Lawrence 'Larry' Semon (1889-1928) was an American Slapstick comedian known for his charming, white-painted face and clownish smile. French audiences knew him as Zigoto, Italian ones as Ridolini, and Spanish ones as Jaimito. In his day, Semon was considered a major film comedian, but he is now remembered mainly for working with both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy before they started working together. He is also sometimes noted for directing (as well as appearing in) the silent film The Wizard of Oz (1925), which had a slight influence on the better-known sound version of The Wizard of Oz (1939). His career was marred by personal problems. By the time he died at the age of 39, he'd already been hospitalised for a nervous breakdown and was penniless.
![Larry Semon]()
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 2051. Caption: Lary (sic) Semon (Ridolini). Sent by mail in 1925.
![Larry Semon in A Pair of Kings (1922)]()
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 128. Photo: Vitagraph, New York. Caption: Ridolini Imperatore. Larry Semon (Ridolini) in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
![Larry Semon and Kathleen Myers in The Midnight Cabaret (1923)]()
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 325. Caption: Ridolini "al Tabarin". Larry Semon (Ridolini) and Kathleen Myers in The Midnight Cabaret (Larry Semon, 1923).
Born in West Point, Mississippi in 1889, Larry Semon was the son of a travelling Jewish vaudeville magician Zera Semon, who billed himself as "Zera the Great". His mother, Irene Semon (née Rea) worked as his assistant. Along with his older sister, Semon joined his parents' act until his father's death.
After completing his education in Savannah, Georgia, Semon moved to New York City, where he worked for The New York Sun and later The New York Morning Telegraph as a cartoonist, comics artist, and graphic artist.
While working as an artist, Semon appeared in monologues in vaudeville, where he attracted the attention of Vitagraph Studios. In 1915, he was offered a contract with the company. He quickly proved himself and was promoted to director for the Hughie Mack series of comedies. His background in magic helped him create interesting new gags for the comedian.
When Mack left the studio in 1917, Semon took over the starring role himself. His first screen appearance was in Boats and Boldness (Larry Semon, 1917), a Western in which he played an unbelievable outlaw with an easy gun. In a short time, having refined his technique and delineated the psychological profile of the clown who entertains without making people think, with his one-roll comedies where action, acrobatics, gags in bursts, simple but exhilarating, whose rhythm cut off the breath, he became a favourite with the public.
His one-reelers were quite successful, and Vitagraph sent him to California to participate in its new West Coast operation. He produced as well as wrote, starred in, and directed his own films, at the same time also producing films for other comics. He usually played a white-faced goof in derby hat and overalls who would enter any given setting (a bakery, a restaurant, a construction site, a prison camp, etc.) and cause chaos, with people being covered with debris and property being destroyed.
He became very popular in Europe. In Italy he came to fame as 'Ridolini', in France he was known as 'Zigoto', in Spain he was 'Jaimito'. Once he had developed his characteristic mask with its floured face and very high-waisted trousers, he was easily identified with the traditional circus clown of old tradition. The European public already appreciated such film clowns as the French André Deed ("Cretinetti") and the Italian Ferdinand Guillaume ("Polidor" or "Tontolini").
His short slapstick comedies were made and released quickly and prolifically, making Semon very familiar to moviegoers. In 1918 Semon began featuring in his films a young comedian named Stan Laurel, and their successful pairing seemed to portend a new comedy team. However, for reasons that were never made quite clear, Laurel left the partnership in its infancy.
Coincidentally, within a year, Laurel's future partner Oliver Hardy would join Semon's troupe, eventually becoming a prominent member. As Semon's fame grew, his films expanded from one reel (about 12 minutes) to two reels, and Semon was given a free hand in making them. This became a dangerous policy because Semon became notorious for being expensive and extravagant: his two-reel comedies could easily cost more than an average five-reel feature film.
![Larry Semon in A Pair of Kings (1922)]()
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 124. Photo: Vitagraph, New York. Caption: Ridolini "Imperatore". Larry Semon (Ridolini) in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
![Larry Semon in A Pair of Kings (1922)]()
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 125. Photo: Vitagraph, New York. Caption: Ridolini "Imperatore". Larry Semon (Ridolini) in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
![Larry Semon in A Pair of Kings (1922)]()
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 126. Photo: Vitagraph, New York. Caption: Ridolini "Imperatore". Larry Semon (Ridolini) in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
As a former cartoonist, Larry Semon staged similarly cartoony sight gags, using elaborate special effects. No gag was too big for Semon. He loved chase sequences involving airplanes (sometimes using three in a film), exploding barns, falling water towers, auto wrecks and/or explosions, and liberal use of substances in which to douse people.
A typical Semon comedy might involve barrels of flour, sacks of soot, gallons of ink, gobs of jam, or pits filled with mud. For example, in Semon's The Bell Hop (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1921), a man sleeping under the spray of a malfunctioning fountain imagines he is swimming in the ocean, and in his sleep, he dives off the bed, through the floor, and into a vat of paint in the lobby below.
Oliver Hardy recalled in an interview that Semon when staging his comedy short The Sawmill (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922) in a lumber camp, would not use traditional, painted stage sets. Instead, Semon insisted on building permanent log cabins complete with modern conveniences. The production budget soared, and his bosses at Vitagraph finally demanded that Semon become his own producer and underwrite his productions personally.
Semon tried to reverse his money problems by entering the more lucrative field of feature films but was none too successful. In a new partnership with producer I.E. Chadwick's Chadwick Pictures, Semon returned to two-reelers. He then embarked on what would turn out to be a disastrous dream project - an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'.
Jim Beaver at IMDb: "The film boasted a superb cast, with Semon at the helm, and while it was wildly expensive it was enormously promising. Yet Semon failed utterly to capitalize on that promise, and the film (The Wizard of Oz (1925)) turned out to be a trite and inept run-of-the-mill comedy that seemed only to share a title and character names with Baum's beloved story, instead of the classic film it could have been."
A gangster role in Josef von Sternberg's Underworld (1927) was impressive, but a mere ripple. Larry went back in short subjects released through Educational Pictures. These also failed. After filing for bankruptcy in March 1928, Semon returned to vaudeville. While traveling on the vaudeville circuit, he suffered a nervous breakdown and went back to Los Angeles.
After returning to Los Angeles, Semon was admitted to a sanatorium in Victorville, California, where at the age of 39, he died of pneumonia and tuberculosis in 1928. His wife Dorothy Dwan was reported to be at his bedside when he died.
In its obituary for Semon, the trade paper Variety speculated that ongoing stress related to his dire financial circumstances was a contributing factor in his demise, alluding to The Wizard of Oz (1925) as the major cause of his money woes: "This screen disaster caused Mr. Semon no end of worry and repeated efforts to recoup only added to his discomfiture. Last March he filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy, listing debts at nearly $500,000. Ceaseless worry undermined his health making him an easy victim of pneumonia."
![Larry Semon and Lucille Carlisle in A Pair of Kings (1922)]()
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 127. Caption: Ridolini Imperatore. Larry Semon (Ridolini) and Lucille Carlisle in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
![Larry Semon in Trouble Brewing (1924)]()
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 285. Caption: Ridolini "al Tabarin". Larry Semon (Ridolini) in Trouble Brewing (James D. Davis, Larry Semon, 1924).
![Larry Semon]()
Spanish collectors card by Chocolates Amatller, Barcelona, in the 'Artistas de cine' series, no. 11: Larry Semon. Image: Martinez Surroca.
Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and Italian), and IMDb.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 2051. Caption: Lary (sic) Semon (Ridolini). Sent by mail in 1925.
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 128. Photo: Vitagraph, New York. Caption: Ridolini Imperatore. Larry Semon (Ridolini) in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 325. Caption: Ridolini "al Tabarin". Larry Semon (Ridolini) and Kathleen Myers in The Midnight Cabaret (Larry Semon, 1923).
Laurel and Hardy
Born in West Point, Mississippi in 1889, Larry Semon was the son of a travelling Jewish vaudeville magician Zera Semon, who billed himself as "Zera the Great". His mother, Irene Semon (née Rea) worked as his assistant. Along with his older sister, Semon joined his parents' act until his father's death.
After completing his education in Savannah, Georgia, Semon moved to New York City, where he worked for The New York Sun and later The New York Morning Telegraph as a cartoonist, comics artist, and graphic artist.
While working as an artist, Semon appeared in monologues in vaudeville, where he attracted the attention of Vitagraph Studios. In 1915, he was offered a contract with the company. He quickly proved himself and was promoted to director for the Hughie Mack series of comedies. His background in magic helped him create interesting new gags for the comedian.
When Mack left the studio in 1917, Semon took over the starring role himself. His first screen appearance was in Boats and Boldness (Larry Semon, 1917), a Western in which he played an unbelievable outlaw with an easy gun. In a short time, having refined his technique and delineated the psychological profile of the clown who entertains without making people think, with his one-roll comedies where action, acrobatics, gags in bursts, simple but exhilarating, whose rhythm cut off the breath, he became a favourite with the public.
His one-reelers were quite successful, and Vitagraph sent him to California to participate in its new West Coast operation. He produced as well as wrote, starred in, and directed his own films, at the same time also producing films for other comics. He usually played a white-faced goof in derby hat and overalls who would enter any given setting (a bakery, a restaurant, a construction site, a prison camp, etc.) and cause chaos, with people being covered with debris and property being destroyed.
He became very popular in Europe. In Italy he came to fame as 'Ridolini', in France he was known as 'Zigoto', in Spain he was 'Jaimito'. Once he had developed his characteristic mask with its floured face and very high-waisted trousers, he was easily identified with the traditional circus clown of old tradition. The European public already appreciated such film clowns as the French André Deed ("Cretinetti") and the Italian Ferdinand Guillaume ("Polidor" or "Tontolini").
His short slapstick comedies were made and released quickly and prolifically, making Semon very familiar to moviegoers. In 1918 Semon began featuring in his films a young comedian named Stan Laurel, and their successful pairing seemed to portend a new comedy team. However, for reasons that were never made quite clear, Laurel left the partnership in its infancy.
Coincidentally, within a year, Laurel's future partner Oliver Hardy would join Semon's troupe, eventually becoming a prominent member. As Semon's fame grew, his films expanded from one reel (about 12 minutes) to two reels, and Semon was given a free hand in making them. This became a dangerous policy because Semon became notorious for being expensive and extravagant: his two-reel comedies could easily cost more than an average five-reel feature film.
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 124. Photo: Vitagraph, New York. Caption: Ridolini "Imperatore". Larry Semon (Ridolini) in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 125. Photo: Vitagraph, New York. Caption: Ridolini "Imperatore". Larry Semon (Ridolini) in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 126. Photo: Vitagraph, New York. Caption: Ridolini "Imperatore". Larry Semon (Ridolini) in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
Airplane chases, exploding barns, falling water towers, and auto wrecks
As a former cartoonist, Larry Semon staged similarly cartoony sight gags, using elaborate special effects. No gag was too big for Semon. He loved chase sequences involving airplanes (sometimes using three in a film), exploding barns, falling water towers, auto wrecks and/or explosions, and liberal use of substances in which to douse people.
A typical Semon comedy might involve barrels of flour, sacks of soot, gallons of ink, gobs of jam, or pits filled with mud. For example, in Semon's The Bell Hop (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1921), a man sleeping under the spray of a malfunctioning fountain imagines he is swimming in the ocean, and in his sleep, he dives off the bed, through the floor, and into a vat of paint in the lobby below.
Oliver Hardy recalled in an interview that Semon when staging his comedy short The Sawmill (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922) in a lumber camp, would not use traditional, painted stage sets. Instead, Semon insisted on building permanent log cabins complete with modern conveniences. The production budget soared, and his bosses at Vitagraph finally demanded that Semon become his own producer and underwrite his productions personally.
Semon tried to reverse his money problems by entering the more lucrative field of feature films but was none too successful. In a new partnership with producer I.E. Chadwick's Chadwick Pictures, Semon returned to two-reelers. He then embarked on what would turn out to be a disastrous dream project - an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'.
Jim Beaver at IMDb: "The film boasted a superb cast, with Semon at the helm, and while it was wildly expensive it was enormously promising. Yet Semon failed utterly to capitalize on that promise, and the film (The Wizard of Oz (1925)) turned out to be a trite and inept run-of-the-mill comedy that seemed only to share a title and character names with Baum's beloved story, instead of the classic film it could have been."
A gangster role in Josef von Sternberg's Underworld (1927) was impressive, but a mere ripple. Larry went back in short subjects released through Educational Pictures. These also failed. After filing for bankruptcy in March 1928, Semon returned to vaudeville. While traveling on the vaudeville circuit, he suffered a nervous breakdown and went back to Los Angeles.
After returning to Los Angeles, Semon was admitted to a sanatorium in Victorville, California, where at the age of 39, he died of pneumonia and tuberculosis in 1928. His wife Dorothy Dwan was reported to be at his bedside when he died.
In its obituary for Semon, the trade paper Variety speculated that ongoing stress related to his dire financial circumstances was a contributing factor in his demise, alluding to The Wizard of Oz (1925) as the major cause of his money woes: "This screen disaster caused Mr. Semon no end of worry and repeated efforts to recoup only added to his discomfiture. Last March he filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy, listing debts at nearly $500,000. Ceaseless worry undermined his health making him an easy victim of pneumonia."
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 127. Caption: Ridolini Imperatore. Larry Semon (Ridolini) and Lucille Carlisle in A Pair of Kings (Larry Semon, Norman Taurog, 1922).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 285. Caption: Ridolini "al Tabarin". Larry Semon (Ridolini) in Trouble Brewing (James D. Davis, Larry Semon, 1924).
Spanish collectors card by Chocolates Amatller, Barcelona, in the 'Artistas de cine' series, no. 11: Larry Semon. Image: Martinez Surroca.
Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and Italian), and IMDb.