Silent Golden Classics: My Boy(1921) / The New School Teacher (1924)

Jackie Blair arrives alone at Ellis Island, his parents having died during the journey to America. He only escapes the orphanage through the good will of Bill Hicks, a retired sea captain. Despite the old man's poor health and shabby living arrangements, Bill agrees to take in the helpless young boy. The pair have no idea that Jackie's wealthy grandmother is also searching for him. When Mrs. Blair finds out that her grandson is living in squalor, she resolves to bring him back to her mansion...not realizing that Jackie would rather die than leave the old sea dog that he has come to love like a father...

Jackie Coogan (1914-1984) became an overnight success after Charlie Chaplin plucked him out of vaudeville to costar with him in The Kid (1921). With Jackie's image now adorning magazines, stationery, phonograph records, and even jars of peanut butter, it was inevitable that First National Pictures would want to spin him off into a feature of his own. Filmmakers Victor Heerman (later to direct the Marx Brothers' Animal Crackers) and Albert Austin (a frequent collaborator of Chaplin's) concocted a story that showcased the boy's talents. In many ways, Jackie's character in My Boy is identical to that in The Kid. Perhaps owing to that familiarity, the film was a huge success at the box office. The next year, Coogan scored an even greater triumph starring in an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist (1922) with Lon Chaney, Sr. as Fagin. To promote My Boy, First National ran a contest to name the feature. Surprisingly, the winner was Hollywood movie theatre mogul Sid Grauman. Whether or not the contest was rigged is left open to interpretation.

BONUS: The New School Teacher (B&W, 1924, SILENT): Tim Timmons expected to be a university professor, not headmaster to a gang of rowdy schoolchildren in the middle of nowhere. Not only do his students not respect him, but pretty school nurse Diana Pope won't give him the time of day. But when the school house goes up in flames, this timid milksop will prove he's braver than they think. A charming silent comedy, The New School Teacher is directed by Gregory La Cava. The Pennsylvania-born La Cava started as an animator, working with Walter Lantz on the WWI-era 'Katzenjammer Kids' cartoons. He switched to live action two-reel short comedies in the 1920s, soon followed by features, of which this film is one of his first. By the talkie era he had become one of Hollywood's finest directors, and was nominated for Academy Awards for both My Man Godfrey (1936) and Stage Door (1937). Star Charles 'Chic' Sale was a comedian whose biggest claim to fame was writing The Specialist, a best-selling humor book about a carpenter who built outhouses. Unfortunately, his success backfired on him when his name then became popular slang for 'toilet' in the 1930s and 40s.

• silent