For those of you who watch old silent films you may have seen a few seconds of a girl on a swing who falls into a giant cake that splatters several guests at a party. This was seen in compilations of silent films, but for years the name of the girl and the movie were not identified but thanks to Roger of Aquantics (R.I.P.) he managed to identify the girl as Thelma Hill and it was a scene from the 1925 Billy Bevan short film "Skinners in Silk".

Then the problem began, because this was a "lost film" that is still lost to this day, and only a few fragments of the film are known to exist. However, although the film is still lost, a complete fragment of the slapstick swing scene has now turned up. I uploaded the full scene to my Tik Tok here ...

https://www.tiktok.com/@wetlookwamtec/video/7111701300970016046?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7074433874248156714

You can find dozens of other wet and messy clips here.

https://www.tiktok.com/@wetlookwamtec

MK

Wow...what a great find! Funny how the 'cake' is so sloppy...it appears to splash the seated (dark short hair) actress more than it 'splats' her (you can clearly see the not-quite-right edit/cut to the close-up where she is splashed from off camera (but great 'coverage' as they say 'round here).

Another interesting part is the now classic 'slipping on a banana peel' gag (here done with more of a juggler's flair; no fall on the floor)...if this is 1925, it makes me wonder how many previous banana peel slip gags there were in earlier shorts (I actually have seen maybe one earlier banana peel gag; there must have been more, right?).

Thanks so much for posting that for us all to enjoy. I thought it was fantastic. I have always wanted to see the clip, having scene the image many times.

Thanks for being so kind and sharing it.

Like many of you, I've also seen 2 seconds of this clip for years, fascinating to get the whole thing. As WJ mentioned, this has to be one of the earliest sightings of the "slip on a banana peel" gag.... before it was a complete cliche?!?

I wish I knew exactly how they pulled off this gag. The "cake" is probably fake, cuz that's definitely closer to colored liquid (pre-gunge gunge?) squirting out. But at the same time, a real stuntperson really drops onto a prop that looks like a cake, and the liquid flies out. Hmm.

The closeup is easier to explain, that's a prop guy tossing a bucket of the same whitewash-type liquid onto the actress.

One thing I noticed from the Larry Semon (predecessor of Abbott & Costello) shorts: That whitewash-esque substance show up frequently in these silent films. I suspect water doesn't "translate" to B&W easily, so they used a substance with some color to show the coverage on the actors, while still being liquid enough to wipe up. "Kid Speed" uses this substance in a long gag (that I've since ripped off) with actors "washing" themselves in the whitewash.

The banana peel slipping gag was performed in vaudeville acts starting in the 1890's. The first known use of this gag on film was by Charlie Chaplin in his 1915 film "By the Sea".

As blogger Matt Blitz says on his site.

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The first time the banana peel gag appeared on the big screen was in the Charlie Chaplin movie By the Sea. Playing his world famous character "The Tramp," he tosses a banana peel on the ground without paying any attention, only to slip on his own garbage later.

Soon, all the silent film stars were doing their own version of the banana peel gag. In the Harold Lloyd comedy The Flirt, featuring Bebe Daniels as the love interest, Lloyd carefully peels a banana and tosses the skin on the ground. A rude waiter slips on it and goes crashing to the ground.

Buster Keaton took the joke to the next level in the 1921 film High Step. Spotting a banana peel on the street, Keaton walks over it and silently mocks the peel for trying to do him harm. Of course, he takes one step further and slips on a banana peel he didn't see.

The banana peel gag continues hold it's place in comedy, from Woody Allen in the 1973 film Sleeper to 1995's Billy Madison. So, next time you see a banana peel, think of a 19th century city slicker or "Sliding" Billy Watson or Buster Keaton sliding their way on a banana peel and into comedy history. It's okay to laugh at their misfortune. We've been doing it for decades.

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Thanks WAMTEC! This type of content is much appreciated by me. I love classic slapstick like this and do not mind the black and white, film quality, etc. I often try to picture what these people looked like in "real life"-- the b&w, the silence, etc. really puts a distance between us and them but they were real people who looked much like real people today-- including being attractive or ugly.

I think I read once (in the Straight Dope column?) that banana peels really were a problem in urban areas in the first half of the 20th century. The banana (the old Gros Michel banana, which is different from the one we eat today-- it went "extinct" after a blight hit the monocultural banana tree) was a VERY popular snack in those days, maybe even more than it is now. People also used to be less fastidious about littering as well and used to just throw the peels on the ground. Lots of peels. Ended up being something of a hazard of walking downtown.

At the Edison national historic site in NJ, which includes a movie studio (on rollers to catch the sun!), a guide said the banana peel gag started because everyone working on a film, from techs to actors, was given a box lunch, often with a banana. The "prop" was easy to procure.

Fantastic clip.
Really appreciate you sharing.
Look forward to seeing more

Matt

Yes, I've seen the Chaplin banana peel gag (silent version of 'instant karma') in my old film history class...the fact that it 'originated' (i.e., what was recorded or written down from memory) in the 1890's or so does not surprise me...there is 'nothing new under the sun' as they say (until something new comes along).