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marble falls

(56,359 posts)
Sat Mar 28, 2020, 03:01 PM Mar 2020

How Pie-Throwing Became a Comedy Standard

Last edited Sat Mar 28, 2020, 04:00 PM - Edit history (1)

How Pie-Throwing Became a Comedy Standard
One film studio in Los Angeles pioneered the trope of flying pies.
by Anne Ewbank July 10, 2018

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-do-people-throw-pies



One of the last places you might expect to find a commemorative plaque is on a concrete self-storage building in Los Angeles. But there, on 1712 Glendale Blvd., a plaque memorializes what was once a sprawling film lot known as Keystone Studios. The film company, now located in present-day Echo Park, was famed for its uproarious slapstick comedies—particularly those involving tossed pies.

<snip>

This phenomenon can be traced back before the earliest days of pre-1920s silent film. Tossing a pie into someone’s face for comedic effect first existed on the vaudeville circuit. The hilarity of seeing an elegant dessert hit an an actor, and watching them react with either anger or bewilderment, soon made its way to the screen. In 1913, Sennett’s muse Mabel Normand and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle “launched the first such missile in a Keystone film,” notes The Oxford Companion to Food. Soon, the studio became known for pie-tossing shenanigans, and the high-flying desserts flew so freely that the studio needed its own bakery to make them.

The answer turned out to be right across the street. One Sarah Brener owned a variety store there, but she also supplied the studio with its pies. Sometimes, they were delicious. Charlie Chaplin said that Brener’s pies were the best in town (he once gave her one of his trademark canes as a memento, too). But often, they had to be specially formulated for films. The ones Keystone used were “a special ballistic version of the pie, with heavy-duty pastry and especially slurpy ‘custard.’” As pie fights in film grew more elaborate, Brener’s bakery was soon making nothing else.

<snip>

For a time, Keystone Studios was a powerful studio, launching stars like Charlie Chaplin to prominence. But by the time the 1920s rolled around, people had grown tired of the custard-pie shtick. It wasn’t long before comedies were being advertised on their pie-less merits: one ad trumpeted that “a custard pie and a pretty girl or two in a bathing suit do not make a comedy.” Pieing was so commonplace that Sennett had even developed rules for what characters could be taken down a notch with an ignominious pie to the face: mothers-in law, yes, mothers, no. (The humbling effect of a pie to the face has also made them a tool of political commentary.)

Widespread pie-throwing faded, but it didn’t die completely: Comedic films and animation alike have been peppered with pieing ever since, from Bugs Bunny to the Three Stooges. In 2015, The New York Times even reported that a “holy grail” of film history had been re-discovered: the second reel of the Laurel and Hardy 1927 short “The Battle of the Century”, where 3,000 pies sail through the air. It was supposed to be the pie fight to end all others, but in 1965 the film “The Great Race” promised viewers “the greatest pie fight in history.” Thousands of real pies were used, and after filming, the entire set stank of the rotting dessert.

<snip>



There's been some confusion here: No. That is not EarlG, Skinner and Elat during a meeting in the photo.

It just looks kinda like them. Or so I'm told.

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
How Pie-Throwing Became a Comedy Standard (Original Post) marble falls Mar 2020 OP
I love stories like this underpants Mar 2020 #1
should have used shaving creme instead of real fillings nt msongs Mar 2020 #2
You're no fun, what and miss out on all that free dessert? marble falls Mar 2020 #3
An article about pie-throwing Freddie Mar 2020 #4
Soupy is worth a whole column to himself ... marble falls Mar 2020 #5
Not exactly pies, but .... marble falls Mar 2020 #6
I worked on a never aired TV pilot which had a gigantic pie fight! needledriver Mar 2020 #7
No higher aspiration than the arts! marble falls Mar 2020 #8

marble falls

(56,359 posts)
5. Soupy is worth a whole column to himself ...
Sat Mar 28, 2020, 04:22 PM
Mar 2020

his sons played bass and drummed for Todd Rungren during his Utopia/Wizard phase.

 

needledriver

(836 posts)
7. I worked on a never aired TV pilot which had a gigantic pie fight!
Sun Mar 29, 2020, 08:23 AM
Mar 2020

I forget exactly why two gangs of circus clowns had to throw down - ok throw pies - but it was a full bore frenzy of flying pastry. (note - you don’t want to use shaving cream because it is inevitable that when you get a face full you end up eating pie!)

The prop department showed up with bakery racks full of pies, and we had all these stunt men dressed as clowns. Although the clowns were supposed to be "angry" with each other, the stunt guys were having the time of their lives chucking pies at their buddies.

It was a tremendous mess to clean up. I got to take some leftover pies home. Yum.

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