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UPDATE ON OBELISK JAN 2008

I did tell you that I would keep you apprised as to what was going on with the Sennett Obelisk, well the news is not good.

As you remember, the developer was working with Heritage on Highland to move the obelisk to the site of the Sennett Studio from where it was at the old Selig Studio site. He wanted to move it to an easement. That was the news back on September 11. 

Jenny Burman took the trouble to actually go to the Glendale Blvd construction site on September 20 and found that the monument was surrounded by trash.  On September 29, he received a note from Joe D’Augustine office that holes had been knocked into the side of the obelisk by a bulldozer.  The plaque had been removed and the chicken wire was showing, the core is hollow.

Yesterday (October 2, 2007) in a letter from Valeria Yaros of the Heritage to Jenny Burman, she wrote that they took the plaque from the monument and it will at some point be mounted at 1712 Glendale Blvd. but the obelisk construction was of 2x2 (which had rotted), tar paper, chicken wire and the inside was hollow and could not be saved.  If you got a picture of it, you are very lucky, the time has passed and the obelisk is now gone...

The photos of the Sennett obelisk, as it looked in September 2007, that as Paul Gierucki said when he sent these photos that they will just turn your stomach. He found them at: 

http://www.svidler.com/SennettMarker/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 1954 by Bob Thomas

 

 

 

 

SENNETT TAKES SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

IN PAST AT REUNION

By

BOB THOMAS

 

 

HOLLYWOOD, Mack Sennett once Hollywood’s king of comedy, took a sentimental journey into the past last night as his stars of yesteryear gathered for a reunion at his old studio.

 

The creator of the Keystone Kops and the Mack Sennett bathing beauties was the subject of the TV show “This Is Your Life.”  Emcee Ralph Edwards assembled many of the old Sennett troupe for dinner and drinks at the site of the old Keystone studio in the Edendale district of Los Angeles. 

 

The place is now used by a trucking firm, and the company erected an obelisk in honor of the studio for the occasion.

 

The 69-year-old Canadian-born producer was taken completely by surprise.  He was induced to attend the taken completely by surprise.  He was induced to attend the program by Cameron Shipp, with whom he is writing his memoirs.  He was supposed to be appearing on a show called “So You Want to Write a Book.” And a phony script was even concocted.

 

How am I going to live up to “the King of Comedy,” Sennett remarked afterward, referring to his billing on the show.  “I wish I had gotten more laughs.”

 

There were many laughs and much sentiment at the after-show party.  Edwards had assembled   many figures from Sennett’s past, among them from Sennett’s past, among them his boyhood sweetheart from Northampton, Mass., Mrs. Rose Clark, whom he hadn’t seen in many decades.  Also, Fritzi Scheff, star of “Mademoiselle Modiste,” in which Sennett played a chorus boy 50 years ago.

 

The dwindling ranks of the Keystone Kops included Hank Mann, Chester and Heinie Conklin and Andy Clyde.

 

Other Sennett stars present included Sally Ellers, Phyllis Haver, Louise Fazenda, Jack Mulhall, Franklin Pangborn, Minta Durfee Arbuckle and Alberta Vsughn.

 

Harold Lloyd was there or four months as a juvenile for Sennett at $50 a week before moving on to greater fame.  Sennett, who also started such stars as Charlie Chaplin, Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, Carole Lombard and Gloria Swanson, has been in semi-retirement since 1935.  He leads an active life, remaining in touch with the show world and playing golf daily.

The only disappointment of the evening was dessert.  Custard pie was not served.  (In the program, ‘This is Your Life, Mack Sennett’; Mabel was very much a subject that guests and Mack talked about a lot!)

PANAMA CITY NEWS (AP)

MARCH 12, 1954