25 Facts About Charley Chase

Charles Joseph Parrott, known professionally as Charley Chase, was an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director.

Charley Chase worked for many pioneering comedy studios but is chiefly associated with producer Hal Roach.

Charley Chase then moved to Keystone Studios, where he began appearing in bit parts in the Mack Sennett films, including those of Charlie Chaplin.

Charley Chase worked at Henry Lehrman's L-KO Kompany during its final months of existence.

Charley Chase became director-general of the Hal Roach studio in late 1921, supervising the production of all the Roach series except the Harold Lloyd comedies.

Charley Chase was a master of the comedy of embarrassment, and he played either hapless young businessmen or befuddled husbands in dozens of situation comedies.

The first Charley Chase series was successful and expanded to two reels ; this would become the standard length for Charley Chase comedies, apart from a few three-reel featurettes later.

Direction of the Charley Chase series was taken over by Leo McCarey, who in collaboration with Charley Chase formed the comic style of the series: characterization and farce instead of knockabout slapstick.

Some of Charley Chase's starring shorts of the 1920s, particularly Mighty Like a Moose, Crazy Like a Fox, Fluttering Hearts, and Limousine Love, are often considered to be among the finest in silent comedy.

Charley Chase remained the guiding hand behind the films, assisting anonymously with the directing, writing, and editing.

Charley Chase moved with ease into sound films in 1929 and became one of the most popular film comedians of the period.

Charley Chase continued to be very prolific in the talkie era, often putting his fine singing voice on display and including his humorous, self-penned songs in his comedy shorts.

Charley Chase was featured in the Laurel and Hardy feature Sons of the Desert; Laurel and Hardy made cameo appearances as hitchhikers in Charley Chase's On the Wrong Trek.

Charley Chase played a character role in the Patsy Kelly feature Kelly the Second, and starred in a feature-length comedy called Bank Night, lampooning the popular Bank Night phenomenon of the 1930s.

In 1937, Charley Chase began working at Columbia Pictures, where he spent the rest of his career starring in his own series of two-reel comedies, as well as producing and directing other Columbia comedies, including those of The Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Smith and Dale, Walter Catlett, and Herman Bing.

Charley Chase directed the Stooges' classic Violent is the Word for Curly ; although he is often credited with writing the film's song "Swinging the Alphabet", the tune actually originates with 19th-century songwriter Septimus Winner.

Charley Chase's hair had turned prematurely gray, and he dyed it jet-black for his Columbia comedies.

Charley Chase had refused to give his brother money to support his drug habit, and friends knew he felt responsible for Parrott's death.

Charley Chase coped with the loss by throwing himself into his work and by drinking more heavily than ever, despite doctors' warnings.

The stress ultimately caught up with him; just over a year after his brother's death, Charley Chase died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California, on June 20,1940.

Charley Chase is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery near his wife Bebe Elting in Glendale, California.

An extensive website researching his life and work, The World of Charley Chase, was created in 1996.

Two books devoted to Chase followed: a biography, Smile When the Raindrops Fall, was published in 1998; The Charley Chase Scrapbook, compiled from Chase's own collections of photos, writings, and souvenirs, was published in 2016.

Retrospectives of Charley Chase's work organized by The Silent Clowns Film Series were held in 1999,2001,2006, and 2008 in New York City.

The one-disc release contains eight of Charley Chase's starring shorts and one Smith and Dale short that he directed, A Nag in the Bag.