Mack Sennett

After struggling with bankruptcy and the dominance of sound films in the early 1930s, Sennett was presented with an honorary Academy Award in 1938 for his contributions to the film industry, with the academy describing him as a "master of fun, discoverer of stars, sympathetic, kindly, understanding comedy genius".

The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is film. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are silent film and comedy film. Work by Mack Sennett is recorded in the collections of Harvard Film Archive. Distinctions recorded are Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Novelty, Canada's Walk of Fame, star on Hollywood Walk of Fame and Academy Honorary Award.

• Name — Mack Sennett • Birth Name — Michael Sinnott • Born — 17 January 1880 • Birthplace — Danville, Quebec, Canada • Died — 5 November 1960 • Place of death — Woodland Hills, California, U.S. • Resting Place — Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City • Occupation — * Producer • actor • director • studio head • Years Active — 1902–1956

Born Michael Sinnott in Danville, Quebec, to parents of Irish Catholic descent, John Sinnott and Catherine Foy (or Foye). His parents married in 1879 in Tingwick, Quebec and moved the same year to Richmond, Quebec where Sinnott was hired as a laborer. By 1883, when Sennett's brother George was born, Sinnott was working as an innkeeper, a position he held for many years. Sennett's parents had all their children and raised their family in Richmond, then a small Eastern Townships village. At that time, Sennett's grandparents were living in Danville, Quebec. Sennett moved to Connecticut when he was 17. He lived for a while in Northampton, Massachusetts, where, according to his autobiography, he first got the idea to become an opera singer after seeing a vaudeville show. He said that the most respected lawyer in town, Northampton mayor (and future President of the United States) Calvin Coolidge, as well as Sennett's mother, tried to talk him out of his musical ambitions. In New York City, he took on the stage name Mack Sennett and became an actor, singer, dancer, clown, set designer, and director for the Biograph Company. A distinction in his acting career, often overlooked, is that he played Sherlock Holmes 11 times, albeit as a parody, between 1911 and 1913.

• Illustration — The Mack Sennett Keystone Studios in 1915 With financial backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman of the New York Motion Picture Company, Sennett founded Keystone Studios in Edendale, California – now a part of Echo Park – in 1912. The original main building which was the first totally enclosed film stage and studio ever constructed, is still standing, as of 2023. Many successful actors began their film careers with Sennett, including Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, Harry Langdon, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, Raymond Griffith, Gloria Swanson, Charley Chase, Ford Sterling, Andy Clyde, Chester Conklin, Polly Moran, Slim Summerville, Louise Fazenda, The Keystone Cops, Carole Lombard, Bing Crosby, and W. C. Fields. Dubbed the King of Hollywood's Fun Factory, Sennett's studios produced slapstick comedies that were noted for their hair-raising car chases and custard pie warfare, especially in the Keystone Cops series. The comic formulas, however well executed, were based on humorous situations rather than the personal traits of the comedians; the various social types, often grotesquely portrayed by members of Sennett's troupe, were adequate to render the largely "interchangeable routines: "Having a funny moustache, or crossed-eyes, or an extra two-hundred pounds was as much individualization as was required." Film historian Richard Koszarski qualifies "fun factory" influence on comedic film acting: Sennett's first female comedian was Mabel Normand, who became a major star under his direction and with whom he embarked on a tumultuous romantic relationship. Sennett also developed the Kid Comedies, a forerunner of the Our Gang films, and in a short time, his name became synonymous with screen comedy which were called "flickers" at the time. In 1915, Keystone Studios became an autonomous production unit of the ambitious Triangle Film Corporation, as Sennett joined forces with D. W. Griffith and Thomas Ince, both powerful figures in the film industry.

• Illustration — Sennett Bathing Beauties Also beginning in 1915, Sennett assembled a bevy of women known as the Sennett Bathing Beauties to appear in provocative bathing costumes in comedy short subjects, in promotional material, and in promotional events such as Venice Beach beauty contests. The Sennett Bathing Beauties continued to appear through 1928. • Illustration — Movie theatre audience members Roscoe Arbuckle and Sennett square off while watching Mabel Normand onscreen in Mabel's Dramatic Career (1913). • Illustration — Mabel Normand, Sennett, and Charlie Chaplin in The Fatal Mallet (1914) • Illustration — Silent film Love, Speed and Thrills (1915), directed by Walter Wright and produced by Sennett, is a chase film in which a man (named Walrus) kidnaps the wife of his benefactor, but the so-called "Keystone Cops" are also chasing down Walrus.

• Illustration — Mack Sennett Studios, c. 1917 In 1917, Sennett gave up the Keystone trademark and organized his own company, Mack Sennett Comedies Corporation. Sennett's bosses retained the Keystone trademark and produced a cheap series of comedy shorts that proved unsuccessful. Sennett went on to produce more ambitious comedy short films and a few feature-length films. Many of Sennett's films of the early 1920s were inherited by Warner Bros. after Warner had merged with the original distributor, First National. Warner added music and commentary to several of these short subjects, and the new versions were released to theaters between 1939 and 1945. Many of Sennett's First National films physically deteriorated due to inadequate storage. Hence, many of Sennett's films from his most productive and creative period no longer exist.

In the mid-1920s, Sennett moved to Pathé Exchange distribution. In 1927, Hollywood's two most successful studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures, took note of the profits being made by smaller companies such as Pathé Exchange and Earle Hammons's Educational Pictures. MGM took over the Hal Roach comedy shorts from Pathé, and Paramount reactivated its short subjects. Hundreds of other independent exhibitors and moviehouses switched from Pathé to the new MGM or Paramount shorts. Sennett fulfilled his contract to deliver silent comedies to Pathé through 1929 (these, like the Smith Family comedies, had already been completed before Sennett temporarily shut down his studio), but he began making sound films for Educational in late 1928.

Rumors abounded that Sennett would be returning to film production (a September 1938 publicity release indicated that he would be working with Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy), but apart from Sennett reissuing a couple of his Bing Crosby two-reelers to theaters, nothing happened. Sennett did appear in front of the camera, however, in Hollywood Cavalcade (1939), a thinly disguised version of the Mack Sennett-Mabel Normand romance. In 1949, he provided film footage for the first full-length comedy compilation film, Down Memory Lane (1949), written and narrated by Steve Allen. Sennett made a guest appearance in the film, and received a special "Mack Sennett presents" credit. Sennett wrote a memoir, King of Comedy, in collaboration with Cameron Shipp. The book was published in 1954, prompting TV producer Ralph Edwards to mount a tribute to Sennett for the television series This Is Your Life. Sennett made a cameo appearance (for $1,000) in Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955). Sennett's last appearance in the national media was in the NBC radio program Biography in Sound, relating memories of working with W.C. Fields. The program was broadcast February 28, 1956.

Sennett was never married, but his tumultuous relationship with actress Mabel Normand was widely publicized in the press at the time. According to the Los Angeles Times, Sennett reportedly lived a "madcap, extravagant life", often throwing "lavish parties", and at the peak of his career he owned three homes. On March 25, 1932, he became a United States citizen.

Sennett died on November 5, 1960, in Woodland Hills, California, aged 80. He was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

• In A Story of Water, a 1961 short film by Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, the directors dedicated the film to Mack Sennett. • In 1974, Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman wrote the musical Mack & Mabel, chronicling the romance between Sennett and Mabel Normand. Sennett was portrayed by Robert Preston in the original Broadway production, with Bernadette Peters as Normand. • Sennett was a leading character in The Biograph Girl, a 1980 musical about the silent film era. Guy Siner appeared as Sennett in the West End production. • Peter Lovesey's 1983 novel Keystone is a whodunnit set in the Keystone Studios and involving (among others), Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle, and the Keystone Cops. • Dan Aykroyd portrayed Mack Sennett in the 1992 movie Chaplin alongside Marisa Tomei as Mabel Normand and Robert Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin. • Joseph Beattie and Andrea Deck portrayed Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, respectively, in episode eight of series two of ITV's Mr. Selfridge. • Carol Burnett did a lengthy tribute skit to Mack Sennett on her show that aired on Me TV in June 2021.

The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count.