Larry Semon

Larry Semon

Born: July 14, 1889
Died: October 8, 1928
in West Point, Mississippi, USA
American silent film comedian whose hugely successful career disappeared virtually overnight, Larry Semon was the son of a traveling vaudeville magician, Zera the Great. He grew up in show business and was trained in stage comedy and acrobatics. A talent for drawing and cartooning led to art school and then work as a cartoonist for various New York City newspapers. The humor evident in his published cartoons prompted executives at New York's Vitagraph Studios to hire him as a gag writer in 1916. He quickly proved himself and was promoted to director for the Hughie Mack series of comedies. His background in magic helped him create interesting new gags for the comedian. When Mack left the studio in 1917, Semon took over the starring role himself. His one-reelers were quite successful, and Vitagraph sent him to California to participate in its new West Coast operation. He produced as well as wrote, starred in and directed his own films, at the same time also producing films for other comics.

In the summer of 1928 Semon apparently fell ill with tuberculosis and simultaneously, it seems, suffered a nervous breakdown. He entered a sanitarium near San Bernardino, CA, where he reportedly died on October 8. However, an air of mystery surrounds his death, since his wife (and former co-star) Dorothy Dwan was allowed almost no contact with him and never saw his body, which was ordered cremated after a tightly secured funeral, which was carried out per Semon's "previous instructions" and to which almost no attendees were allowed. The whereabouts of Semon's cremated remains are to this day a mystery, and his widow professed until her death to be mystified by the circumstances of his passing. With enormous financial obligations facing him Larry Semon could easily have considered a dramatic escape of this sort from his creditors. Whether he did, or whether his death was the sad final chapter to a high-rising, briefly brilliant, but ultimately short-lived career may never be known for certain.

Movies for Larry Semon...

A Simple Sap
Title: A Simple Sap
Character: It
Released: February 11, 1928
Type: Movie
A bumbling grocery-store employee must deal with such job-related problems as a conniving boss, unruly customers, a baby alligator and an escaped lunatic, all of which culminates in a wild melee involving hurled cakes, pies, buckets of jam and bags of flour.
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Dummies
Title: Dummies
Character: The Entertainer
Released: January 1, 1928
Type: Movie
A young man is part of a traveling medicine show owned by an elderly "professor" and his beautiful daughter. His job is to keep the audience entertained with his ventriloquist's act (which includes a monkey) while the professor hawks his patent medicines. One day the show's receipts are stolen by a gang of thieves, and in order to impress the professor's daughter, the young sets out to catch the crooks and retrieve the money.
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Oh, What a Man!
Title: Oh, What a Man!
Character: The Detective
Released: December 4, 1927
Type: Movie
A detective sets out to nab Notorious Nora, the tough female leader of a gang whose headquarters is in a dangerous speakeasy. He decides to infiltrate her gang in order to get the goods on her, but things don't turn out exactly the way he expected them to.
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The Stunt Man
Title: The Stunt Man
Character: Larry
Released: October 22, 1927
Type: Movie
A movie stuntman, whose wealthy girlfriend has just turned down his marriage proposal, is determined to prove to her that he is man enough for her, and in doing so proceeds to ruin take after take, driving everyone on the set crazy, especially his director.
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Underworld
Title: Underworld
Character: 'Slippy' Lewis
Released: August 20, 1927
Type: Movie
Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.
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Spuds
Title: Spuds
Character: Spuds
Released: April 10, 1927
Type: Movie
In France during World War I, an army payroll car containing $250,000 turns up missing. A GI, nicknamed "Spuds" because of his prowess at peeling potatoes, discovers that it was stolen by German spies, and--since his captain was responsible for the car and will be in big trouble if it's not recovered--goes behind the enemy lines to retrieve both the car and the $250,000 payroll.
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The Perfect Clown
Title: The Perfect Clown
Character: Bert Larry
Released: December 14, 1925
Type: Movie
A clerk is given $10,000 to deposit at the bank, but the bank is closed for the night so he tries to get to the bank president's house with the money.
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The Cloudhopper
Title: The Cloudhopper
Character: Borden Rhoom / Getz A. Bunn
Released: June 6, 1925
Type: Movie
The plot of this film really isn't that important. Instead, the sight gags and chase scenes are paramount--with some of the most impressive chase footage you'll ever see. All the near-misses with the speeding train were amazing and the scene where the car gets smashed by the truck are absolutely priceless.
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Go Straight!
Title: Go Straight!
Character: Self
Released: April 27, 1925
Type: Movie
Gilda is a crook who wants to go straight, but her pals keep holding her back. She moves to Hollywood to begin anew but the old gang follows behind. Can she stop them from ruining her new life?
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The Dome Doctor
Title: The Dome Doctor
Character: Peter Pep
Released: April 18, 1925
Type: Movie
A Larry Semon comedy short.
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The Wizard of Oz
Title: The Wizard of Oz
Character: Scarecrow
Released: February 12, 1925
Type: Movie
A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.
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Kid Speed
Title: Kid Speed
Character: The Speed Kid
Released: November 16, 1924
Type: Movie
Avery DuPoys is a wealthy businessman, organising a race. He meets one of the competitors of the race, who is in love with DuPoys's daughter. Another competitor crashes into the action, who is also in love with DuPoys's daughter. DuPoys suggests that whoever wins the race will have the opportunity to visit his daughter every Wednesday night. An action-packed race commences, with one competitor doing more than usual to win the race.
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Her Boy Friend
Title: Her Boy Friend
Character: Larry, the Chief's son
Released: September 27, 1924
Type: Movie
Young and beautiful Iva Method is spying for the police at the Dropem Inn, a sleazy club that the police suspect is a front for a bootlegging operation run by gangster Slim Chance. Chance discovers Iva's identity and kidnaps her, and the police chief sends his bumbling son Larry to rescue her.
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The Girl in the Limousine
Title: The Girl in the Limousine
Released: July 20, 1924
Type: Movie
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Trouble Brewing
Title: Trouble Brewing
Character: Government agent
Released: March 12, 1924
Type: Movie
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Horseshoes
Title: Horseshoes
Character: Larry
Released: December 9, 1923
Type: Movie
A boxer offers $50 to anyone who can stay in the ring with him for an entire minute. Larry, through a series of mix-ups--including hitting the boxer in the face with a tomato--winds up in the ring with him but, with the aid of some strategically placed horseshoes, manages to knock the boxer out. When he comes to and finds out what happened, the outraged boxer sets out after Larry.
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Lightning Love
Title: Lightning Love
Character: Larry, a Suitor
Released: October 22, 1923
Type: Movie
The storm, which takes up most of the second reel, is a trial run for the storm sequence in The Wizard Of Oz which Semon would make in 1925. Fox released a comedy that was an exact copy of Lightning Love just before the Semon film was due to come out. Albert E. Smith noticed the similarities and on September 5, 1923 attempted to have the Fox film pulled from the exhibitors.
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The Gown Shop
Title: The Gown Shop
Character: Larry, a salesman
Released: August 13, 1923
Type: Movie
Here we have 'The Gown Shop', very much in Semon's usual style but with fewer laughs than usual. Semon plays his default character, a grotesque hard-working incompetent. (I'm going to be using the word 'grotesque' a lot in this particular review.) This time round, he blunders into a boutique. After causing some damage he can't pay for, Larry is put to work as a general dogsbody. Mayhem ensues.
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The Barnyard
Title: The Barnyard
Character: Lay Zee, Farm Hand
Released: June 11, 1923
Type: Movie
Lay Zee works on a farm and has won the heart of the farmer's daughter. There is oil on the farmland, and some swindlers are determined to get their hands on the property, by force if necessary. Lay Zee, who knows that oil has been found on nearby farms, convinces the farmer not to sell, and the swindlers enlist the help of another farmhand, who is jealous of Lay Zee's relationship with the girl.
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The Midnight Cabaret
Title: The Midnight Cabaret
Character: Larry, a Waiter
Released: May 9, 1923
Type: Movie
The Midnight Cabaret is a 1923 American film directed by Larry Semon and featuring Oliver Hardy.
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No Wedding Bells
Title: No Wedding Bells
Character: Larry
Released: January 9, 1923
Type: Movie
Larry arrives at his girlfriend's house to ask her father for her hand in marriage. Her father, who is in the middle of winning a chess game for the first time in 20 years, immediately throws Larry out the window. Meanwhile, the girl is kidnapped by a Chinese servant, who is secretly the henchman of a gangster who has developed a sleeping potion he wants to try out on an unsuspecting woman. Larry finds out, and he sets out to rescue his girlfriend and try not to get thrown out of a window by her father again.
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The Counter Jumper
Title: The Counter Jumper
Character: Larry, the Counter Jumper
Released: December 8, 1922
Type: Movie
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 'counter jumper' was the term used in both Britain and the U.S.A. to describe the lowest dogsbody clerk in a general store or emporium. Here, Semon is employed in that capacity in an Old West general store that caters for desperate characters. As usual for Semon, most of the gag set-ups are deeply contrived and implausible. We get here not one but two separate sequences in which randomly splattered stains just happen to resemble a human face.
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Golf
Title: Golf
Character: The son
Released: September 3, 1922
Type: Movie
Comedy on the golf links.
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A Pair of Kings
Title: A Pair of Kings
Character: King August / Stranger
Released: June 10, 1922
Type: Movie
A Pair of Kings is a 1922 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.
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A Weakend Driver
Title: A Weakend Driver
Released: May 4, 1922
Type: Movie
Larry goes driving... and flying... and falling....
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The Show
Title: The Show
Character: The Prop Man / Gentle Onlooker
Released: March 19, 1922
Type: Movie
A harried propman backstage at a theater must put up with malfunctioning wind machines, roosters that spit nitroglycerine, and a gang planning to rob the theater's payroll.
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The Sawmill
Title: The Sawmill
Character: The Dumb-Bell
Released: January 1, 1922
Type: Movie
A bumbling sawmill employee tries to win the hand of the owner's daughter while staying out of the clutches of the mill's bullying foreman.
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The Bell Hop
Title: The Bell Hop
Character: The Bellhop
Released: September 17, 1921
Type: Movie
A government official staying in a hotel puts some important secret papers in the hotel safe. A ring of spies out to get the papers manages to steal them from the safe, and a lady government agent enlists the help of the hotel's bumbling bellhop in getting back the papers and breaking up the spy ring.
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The Fall Guy
Title: The Fall Guy
Character: Larry, the Fall Guy
Released: July 15, 1921
Type: Movie
Larry falls afoul of wanted criminal Gentleman Joe, who runs a saloon full of tough guys and gunslingers.
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The Bakery
Title: The Bakery
Character: Larry, a Bakery Clerk
Released: June 19, 1921
Type: Movie
Well-meaning but accident-prone bakery employee Larry is involved in numerous slapstick mishaps on the job. After accidentally causing the bakery owner to fall into a vat of cake batter Larry finds his job in jeopardy, but he redeems himself by foiling a robbery planned by the bakery foreman.
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The Rent Collector
Title: The Rent Collector
Character: Larry, the Rent Collector
Released: May 22, 1921
Type: Movie
The Rent Collector is a 1921 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.
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The Hick
Title: The Hick
Character: Larry, the Hick
Released: March 9, 1921
Type: Movie
Larry might be a hick causing a lot of trouble at the farm, but he shows he can outsmart those crooked city folks!
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The Sportsman
Title: The Sportsman
Character: The Sportsman
Released: January 8, 1921
Type: Movie
The Sportsman is an American film comedy first released in 1921, directed by Larry Semon and Norman Taurog. The film stars Larry Semon, Lucille Carlisle, Al Thompson, Frank Alexander and William Hauber.
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The Suitor
Title: The Suitor
Character: The Suitor
Released: November 1, 1920
Type: Movie
Larry having to go through a lot of trouble to get his girl. All from bomb baking cooks to high flying crashes.
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The Stage Hand
Title: The Stage Hand
Character: The Stage Hand
Released: September 20, 1920
Type: Movie
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School Days
Title: School Days
Character: Joe
Released: May 3, 1920
Type: Movie
Larry in school and always gets in trouble until he falls asleep and dreams of when he's all grown up.
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The Fly-Cop
Title: The Fly-Cop
Character: The Fly Cop
Released: March 28, 1920
Type: Movie
Larry going investigating an Oriental opium den. And opium is to Larry what spinach is for Popeye!
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The Head Waiter
Title: The Head Waiter
Character: The Head Waiter
Released: December 1, 1919
Type: Movie
The headwaiter does tricks with spaghetti that the greatest spaghetti handlers in the world never heard of. The sight makes your mouth water. Besides food, the scenes are garnished with a couple of trayfuls of beautiful girls.
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The Grocery Clerk
Title: The Grocery Clerk
Character: The Grocery Clerk
Released: December 1, 1919
Type: Movie
Big Ben has the largest store in the town of New Ralgia. His chief clerk is in love with the post mistress. The three of them get involved in a series of mishaps with their customers and with the town ladies' man, whose advances conceal a more sinister purpose.
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Dew Drop Inn
Title: Dew Drop Inn
Character: Larry, the Detective
Released: November 2, 1919
Type: Movie
A comedy short by and with Larry Semon.
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Dull Care
Title: Dull Care
Character: Larry, a Detective
Released: October 5, 1919
Type: Movie
Semon as a detective trying to deal with some roughnecks.
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Between the Acts
Title: Between the Acts
Character: Larry, the Handy Man and a Drunkard
Released: September 7, 1919
Type: Movie
Larry working behind the scenes at a vaudeville show and mess things up.
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The Simple Life
Title: The Simple Life
Character: A Farmer's Boy
Released: August 4, 1919
Type: Movie
The Simple Life is a silent comedy short.
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His Home Sweet Home
Title: His Home Sweet Home
Character: The Husband
Released: July 6, 1919
Type: Movie
Larry Semon is in the kitchen preparing food for a high society musical evening.
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The Star Boarder
Title: The Star Boarder
Character: Star Boarder / Little Joe, Escaped Convict
Released: May 26, 1919
Type: Movie
Larry's absurdly plush life of ease as a convict comes to an end when his sentence is up. Tossed out, he tries several ways, including a stickup to get back in the comfortable jail. Exchanging clothes with a lookalike escaped prisoner, he goes back, only to find he's to be hung. Now desperate to leave again, he joins other cons in a jailbreak.
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Passing the Buck
Title: Passing the Buck
Character: The House Detective
Released: May 18, 1919
Type: Movie
Larry has to fight off a bunch of crooks who are after his bag of jewels.
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Well, I'll Be
Title: Well, I'll Be
Character: The Sheriff
Released: April 14, 1919
Type: Movie
Larry Semon goes out west.
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Scamps and Scandals
Title: Scamps and Scandals
Character: Larry
Released: February 16, 1919
Type: Movie
Larry helps a girl escape her wedding to a fat man.
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Traps and Tangles
Title: Traps and Tangles
Character: Detective Sparks
Released: January 19, 1919
Type: Movie
Larry Semon stars a guy being chased. Here we have a small twist on the sitting on the tram path and the tram goes the other way at the last minute stunt.
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Pluck and Plotters
Title: Pluck and Plotters
Character: The Janitor
Released: December 22, 1918
Type: Movie
He is the utterly inept janitor in an office building, where an inventor is busy cutting a deal for a new sort of -- well, it looks like it might be a racing car, but it might be a zeppelin. But when Larry is not wielding a broom and forcing everyone into either ducking or taking a pratfall, or dunking an ice cube into the water cooler like an over-sized tea bag, he is fouling up industrial espionage.
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Frauds and Frenzies
Title: Frauds and Frenzies
Character: Larry, First Prisoner
Released: November 17, 1918
Type: Movie
The story is of two convicts always trying to escape, until one day when they actually manage to. They meet up with a girl and become rivals for her charms.
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Bears and Bad Men
Title: Bears and Bad Men
Character: Larry Cutshaw
Released: October 7, 1918
Type: Movie
Bears and Bad Men is a 1918 silent comedy film directed by Larry Semon[1] and featuring Stan Laurel.
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Huns and Hyphens
Title: Huns and Hyphens
Character: Larry
Released: September 22, 1918
Type: Movie
This film represents one of Larry Semon's pro-war films. He is a clumsy guy working in a restaurant and oddly, everyone who works in the place as well as many of the customers are Kaiser-loving spies. Why they would be headquartered in a restaurant in California, I have no idea! Regardless, their aim is to steal some plans from some old guy and his daughter. When Semon finds out, he comes to the rescue.
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Dunces and Dangers
Title: Dunces and Dangers
Character: Larry
Released: August 4, 1918
Type: Movie
Larry and his wife are desperately poor—with no food. However, the butcher and grocer show up to collect money they are owed and they won't take no for an answer. They are ready to take anything and everything and eventually chase the pair up onto the room—where various stunts occur.
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Bathing Beauties and Big Boobs
Title: Bathing Beauties and Big Boobs
Character: Lawrence
Released: July 22, 1918
Type: Movie
A man decides to stage a fake robbery in front of his girlfriend's father (who doesn't like him), hoping it will make the father change his opinion. Unfortunately, real crooks wind up taking the money from the "robbery", and the boyfriend has to get it back.
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Hindoos and Hazards
Title: Hindoos and Hazards
Character: Larry
Released: June 29, 1918
Type: Movie
Larry Semon comedy.
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Romans and Rascals
Title: Romans and Rascals
Character: Caesar / A Minstrel
Released: May 27, 1918
Type: Movie
The Roman setting provides ample opportunity for a very high concentration of gag titles, many of which are quite witty and many of which are quaint for deriving their humor from the juxtaposition of having ancient Romans use a lot of hip 1918-era slang. The whole thing is an excuse for a good send-up of how the Roman Empire has been depicted in "serious" plays, movies, &c.
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Tough Luck and Tin Lizzies
Title: Tough Luck and Tin Lizzies
Character: Larry
Released: October 22, 1917
Type: Movie
Unlucky Larry finds himself pursued by the police after he inadvertently steals a man's car and kidnaps his girlfriend.
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Plagues And Puppy Love
Title: Plagues And Puppy Love
Character: Larry
Released: October 1, 1917
Type: Movie
Larry Semon produces his take on a typical Keystone farce, the flirting-in-the-park routine, where pretty Florence Curtis is pursued by four typical Keystone types: the wealthy geezer, the moustachioed Italian, the derby-wearing tough and, of course, the big-footed cop… and here comes Larry, if not to save the day, at least to make us laugh.
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Risks and Roughnecks
Title: Risks and Roughnecks
Character: Our Hero
Released: September 17, 1917
Type: Movie
"Risks and Roughnecks" is an early Larry Semon effort with outrageously funny acrobatics as takes care of business in a big brawl.
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Gall and Golf
Title: Gall and Golf
Character: O.U. Dubb
Released: September 3, 1917
Type: Movie
Golf, we discover in this early Semon short, is a game that is played by striking a croquet ball with a hockey stick and seeing how many times it can hit Larry Semon.
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Walls and Wallops
Title: Walls and Wallops
Released: November 13, 1916
Type: Movie
A comedy short produced by Vitagraph and released in 1916. This is entitled Walls and Wallops, and features Hughey (also spelt Hughie) Mack with Lawrence (also Larry) Semon directing this. It is about cops, capers, and a love interest.