I am here to rectify the appalling lack of Snub Pollard in your life. Mr. Pollard was a pretty important player in comedy films from about 1913 to 1924, commencing with sidekick roles in Harold Lloyd's earliest films. Snub — and how come no one these days names their kids "Snub?" — was fortunate to have had good co-stars and directors and gag men in a lot of them…but I've never seen any particular comic talent on his part. He always seemed to me like just a guy who was willing to work hard and who'd found a distinctive mustache that made him look interesting. In the silent days, when the director could yell to you during the scene and tell you what to do at every moment, that was often enough.
"What a Whopper!" was made in 1921…and you'll see the titles, which alas are not original, say it was directed by Charles Parrott. That was the alter-ego of Charles Chase, who was also an on-camera performer and a much better one than Mr. Pollard. Since "Charley Chase," as he was billed, is the perfect name for a silent comedian, one might assume the man's real name was Parrott and he made up the "Chase." And one might be right but some film history books will tell you no, even though his brother Paul later worked in the film biz as Paul Parrott, "Chase" was the family name and "Parrott" was an invention. I really don't know which to believe and am losing sleep over this. Snub Pollard's real name, by the way, was Harry Fraser.
Pollard actually had a pretty long career in movies. After his stardom as a comic abated, he ditched the Kaiser Wilhelm mustache and became a journeyman player at whatever studio would have him, sometimes playing very small parts but working pretty steadily until his death in 1962. At the end of the title tune in Singin' in the Rain, Gene Kelly hands his umbrella to a passer-by. That passer-by was Snub Pollard…and Snub was also visible as a courtroom extra in Inherit the Wind with Spencer Tracy. He also seems to have been in every crowd scene, often with a line or two, in every TV western show of the fifties. Here he is back when he was the star…
