One morning, Mack Sennett read in the local newspaper that Echo Lake, located in Echo Park near his studio, was going to be drained, beginning at 1 o'clock that afternoon. Realizing that this was a great opportunity, Sennett quickly called together his ensemble of actors, writers, and cameramen, and they drove out to the park in three cars. Sennett drove the car that contained his writers, and, he later recalled, "We made up gags for the short as we went along." The crew got to the park with plenty of time to set up their cameras to film the draining of the lake. The following day, they returned to the studio to film framing scenes for the Mabel Normand romance story featured in the short.