Sometimes all it takes is one “new” slide to spawn an entire retrospective post. This just such an image, featuring the Keystone Kops playing for Disneyland guests on the porch of the China Closet. It is undated, but most likely from the late 1950s. Younger readers probably wonder who The Keystone Kops were. Here you go—
The Keystone Kops/Cops were the brain child of comedian and silent screen star Hank Mann. They were named after slapstick producer Mack Sennett’s Keystone studio, founded in 1912. Their first film was “Hoffmeyer's Legacy” (1912), with Mann as the police chief. Though initially popular, Sennett relegated the Keystone Cops to supporting roles behind Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle only a few years later. Sennett stopped using them by the 1920s, but they continued to pop up over the years in various features, cartoons, video games, and yes…Disneyland!
As you can see from this Summer 1955 shot, the Kops were shown daily at the Main Street Cinema.
On Disneyland’s Opening Day, these two Kops posed with a young guest outside the Main Street Cinema:
As comic security and a wandering music group, the Kops were a great fit for Main Street, U.S.A.
Outside the Coke Corner in 1956:
A lone Kop from 1956:
Central Plaza was the place guests would most likely see The Keystone Kops play their vintage melodies. On the right is Bernie Flymen; he played sax & clarinet at Disneyland from 1955–1960 and in Desi Arnaz’s “I Love Lucy” band. Funny how this guest appears to be completely oblivious to them. Maybe it’s the sunglasses.
Outside the Opera House, circa March 1959:
This 1960 publicity shot shows a traffic jam of shorts in Town Square.
Not sure how much help the Kop is really giving here! Note the White Wing in the background:
The Keystone Kops were seen in “Forty Pounds of Trouble” with Tony Curtis in 1962 during the Disneyland sequence:
Back to Central Plaza in April 1965:
From September 1, 1967, we see the Kops playing in Central Plaza right near the popcorn cart. The two little kids to the right do not seem amused.
A backstage shot from April 1968:
Last one for today is from July 1968. I can only guess that the Kops were discontinued shortly after that. This is what happens when you defund the police.
Want to see the original Keystone Kops in action? Here’s “A Thief Catcher” (1914) which was considered a lost short until 2010 when a print was discovered at a Michigan antique sale. Charlie Chaplin plays one of the Kops.
See more Disneyland East Main Street photos at my main website.
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ReplyDeleteNifty piece. Any time I see the Main Street Cinema it's a good day. Now a bit of bloviating ...
ReplyDeleteAbout 8 minutes into the featurette "Disneyland USA" the Kops are seen performing on Main Street. It looks like most or all of the film was shot silent, then scored, so we're possibly hearing studio musicians instead of the actual performers. Still, it's a fun moment.
The original Keystone Kops were never headliners, stampeding into the last minutes of a film for a chaotic finale. Walter Kerr's excellent and lavishly illustrated "The Silent Clowns" notes that over the years, montages of Kop footage from different films gave the impression they dominated the proceedings when in fact they were kept in reserve until the inevitable chase or rescue. Even in "Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops", they're barely present until the last reel, when Bud and Lou go after the absconding villains.
Pretty much all the silent comics deployed police on the beat, handy symbols of authority, to be fled from (Keaton in "Cops"), to haul off a baddie at the end, or just to cast a suspicious eye on proceedings (the officer calmly observing the mayhem in Laurel and Hardy's "Big Business"). Sometimes clowns become cops (Chaplin in "Easy Street"). Anyway, it's easy to conflate all this constabulary into Keystone Kops.