MY DINNER WITH KENT

INT. LIDO'S PIZZA:

KENT: "Eddie! Is that you? How are ya these days!?"

EDDIE (VO): "I'm great! Have a seat!"

KENT ORDERS, THEN.....

KENT: "I've gotta eat quick! There's more Mack Sennett films on TCM tonight, starting at five. I think they're gonna show 'Mickey.' If I remember right that was directed by Mable Normand. Some people say she was the real brains behind the Sennett studio."

EDDIE (VO): "Mable was great, but 'the real brains?' I don't know......she only had less than two good years so far as I can tell."

KENT: "Yeah, she wasn't the same after the the vase. You heard about that, right?"

EDDIE (VO) :"The vase?"

KENT: "Yeah. Her and Sennett were lovers, but one day she walked in and found him in bed with one of his actresses. She threw a fit and the actress whacked her on the head with a vase. It sent her to the hospital."

EDDIE (VO): "Yikes!"

KENT: "Mabel never quite recovered. Or maybe she did, but the drugs she was taking took hold. Whatever it was, her acting was never the same. Sennett gave her her own studio as an apology."

EDDIE (VO): "Wow. I remember Sid Caesar saying you should never become romantically involved with your acting partner, no matter how great the temptation. He was always politely distant with Imogene Coca offstage because he didn't want to mess with the chemistry they had infront of the camera."

KENT: "That sounds right. Anyway, Sennett went on to do the Keystone Cops and The Bathing Beauties, so I guess he landed on his feet."

EDDIE (VO): "Sennett was a genius. My favorites are the early slapstick films he directed himself. And I love the way he could choreograph crowds."

KENT: "Yeah, like those restaurant sequences where everybody in the shot's doing something interesting....the waiters just barely avoiding dropping the tray in someone's lap, the customers arguing or pitching woo to each other, or flirting with somebody at the next table. You almost don't know where to look because it's all so rich, but it works."

EDDIE (VO): "What do you think the best Sennett films were?"

KENT: "The best??? Er.....the ones he did with Keaten or Arbuckle or Chaplin? Geez, I don't know. Even Langden did some good films with Sennett."