Funny Business

Harold Lloyd produced classic comedies in the 1920s at Hollywood Center Studios.

For much of the 1920s, The Harold Lloyd Corporation operated out of production offices on the lot now known as Hollywood Center Studios. At the time, Lloyd was arguably the biggest star of the Silent Era. He made more movies than Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and his films made more money.

After having starred in scores of popular one- and two-reel comedies for producer Hal Roach, Lloyd shifted his focus to five-reelers—feature length films—in the early 1920s. He formed his own, eponymous production company and moved to Hollywood Metropolitan Studios, launched just a few years earlier by John Jasper.

Lloyd’s first production in his new home was the screwball comedy Girl Shy, which appeared in theaters in 1924. In it, the actor, wearing his trademark horn-rimmed glasses and everyman attire, plays a would-be Lothario whose romantic career is stymied by his inability to speak with women without stuttering. The film ends with a wildly inventive chase scene as Lloyd tries to stop his true love from marrying the villain. He steals several cars, mounts a horse, jumps onto the back of a fire engine, is pulled over by a cop, steals the cop’s motorcycle and ends up in a horse-drawn wagon. Some call it Lloyd’s best film.

Lloyd produced several other films on the lot, including The Freshman, The Kid Brother and Speedy, all huge hits. In addition to being a gifted comedian, Lloyd was also a filmmaking pioneer. He was among the first to use test audiences to preview his films. He was also one of the first Silent Screen actors to make the leap to sound. His 1929 talkie, Welcome Danger, also filmed on the lot, became his biggest box office smash yet—audiences were excited to hear his voice.

Movie lovers today, even if they haven’t seen any of Lloyd’s films, recognize the iconic image of the actor hanging from the hands of a clock tower in a scene from Safety First!, a film shot just prior to his move to the lot. Lloyd’s films often featured daredevil stunts and the actor typically insisted on performing them himself. The clock tower scene was shot at a building in downtown Los Angeles with Lloyd protected by a mattress positioned three stories below. The feat is even more impressive considering that Lloyd was missing most of his right hand, the result of an accident during an early photo shoot.

Part of the money Lloyd made while producing films on the lot went toward the construction of a Beverly Hills mansion that he shared with his wife, actress Mildred Davis, and their three children. The home, which featured 44 rooms, 26 bathrooms, 12 fountains, 12 gardens and a nine hole golf course, was given a name that foreshadowed a very different sort of comedy shot on the lot decades later: Green Acres.