Love Hollywood Style: Harold Lloyd.

Harold Lloyd married his leading lady, Mildred Davis(d.1969), on Saturday, February 10, 1923. Together, they had two children: Gloria Lloyd (1924–2012), and Harold Clayton Lloyd, Jr., (1931–1971). They also adopted Gloria Freeman (1924–1986) in September 1930, whom they renamed Marjorie Elizabeth Lloyd, but who was known as "Peggy" for most of her life.

Lloyd, for a time, did not want his wife Davis, continuing her acting career. He later changed his mind, but by that time her movie career was over. Davis died from a heart attack in 1969, two years before Lloyd's death. Though her real age was a guarded secret, a family member said that she was 66 years old.

Happy Birthday: Harold Lloyd!

Harold Lloyd (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971), ranks up there with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of the most popular and influential film comedians of the silent film era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and "talkies", between 1914 and 1947. He is best known for his "Glasses Character".

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First of 3 interview Videos.

Speedy (1928). Harold Lloyd's real-life nickname.

Speedy (1928). Silent film. Cast: Harold Lloyd and Ann Christy. It was his last silent film to be released in theatres. The film was written by Albert DeMond, John Grey, J.A. Howe, Lex Neal, and Howard Emmett Rogers with uncredited assistance from Al Boasberg and Paul Girard Smith. Director: Ted Wilde (the last silent film to be directed by him). It was shot on location in New York City.

In this Silent Film, "Speedy," who is unable to hold a job, comes to the rescue when his girl's grandfather nearly loses his horse-drawn streetcar business. A gang of men steal the car and hide it, but "Speedy" finds it. (In one of my favorite scenes in the film Speedy puts shaving cream on his dog and yells "MAD DOG"!! to scare off the gang of men). Speedy then drives the horse-drawn streetcar wildly through the crowded streets, and gets it back on the track in time to make the daily run.

I really wasn't that familiar with Harold Lloyd until I saw this silent film. What a wonderful comedy. Mr. Lloyd, really seemed to be enjoying himself and in my opinion, he ranks with Buster Keaton, in the laughs department.

FUN FACTS:

"Speedy" was Harold Lloyd's real-life nickname. He had previously used it for his character in the 1925 film The Freshman.

During the chase scene, Speedy's horse-drawn streetcar is seen crashing into an elevated railroad platform. This was a real accident during filming, the footage of which was kept and the storyline of the film rewritten around it.

Lloyd can be seen giving the finger to his own reflection in a fun house mirror during the Coney Island sequence. (His granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, notes this on the DVD commentary track).

Babe Ruth makes an cameo performance as himself, as Speedy's cab customer. Ruth was a fan of Lloyd, and director Wilde had directed him the previous year in the film, The Babe Comes Home.

Harold Lloyd. "Glasses Character".

Harold Lloyd ranks as one of the most popular and influential film comedians of the silent film era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and "talkies," between 1914 and 1947. He is best known for his "Glasses Character" and was perfectly in tune with 1920's.

His films frequently contained "thrill sequences" of extended chase scenes and daredevil feats, for which he is best remembered today. Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in Safety Last! is one of the most popular images in all of cinema.

Harold Lloyd, was very involved with photography, including 3D photography and color film experiments. Some of the earliest 2-color Technicolor tests were shot at his Beverly Hills home (These are included as extra material in the Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection DVD Box Set). He became known for his nude photographs of models, such as Bettie Page and stripper Dixie Evans. He also took photos of Marilyn Monroe lounging at his pool in a bathing suit. In 2004, his granddaughter Suzanne produced a book of his photographs, Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D!

Lloyd also encouraged a number of younger actors: Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, and particularly Jack Lemmon, whom Harold wanted to play him in a movie of his life and work.

Fun Fact:

Harold Lloyd, was a Great Dane breeder.

Harold Lloyd "Grandma's Boy" 1922

"Grandma's Boy" (1922) is a silent comedy starring Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, and Anna Townsend. Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, this film is about an awkward, shy boy who is afraid of everything. The story, which is set in the sleepy rural village of Blossom Bend, begins with a bespectacled baby who is too afraid to claim his own crib losing his cookie to an aggressive baby. The next scene opens with a grade school boy who has his lunch confiscated by a smaller, but more assertive child. The following scene shows the now adult boy, played by Harold Lloyd, striving to impress the girl, played by Mildred Davis, who is being pursued by a more masculine rival. The rival eventually pushes the wimpy boy into the well. When a mysterious tramp comes and sits down in their yard, Grandma tells the boy to tell the tramp to leave but the boy does not have the courage to do those kind of things. Convinced that he is a coward, the boy gives up all hope of gaining confidence. That is when his grandma, played by Anna Townsend, comes to the rescue. She makes up a story about his grandfather (played in flashback by Harold Lloyd) that explains how he likewise was afraid to carry out a mission during the Civil War until attaining a talisman from a mysterious woman who assured him that it would allow him to overcome all obstacles. Grandma then offers this same "family heirloom" to her grandson. Will the boy overcome his cowardice?

In "Grandma's Boy," Lloyd is charming as a timid boy and demonstrates some fine acting as well as comic ability. Anna Townsend as Lloyd's grandma is both tough and lovable. I love the scenes in which the tiny lady is picked up and hugged by her adoring grandson. The scene in which the grandma chases off the threatening tramp with her broom is truly funny. Perhaps the funniest moments in the film is the grandfather's Civil War scene. What I enjoyed the most about the film is that its plot makes Lloyd deal with both a bully and a vicious tramp which gives him plenty of opportunities for running, leaping, and fistfights. "Grandma's Boy" was Harold Lloyd's first feature film. Originally, Lloyd producer Hal Roach and director Fred Newmeyer were going to make "Grandma's Boy" a two-reeler, but it evolved so much that in the end, five reels were filmed and edited. Before "Grandma's Boy," every single one of Lloyd's films just involved gags and extremely fast paced comedy. "Grandma's Boy" was a very significant film because it was his first character comedy which meant that the film not only had gags and a love interest, but it examined the leading character a lot more into depth. Lloyd's performances in his feature films and roles were not strictly comic. There was an element of physical humor always present, but one enjoys and empathizes with Lloyd because he is an ordinary young man facing the problems that most young men encounter. There is always something nice and reassuring about a Harold Lloyd film, and that is because of the comedian himself and his three leading ladies, Bebe Daniels, Mildred Davis, whom he married in 1923, and Jobyna Ralston. In most of his films, Lloyd's character has a certain tenacity to succeed and does overcome all obstacles and difficulties. With a stronger storyline than some of Lloyd's later features, "Grandma's Boy" is sweet, funny, and suspenseful.

Through the efforts of the Harold Lloyd Trust, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Sony Pictures, all of Lloyd's feature-length silent films and most of his shorts received state of the art preservation and pristine restoration.

*It is interesting to note that Harold Lloyd suffered the loss of his right thumb and forefinger in an accidental prop bomb explosion on August 14, 1919, just as his career was starting to take off. He hid his disability wearing flesh-colored prosthetic gloves.