This young man lived to be a hundred years old:
He opened a film studio in the teens in downtown Los Angeles in the old Bradbury residence, referred to by his friend Harold Lloyd as “pneumonia hall” due the chilling drafts.
He moved onto his own place and over the course of his career produced and directed over 2,000 films. He worked with Harold Lloyd (from 1914-1923) and Laurel and Hardy, created “Our Gang, and taught the likes of Leo McCarey (“Duck Soup”, “The Awful Truth”) how to direct comedy.
Things you might not have known about Hal Roach; he was an aviator, a polo player, and raised the funds to build the Santa Anita Racetrack. Who knows, he may have even been out of sight in the cockpit when this picture was taken…
As always, fascinating! And fabulous photographs!
Hello, angel. Hope you got my email. 🙂
oops! I am off to check it now 🙂
I grew up loving his movies… In those days in L.A. we had The Our Gany on every Saturday. But we called them The Little Rascals. I was kind of an Alfalfa and organized the kids in my neighborhood to build a clubhouse…It was great until it rained and the whole thing slid down the hill into the neighbor’s back yard…thus returning some of the fence of his that had blown down in the Santa Ana winds a few weeks before.
It’s wild how the capers of our childhood meld with the movies we saw… or the four channels we were limited to on TV…
Four?? I remember about 12…lets see, 2 4 5 7 9 11 13 oh I can’t remember now LOL
hugs from high on a hill where little cable cars climb half way to the stars.
Right now I am so in love with the Bradbury house that I can’t think about anything else.