Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett (January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was an innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known as the King of Comedy.

Experiments, awards and bankruptcy

Sennett occasionally experimented with color and was the first to get a talkie short subject on the market in 1928. In 1932 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in the comedy division for producing The Loud Mouth and won in the novelty division for Wrestling Swordfish. Less successful films such as Hypnotized (with blackface comedians Mack and Moran) were produced in the early 1930s near the end of his career, when he sold his catalog of films to Warner Brothers. As moviegoers' tastes changed, Warner used these for occasional stock footage but eventually destroyed them to save storage space. As a result many Sennett films, especially those from his most productive and creative period, no longer exist.

Related Topics:
Academy Award for Live Action Short Film - Mack and Moran - 1930s - Warner Brothers

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Due to heavy losses in the 1929 stock market crash, distribution problems, changes in public taste and the advent of sound films, Sennett was forced into bankruptcy in November 1933. He retired two years later at the age of 55, having produced more than a thousand silent films and several dozen talkies during a 25-year career.

Related Topics:
Stock market crash - Talkies

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