windows as I could) but we were allowed into Gloria’s playhouse. The vaulted ceiling allows an adult to stand up. The living room has a fire place and working electricity. The kitchen and bath, (scaled for an 8 year old) have running water. I had to crawl into the bedroom as the ceiling was too low for me to stand up. I can only imagine the fun that children must have had in this house over the years. Sue recounted how she had played in the house when she was a little girl just as her mother, Gloria, had played there with childhood friends, Shirley Temple and Jane Withers.

Wandering around this immense estate you don’t even realize that the grounds are less than half of what they once were. How sad it must have been to sell it off and see it subdivided. It wasn’t until I came to a stairway off Harold’s library that it even occurred to me. Here was a stairway with a circular rail that now goes nowhere. You circle down and right back up. Originally this was the staircase that led to the cascades.

I stood at this dead end, looked out and tried to imagine the rows of cypress trees that lined the cascades. A fountain stood at the end of the trees. Off that fountain was a lily pond. Across the long winding drive was the pool and pool pavilion. Below that the garages, greenhouses, hand ball court, kennels, film vaults — all gone. The canoe run that ran around the property, the waterfall, the mill house and the nine-hole golf course — all gone. In the aerial photo of the estate, find the road in the upper left that curves down. If you continue that curve around the house, past the front gate, and go back up to the right, that’s what’s left of Greenacres. Everything below that curve has been destroyed.

Another thing I never fully understood about the house until I visited was the long tunnel that held the Rogues Gallery and led to the game room. I never understood where this mysterious game room was. The tunnel runs from the main house under the side lawn and ends in a room UNDERGROUND. In the aerial photo, it’s under the big lawn on the right side of the house.) One of the two tall towers in the yard is a smoke stack for the fireplace. Because the house is on a hill top, the game room is built right into the side of the hill. It has windows on one wall that look out over the canyon. Amazing! Because this was the only room in the main house that had a bar, it wouldn’t be uncommon to find the party ending up here. Harold tells the story that Chaplin entertained until 4am one night because guests wouldn’t let him go home.

What a magnificent home this must have been when Harold Lloyd lived here with his family. For those who have heard or read about this famous Hollywood home, seeing it was even more exciting. You can view the featurette on the New Line DVD, The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection V.3.

Chuck Johnson
The Harold Lloyd Trust

Check out Harold in this issue of Variety!

 

It started sometime around Thanksgiving. My grandparents would take me downtown to the train yards where the annual shipment of trees would arrive for the holiday season. We would pick out three large Douglas firs and they would be wired together to make one enormous, fantastic Christmas tree. It sat at one end of the garden room rising 20 feet in the air. It was 9 feet wide and almost 30 feet around. Imagine the amount of presents that can fit under a tree that is 30 feet around!

It took from Thanksgiving until Christmas to decorate the tree. Over the years, my grandfather had collected thousands of ornaments from all over the world. The tree held one-of-a-kind rare ornaments valued in the hundreds of dollars when they were first purchased in the `30’s and `40’s. The tree also held homemade ones that Harold received from his charity work.

I remember a jeweled encrusted ostrich egg, and a sequined football, (a reference to the college football hero Harold Lloyd played in his most popular film, “The Freshman.” I particularly loved a Christmas ball given to him by his friend, make-up artist, Wally Westmore, that was a miniature diorama depicting a bespectacled Harold in a red bathrobe trimming the tree.

One Christmas, I was with Daddy shopping for more ornaments in Saks Fifth Avenue. He plucked more and more ornaments off the store’s white-flocked display tree unable to decide which ones to purchase. Finally, he realized that every ornament on the tree would look nice at Greenacres and quickly decided right then and there to buy them all. Since there was no room on the tree at home, his impulse purchase had to include Sak’s white-flocked display tree as well! So the 12 foot, completely decorated tree, was shipped off to Greenacres and found a home in our front entrance hall. I have no idea where Saks put their presents that year after Harold left a gapping hole in their Christmas display.

One year we counted over 5,000 ornaments hanging from the tree and we still had enough left over to decorate 3 more trees just as big! Every year the tree grew larger to hold more ornaments; then one year it became a permanent fixture in our home. It was simply too large, too decorated and too engineered to disassemble. So we had it fireproofed and celebrated Christmas every day of the year!

A few years back, Christopher Radko recreated two of Harold’s most beautiful ornaments: “The Rose” originally given to Harold by silent film siren, Gloria Swanson, and “Holiday Bounty” a colorful ornament from friend and fellow silent film comedian, Charlie Chaplin. I was thrilled to have these ornaments added to the Radko collection. Now everyone can have one of Harold’s ornaments on their own holiday tree.

–Suzanne Lloyd