The Hero
About The Hero
Billy, a waiter in a cheap café, wanders into a park and breaks up a society courtship. When thugs set on a couple, the man runs and Billy drives them off with a cane. The young woman takes him home. He gets into her family's party by showing a count's card. He has to go back to work. The guests decide to go slumming, walk into his café, and the pose falls apart.
Cast & crew
More about The Hero
Arvid E. Gillstrom directed the two-reel comedy. Louis Burstein produced it. Billy West stars. Oliver Hardy, billed as Babe Hardy, plays the rival. Herman Obrock Jr. photographed it. Ben H. Cohen edited it.
Themes
Making
West was working as a Chaplin imitator in short comedies. Hardy, still billed as Babe, played heavies and rivals in that series.
Look
Herman Obrock Jr. photographed the two reels.
Preservation
A print survives and is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- Ethel Marie Burton, billed as Ethel Burton, plays the society girl. Leo White plays the count. Bud Ross plays the butler. Polly Bailey plays the mother.
- Hardy is credited as Babe Hardy, years before the films with Stan Laurel.
- West's costume and cane follow the Chaplin tramp he was then imitating.
- A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Scenes
- Billy fights the thugs with a cane after the other man runs.
- The party walks into the café where he is waiting tables.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-hero)
