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The Columbia Comedy Shorts: Two-Reel Hollywood Film Comedies, 1933-1958

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The original 1986 publication is now available in a popular-priced, handy paperback edition. Many movie fans are familiar with the Columbia comedy shorts of The Three Stooges, but many of Hollywood's most popular comedians (Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, Andy Clyde, Harry Langdon, etc.) also appeared in Columbia's two-reel comedies. The studio's quarter-century of short-subject production is accurately and completely chronicled by the authors. Their scholarship is exemplary, especially in the filmographies. The writing is intelligent and absorbing, and there are dozens of rare photographs. The book can be enjoyed and consulted any number of times.

In Hollywoods Golden Age,(1927-1956)before the main feature would be a newsreel, cartoon, preview of coming attractions and a short subject. Columbia Pictures had one of the longest runs at this sort of genre. The Three Stooges were most prominent and the longest running in tenure (1934-1959)and then got a second life via television re-runs. Ted Okuda does an excellant job introducing us to a forgotten part of Hollywood and remembering actors who toiled in these short films such as Hugh Herbert, Jimmy Finlayson and even the legendary Buster Keaton. What ever you pay for this volume will be repaid in discovering an overlooked part of Hollywood that should be given its rightful due.