In "Behind the Scenes with Fatty and
Mabel," from the April 1916 issue of Picture Play Weekly, Wil Rex wrote that the
Fort Lee Triangle Studio was hectic and bristling with movie-making
goings on. Roscoe Arbuckle had constructed a banister, which was rather
costly, according to the financial papers of the production, over $1,000.
Roscoe was planning to tumble down the stairs and the railing needed to support
his weight. Roscoe supervised the construction of a set. After all, it was his
neck on the steps. With the help of a dozen prop men the
banister was made and tested. Elgin Lessley was waiting on the sideline. Lessley is described [in the article] as an “intrepid cameraman, who has the reputation of turning out
the clearest films of any Keystone crank turner and was loading his film
magazines” as the banister was being tested. Intrepid indeed. Elgin had traveled in the Far East just 3 years earlier. In 1913, he was
single, 27 years old and in Yokohama with just 2 suitcases. He returned to the
States on a Toyo Kisen Kaisha steamer. It was a lovely steamliner and a grand
way to travel. The Toyo Kisen Kaisha had the fastest steamers
on the Pacific route and was able to easily make 19 knots. It had accommodations for 275 first-class passengers
(54 second-class and 800 steerage). The steamer was 440 feet long and 50
feet in breadth; powered by twin screws 17,000 horsepower turbine engines. And now here he was in Fort Lee,
New Jersey in the middle of winter, having left sunny Los Angeles with his
wife, Blanche; Ferris Hartman, the comic musical producer and his wife, Josie
Hart, stage actress; Roscoe Arbuckle, director and star; Minta Durfee, film
star and Mrs. Arbuckle; Mabel Normand, Joe Bordeau, also known as Boudreaux; and Al St. John [Arbuckle's nephew], who made $60 a
week. It was a train full of fun makers that made the trip to New York the day
after Christmas 1915. Roscoe Arbuckle "confessed” to Ray Frohman
in 1919 that “Elgin Lessley was the only man who ever photographed Fatty for the screen (unless two or three cameras were being used at once).” Before he became the cinematographer on Buster Keaton’s most memorable films, he was with Mabel and Roscoe. Back in 1916 at the Triangle East Coast Studios, Roscoe
Arbuckle and Mabel Normand arrived from California to make comedies in Fort
Lee. Mabel made He
Did and He Didn’t and Bright Lights...Roscoe made seven films, including The Waiters’ Ball. Without Mack Sennett to supervise,
Roscoe created a new style of comedy at Fort Lee, New Jersey. According to Richard Koszarski, Roscoe was trying to add scenic
beauty to comedy not just kicks and pies. Elgin was the right man to film these
films.
Elgin Lessley was born June 10,
1883 in Monteau, Randolph County, Missouri, his father was Shelton and his
mother was Orpha Brooks. He had a large family, sisters; Nettie, Ora; and
Elgin’s Uncles Herbert and Claude Brooks, his mother’s brothers, plus as a
little boy Elgin’s grandfather Burton Brooks also lived with the Lessleys. In 1910, the family moved from Missouri to
Colorado Springs, Colorado where the family opened a department store where all
the members of the family worked. Elgin was the window trimmer at the
department store his father owned. During the First World War, 1918, when he filled
out his military resignation he was married to Blanche and they were living in Culver City, California. Blanche was
born in Colorado. Elgin was employed by the Roscoe Arbuckle Film Co in Long
Beach California as a cameraman. The couple was living near First and
Beverly Blvd., in Los Angeles. Lessley had made a real name for himself as a
cinematographer by 1920.
(Pictured at left- Buster Keaton, Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John)
Buster Keaton inherited Elgin from Roscoe Arbuckle, a very lucky pairing indeed. [Fun Factoid]- by 1923 Buster was the most popular comedian with
the U.S. Navy as his film “The Three Ages," his first feature-length Metro
comedy was shown on ships. Our Hospitality was filmed by Elgin and
was directed by and starred Keaton. This was
a delightful film, with the photography done by Elgin and direction by
Buster. Its working title was "The Rocket." It was a family
movie- Joseph Keaton, Buster’s father, has the part of the train engineer, his son Buster
Keaton II, shows real promise as he cries beautifully, and more beauty is found
in the person of Natalie Talmadge, Buster’s wife.
By 1924,
there was no comedy film star making better pictures then the team of
Keaton/Lessley. Edward McPherson in BUSTER KEATON: Tempest in a Flat Hat, tells of an effect, which was indicative to
the genius of this pairing. McPherson explains a sequence effect of a
split of the screen into nine fragments, "courtesy of a custom-designed
shuttered light proof casing that fit over the camera. . . . To create the
minstrels, the shutters simply were opened one at a time, with the film rewound
in between. However, mechanical precision was not enough. It took the steady arm
of cameraman
Elgin Lessley -- the human metronome -- to crank each exposure at exactly the same speed. And then -- to
achieve onscreen synchronicity -- Buster had to give nine flawless, identical
performances.”
This sequence can be found in a film called “The Playhouse” (1921) [see photos above], a true collaborative effort between Keaton and Lessley. The camera lens would have
needed to be taped within ten-thousandth of an inch. Elgin said it couldn’t be
done but they managed it. A lightproof black box was built that fit over the
camera; this was kept as a secret for years.
[Memorable title card from dream sequence in The Playhouse- after establishing shots showing Keaton as every stagehand, musician, performer, & member of the audience, a final shot of two Keatons sitting in the box seats as one peruses the playbill & deadpans to his date (also Keaton), "This fellow Keaton seems to be the whole show."]
Although Elgin Lessley was on that eastbound train with Arbuckle and Normand in 1915, he is best remembered for his groundbreaking camera work with Buster Keaton. He was only 60 when he died in Los
Angeles on February 8, 1944. No contemporary obituary has been located.
A listing of Elgin Lessley's films can be found here.
(Lessley article excerpts courtesy of www.theasc.com and http://www.freewebs.com/looking-for-mabel/elginlessley.htm)
-Maureen Lang
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