Clyde Bruckman "When the Laughter Stops"

By

John J. Raspanti

Feelings Within

A insatiable urge,
A craving needing more.
A hunger wanting to be filled,
A emptiness hollow within.
Confused by this loneliness.
Lingering in this emotion,
Longing for more, what's out of reach.
Trying so hard to escape

Jaque G.

Out of work and desperate, the thin man with the moustache made his way to the phone booth and climbed inside. He picked up the receiver with his right hand and looked at it. In his left hand was a gun that he had borrowed from close friend Buster Keaton. He had told Buster he was going hunting...and in a way he was. He paused...his gun hand slowly coming up...he just couldn't hear the laughter anymore...

Clyde Bruckman was born in San Bernadino, California in 1894. He had started out as a sports reporter, but soon grew bored by the day to day routine and gravitated to Hollywood where all the excitement was. He got a job with Warner Brothers as a title writer and made some friends. One of them was Harry Brand who coxed Bruckman to come over and work for an up and coming comedian named Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton as a gagman. Keaton and Bruckman clicked right away. Keaton could see the craftsman in Bruckman and Clyde could see the genius in Buster. They would remain life long friends.

There first official film together was Three Ages in 1923, but Bruckman had played a significant role in helping with the gags for Cops, one of Keaton's most popular shorts. He collaborated with Eddie Cline, Jean Havez, Joe Mitchell and Keaton to create a world where the poker faced comedian was at a loss, in control of nothing.

Bruckman loved working for Keaton. If comedy idea's were slow in coming the group would play some cards or head out to the back of the lot for a little game of baseball, knowing that eventually something creative would be born.

The relaxed atmosphere helped calm the nervous and insecure Bruckman

"In such a situation...gags are never a problem. You feel good...your minds at ease and working."

Clyde penned the story for the Keaton masterpiece Sherlock Jr in 1924.

The fanfare was late in coming since the film was slightly a head of it's time. It's been considered a classic mixture of story and gags for years now...

He worked on Keaton's next film The Navigator and a few months later showed him a novel about the Civil War. He told Keaton he could see some real comic possibilities. Keaton loved it and within months The General was in production.

In 1925 Bruckman did some freelance writing working on a film starring Harry Langdon, and a few months later helping out on a Harold Lloyd project. But soon he was back with Keaton. Clyde liked nothing better then hoisting a few with Keaton, but he didn't realize that his drinking was becoming a problem.

In 1928 he conceived a story he called The Cameraman, helping to create another instant classic. Bruckman never felt his contributions deserved much praise. He was in awe of Keaton's talent...

"I could tell you that those wonderful stories were 90% Buster's... I was often ashamed to take the money, much less the credit"

Harold Lloyd again asked for Bruckman's help. He needed to spice up his "timid character" and create some thrills for the audience. He asked Bruckman to direct his next film. The film Welcome Danger helped Lloyd's career greatly. Ironically it would be the same Harold Lloyd who helped ruin Bruckman own career a number of years later. Next Bruckman moved over to Hal Roach studios and worked with a couple of comedians named...Laurel and Hardy ( though they hadn't quite taken on the persona's that would make them famous) He directed (with Stan Laurel) a film called The Battle of the Century, that is most noted for the final sequence - a wonderfully-choreographed pie fight. He directed the next three Laurel and Hardy films, helping to develop there teamwork...but directing wasn't one of his strengths. He was too insecure and racked with doubts about his own ability. He much preferred working in the shadows of the vast soundstages, brainstorming with his writer friends or better yet alone, creating situations and building gags.

In the 1930's Clyde continued to freelance. He missed working with best friend Keaton, who had been shipped to MGM and had lost his creative independence. Bruckman gave directing another try working with W.C Fields in a couple of films...The Fatal Glass of Beer and Man on the Flying Trapeze. Sadly his deep rooted doubts and demons continued to fester, causing him to go on benders and disappear from the studio...

His feature film directing days were over.

By 1935 he was employed at Columbia Studios in the "short film" department.

Oh to be home at last. He was back in his element and Jules White let him write and create. He had discovered that he was more then just a gagman. For awhile even the alcoholic demons stayed away, White assigned Clyde to work with three zany comedians whose popularity was growing...

Clyde wrote a screenplay he called Three Little Beers, where The Stooges are inept deliverymen at a brewery. When they learn about a company golf tournament, they sneak onto a golf course to get some practice...

Bruckman's screenplay has some hilarious moments...

Moe: This is a golf course!
Curly: I don't see any golfs!
[Moe hits him]
Curly: Ooh, ooh, look at the golfs!

Curly: He's pointin' where you are!
Moe: Ya mean he's pointin' where I was! C'mon, let's get outta here!

Bruckman adapted to the Stooges easily. His strength's as a writer and gagman were his ability to incorporate the comedian's talents with his own.

In 1937 he worked on the Stooges short...Grips, Grunts and Groans...and other Stooge films. He talked Jules White into a hiring an out of work Buster Keaton and then helped write what many consider to be Keaton's best post silent film...Pest from the West. Keaton would repay Clyde's loyalty many times in the future.

In 1939 he wrote another screenplay for the Stooges entitled Three Sappy People...some of the lines were extremely funny...

to Curly]
Moe: Why don't you get a toupee with some brains in it!

And...Williams: Moe: [on doctors' switchboard] Too-too-too-too? What do ya think you're doin', bub, playing train?

Six months later he collaborated with Felix Adler on what many Stooge fans consider their "masterpiece"...You Nazty Spy...Moe was "Moe Hailstone"...Larry "Larry Peeble" and Curly..."Curly Gallstone"...the results were 18 minutes of silly fun.

In between stooge shorts Clyde labored on scripts for Andy Clyde, Keaton, and other movie projects. He had his drinking under control, at least to a degree.

But time was running out...

In 1941 he composed a screenplay for the Stooges called In the Sweet Pie and Pie and Pie...

Curly: No! I'm too young to die. Too young and too handsome!
[looks in the mirror]
Curly: Well, I'm too young.

Mrs. Gottrocks: I hear you have done much traveling. Are you familiar with the Great Wall of China?
Curly: No, but I know a big fence in Chicago!

Continuing his dizzying and productive writing schedule, Clyde wrote the story for the latest Blondie adventure...Blondie Goes to College. He even created a scenario for the Andrew Sisters that was wildly successful. Jules White knew that Clyde could conjure up a tale pretty quickly so he went to his ace more and more. Problem was Clyde's creative juices were drying up, and his drinking was becoming a problem again. As his boozing and the pressure to create got worse, he started to borrow from some of his old routines from the silent days reckoning the gags were his.

Harold Lloyd didn't see it that way. Lloyd had tried to help Clyde a number of years before. But this was different, since the gags were part of a Lloyd film, he figured he owned them. In 1945 he sued his old friend and Universal films, citing five examples of plagiarism. Clyde was named in all five.

Somehow during this period Bruckman found the focus to pen another stooge classic Three Little Pirates...

A few months after the release of Pirates, Harold Lloyd won the judgment of the court against Clyde and Universal. Bruckman was devastated, Columbia told him to go home.

Unemployed...his drinking escaladed.

He didn't know what to do with himself. His entire life had been spent at one studio or another, creating gags or writing scenarios. Now he could do neither. His drinking was running his life, but he couldn't stop. Clyde wandered the streets lost and despondent. That is until his old and loyal friend Buster Keaton called and asked him to help write some stories for his new live television series.

Buster's old films had been re-discovered, and he wanted Clyde back with him. For a short time he felt the old spark return but his passion had dimmed. Keaton noticed the inherent sadness that seemed to engulf his friend. After Keaton's show ended Bruckman worked with Abbott and Costello for a few years, but the bottle continued to beckon. He would drift away for days, lost in a fog of depression and drink. Columbia was now borrowing and renaming his old scripts for the Stooges, but Clyde barely noticed.

In early 1955 he was bored, depressed and diving deeper into the darkness. His old friends rarely called, except for Keaton of course who got together with Clyde every chance he could. There was talk of work, but the parade had left town and the gagman who had helped conceive so many funny situations was adrift in a sea of despair.

Clyde Bruckman ended his pain on January 4^th, 1955, alone and despondent in a Santa Monica, California phone booth. When informed of the news Keaton was devastated feeling he should have been able to save his friend, but in this case Clyde's worst enemy was his own...reflection in the mirror.

Despite the tragedy of his death, the hilarity that he created will continue to give generation after generation great joy and laughter.

For that...Clyde Bruckman will always live.

© John J. Raspanti