Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1931

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1931. The film is a short comedy which centers on Windy Riley, a cocky blow-hard who attempts to revamp the publicity department of a Hollywood studio. The film was Louise Brooks’ first after returning from Europe, the first to feature her actual voice (Brooks’ earlier sound films, The Canary Murder Case and Prix de Beauté, had been dubbed), and her first and only short. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.

The film was directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was working under the name William B. Goodrich; a blacklist on the comedian's employment in Hollywood was still in effect. Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was promoted as a behind the scenes look at the movie capital. The film’s press sheet overstated its case when it proclaimed “One of the first pictures ever showing the interior of a sound stage and the actual operation of talking pictures. . . . The actual cameras, microphones, etc., used in picture production will be shown in some of the big scenes.”

At times, story details surrounding character Betty Grey (played by Brooks) curiously parallel Brooks’ own career. Near the beginning of the film, Grey is set to star in The Box Car Mystery, a title of which calls to mind Brooks’ role in Beggars of Life. Later, while at lunch at the Montmarte (a famous Los Angles café once frequented by Brooks and others in Hollywood), Riley boasts he was responsible for the successful advertising campaign mounted by Klux Soap. In real life, Brooks was among a handful of actress who regularly appeared in print ads for Lux Soap. And, at the end of the film, it is announced that Grey will wed the director The Box Car Mystery. A few years earlier, Brooks married Eddie Sutherland, who directed her in It’s the Old Army Game.

The film's few reviews were largely negative, and the film suffered from a lack of exhibitor interest. Consequently, few likely saw Windy Riley Goes Hollywood at the time of its release. Except for a three-month period in mid-1931 when it played in Toronto, there are few records of this short film having been shown in any large cities. What exhibition records have been found suggest the film was shown as program filler in mostly smaller markets.

 In the United States and Canada, the film was on a few occasions promoted under the title Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood, and once reviewed as Windy Riley Goes into Hollywood. Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Canada, The Philippines, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (England and Scotland).

Elsewhere, Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was shown under the title The Gas Bag (United Kingdom, including England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) and as Windy Rileyová jde Hollywood (Czechoslovakia).

 SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

-- Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, based on an original story by Ken Kling, was adapted from Kling’s comic strip Windy Riley. The New York cartoonist started the strip about a wisecracking braggart in 1928. At the time of the film's release, the strip ran in some 170 newspapers across the country.

-- Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, depressed and still working under a pseudonym because he was under an industry blacklist, directed the film. Years later, Brooks told Kevin Brownlow, "He made no attempt to direct this picture. He sat in his chair like a man dead."

-- Dell Henderson started as an actor in 1908, and was a frequent associate of director D.W. Griffith, and less so, with producer Mack Sennett. Henderson also directed nearly 200 silent films between 1911 and 1928. In the late 1920s, he returned to acting and played important supporting roles in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928) and Show People (1928). The advent of sound stalled his career, and he was thereafter cast in small parts. In the 1930s, Henderson appeared as a comic foil for W. C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, and The Three Stooges.

-- The group of dancers seen in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood were recruited from the chorus of George Olsen’s Culver City nightclub. Olsen was a popular bandleader and recording artist married to Ethel Shutta. Her brother Jack Shutta, a stage performer making his screen debut in the title role of Windy Riley, managed Olsen's nightclub. Along with Ethel Shutta and Louise Brooks, Olsen and his orchestra performed at the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925.

-- In 1935, the Bell and Howell Company of Chicago offered Windy Riley as a Filmosound rental subject.

-- Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was the first Louise Brooks film shown on television likely anywhere in the world. The film was shown under the title Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood on November 18, 1948 on WJZ (Channel 7) in Asbury Park, New Jersey. (LINK)

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.   

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1931

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1931. The film is a short comedy which centers on Windy Riley, a cocky blow-hard who attempts to revamp the publicity department of a Hollywood studio. The film was Louise Brooks’ first after returning from Europe, the first to feature her actual voice (Brooks’ earlier sound films, The Canary Murder Case and Prix de Beauté, had been dubbed), and her first and only short. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.

The film was directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was working under the name William B. Goodrich; a blacklist on the comedian's employment in Hollywood was still in effect. Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was promoted as a behind the scenes look at the movie capital. The film’s press sheet overstated its case when it proclaimed “One of the first pictures ever showing the interior of a sound stage and the actual operation of talking pictures. . . . The actual cameras, microphones, etc., used in picture production will be shown in some of the big scenes.”

At times, story details surrounding character Betty Grey (played by Brooks) curiously parallel Brooks’ own career. Near the beginning of the film, Grey is set to star in The Box Car Mystery, a title of which calls to mind Brooks’ role in Beggars of Life. Later, while at lunch at the Montmarte (a famous Los Angles café once frequented by Brooks and others in Hollywood), Riley boasts he was responsible for the successful advertising campaign mounted by Klux Soap. In real life, Brooks was among a handful of actress who regularly appeared in print ads for Lux Soap. And, at the end of the film, it is announced that Grey will wed the director The Box Car Mystery. A few years earlier, Brooks married Eddie Sutherland, who directed her in It’s the Old Army Game.

The film's few reviews were largely negative, and the film suffered from a lack of exhibitor interest. Consequently, few likely saw Windy Riley Goes Hollywood at the time of its release. Except for a three-month period in mid-1931 when it played in Toronto, there are few records of this short film having been shown in any large cities. What exhibition records have been found suggest the film was shown as program filler in mostly smaller markets.

 In the United States and Canada, the film was on a few occasions promoted under the title Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood, and once reviewed as Windy Riley Goes into Hollywood. Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Canada, The Philippines, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (England and Scotland).

Elsewhere, Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was shown under the title The Gas Bag (United Kingdom, including England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) and as Windy Rileyová jde Hollywood (Czechoslovakia).

 SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

-- Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, based on an original story by Ken Kling, was adapted from Kling’s comic strip Windy Riley. The New York cartoonist started the strip about a wisecracking braggart in 1928. At the time of the film's release, the strip ran in some 170 newspapers across the country.

-- Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, depressed and still working under a pseudonym because he was under an industry blacklist, directed the film. Years later, Brooks told Kevin Brownlow, "He made no attempt to direct this picture. He sat in his chair like a man dead."

-- Dell Henderson started as an actor in 1908, and was a frequent associate of director D.W. Griffith, and less so, with producer Mack Sennett. Henderson also directed nearly 200 silent films between 1911 and 1928. In the late 1920s, he returned to acting and played important supporting roles in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928) and Show People (1928). The advent of sound stalled his career, and he was thereafter cast in small parts. In the 1930s, Henderson appeared as a comic foil for W. C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, and The Three Stooges.

-- The group of dancers seen in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood were recruited from the chorus of George Olsen’s Culver City nightclub. Olsen was a popular bandleader and recording artist married to Ethel Shutta. Her brother Jack Shutta, a stage performer making his screen debut in the title role of Windy Riley, managed Olsen's nightclub. Along with Ethel Shutta and Louise Brooks, Olsen and his orchestra performed at the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925.

-- In 1935, the Bell and Howell Company of Chicago offered Windy Riley as a Filmosound rental subject.

-- Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was the first Louise Brooks film shown on television. The film was shown under the title Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood on November 18, 1948 on WJZ (Channel 7) in Asbury Park, New Jersey. (LINK)

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1931

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1931. The film is a short, approximately 21 minute comedy which centers on Windy Riley, a cocky blow-hard who attempts to revamp the publicity department of a Hollywood studio. The film was Louise Brooks’ first role after returning from Europe, the first to feature her actual voice (Brooks’ earlier talkies, The Canary Murder Case and Prix de Beauté, had been dubbed), and her first and only short. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society filmography page.

The film was directed by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, who was working under the name William B. Goodrich; a blacklist on the comedian’s employment in Hollywood was still in effect. Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was promoted as a behind the scenes look at the movie capital. The film’s press sheet overstated its case when it proclaimed “One of the first pictures ever showing the interior of a sound stage and the actual operation of talking pictures. . . . The actual cameras, microphones, etc., used in picture production will be shown in some of the big scenes.”

At times, story details surrounding character Betty Grey (played by Brooks) curiously parallel Brooks’ own career. Near the beginning of the film, Grey is set to star in The Box Car Mystery, a title of which calls to mind Brooks’ role in Beggars of Life. Later, while at lunch at the Montmarte (a famous Los Angles café once frequented by Brooks and others in Hollywood), Riley boasts he was responsible for the successful advertising campaign mounted by Klux Soap. In real life, Brooks was among a handful of actress who regularly appeared in print ads for Lux Soap. And, at the end of the film, it is announced that Grey will wed the director of The Box Car Mystery. A few years earlier, Brooks married Eddie Sutherland, who directed her in It’s the Old Army Game.

The film’s few reviews were largely negative, and the film suffered from a lack of exhibitor interest. Consequently, few likely saw Windy Riley Goes Hollywood at the time of its release. Except for a three-month period in mid-1931 when it played in Toronto, there are few records of this short film having been shown in any large cities. What exhibition records have been found suggest the film was shown as program filler in mostly smaller markets.

In the United States and Canada, the film was on a few occasions promoted under the title Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood, and once reviewed as Windy Riley Goes into Hollywood. Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Canada, The Philippines, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (England and Scotland).
 
Elsewhere, Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was shown under the title The Gas Bag (United Kingdom, including England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) and as Windy Rileyová jde Hollywood (Czechoslovakia).

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, based on an original story by Ken Kling, was adapted from Kling’s comic strip Windy Riley. The New York cartoonist started the strip about a wisecracking braggart in 1928. At the time of the film’s release, the strip ran in some 170 newspapers across the country.

— Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, depressed and still working under a pseudonym because he was under an industry blacklist, directed the film. Years later, Brooks told Kevin Brownlow, “He made no attempt to direct this picture. He sat in his chair like a man dead.”

— The group of dancers seen in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood were recruited from the chorus of George Olsen’s Culver City nightclub. Olsen was a popular bandleader and recording artist married to Ethel Shutta. Her brother Jack Shutta, a stage performer making his screen debut in the title role of Windy Riley, managed Olsen’s nightclub. Along with Ethel Shutta and Louise Brooks, Olsen and his orchestra performed at the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925.

— In 1935, the Bell and Howell Company of Chicago offered Windy Riley as a Filmosound rental subject.

— Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was the first Louise Brooks film shown on television. The film was shown under the title Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood on November 18, 1948 on WJZ (Channel 7) in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Recommended reading - Rediscovering Roscoe The Films of “Fatty” Arbuckle

Before the coronavirus interrupted life as we knew it, there was a book I was meaning to write-up here on the Louise Brooks Society blog. That book is Rediscovering Roscoe: The Films of “Fatty” Arbuckle, by Steve Massa. It is an excellent read, and a book that belong on the shelf of anyone interested in silent era comedy.

Today is Roscoe Arbuckle's birthday. He was born on this day in 1887. He would have been 133, but regretably only lived to the age of 46. As Massa stated on Facebook earlier today, Arbuckle was "One of the great innovators of silent comedy, he was much maligned during his life but a substantial number of his films survive to perpetuate his talents and secure his place in film comedy history."

According to Bear Manor, Massa's publisher: "Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle was a silent comedy trailblazer — the teacher of Buster Keaton, a collaborator of Charlie Chaplin — whose reputation was eclipsed for many years by his involvement in one of Hollywood's first scandals. Rediscovering Roscoe is a film by film examination of his work as a performer, director, and all around comedy creator. Having learned and developed his craft on the stage, Arbuckle came to films in 1909. After joining Mack Sennett's Keystone Company he became one of the most important pioneers of American silent comedy, as well as a screen icon known around the world. This filmography details his initial forays into films and mastering of the medium, but also his banishment from the screen and ultimate comeback. It is lavishly illustrated with more than 500 rare photographs and advertising images."

Arbuckle's career was indeed legendary. Early on, he worked with both Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd, as well as with his gifted nephew Al St. John. He mentored Charlie Chaplin and discovered both Buster Keaton and Bob Hope. He was one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s, and one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. Arbuckle wrote, directed, and starred in dozens of short films, as well as a handful of feature films. All of these films, as well as those he directed under a pseudonym after his fall from grace following the Virginia Rappe trial, are covered in Massa's detailed book.

Louise Brooks adored this portly actor, who she described as "the great Roscoe Arbuckle." In Kevin Brownlow's book, The Parade's Gone By, she states "I thought he was magnificent in films. He was a wonderful dancer — a wonderful ballroom dancer in his heyday. It was like floating in the arms of a huge doughnut — really delightful."

Brooks and Arbuckle worked together on Windy Riley Goes Hollywood. This flaccid 1931 short from Educational Pictures was directed by Arbuckle under the pseudonym William Goodrich, with Brooks starring as Betty Grey, a dancer. As Massa notes in his section on the film, Windy Riley is not one of Arbuckle's better surviving talkies, but it does give a behind-the-scenes look at a real movie studio. Additionally, for fans of Brooks, it shows the actress dancing — and we get to hear her voice, which is pleasant and records well.

In its short review, Motion Picture Herald stated, “The auto record of Windy Riley from New York to Hollywood and the subsequent excitement at a studio when he works a fake publicity stunt, cannot be rated more than fair. The story by Ken Kling is not at all unusual. Jack Shutta, Louise Brooks, William Davidson, Dell Henderson, Wilbur Mack and Walter Merrill do their best but not very successfully.”

Louise Brooks is the women in red

According to Brooks, Arbuckle "made no attempt to direct." Instead, "he sat in his chair like a man dead. He had been very nice and sweetly dead ever since the scandal that ruined his career" and forced him to work on third rate material under a pseudonym.

Though Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was largely a failure, Arbuckle can be credited with numerous successes. Those earlier films are at the heart of Massa's splendid new book. Besides it's heavily annotated filmography, Rediscovering Roscoe: The Films of “Fatty” Arbuckle includes a foreword by critic Dave Kehr, an introduction by musician Ben Model, a succinct biography of Arbuckle, the story of his banishment and work under a pseudonym, a guide to seeing the films today, and an insightful essay, "The Screen Must Have a Fat Comedian." There is a lot packed into its nearly 700 pages.

As Model notes in his introduction, "The so-called “silent” era was more than the starting point of American film comedy. It was its Big Bang. Not only were the basics of screen comedy developed and established during that time — specifically from the early ‘teens through 1929 — but something else magical came from the cauldron of silent film comedy: the comedian/filmmaker." Prominent among them is the one and only Roscoe Arbuckle. Massa's book makes the case for his greatness.

Besides Rediscovering Roscoe: The Films of “Fatty” Arbuckle, Steve Massa is the author of  two other books which I am pleased to own, Lame Brains and Lunatics: The Good, The Bad, and the Forgotten of Silent Comedy (Bear Manor Media, 2013), and Marcel Perez: The International Mirth-Maker (CreateSpace, 2014). Each are groundbreaking. Massa is also the author of another groundbreaking work, Slaptstick Divas: The Women of Silent Comedy (Bear Manor Media, 2017). I liked it so much that my Huffington Post articles, "Best Film Books of 2017" and "Best Film Books of 2017: Silent Comedy Edition," featured it TWICE.

Back then, I wrote, "One can’t say enough about this book, and that’s why it’s included in this round-up as well as in my earlier piece on the Best Film Books of 2017.... I said it before, and I’ll say it again: Steve Massa has written a highly recommended book which belongs on the shelves of anyone interested in early film comedy or women’s film history." The same, I would say, applies to Rediscovering Roscoe: The Films of “Fatty” Arbuckle.