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Babe London
- The University Press of Kentucky
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BABE LONDON In the 1923 Christie comedy, ffiddin' ffate, the hapless bridegroom arrives expecting that his mail order bride is Dorothy Devore but is shocked to discover that he is to marry overweight Babe London, looking totally unappealing in a oversize woolen sweater, a dress that is too short, and ankle-length socks. It's a typically degrading role for Babe London, but one with which the actress must, presumably, have felt comfortable. At the height of her career, Babe London had boasted a weight of 255 pounds, and in one of her earliest screen appearances, in Chaplin's A Day's Pleasure(1919), she is literallywalked over by the comedian as he tries to get on board a pleasure boat and lands in the water. Jean London-like another overweight comedy performer, Oliver Hardy, she adopted the name of "Babe"-was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 28, 190I. When the family moved to Oakland, California. she began acting on screen with a company based at the former Essanay Studios in Niles. From there, Babe persuaded her parents to relocate to Los Angeles, and in 1918, she joined the Vitagraph Company, appearing with the comedy team of Montgomery and Rock. A year later, Babe had an uncredited role in Douglas Fairbanks's When the Clouds RoJJ By. She spent most of her working life as a featured comedienne in films produced in the 1920s by Christie and Educational. Babe claimed to have been in practically every film AI Christie directed during the decade: "He got a kick out of me as a bum Mary Pickford; he'd put a Mary Pickford wig on me, you know, with the curls," Her few roles in silent features emphasized her size; she was a circus strong woman in Golden Dreams (1922) and Tillie's Punctured Romance (1928) and a hefty stenographer in Is That Nice? (1926). Often, as in Blanche Sweet's Tess ofthe DVrbevilJes (1924), Colleen Moore's The Perfect Flapper (1924), Harry Langdon's Long Pants (1927) and the Vilma Banky vehicle The Awaking (1928), she was uncredited. After a stint in vaudeville with her first husband, Babe London returned to the screen with the coming of sound, but, again, primarily in uncredited parts. She had one memorable role as Ollie's hapless fiancee, Duley, in the Laurel and Hardy Comedy short Our Wife, released in May 1931 but basically spent the sound era as an extra or bit player, appearing as late as 1970 in Dirty Dingus Magee. "I used to weigh 255 pounds," she remembered for me back in November 1971. "I was typed as a fat girl. I used to do chases and pratfalls, and in vaudeville Idanced very fast, high-kicking numbers. Then my doctor told me I had to take this weight off-my heart was tired-and I did. But it was like starting anew. I'd be called down to an interview. 'You aren't Babe [3.237.232.196] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 09:49 GMT) 226 Babe London London.' 'Oh, yes I am.' But I wouldn't fit the script. You get typed in pictures and established, and when you change your type radically, it's very hard." Babe London took up painting after attending night classes at Hollywood High School in 1958. He style was primitive, sometimes compared to Grandma Moses, and her subjects silent comedy players that she had known or worked with. She gave her work the collective name of "The Vanishing Age," calling it, "a painted saga of the old silent days." There was one professional exhibition in Hollywood in July 1964, but Babe's work generated little interest, and the film buffs who might have snapped up this type of memorabilia just were not around at this time. She married her third husband, musical director 79-year-old Phil Boutelje, on March 2, 1975, while both were residents of the Motion Picture Country House, and died there on November 29, 1980. Babe London lived at the facility almost adjacent to another Christie comedy player, Dorothy Devore, but such was the rivalry between them in old age that the two never communicated. Bibliography Slide, Anthony. "Babe London." The Silent Picture, no. 15, summer 1972, pp. 4-7. ...