B.M.O.C.

The Freshman (1925)
Friday May 25, 7:00pm, The Paramount Theater

Raccoon coats, rumbleseats, the "football hero" and all the trappings of college life found their way into movie theaters everywhere in the nineteen-twenties. Films like The Plastic Age (1925) and Brown of Harvard (1926) idealized a lifestyle everyone wanted, but few could afford. Who better then the original wholesome, energetic youth, Harold Lloyd, should make the ultimate college comedy? While Chaplin made dinner rolls dance and Keaton fled a thousand brides, Lloyd explored the silliness and cruelty of collegiate popularity in The Freshman (1925).

Harold Lamb, (call me ‘Speedy!’) dreams of college. "He simply can’t think of anything else." When he finally arrives at Tate University, "a large football stadium with a college attached." his good-natured but hopelessly old-fashioned attempt to attract friends only makes him the campus joke. He tries out for the football team, but ends up replacing the tackling dummy. "That kid’s got a great spirit – I hate to tell him he can’t make the team." "Why not keep him on as a water boy – and let him think he’s one of the substitutes?" In love with Harold, Peggy (Jobyna Ralston) knows, but can’t tell him. He believes his popularity is real, until anger reveals the truth. "You think you’re a regular fellow – why, you’re nothing but the college boob!" The story ends, of course, with "The Big Game" and Harold scores the winning touchdown, gaining the admiration of his tormentors. What remains unclear is Lloyd’s true intent. Is this the satire of a valueless lifestyle, or another story of "boy makes good in the end"? As with most films of this genre, nary a book is cracked, nor a classroom seen. It is, the most heartbreaking of Lloyd’s characters, with a bittersweet ending despite several hilarious turns along the way, and Ralston was never sweeter.

Among the bits: Harold and Peggy work a crossword puzzle on the train dining car and profess their love (they’ve just met), or so an eavesdropping old woman thinks. When he discovers how much he enjoys Peggy sewing them back on, Harold cuts the buttons off his cloths. He has a brief but hilarious encounter with "Our Gang’s" Petey the pooch. In a wonderfully complex and original scene, Harold hosts a party in a new suit, which is only basted. The tailor comes along and attempts to repair the disintegrating suit, unobserved, while battling his own drunken dizzy spells. Harold runs amuck in UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium, and his silly dancing handshake is repeated throughout the film.

The Freshman came to Seattle’s Liberty Theater "At 11 sharp," on Saturday, October 10, 1925. "See a jazzy college boy make himself the campus boob! Then later see him bring 80,000 cheering football fans to their feet." Ticket prices, "Adults 50¢ afternoon and evening. Children – Till 6 p. m., 18¢; nights 25¢. Loge seats – Afternoons, 75¢; nights, 85¢. Evening prices prevail, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays."
Also on the program, "A rollicking prologue on the stage, in keeping with the college spirit, entitled ‘The Rehearsal’", "The J. and V. Liberty News" and "Wallace on the Wurlitzer."

Seattle Theater Group, The Paramount Theater and Trader Joe’s present,
The Harold Lloyd Retrospective: five nights and nine films from the legend of Silent Era comedy. Featuring live accompaniment performed by Dennis James, on the Paramount’s original 4/20 Publix 1 Wurlitzer. April 30th – May 25th