Echo Park: “Almost all the damage was done by the Keystone Comedy company...”
This excerpt from a March 2014 article by L.A. City Archivist, History Comes Alive! - Tales From The City Archive, exposes Keystone's abusive relationship with Echo Park.
Actor-director Mack Sennett's crew took full advantage of the variety of scenery throughout Los Angeles, be it a downtown parade or the amusement parks in Venice, where they set up shop in 1912. One of their favorite and most convenient locations was about a mile from the studio: Echo Park.
This park inspired some of the slapstick Keystone was known for. When the City drained the lake in the summer of 1913 for improvements, a film called A Muddy Romance included a scene where a jilted suitor opened a valve and drained the lake, leaving the lovers trapped in their rowboat in the middle of a very messy landscape. Press reports about amorous couples on park benches resulted in movie plots involving the same benches, with pretty girls, seedy men and comic policemen added to the mix. Echo Park was as much a character to the Sennett brand of chaos as it was a backdrop.
But Echo Park was also a very active piece in the City park system with both the reservoir and the grounds. The facility files that have survived are rich with the day-to-day struggles of running a park of its kind. The working papers - both formal requests and scribbled notes from the park foreman, the boathouse concessionaire and the public - reveal a facility chronically underfunded and technically challenging. They also include correspondence that rounds out the history framed by the commission minutes.
An example would be the Board of Park Commissioners decision to ban all film companies from Echo Park in early 1914. A response from the commission to a City Hall inquiry clearly stated who they held accountable for the conditions in the park:
“Almost all the damage was done by the Keystone Comedy company and because we endeavor to treat all motion picture companies alike, the order was made to exclude all companies from the park.”
The letter goes on, accusing the moviemakers of:
“being disposed to disregard all rules and regulations: They take all kinds of liberties and show no regard whatever for the fact that the parks are for the benefit and enjoyment of the citizens...and not for the exploitation by any industry.”