Book Review: Time is Money: The Century, Rainbow, and Stern Brothers comedies

This massive, over 500-page, study of Julius and Abe Stern delves very deeply into an area of screen comedy that is very little known.

The comedies of the silent film era are naturally dominated by the contributions of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, while such able practitioners as Harry Langdon, Fatty Arbuckle, and Stan Laurel also manage to net some attention. But silent comedy’s history is much deeper and more complex than what lies on the surface. Sure, there was Mack Sennett and Hal Roach, but there were many little known producers of silent comedy who created clever and interesting material.

This very detailed and incredibly fascinating study by Thomas Reeder for BearManor Media boldly ventures into one of the least traveled bypaths of screen comedy. The Stern Brothers never had big budgets, and their films did not feature comedians that could be considered top stars. But they were active from 1914, the same year Chaplin joined Sennett’s Keystone, until the silent era dwindled to a close with the rising popularity of talking pictures at the end of the 1920s. The author believes the Stern Brothers produced comedies that were every bit as funny as those coming from Sennett or Roach. And he spends over 500 pages telling us why, by delving very deeply into the company’s history, successes, failures, and ability to maintain a consistent level of production on sometimes threadbare budgets.

Detouring for a brief personal note, this reviewer’s own interest began probably with silent comedy clips entitled The Funny Manns, Chuckleheads, and Comedy Capers that were marketed as kiddie entertainment alongside cartoons in the early 60s. Not usually presenting the work of Chaplin, Keaton, or Lloyd, these TV based enterprises showed films with obscure silent comedians backed with obtrusive music and sound effects. Then, around 50 years ago, I stumbled upon a book in my high school library entitled Clown Princes and Court Jesters where many of these lesser-known comedians were discussed in separate chapters, opening up a further interest in the aforementioned bypaths. Now there are companies like Undercrank Productions that produce DVDs spotlighting the work of people like Alice Howell, so we have access to the existing films of these forgotten comedians.

Alice Howell worked in films produced by The Stern Brothers and is, quite frankly, one of the finest comedians of the era, reminding us that women have as strong a history in comic contribution as men.

Reeder already wrote a brilliant book on filmmaker Henry Lehrman (also from Bear Manor and reviewed at this link: LEHRMAN), so the material covering Henry is significant. But Reeder’s book really examines the entire history of a company that produced nearly 900 short subjects over a 15 year period. The origins, and subsequent sections covering different yearly periods in the company’s growth and journey are very thorough, readable, and informative.

Perhaps the best known actor that worked for the Sterns is Diana Serra Cary, who, as Baby Peggy, was one of the screen’s first child stars. Since Diana lived into the 21st century, dying at 101 in February of 2020, she had some notoriety with interviews and documentaries well into her later years. But this book also features the aforementioned Howell and Lehrman, and comedians like Eddie Lyons, Lee Moran, James Finlayson, Bud Jamison, John “Bubbles” Berry, Wanda Wiley, Anita Garvin, Harry Sweet, and many others, some of whom are familiar to comedy buffs, some not, but all of them are worth knowing much more about. Thus, Thomas Reeder’s book fills a real need in any serious study of screen comedy’s history.

Time is Money thoroughly examines an important part of silent comedy that has been given limited attention, even by the most learned film buffs. It is one of the finest books ever written on any aspect of early cinema and is most highly recommended.

The book is available for purchase at this link: STERN