# L-KO Motion Picture Company

The L-KO Motion Picture Company, also known as the L-KO Kompany, was an American motion picture company founded by Henry Lehrman. It produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919, released by Universal Pictures. The initials L-KO stand for "Lehrman—Knock Out".

## History

By the spring of 1914, Henry "Pathé" Lehrman had directed several important Keystone Cops comedies including The Bangville Police (1913) and Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), Charlie Chaplin's debut. Wooed away from Mack Sennett by producer Fred J. Balshofer, Lehrman left Keystone, along with star performer Ford Sterling, to found Sterling Comedies under the umbrella of the Universal Film and Manufacturing Co., later Universal Pictures. After a relatively short time, Lehrman was fired from Sterling Comedies and founded L-KO as a separate unit within Universal.
L-KO's first comedy star was veteran English comic Billie Ritchie, who had played the role of the drunk in Fred Karno's stage production A Night in the English Music Hall before Chaplin did. Ritchie made his film debut in the first L-KO production, Love and Surgery, released October 25, 1914. Also making their first films in this venture were Gertrude Selby, a comedian who became the main female foil in L-KO comedies, and Fatty Voss, L-KO's answer to Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Louise Orth, who had appeared in some Biograph comedies and would go on to appear in many L-KO's, was also aboard for the first release. Before long this group of performers was joined by Hank Mann and other disaffected talent from Mack Sennett's "fun factory," such as Alice Howell, Harry Gribbon and ultimately Mack Swain, whose "Ambrose" character continued at L-KO for a time. Henry Bergman had made one picture with Phillips Smalley before turning up at L-KO; not long after he would join Charlie Chaplin's regular troupe of character actors.
Lehrman proved even more frugal with budget than Sennett had been, and he favored a rough-and-tumble style of slapstick that reputedly resulted in injury. Author Kalton C. Lahue reported that there were stunt persons and bit players of the time who would not answer a call from L-KO owing to the possibility of danger; stuntman Harvey Parry referred to the producer as "Suicide" Lehrman. Lehrman eventually brought on directors John G. Blystone, Harry Edwards and David Kirkland to help raise the total output of L-KO, but stingily refused to award directors credit for L-KO films.
As the result of yet another dispute—this time with executives at Universal—Lehrman left L-KO towards the end of 1916 and took over the Sunshine Comedies unit at Fox. After Lehrman's departure, L-KO was taken over by Julius and Abe Stern—brothers-in-law to Universal's founder Carl Laemmle—and they named John G. Blystone director-in-chief. Blystone headed L-KO for a few months but he ultimately went to Fox Sunshine as well. L-KO nonetheless kept going for quite some time and proved a valuable training ground for new or developing comedy talent. Director Charles Parrott, better known as Charley Chase, came onto the L-KO lot in August 1918 and directed a few subjects through to near the end of L-KO's existence. Dapper comic Raymond Griffith made his film debut at L-KO in 1915 and comedian Eva Novak did so in 1917. Even Fatty Voss managed to direct one two-reeler, Fatty's Feature Fillum, just before his untimely death in 1917. He, thus, spent his entire film career at L-KO.
What finally brought around the end of L-KO was not Lehrman's departure, nor declining receipts for L-KO's product, but an outbreak of Spanish flu on the lot, which forced Universal to shut the whole studio down. L-KO's last release, An Oriental Romeo (1919) starring Chinese funnyman Chai Hong, was released on September 24, 1919, though the studio had already been closed for good in May.

## Legacy

While L-KO never had a break-out star as prominent as Charlie Chaplin, in nearly every other way it was successful in competing with Keystone; moreover, as Mack Sennett broke with the Triangle Film Corporation in July, 1917, L-KO managed to outlast Keystone by a year. However, it remains an extremely obscure Silent Comedy brand. Although L-KO produced around 300 titles in its five-year existence; little more than 10 percent of these films are known to exist today. Given Lehrman's preference for violent sight gags and Ritchie's confrontational style of humor, surviving L-KO films stand as some of the edgiest and darkest entries in the annals of American Silent Comedy.

## Confirmed extant and lost films

| Title | Release Date | Director | Star | Notes |
| Love and Surgery | October 25, 1914 | Henry Lehrman | Billie Ritchie | Survives |
| Partners in Crime | November 1, 1914 | Henry Lehrman | Billie Ritchie | Survives |
| The Fatal Marriage | November 8, 1914 | Henry Lehrman (unconfirmed) | Billie Ritchie | Lost |
| Lizzy’s Escape | November 11, 1914 | Henry Lehrman (unconfirmed) | Billie Ritchie | Lost |
| The Groom's Doom | November 22, 1914 | | Billie Ritchie | Lost |
| The Blighted Spaniard | November 29, 1914 | | Lost |
| Fido's Dramatic Career | December 6, 1914 | | Lost |
| Adventures of Uncle | December 11, 1914 | Ernest Shields | Lost |
| The Rural Demons | December 13, 1914 | Henry Lehrman | Billie Ritchie | Survives |
| The Baron's Bear Escape | December 20, 1914 | | Henry Bergman | Survives |
| The Manicure Girl | December 27, 1914 | | Louise Orth | Lost |
| Gem and Germs | January 3, 1915 | Henry Lehrman | Louise Orth | Lost |
| Cupid in a Hospital | January 6, 1915 | Henry Lehrman | Billie Ritchie | Survives |
| Through a Knot Hole | January 10, 1915 | | Billie Ritchie | Lost |
| Thou Shalt Not Flirt | January 13, 1915 | Henry Lehrman | Billie Ritchie | Lost |
| Almost a Scandal | February 17, 1915 | Henry Lehrman | Billie Ritchie | |
| Poor Policy | April 25, 1915 | Harry Edwards | Billie Ritchie | |
| Love and Sour Notes | May 19, 1915 | John G. Blystone | Billie Ritchie | |
| The Child Needs a Mother | July 7, 1915 | John G. Blystone | Fatty Voss | |
| Vendetta in a Hospital | September 8, 1915 | | Billie Ritchie | |
| Silk Hose and High Pressure | September 8, 1915 | Henry Lehrman | Billie Ritchie | |
| No Flirting Allowed | September 19, 1915 | | Hank Mann | |
| A Tale of Twenty Stories | August 22, 1915 | Vin Moore | Hank Mann | fragment only |
| Sin on the Sabbath | December 8, 1915 | | Billie Ritchie | |
| A Stool Pigeon's Revenge | May 12, 1916 | John G. Blystone | Hank Mann | |
| Gertie's Gasoline Glide | May 17, 1916 | | Gertrude Selby | |
| Billie's Waterloo | June 7, 1916 | | Billie Ritchie | |
| Cold Hearts and Hot Flames | September 20, 1916 | John G. Blystone | Billie Ritchie | |
| Live Wires and Love Sparks | March 19, 1916 | Henry Lehrman | Billie Ritchie | |
| Bombs and Bandits | 1917 | Vin Moore | Billy Bevan | |
| The Sign of the Cucumber | 1917 | Richard Smith | Eva Novak | |
| Soapsuds and Sirens | 1917 | Noel M. Smith | Harry Lorraine | |
| The Belles of Liberty | 1917 | James D. Davis | Eva Novak | |
| All Jazzed Up | 1917 | William Watson | Eva Novak | |
| Adventurous Ambrose | April 17, 1918 | Walter S. Fredericks | Mack Swain | |
| The King of the Kitchen | December 4, 1918 | Frank Griffin | Harry Gribbon | |
| Charlie, the Little Daredevil | January 15, 1919 | Alfred J. Goulding | Chai Hong | |
| The Freckled Fish | January 22, 1919 | Joseph Le Brandt | Chai Hong | fragment only |