“So completely captivated with little ‘Jackie’ Condon”

A couple of weeks before the Los Angeles Evening Herald profiled two-year-old movie performer Jackie Condon (as quoted yesterday), the paper ran an anecdote about a movie he was making.

The 5 Apr 1920 edition reported:

$300 Gold Watch Given Boy Who Appears in Film

When Neely Edwards, the star of the Hall Room Boys comedies, went on location the other day he conferred with his co-star, Hugh Fay, and his director, Malcolm St. Clair, and decided to shoot some exterior scenes that would require the front entrance to a prominent mansion.

Mr. St. Clair being personally acquainted with Mr. W. A. Clark, jr., the son of the famous senator, induced Mr. Clark to allowed him to film his mansion on West Adams street.

They all went to the Clark home and worked all that day on the lawn and porch of the house. Mr. Clark was so completely captivated with little “Jackie” Condon of the party that he gave him a solid gold watch worth over $300.

The watch will now be used in the picture as a befitting climax to it. The Hall Room Boys comedies are released by Jack and Harry Cohn in New York.

Perhaps that solid gold watch is why Jackie’s recent earnings were so high according to the Herald’s 23 April story.

William Andrews Clark, Jr., was an heir to a mining fortune, attorney, book collector, and philanthropist, by 1920 founder of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and funder of the Hollywood Bowl. Clark’s house at the corner of West Adams and Cimarron, somewhat modified, appears above, courtesy of the Adams Boulevard blog. Having been widowed twice, Clark was living there with his teen-aged son; his lover, Harrison Post; and no doubt a large staff.

Clark’s house and grounds appeared in several movies around 1920, including “Fresh Paint,” featuring Snub Pollard (but not, contra IMDB, Ernie Morrison) and directed by Charley Chase. Other productions offering glimpses of the estate include “The Tourist,” with Jimmy Aubrey and Oliver Hardy, and Harold Lloyd’s Dr. Jack.

The Hallroom Boys was a comic strip that H.A. MacGill launched in 1904. It spun off a couple of film series. The young male comedians who played the main characters were swapped out several times. According to IMDB, only one Hallroom Boys movie starred Neely Edwards and Hugh Fay with Malcolm St. Clair as director: “Tell Us, Ouija!”

Released in September 1920, this movie played off the ouija board craze. More pertinent to our inquiry is this portion of the advance review from the 20 May 1920 Film Daily, as quoted in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of American Horror Film Shorts, 1915–1976:

One scene in which a child is seen first in a derby hat, only the sky-piece being visible at first, provokes a giggle. When, however, they employ a similar scheme showing a pair of large and well-worn shoes protruding from under a bed, what actually amounts to the same gag is offered again, for the youngster soon appears wearing them.

St. Clair’s signature style as a director evidently used a lot of close-ups and reveals like this. The youngster in those scenes was most likely Jackie Condon.

COMING UP: A melodrama.