Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd

Highlighting visions of a bygone age preserved in the background of Harold Lloyd’s films, this history explores the urban landscapes of Hollywood, Los Angeles, and New York-popular settings for his films-through archival photographs, vintage maps, and scores of  then-and-now photographs.

From Coney Island to Catalina Island and from Brooklyn to Beverly Hills

Lloyd’s timeless movies reflect visions of early 20th-century America unequalled on the silver screen and exemplified in the historical settings found in such classics as Safety Last, Girl Shy, The Freshman, and Speedy.

Tracing Lloyd’s career from his early work to owning and operating his own studio, this account illuminates Lloyd’s mastery of his oeuvre--an actor and film-maker more popular than Keaton, more prolific than Chaplin, and who sold more tickets than any other comedian of his era, as well as a comedic genius whose expert staging and editing have influenced films for decades.

Review

“First Keaton, then Chaplin, and now Harold Lloyd. There is no end to the magic John Bengtson creates when he investigates the real locations of celebrated movie sequences. Simply amazing.” —Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times (November 1, 2011)

“With his usual unerring precision, John Bengtson shows us how Harold Lloyd turned New York and Los Angeles into his very own romper room. Silent Visions is a wonderful amalgam of film history and urban history. Bengtson’s detective work in tracking down these movie locations has the same exhilaration and fanatic attention to detail as Lloyd’s classic comedies.” —Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor (November 1, 2011)

“John Bengtson has done it again: part detective, part historian, this dedicated silent-film enthusiast has opened a window to the past for all of us. After revisiting the wonderful Harold Lloyd comedies shot on location, this volume makes me want to embark on a walking tour of downtown Los Angeles (not to mention Manhattan and Coney Island).” —Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight (November 1, 2011)

“Harold Lloyd fans will agree that this is a most remarkable book. Even after all this time, I have a new appreciation as to how these films were made. My grandfather would be so pleased.” —Suzanne Lloyd

About the Author

John Bengtson is a business lawyer, a film historian, and the author of Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton and Silent Traces: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Charlie Chaplin. He lives in the San Francisco bay area. Kevin Brownlow is an award-winning film historian and the documentary filmmaker of Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite, Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius, Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film, and Unknown Chaplin. He is the author of How It Happened Here and The Parade’s Gone By.

Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd