A Few Thoughts About Billy West

Billy West did pretty well for himself as a Chaplin imitator in the 1917-1920 years. He appropriated more than Chaplin's makeup and costume. He did the funny walk and cane tricks, too. He even slept with his hair in curlers to give himself Chaplinesque curls!

But the charade really went a good deal farther than that. The titles of his films sometimes harkened back to those of Chaplin's, like 'His Day Out,' 'The Hobo,' etc. There are even a couple called 'The Star Boarder' and 'Dough and Dynamite'! In fairness, though, most of his film titles had no similarity to Chaplin's.

West (or his backers) also went out of their way to hire people associated with Chaplin. Director Arvid Gillstrom had worked at Keystone, as had Charley Chase. Leo White, fresh from his work expanding 'Burlesque on Carmen' at Essanay, had been a villain in Chaplin two-reelers and did the same for Billy West. Even Mack Swain came aboard late in the series.

But the most striking thing about the West comedies is that they're really better than you might expect them to be. West was talented and he had talented people working with him, including Chase behind the camera and Oliver Hardy and Leatrice Joy in front of it. He doesn't seem to have done flat-out remakes of Chaplin films, although there are strong echoes now and then. His 'Playmates' has the same gritty urban terrain of 'Easy Street' (complete with drug addict), and 'He's In Again' recycles gags and situations from 'The Rink' and 'The Champion.' Ethel Burton and other blonde leading ladies were evidently cast for their resemblence to Edna Purviance, and Oliver Hardy can be seen sporting Eric Campbell-style upturned eyebrows in the films. And always, West's Chaplinesque mannerisms and bits of business made for pleasant (if uninspired) slapstick, although there are scenes in his films that are really about as well done as Chaplin could have done them. In 'Ship Ahoy' there's an intricately choreographed scene in which West dodges his pursuers by leaping in and out of rooms and hallways. It's very well done and proves West wasn't just a hack imitator.

It's kind of a shame that Billy West is dismissed as just a good Chaplin imitator. He may not have been as inspired as Chaplin, Lloyd, or Arbuckle, but he seems to have been at least as good as the typical comic of the late 'Teens, if not better.

And it was the great Buster Keaton who appropriated this gag two years later for 'Neighbors'. There was no shame in stealing in those days, as long as you put a fresh spin on it.

Billy's CC imitation really hurt his reputation for posterity. If he had been his own man, as the saying goes, I'm sure he would have ranked with Larry Semon. Or at least Lloyd Hamilton.

Rob Farr

So where can we get more of his films? I've seen only one, so I can't say much in response to a very good post.

Connie K.

There is a definite resemblence between Billy in the 1920's and Monty Banks, but I think it is coincidental. Banks never became successful enough for anyone to imitate. His shorts and features were rarely reviewed in the trades, and the few reviews he got were bad to middling. In a similar vein, I've often wondered if comic Billy B. Van was simply trying to cash in on Billy Bevan's minor celebrity.

Rob Farr

Billy B Van was a comic monologist and vaudeville personality who started at the turn of the century. His few movies were shot on the East Coast in the late teens and released by Reelcraft in the early twenties in their Royal and Sun-Lite series, which were mostly old pilot comedies for proposed series that didn't sell. I also have several of his Victor records which were made in the teens. Since Billy Bevan didn't achieve any film popularity until the early-mid twenties, I think we can safely assume there was no attempt at cashing in on Van's part

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Hi Connie -

Both A1 Video and Video Classic have West films. Check their sites.

Phil