Jerry -- that's George Ovey -- is walking down the country road in his dynamite-filled house. He and some other bums are picked up by some cops in this pleasantly random short subject.
George Ovey's career arc reached from minstrel shows -- his "Jerry" costume is a variation on what he would have worn there. In the late 1910s he had his own series of starring shorts, then worked as a supporting comic, then into bit roles through his death in 1951. It was a common career for comics, and not many of his starring pictures survive. Fortunately this one does -- barely. One reel of its original two spent decades at the Library of Congress, missing a title until it was shown at one of the LoC's Mostly Lost shows in 2013, when it was identified.
Although the print is not in perfect shape, you can see it on the FOUND AT MOSTLY LOST DVD from Undercrank Productions. If you do, you won't be disappointed.
George Ovey's career arc reached from minstrel shows -- his "Jerry" costume is a variation on what he would have worn there. In the late 1910s he had his own series of starring shorts, then worked as a supporting comic, then into bit roles through his death in 1951. It was a common career for comics, and not many of his starring pictures survive. Fortunately this one does -- barely. One reel of its original two spent decades at the Library of Congress, missing a title until it was shown at one of the LoC's Mostly Lost shows in 2013, when it was identified.
Although the print is not in perfect shape, you can see it on the FOUND AT MOSTLY LOST DVD from Undercrank Productions. If you do, you won't be disappointed.
