Interviewing Anthony: John Bunny the man, the first, the forgotten Part 3 of 3

Continuing now from Part 1 Who was John Bunny? and Yesterdays Part 2: Flickers and Career. We present the final installement of Anthony's interview, Part 3: The Man Behind the Scenes

FTT: Bunny obviously died long before talkies were even a thought. What was his voice said to be like?

AS: Bunny's speaking voice was something that the movie audiences never got to experience. He was equally successful in his stage shows where he obviously talks. Bunny was adept at many dialects and if he would have lived, it likely would have transferred well to sound movies although by that time, he would have been in his late 60’s. In the 1940s, Bunny would have already been in his 80s.

FTT: In several interviews Bunny stated some eerily accurate visions for the future of motion pictures, which was then in its infancy. What were these predictions? What plans did he have for himself?

AS: Bunny had a huge ego. He talks about how he is really not funny, but it is his intelligence that is his strength. I almost have to agree with him on the intelligence comment. Bunny was smart. His predictions about film are right on the mark. Bunny made better more accurate predictions than Nostradamus!

Bunny realized the power of film. He knew film could be used for education. He knew that classic books could be translated to the screen for all to enjoy. When asked what his greatest ambition was, Bunny said just before he died, "I hope to improve the moving pictures. Just how I don't want to say, but they are not nearly as perfect as they should be. I am going to experiment and try to make them better. Also, I am going to set out some rules for the improvement of scenarios; they are often very inadequate. If I light a few more matches," he said irrelevantly, "you will think I buy them by the tree."

Bunny was able to assess his career and where the industry was going. “Look at the picture plays of just a few years ago: a moving train was a story then, now they're filming Les Miserables in twelve reels.”

It is also said that Bunny predicted color film and the advent of sound, "I believe the time is coming when motion picture machines will be a part of the equipment of every school and college in the country, and many branches of learning now so objectionable to children will be made interesting by the use of motion pictures. My principal worry is the fact that I can't hope to live long enough to do all the work, which I've mapped out for myself. I have planned fifty years of activity in the motion picture business, which I fear I will not live to carry out entirely. I want to see Latin and Green mythology taught in every school and college in the United States by the use of films. It can and will be done and will be one of the biggest gifts to mankind the world has ever known."

FTT: After Bunny's death Flora Finch made a go at a solo career. How successful was this? What happened to her later in life?

AS: Finch’s career went down hill after Bunny’s death. She is also included in the list of some of the bigger names who left the Vitagraph studios in 1916-1917.

In 1917 she started Flora Finch Film Production company and made several shorts all of which, like Bunny, she used her name in the title. Slide told me he doesnt know of any of these that still exist. She went on to work usually nothing but bit parts in the company of actors having any idea of who she was or what she had done. She appeared most notably in "The Cat and The canary" (1927) (which was just on TCM the other night) and a bit part in "Way out West" with Laurel and Hardy.

FTT: Bunny has been reported as a possibly cruel man and at the very least difficult to get along with. It has been said he and Flora did not get along. Are there any truth to these rumors? What type of man was he off the screen?

AS: Known as “Uncle John” on the set, Bunny would be happy to listen to a trouble or just visit. It would not be unlikely to walk into the Vitagraph set and see Mabel Normand or Florence Turner sitting on his lap. That was the public story: The old, wise, lovable man.

According to Anthony Slide in his book, The Big V, The History of the Vitagraph Company, Bunny was hated by just about everyone on the set. "John Bunny was pompous, rude and arrogant." states Slide. Larry Trimble's daughter states also in the book, "He was very bad-tempered, very difficult. He upstaged everyone. He was an old egocentric. He always wanted the camera on him. He wasn't as mean as W.C. Fields, but he was verging on it." Anthony Slide’s comments then go overboard. In his book Silent Players, Slide says of Bunny,
“The animosity generated by John Bunny is almost apparent in his film performances. You know not to like or to trust him. He is not your kindly uncle but more likely the older relative who sexually abuses his nephew or niece while offering them candy and chocolates.” This comment comes from the same man who also states in the same book that Larry Semon's death was “a blessing in disguise, for undoubtedly he could not have survived any longer as a screen comedian.”

In the same book, Slide exposes damaging, undeniable first hand accounts from people who knew and worked with Bunny. Slide quotes Trimble's daughter further as saying, “...Bunny was the most famous of the, at one time more than 400 people who worked at Vitagraph. I am sure he felt like a King. Vitagraph workers consistently made comments that Bunny was sleeping constantly while everyone else in the troupe was running amok trying to get a film made."

In a Helen Hayes letter, she even recalls Bunny sleeping in the rafters of the theatre! Hayes appeared with Bunny in Bunny’s last theatre appearance "Old Dutch" from 1909-1910. She garnered little attention being bombarded by publicity about Vernon Castle and of course, John Bunny.

Also consider the ego crossed with the fact that I believe that Bunny possibly had a drinking problem. Photos of Bunny in 1915 show (to quote the, FTT adds: dreadful , Kenneth Anger on W.C. Fields) “gin blossoms” and an even more bulbous nose.

Regardless, Bunny was a very sick man and probably kept this illness secret from the people around him. Bunny had Bright’s Disease which is a term for kidney disease that is a diagnosis no longer used today. It’s symptoms are devastating. Back pain, restricted breathing, edema made water retention and distention of the face and certain body parts which may have had a lot to do with Bunny hitting over the 300lb mark at the end. Bloody urine and extreme pain on top of his already overweight, worn down, unhealthy traveling from his show. His illness would have had to be full blown around his touring time because he died very soon after he returned. Bunny said he planned to tour with the show for two years, return to Vitagraph for one year making films and then retire.

When Bunny was ill, he called Alfred Smith very depressed and asked about returning to Vitagraph. Smith told him a film would be ready for him in October. I have a sense that both men knew that this was not going to happen.

FTT: Bunny married Clara Scallen in 1890. Did they remain married through his career? What was his wife like?

AS: Clara and John remained married until his death. Very little is known about her. They were married in Houston, TX in 1890. In the interview a month before Bunny died, he is asked, "What do you love more than anything else in the world, Mr. Bunny?" He replies, "Baseball and the sea, and my wife and two boys-and my friends."

In 1915 damaging articles appeared across the United States with the headline “What Bunny Left” questioning why a man like Bunny who made as much as $1,000 a week left an estate of only $8,000. One of the last articles I could find said Clara was going to buy a hotel with the money.

FTT: Bunny had 2 sons, George and John Jr, who at least lived until 1958. Did they ever try to follow in their father's footsteps?

AS: John’s brother George went on to appear in a series of shorts like his brother starting around 1918. He also appeared in the "Lost World" (1925) and an unaccredited role as a butcher in the Errol Flynn version of "Adventures of Robin Hood".

John Jr. worked for many years as a film editor for (I believe) Universal and in the 1950’s George was the only victim of an rooming house fire where apparently he left his cigarette burning and fell asleep. He is listed in the news article as being the son of silent screen comedian John Bunny.

FTT: How many films did Bunny make? And how many of them still exist? It's said he has a low survival rate.

AS: The main Bunny page on IMDB lists more than 170 Bunny films. I believe some are the same films with different titles. When I originally researched Bunny I read that he made more than 200! I think the correct number is around 150.

After much research, I find the survival rate of Bunny films to not be as bad as expected. I have read one article that stated only 4 of his films survive. I have 8 or 9 on DVD and VHS. I have seen at least 15 (some not complete) and can count conservatively another 10 in film archives. If just these 25 or 30 films exist out of Bunny’s 150+ films, that’s a pretty good percentage compared to other silent movie scarcity.

When I spoke with Anthony Slide, Slide said it would be almost impossible to estimate and cover all the archives that may have Bunny films, but said that there is at least 50 to as many as 100 that exist. I believe it has a lot to do with the availability of his films plus the fact that whenever any type of comedy compilation is put together, they always use that damn "Cure for Pokeritis" film which has been shown over and over. In addition, many believe that a lot of Bunny’s good films don’t exist and the ones that do, don’t give a good representation of his work.

Two of Bunny’s last films, "Bunny Backslides" (1914) and "Hearts and Diamonds" (1914) (now on DVD) are two great examples of Bunny films and much more developed in story, action and just funnier than "Pokeritis" made two years earlier.

FTT: Why do so few films survive? Is it because of the early era or just amnesia on our behalf?

AS: Vitagraph studios had a couple of fires that destroyed a great deal of their output. To have the films we do is remarkable (especially being made before 1915). The reason for the rarity of Bunny’s films is no different than the survival rate of all silent movies - films were looked at as a commodity and when its time was over, it was thrown away.

In addition, censors from individual cities would censor the films and cut complete parts from the films. Films were melted down to collect the silver content and until the 50’s films were printed on very flammable nitrate stock film, that still today is a hazard. An original 35mm print might self destruct in just a matter of time. When films were done showing here in the US passed from theatre to theatre, they were sent overseas. That is why so many great film discoveries are made in Europe or Australia. That was the last place they ended up at. An original 35mm print of an unnamed Bunny print sold on eBay around a month ago for around $300.00 It was a film that already existed and not a new find.

To sum this up: Bunny’s films don’t exist for more reasons than besides they seemed dated or not funny anymore. Films were like newspapers and magazines. We read them, and then threw them away.

FTT: What do you think is John Bunny's legacy? Do you think it will grow in the coming years?

AS: Bunny has not been completely forgotten. Distant relatives have contacted me over the years thanking me so much for my appreciation and websites and writings recognizing Bunny. One woman told me she cried when she saw my website proud that her great Uncle was being recognized.

Without a doubt there has been an increased interest in Bunny by film fans in the past ten years. More material is being released on DVD, the Bunny theatre in New York always garners attention with its big Bunny façade. The Vitagraph smokestack is still there next to the original Vitagraph studio that is now a school for girls. I was told when they moved in, the walls were covered with photos and posters of the Vitagraph stars that were sadly painted over.

Although he is brutal to Bunny, I want to thank Slide for mentioning Bunny so much because he has definitely supplied information that would not have been unavailable any other place. In an obituary from just four weeks ago, a man died and it mentioned the family story has it that Mr. Adelmann's nickname, Bunny, came from his great-grandmother, who thought the chubby infant resembled silent-screen comedian John Bunny.

Bunny was also given a star on the Walk of Fame Motion Picture located at 1719 Vine Street.
The biggest tribute of all was in 2006 when the Museum of Modern Art celebrated Vitagraph films devoting an entire evening to Bunny films with the same set being shown again the next day.

I don’t know how much more his legacy will grow. People tend to tabloid his life and discuss how mean he was etc.

FTT: Are there any DVD releases? Any biographies? Any plans for more in the future?

AS: David Sheperd told me that in his next Slapstick Encyclopedia it may include one of Bunny’s films "Pigs is Pigs" based on the popular short story of that time by Ellis Parker Butler.

I have so much more information stored on my computer but sadly the hard drive crashed. Hopefully, when I have time, I can take this drive in to be repaired and get the information off of it.

This concludes the Epic 3 Part John Bunny interview. I would like to thank Anthony for providing his time and research, as well as the photos. Anthony wanted me to include a note that he can be reached at anthonysusnick@insightbb.com, and hopes that Bunny descendants and fans will do so. He also started a personal website http://www.anthonysusnick.com. In the meantime we'll keep you up to date on the coming website (http://johnbunny.com/) and Bunny news.