For those of you who may be wondering exactly where they are: Wally Cox’s star is located on the north side of Hollywood blvd, just a bit to the East of the intersection with Cahuenga… (and about two blocks west of Hollywood & Vine)…
It was just to the south of here, where Buster Keaton filmed one of his great knock-about gags… During the filming of “Cops”, Buster ran out of the alley (by where the World Book & News Stand is now) chased by a mob of Cops… About in the middle of Cahuenga, he turned his back to the camera, facing the approaching Cops – then between them, heading south, came a Phaeton Auto, – Buster reached out with his right hand, Grabbed the car and was whisked off screen!
I’ve read somewhere that it was impossible to actually grab and hold onto a moving car with one hand – there just isn’t enough strength in a human hand – even Buster couldn’t do that! So he had cleverly worn a harness under his shirt, with a strap that ran down his right arm under the shirt sleeve – on the end of the strap was a hook, held in his hand — so as the Phaeton came by, all Buster needed to do was reach out and hook the canvas top — after that he was Leaving!! Reportedly, Buster was a bit banged up doing the stunt – it was a tough life being a Comedian in Silent Flix – but he left us a Great visual gag!!
All this has nothing actually to do with our story as such… Just an odd bit of Hollywood history…
For those of you who may be wondering exactly where they are: Wally Cox’s star is located on the north side of Hollywood blvd, just a bit to the East of the intersection with Cahuenga… (and about two blocks west of Hollywood & Vine)…
It was just to the south of here, where Buster Keaton filmed one of his great knock-about gags… During the filming of “Cops”, Buster ran out of the alley (by where the World Book & News Stand is now) chased by a mob of Cops… About in the middle of Cahuenga, he turned his back to the camera, facing the approaching Cops – then between them, heading south, came a Phaeton Auto, – Buster reached out with his right hand, Grabbed the car and was whisked off screen!
I’ve read somewhere that it was impossible to actually grab and hold onto a moving car with one hand – there just isn’t enough strength in a human hand – even Buster couldn’t do that! So he had cleverly worn a harness under his shirt, with a strap that ran down his right arm under the shirt sleeve – on the end of the strap was a hook, held in his hand — so as the Phaeton came by, all Buster needed to do was reach out and hook the canvas top — after that he was Leaving!! Reportedly, Buster was a bit banged up doing the stunt – it was a tough life being a Comedian in Silent Flix – but he left us a Great visual gag!!
All this has nothing actually to do with our story as such… Just an odd bit of Hollywood history…
I miss Wally. Nice call out there.
Totaldoom.com …. nice touch, that’s attention to detail right there 🙂