distributor molly o 
Mack Sennett ( born Michael Sinnott ; January 17 , 1880  November 5 , 1960 ) was a Canadian - born American director and actor and was known as an innovator of slapstick comedy in film . During his ___MASK65___ he was known at times as the " King of Comedy ". His short " Wrestling Swordfish " was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1932 and he earned an Academy Honorary Award in 1937 . Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1 , 000 short subjects made by ___MASK81___ and its sister studio ___MASK58___ from 1926 to 1931 . Vitaphone was the last major analog sound - on - disc system and the only one which was widely used and commercially successful . The soundtrack was not printed on the film itself , but issued separately on phonograph records . The discs , recorded at rpm ( a speed first used for this system ) and typically in diameter , would be played on a turntable physically coupled to the projector motor while the film was being projected . Many early talkies , such as " The Jazz Singer " ( 1927 ), used the Vitaphone system . The name " Vitaphone " derived from the Latin and Greek words , respectively , for " living " and " sound ". Molly O is a 1921 American silent film starring Mabel Normand and directed by F . Richard Jones . Mabel Normand ( November 9 , 1892  February 23 , 1930 ) was an American silent film actress , screenwriter , director , and producer . She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in his ___MASK90___ films and , at the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s , had her own movie studio and production company . Onscreen , she appeared in 12 successful films with Charles Chaplin and 17 with Roscoe " Fatty " Arbuckle , sometimes writing and directing ( or co - writing / directing ) movies featuring Chaplin as her leading man . Throughout the 1920s , her name was linked with widely publicized scandals , including the 1922 murder of William Desmond Taylor and the 1924 shooting of Courtland S . Dines , who was shot by Normand ' s chauffeur using her pistol . She was not a suspect in either crime . Her film career declined , possibly due to both scandals and a recurrence of tuberculosis in 1923 , which led to a decline in her health , retirement from films , and her death in 1930 at age 37 . ___MASK90___ was an early movie studio founded in Edendale , California ( which is now a part of Echo Park ) on July 4 , 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett ( 1880 - 1960 ) with backing from actor - writer Adam Kessel ( 1866 - 1946 ) and Charles O . Baumann ( 1874 - 1931 ), owners of the New York Motion Picture Company ( founded 1909 ). The company filmed in and around Glendale and Silver Lake , Los Angeles , California for several years , and its films were distributed by the Mutual Film Corporation between 1912 and 1915 . A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound , especially with no spoken dialogue . The silent film era lasted from 1895 to 1936 . In silent films for entertainment , the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures , mime and title cards which contain a written indication of the plot or key dialogue . The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself , but because of the technical challenges involved , synchronized dialogue was only made practical in the late 1920s with the perfection of the Audion amplifier tube and the introduction of the Vitaphone system . During silent films , a pianist , theatre organist , or , in large cities , even a small orchestra would often play music to accompany the films . Pianists and organists would either play from sheet music or improvise ; an orchestra would play from sheet music .