In 1915, Jimmy Aubrey as Heinie and Walter Kendig as Louie made about 59 Starlight Comedies for the Mittenthal Company. Released through the Pathe Exchange the company used studios located in Yonkers, New York. These comedies were Jimmy Aubrey's first film work having come out of the English Music Halls (with Fred Karno's troupe, no less). Walter Kendig did some film work in 1914 primarily in support of Bobby Burns and Walter Stull in some of their first Pokes & Jabs comedies. By all accounts these Heinie & Louie comedies were popular and only tragedy ended the series.
Looking through THE NEW YORK CLIPPER I came across the following article in the October 30, 1915 issue:
Walter Kendig passed away at the age of 25 and it truly was "a sad and abrupt termination of a promising career." It also pretty much brought an end to the Mittenthal Company. The company only made a few comedies other than the Heinie & Louie shorts and once the backlog of finished Aubrey & Kendig product was released the company seems to have disappeared. One of the non-Heinie & Louie shorts that Mittenthal produced featured Babe Hardy in FATTY's FATAL FUN, ironically released on October 23 right around the same time as Kendig's accident.
Jimmy Aubrey would soon find work over at Vitagraph working in support of Hughie Mack and Larry Semon. Eventually Aubrey would get his own series at Vitagraph. So now go bed, go out on a date (not necessarily in that order), and check the want ads.... your nagging question has been answered.
Rob, when I was doing Slapsticon program notes on Heinie and Louie earlier this year I found an article that Kendig was near death, but not a confirmation of his death. This is that confirmation, thanks!
ReplyDeleteSo the question still is, did they actually have all the Heinie and Louie's that would be released over the next year or so already in the can with Kendig, or did they continue on with a replacement for Kendig--as Louie, either continuing to bill his as "Walter Kendig" or not at all?