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John Bunny
Born(1863-09-21)September 21, 1863
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedApril 26, 1915(1915-04-26) (aged 51)[note 1]
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
OccupationActor
SpouseClara Scanlan (m. 1890)[note 2]
Children2[note 3]
RelativesGeorge Bunny (brother)

John Bunny (September 21, 1863 – April 26, 1915) was an American actor. Bunny began his career as a stage actor, but transitioned to a film career after joining Vitagraph Studios around 1910. At Vitagraph, Bunny made over 150 short films—many of them domestic comedies with the comedian Flora Finch—and became one of the most well-known actors of his era.

Life and career

[edit]

Bunny was born in Brooklyn and educated in New York public schools. The son of an English father and Irish mother, he initially worked as a clerk in a general store before joining a small minstrel show at the age of twenty.[6] In a stage career spanning 25 years, Bunny worked for theater companies across the U.S. and "ran the theatrical gamut from minstrelsy to Shakespeare".[10] In 1892, Bunny became a member of Cordray's Stock Company and performed in Portland and Seattle for several months before leaving for an unspecified engagement in New York.[11][12] From 1897–1898, Bunny was manager and director at the Grand Opera House in Salt Lake City. 1898–1905: stage manager and director for William Brady's productions, including Way Down East. 1905–1908: with Henry W. Savage's company (Easy Dawson, Tom Jones). 1909–1910: with Lew Fields' company in Old Dutch.[13][14] Bunny eventually worked his way into Broadway, where his first recorded performance was in Aunt Hannah (1900) at the Bijou Theatre.[15][16] Other Broadway appearances included Easy Dawson (1905), which The New York Times deemed a "strange mixture" that did not fall within the lead actor, Raymond Hitchcock's, usual purview of musical comedy;[17] the Astor Theatre's inaugural production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1906), where Bunny's performance as Bottom garnered acclaim;[18] and Old Dutch (1909), a musical farce that featured Lew Fields alongside Vernon Castle and a young Helen Hayes.[19]

John Bunny in The Pickwick Papers (1913)
Scene still from Treasure Trove (1911); left to right are Mary Maurice, John Bunny, Julia Swayne Gordon, and Helen Gardner

Bunny's screen debut came sometime around 1910.[note 4] In a 1915 interview, Bunny recounted how he decided to enter the film industry after determining that "it was the 'movies' that were the main cause of the lean times on stage." Despite the stigma sill surrounding film acting at this time—to move "[f]rom Shakespearean roles to the motion picture was perhaps something of a drop" in the words of the early film historian Terry Ramsaye[21]—Bunny offered his services to Vitagraph Studios, but was refused a job because the studio manager believed he could not offer Bunny a high enough salary.[22] Bunny, however, insisted on taking the lower pay and began working at Vitagraph Studios around 1910, where he went on to star in over 150 films.[note 5]

At Vitagraph, Bunny was often paired with the comedian Flora Finch, with whom he made many popular comedies that came to be known as "Bunnygraphs" or "Bunnyfinches". According to the Library of Congress, this genre was exemplified by Bunny's film A Cure for Pokeritis (1912), in which a man's desire to play poker is thwarted by his fastidious wife.[28] Another collaboration with Finch was in The Schemers (1913). In order to sneak out of the house to go to the club, Bunny places a dummy in his bead, which his wife (Finch) mistakes for a burglar. Bunny then commences a strenuous "fight" with the intruder, and is greeted as a hero by his wife.[29]

  • May 1912: Bunny sails for England[30] in order to film The Pickwick Papers, based on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name.[31]
  • August 1912: Bunny returns to New York.[32]
  • September 1912: Upon his return, Bunny became a founding member of the Screen Club, a social organization "founded with the triple purpose of unity, advancement and preservation of the motion picture art".[33][34]
  • January 1913: begins engagement as monologist at Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre.[35]
  • Spring 1913: new contract negotiated, returns to Vitagraph with higher pay (?).
  • September 1913: Bunny, along with Lillian Walker, crowned king of Mardi Gras for a record crowd of 350,000 people.[36][37][38]
  • October 1913: Returns to Victoria Theatre.[39]
  • Summer 1914: Bunny leaves Vitagraph to star in Bunny in Funnyland. Opened on September 9.[40]
  • February 1915: Bunny's last Vitagraph appearance, How Cissy Made Good, was released on February 2, 1915. Plays himself being interviewed by a reporter from Motion Picture Magazine.[41]
  • March 1915: Returns to stage with the John Bunny Show.[42][43][15]

Bunny had been acting in films for only five years when he died from Bright's disease at his home in Brooklyn on April 26, 1915.[1] He was survived by his wife and two sons and interred in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn, New York.[44]

Contemporary reception

[edit]

Bunny was one of the most well known actors of his lifetime. A New York Times editorial published after Bunny's death noted that thousands recognized him as "the living symbol of wholesome merriment", and declared: "Wherever movies are exhibited, and that is everywhere, Bunny had his public. It is perfectly safe to say that no other camera actor was as popular in this country."[45] The actress Frances Agnew wrote in 1913 that "Mr. Bunny's name is a household word, not only from coast to coast in America, but also in every city and town in the world at all acquainted with the 'movies,' ..."[46] Bunny's worldwide reach was also noted by a critic for the Saturday Review: "When Mr. Bunny laughs, people from San Francisco to Stepney Green laugh with him. When Mr. Bunny frowns, every kingdom of the earth is contracted in one brow of woe."[47]

Bunny's skills as an actor were praised by his contemporaries. In particular, his ability to convey emotion without the use of words drew comment from critics. John Palmer of the Saturday Review declared, "Mr. Bunny has an extensive and extremely flexible face. ... We know at once why Mr. Bunny never speaks. He could not possibly find words to convey the extremity of his feelings."[47] According to The New York World, "The advent of the film drama found him particularly well endowed for the new art of acting without words. The range of his facial expression was altogether wonderful, and when the emotion of the moment had told its story in his features there was nothing left for the words to do."[48] The poet and writer Joyce Kilmer wrote glowingly of Bunny's acting ability, and claimed that Bunny was responsible for reviving the art of pantomime.[10] The poet and early film critic Vachel Lindsay said Bunny occupied an "important place" in his memory, and called the acting in one of Bunny's films "delightful".[49]

Bunny helped bring legitimacy to film at a time when the fledgling medium was still often regarded as a lower form of entertainment.[note 6] A 1916 Washington Times article claimed, "To John Bunny ... must be given the credit of presenting the first bits of refined comedy in photoplay. Previous to his advent into screenland film comedies were either 'chases' or grotesque trick photography. He rescued screen humor from the chamber of horrors and placed it in the hall of fame".[9] Bunny's obituary in The Moving Picture World proclaimed, "His work as a comedian was always clean in character and furnished amusement of the most wholesome nature."[52] In the words of his contemporary Henry Lanier, Bunny demonstrated "that a real actor can make an incredible success before [a film] audience without any of the vulgarity or horseplay which used to be considered essential."[53]

Despite his genial on-screen persona, Bunny was disliked by his fellow actors at Vitagraph. Bunny and Finch "cordially hated each other" according to Vitagraph's co-founder Albert E. Smith,[54] and interviews of former Vitagraph personnel revealed that his co-workers found him arrogant, bad-tempered, and difficult to work with.[55] The actress Helen Hayes—who as a child appeared with Bunny in Old Dutch (1909) on Broadway—wrote in her autobiography that everyone on the cast was kind to her except Bunny. She recalled how Bunny "gluttonized, snorted, and slept when he wasn't on stage", and that he needed to be awakened from sleep to meet his cues.[56] Bunny's on-the-job somnolence apparently continued into his film career, a trait that made him difficult to direct. As William Basil Courtney wrote in 1925, "The commonest sight in the yard was Bunny's four-dimension figure standing as nearly stark upright as such a figure could, and held steady by one hand resting on the tank railing, while he slept and snored in peaceful indifference to the hurry and scurry around him."[57]

Legacy and scholarly analysis

[edit]

The film scholar Anthony Slide credits Bunny as "the first internationally recognized film comedian."[24] Slide's assessment is at odds with that of McCaffrey and Jacobs, who write, "While the French actor Max Linder was considered the first international comedian, Bunny became the first comic star in the United States."[27] This is echoed by the film scholar Wes Gehring, who notes that early film comedy was dominated by the French, in particular Max Linder and Georges Méliès, and writes that "[i]t was only in the second decade of the century that American film comedy began to take over the world market."[58]

At the time Bunny entered the film industry, the identities of film players were not considered important enough to feature in advertising.[note 7] According to his obituary in Motion Picture News, "John Bunny was the first motion picture comedian to be personally advertised. That and his appearance in Vitagraph comedies made his face loved and familiar the world over."[60] As put by Terry Ramsaye in 1926, "Bunny was among the earliest players really starred. Since he appeared in comedies written around him and his vast girth, it was a logical step to include his name in the titles, giving him an early entry into screen publicity."[21] The film scholar Wes Gehring also notes that Bunny's films frequently featured his name in the title (e.g., Bunny and the Dogs or Bunny's Birthday Surprise), arguing that this is because of the personality focus of Bunny's films, which feature a subordination of story to character, in contrast to a more thematic approach to comedy.[61] The personality focus of Bunny's films was described in 1914 by the screenwriter Catherine Carr: "In most big companies at the present day there are maintained actors around whose personality comedies are being written; i.e., John Bunny, Flora Finch, etc. These actors take the mere germ of a comedy and develop it through their clever acting into a screen production that brings laughter wherever it is shown."[62]

According to Gehring, "Bunny helped elevate at the time what was still often considered a second-class medium to a level of artistic significance".[63] The genteel nature of Bunny's comedy was not so positively received by Slide, however, who writes that Bunny's "characterizations contain nothing creative, and he uses no knockabout or slapstick comedy. His comedy is all very middle class and very polite. Often so dull is the storyline that the comedy is difficult to uncover. Time and again one wonders if audiences ever did laugh at his work, and, if so, why?"[24]

According to Gehring, "Bunny and Finch represent the beginning of what could be called the domestic film comedy".[61]

According to Doug Riblet, Bunny was one of the first actors to have a consistent comedic persona across his films.[64] Gehring contends that Bunny was "the first in a long line of American personality screen comedians", whose approach is marked by a "subordination of story to character".[61] Frank Scheide writes, "Very much a physical comedian, Bunny's humor was based more on comedy of manners than slapstick. In the handful of surviving pictures from the 174 he made, Bunny sometimes plays a likable and sympathetic character despite his flaws. The nature of Bunny's performance also affected how his films were presented. Medium or tight long shots framed Bunny's body language to best advantage, and were held long enough for the comedian to convey his facial reactions to a given situation adequately. This resulted in an intimate narrative with a moderate tempo very different from the rapid pacing of a chase filmed in more distancing long shots."[65] Scheide sees this comedy of manners as a "polite" and "respectable" form of situational comedy in contrast to the "decidedly lowbrow, crass, and often violent" humor of slapstick films.[66]

Following Bunny's passing, new comedic stars came to the fore in silent film and Bunny fell into obscurity. However, he was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for his contributions to the film industry with a motion pictures star located at 1715 Vine Street in Hollywood.[67]

Selected filmography

[edit]

The following filmography is primarily based on a list of Bunny's films compiled by the historian and archivist Sam Gill, who gathered his information from original Vitagraph company bulletins and cast lists.[68] Discrepancies in sources are described in the "notes" column where appropriate.

Year Film Length Notes
1910 Jack Fat and Slim Jim at Coney Island 1 reel Listed as Bunny's first film by Gill; as Vitagraph did not publish cast lists until 1911, Gill identified Bunny in both of his 1910 films from photographs in Vitagraph company bulletins[68]
He Who Laughs Last 1 reel
1911 Doctor Cupid 1 reel Bunny's first film according to himself and Vitagraph's co-founder Albert E. Smith[68]
A Queen for a Day unknown
The New Stenographer 1 reel Bunny's first screen appearance with Flora Finch[69]
Winsor McCay's Drawings unknown The release date Gill records for Winsor McCay's Drawings (April 8) is the same day McCay's animated short film Little Nemo was released
Her Crowning Glory 1 reel
1912 Captain Jenks' Dilemma 1 reel
A Cure for Pokeritis 1 reel
Michael McShane, Matchmaker 1 reel
1913 The Pickwick Papers 3 reels Filmed in England in 1912[70]
Seeing Double split reel
Bunny Dips Into Society 1 reel
Bunny as a Reporter split reel
Flaming Hearts 1 reel
1914 Love's Old Dream 1 reel
Setting the Style 1 reel
Hearts and Diamonds 2 reels
Bunny's Little Brother 1,500 ft. Bunny's last film according to a 1915 Bioscope article[71]
1915 How Cissy Made Good 3 reels Last film released before Bunny's death in which he appeared (released in February); plays himself being interviewed by a reporter from Motion Picture Magazine[72]
Bunny in Bunnyland 1 reel Cartoon by Carl Lederer released in June after Bunny's death; Bunny does not personally appear in the film, but appears as a cartoon figure[72][73]

Notes

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  1. ^ Several of Bunny's obituaries, such as those in The New York Times,[1] The Oregonian,[2] and The Sun,[3] claim he died at the age of 52. However, a calculation based on Bunny's birth date of September 21, 1863 shows he was 51 at the time of his death. The film scholar Eugene Vazzana gives September 21, 1863 as Bunny's birth date, citing his birth certificate.[4] This birth date is given in other secondary sources[5] as well as in a contemporary Washington Times article.[6]
  2. ^ See Vazzana 2001, p. 69. A Washington Times article gives Bunny's marriage date as 1893 and spells the last name of his wife "Scallen".[6] Bunny's obituary in The Sun spells the name "Scalan".[3]
  3. ^ The New York Times and The Washington Times name two sons, George and John, Jr.[1][6] The Sun names three, George Henry, Francis, and John, Jr.[3] Both George and John, Jr. are recorded to have gone on to film roles.[7][8][9]
  4. ^ Sources disagree on when Bunny's first film was released and the exact date he began working for the Vitagraph Company. According to Anthony Slide, "There is considerable question not only as to why [Bunny chose to work at] Vitagraph, but also as to when. According to William Basil Courtney, Bunny's name first appeared on the Vitagraph payroll on October 27, 1910. Albert E. Smith claims Bunny's first Vitagraph film was Doctor Cupid, released on January 10, 1911. Historian and archivist Sam Gill, who has undertaken extensive research into John Bunny's career, believes that his first screen appearance was in Jack Fat and Jim Slim at Coney Island, released on December 2, 1910. The only subject on which there is general agreement is Bunny's initial salary—$40.00 a week."[20]
  5. ^ Estimates of the number of Bunny's films vary. Numbers that have been put forward include over 150,[23][24] 174,[25] over 200,[26][27] and between 200 and 250.[15]
  6. ^ For Bunny to move "[f]rom Shakespearean roles to the motion picture was perhaps something of a drop" in the words of the early film historian Terry Ramsaye.[21] According to Henry Lanier, "there was still unbounded contempt for the new form of entertainment" among established actors when Bunny decided to join Vitagraph Studios.[50] It was common to refer to the speaking stage as the "legitimate stage", in contrast to vaudeville and the motion picture industry.[51]
  7. ^ Posters advertising a film would typically give its title and producing company, but would not mention the actors it featured by name. According to Q. David Bowers, the "star system"—which placed more emphasis on the identities of actors than had previously been seen in advertising—began to develop in 1912–1914, exemplified by postcards featuring popular actors and detailed features about their personal lives that were published in The Motion Picture Story Magazine.[59]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "John Bunny Dies; Movie Funmaker: Fat, Big, Round-Faced Actor Who Made Millions Laugh Succumbs at 52". The New York Times. April 27, 1915. p. 13.
  2. ^ "John Bunny Succumbs". The Morning Oregonian. Portland. April 27, 1915. p. 3.
  3. ^ a b c "John Bunny, the Famous Movie Actor, Dead at 52". The Sun. New York. April 27, 1915. p. 14.
  4. ^ Vazzana 2001, p. 69.
  5. ^ See, for example, Cullen, Hackman & McNeilly 2007, p. 157; McCaffrey & Jacobs 1999, p. 121; and Slide 2002, p. 59.
  6. ^ a b c d "John Bunny's Face Known in Every Corner of Earth Where Films are Seen". The Washington Times. Washington, D.C. April 16, 1915. p. 13.
  7. ^ "George Bunny a National Star". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 47, no. 1. November 6, 1920. p. 55.
  8. ^ "'I'm Suspicious of My Director'". Exhibitor's Herald. Vol. 12, no. 13. Chicago. March 26, 1921. p. 67.
  9. ^ a b "Another John Bunny in Film". The Washington Times. Washington, D.C. April 7, 1916. p. 6.
  10. ^ a b Joyce Kilmer (May 2, 1915). "Pantomime Revived by John Bunny: Art of Silent Comedy, After a Lapse of Centuries, Appears in Moving Pictures of Famous Actor Who Died Last Week". The New York Times. p. SM15.
  11. ^ "John Bunny Near Death". The Morning Oregonian. Portland. April 16, 1915. p. 5.
  12. ^ For an extended look at Bunny's stint in Seattle, see Flom 2009, pp. 106–111.
  13. ^ Slide & Gevinson 1987, p. 46.
  14. ^ "Mr. John Bunny". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 10, no. 2. October 14, 1911. p. 112.
  15. ^ a b c Cullen, Hackman & McNeilly 2007, p. 157.
  16. ^ For a review of the production, see "A New Musical Farce: 'Aunt Hannah' Contains Some Excellent Divertissements". The New York Times. February 23, 1900. p. 7.
  17. ^ For a review of the production, see "'Easy Dawson' Is a Strange Mixture". The New York Times. August 23, 1905. p. 7.
  18. ^ For a review of the production, see "Astor Theatre Opens with Lovely Spectacle". The New York Times. September 22, 1906. p. 7.
  19. ^ For a review of the production, see "Lew Fields in 'Old Dutch': Musical Farce Is Funny, Has Catchy Lyrics, and Makes a Hit". The New York Times. November 23, 1909. p. 7.
  20. ^ Slide & Gevinson 1987, p. 47.
  21. ^ a b c Ramsaye 1926, p. 547.
  22. ^ Lanier 1915, pp. 567–574. For another interview in which Bunny describes his entrance into the film industry, see Agnew 1913, pp. 98–100.
  23. ^ Flom 2009, p. 106.
  24. ^ a b c Slide 2002, p. 59.
  25. ^ Scheide 2013, p. 29.
  26. ^ Menefee 2012, p. ?.
  27. ^ a b McCaffrey & Jacobs 1999, p. 59.
  28. ^ "2011 National Film Registry More Than a Box of Chocolates" (Press release). News from the Library of Congress. December 28, 2011. ISSN 0731-3527. Archived from the original on November 14, 2017.
  29. ^ "The Schemers". The Motion Picture News. Vol. 8, no. 22. December 6, 1913. p. 44.
  30. ^ "John Bunny Sails for England". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 12, no. 10. June 8, 1912. p. 911.
  31. ^ "Classics of Fiction Being Popularized by the Movies". The Sun. New York. May 28, 1916.
  32. ^ "John Bunny Returns from Europe". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 13, no. 11. September 14, 1912. p. 1083.
  33. ^ "The Screen Club Is a Fact". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 13, no. 12. September 21, 1912. p. 1163.
  34. ^ "Screen Club a Winner". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 13, no. 13. September 28, 1912. p. 1283.
  35. ^ "John Bunny". Variety. Vol. 29, no. 8. January 24, 1913. p. 19.
  36. ^ "Coney Mardi Gras Draws Huge Crowd: King John Bunny and Queen Lillian Walker Parade Before 350,000 Cheering Visitors". The New York Times. September 9, 1913. p. 7.
  37. ^ "The 'King' of Coney Dethroned at Luna". The New York Times. September 11, 1913. p. 8.
  38. ^ "King Bunny Still Reigns". The New York Times. September 12, 1913. p. 11.
  39. ^ "John Bunny". Variety. Vol. 32, no. 5. October 3, 1913. p. 18.
  40. ^ "Bunny Show Well Made". Variety. Vol. 36, no. 2. September 11, 1914. p. 10.
  41. ^ Slide & Gevinson 1987, p. 49.
  42. ^ "Bunny a Favorite in St. Louis". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 24, no. 1. April 3, 1915. p. 53.
  43. ^ "John Bunny Show". Variety. Vol. 38, no. 3. March 19, 1915. p. 16.
  44. ^ "Throng at Bunny Funeral: Film and Legitimate Stage Actors Attend Services at Elks' Club". The New York Times. April 29, 1915. p. 14.
  45. ^ "The Loss of Bunny". The New York Times. April 27, 1915. p. 12.
  46. ^ Agnew 1913, p. 95.
  47. ^ a b John Palmer (April 11, 1914). "Mr. Bunny". The Saturday Review. London. p. 466.
  48. ^ Quoted in "Death of John Bunny". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 24, no. 6. May 8, 1915. p. 876.
  49. ^ Vachel Lindsay (1916). The Art of the Moving Picture. New York: Macmillan. pp. 22–23. ISBN 9780871405081. OCLC 924238819.
  50. ^ Lanier 1915, p. 569.
  51. ^ Agnew 1913, p. 23.
  52. ^ "Death of John Bunny". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 24, no. 6. May 8, 1915. p. 876.
  53. ^ Lanier 1915, p. 577.
  54. ^ Quoted in Slide 2002, p. 59.
  55. ^ Slide & Gevinson 1987, p. 44.
  56. ^ Quoted in Menefee 2012, pp. ?–?.
  57. ^ Quoted in Slide & Gevinson 1987, p. 47.
  58. ^ Gehring 1995, p. 122: "At the beginning of the movies, comedy was dominated by the French, particularly performer/director Max Linder and director George Méliès. It was only in the second decade of the century that American film comedy began to take over the world market."
  59. ^ Q. David Bowers (1989). "Souvenir Postcards and the Development of the Star System, 1912–1914". Film History. 3 (1): 39–45. JSTOR 3815078.
  60. ^ "John Bunny Dies at the Age of Fifty-two". The Motion Picture News. Vol. 11, no. 18. May 8, 1915. p. 40.
  61. ^ a b c Gehring 1995, p. 121.
  62. ^ Catherine Carr (1914). The Art of Photoplay Writing. New York: Hannis Jordan Company. p. 27. OCLC 7440949.
  63. ^ Gehring 1995, p. 122.
  64. ^ Riblet 1995, p. 182.
  65. ^ Scheide 2013, pp. 29–30.
  66. ^ Scheide 2013, p. 44.
  67. ^ "John Bunny | Hollywood Walk of Fame". Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on February 23, 2018.
  68. ^ a b c Gill 1972, p. 8.
  69. ^ Slide & Gevinson 1987, p. 139.
  70. ^ "John Bunny in Merrie England". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 13, no. 3. July 20, 1912. p. 252.
  71. ^ "The Art of John Bunny". The Bioscope. Vol. 27, no. 447. London. May 6, 1915. p. 510.
  72. ^ a b Gill 1972, p. 15.
  73. ^ "Bunny in Bunnyland". The Motion Picture News. Vol. 11, no. 23. June 12, 1915. p. 78.

Sources

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  • Agnew, Frances (1913). Motion Picture Acting. New York: Reliance Newspaper Syndicate. OCLC 892525393.
  • Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; McNeilly, Donald (2007). Vaudeville Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performances in America. Vol. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  • Flom, Eric L. (2009). Silent Film Stars on the Stages of Seattle: A History of Performances by Hollywood Notables. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3908-9.
  • Gehring, Wes D. (1995). "John Bunny: America's First Important Film Comedian". Literature/Film Quarterly. 23 (2): 120–124. JSTOR 43796655.
  • Gill, Sam (Summer 1972). "John Bunny: A filmography compiled by Sam Gill". The Silent Picture. No. 15. pp. 8–15. ISSN 0037-5209.
  • Lahue, Kalton C. (1966). World of Laughter: The Motion Picture Comedy Short, 1910–1930. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. OCLC 246244278.
  • Lanier, Henry Wysham (March 1915). "The Coquelin Of The Movies". The World's Work. Vol. 29, no. 5. New York. pp. 567–577.
  • McCaffrey, Donald W.; Jacobs, Christopher P. (1999). Guide to the Silent Years of American Cinema. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30345-2.
  • Menefee, David W. (2012). The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era. Duncan, OK: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-073-8.
  • Ramsaye, Terry (1926). A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture. New York: Simon and Schuster. OCLC 840569068.
  • Riblet, Doug (1995). "The Keystone Film Company and the Historiography of Early Slapstick". In Kristine Brunovska Karnick; Henry Jenkins (eds.). Classical Hollywood Comedy. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-90640-7.
  • Scheide, Frank (2013). "The Mark of the Ridiculous and Silent Celluloid". In Andrew Horton; Joanna E. Rapf (eds.). A Companion to Film Comedy. Malden, MA: Wiley. ISBN 978-1-4443-3859-1.
  • Slide, Anthony; Gevinson, Alan (1987). The Big V: A History of the Vitagraph Company (revised ed.). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-2030-7.
  • Slide, Anthony (2002). Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2249-X.
  • Smith, Albert E. (1952). Two Reels and a Crank. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. OCLC 586891.
  • Uricchio, William; Pearson, Roberta E. (1993). Reframing Culture: The Case of the Vitagraph Quality Films. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04774-X.
  • Vazzana, Eugene Michael (2001). Silent Film Necrology (2nd ed.). Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1059-0.
  • Wagenknecht, Edward (1962). The Movies in the Age of Innocence. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. OCLC 906056407.

Further reading

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Primary sources

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  • Hoffman, Hugh (September 21, 1912). "John Bunny Abroad". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 13, no. 12. New York. p. 1157.
  • Hoffman, Hugh (February 15, 1913). "John Bunny as Pickwick". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 15, no. 7. New York. pp. 663–664.
  • Courtney, William Basil (February 7 – April 11, 1925). "History of Vitagraph". Motion Picture News.
  • "John Bunny of the Vitagraph Company". The Motion Picture Story Magazine. Vol. 3, no. 4. New York. May 1912. p. 121.
  • "Answer Department". Motion Picture Magazine. Vol. 7, no. 5. New York. June 1914. p. 150. I guess that the best known man in the world is John Bunny. But it does not follow that he is the most popular.
  • "John Bunny's Double". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 11, no. 6. New York. February 10, 1912. p. 466.
  • "On Being Widely Known". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 15, no. 5. New York. February 1, 1913. p. 446.
  • Talmadge, Norma (March 12, 1927). "Close-Ups". The Saturday Evening Post. p. 7. The canned drama of the first ten years of the twentieth century was considered too lowly and despicable a means of livelihood to attract the streams of ambitious seekers for celluloid fame and fortune which swell the population of present-day Hollywood. The motion-picture player was looked upon almost as an illegitimate child in the profession. Consequently it was rather difficult for Vitagraph, Biograph and other early companies to interest experienced players, and any chance comer who had fairly regular features and the courage to apply was at least interviewed, if not engaged.
  • "The Vitagraph Baseball Club". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 8, no. 20. New York. May 20, 1911. p. 1118.
  • "The World's Loss". Punch. Vol. 148. London. May 12, 1915. p. 367.
  • "John Bunny". Variety. Vol. 38, no. 9. New York. April 30, 1915. p. 18.
  • "John Bunny in Vaudeville". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 15, no. 5. New York. February 1, 1913. p. 473.
  • "Bunny 'Arrested' in Detroit". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 22, no. 10. New York. December 5, 1914. p. 1389.
  • "John Bunny". New York Tribune. April 28, 1915. p. 8.
  • "Bunny Seriously Ill". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 24, no. 5. New York. May 1, 1915. p. 704.
  • "Throng at Bunny's Funeral". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 24, no. 7. New York. May 15, 1915. p. 1048.
  • "Observations by Our Man About Town". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 24, no. 7. New York. May 15, 1915. p. 1062.
  • "Bunny Theatre Bills Vitagraph". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 40, no. 13. New York. June 28, 1919. p. 1998.
  • "Movie Actors Step from the Screens". The Sun. New York. July 8, 1913. p. 5.
  • "John Bunny Tells Why He Quit Stage for 'Movies'" (PDF). The New York Press. November 16, 1913. p. 4.
  • "Reads His Bible Between Acts". The Salt Lake Telegram. April 23, 1907.
  • "John Bunny is Back!". Motography. Vol. 17, no. 25. Chicago. June 23, 1917. p. 1131.
  • "Dramatic and Lyric". The Salt Lake Herald. August 29, 1897. p. 11.

Secondary sources

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  • Collier, Kevin S. (2017). Funny Bunny: Film Comedian John Bunny. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1-9765-3870-4.
  • Dunham, Harold (Winter 1968–69). "John Bunny". The Silent Picture. No. 1. Unpaged. ISSN 0037-5209.
  • Dunham, Harold (1977). "John Bunny". The Silent Picture: Numbers One–Nineteen. New York: Arno Press. Unpaged. ISBN 0-405-09898-7.
  • Fuller, Kathryn Helgesen (Summer 1994). "'You Can Have the Strand in Your Own Town': The Marginalization of Small Town Film Exhibition in the Silent Film Era". Film History. 6 (2): 166–177.
  • Gehring, Wes D. (September 2016). "Bunny to Buster: Beyond Just Bookends to Silent Film Comedy". USA Today. pp. 72–74. ISSN 0161-7389.
  • Hayes, Helen (1968). On Reflection. New York: M. Evans and Company. OCLC 310113.
  • King, Rob (2017). "'The Stigma of Slapstick': The Short-Subject Industry and Its Imagined Public". Hokum! The Early Sound Slapstick Short and Depression-Era Mass Culture. Oakland: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-28811-9.
  • Neibaur, James L. (January 1992). "John Bunny: The First Star of Comedy Movies". Classic Images. p. 33. ISSN 0275-8423.
  • Pratt, George C. (1973). Spellbound in Darkness: A History of the Silent Film (revised ed.). Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society. ISBN 0-8212-0486-6.
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