Nickelodeons seemed to be opening everywhere and the demand for new movies to exhibit in them was enormous. New York City blossomed with movie makers, due on part to its pool of performers but also to the city's proximity to Thomas Edison's New Jersey lab. Although Edison hadn't invented motion pictures, he had acquired patents to the technology and movie cameras had to be rented from him. In 1909, Mack joined Biograph films and met director D.W. Griffith who was pioneering techniques of motion picture storytelling. The following year, Mack began directing films and found a large and enthusiastic audience for his slapstick comedies. His success rivaled that of his mentor Griffith, but Biograph never embraced comedy. When an offer to be a partner in his own company arrived, Mack leaped at the opportunity.

He established Keystone Pictures in 1912 and moved to California, joining a stream of movie makers who were attracted by southern California's fair weather and cheap land, crucial elements for building successful studios . An added incentive was the hope of escaping Thomas Edison's heavy-handed enforcement of his patents.

Mack Sennett's comedies became world-famous on the strength of his superb sense of comic timing and great eye for talent. His break-neck pacing left audiences breathless and he discovered stars such as Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle, Ben Turpin, Gloria Swanson, W.C. Fields, and Carole Lombard. In 1914, Mack launched the film career of Charlie Chaplin, perhaps the greatest comedian of all time. And it was on a Sennett stage that the most enduring of all slapstick gags, a pie in the face, was invented.

Mack bought out his partners in 1915, renaming the studio Mack Sennet Studio. But the movie business was risky and in 1935 the studio went bankrupt. Mack lived the rest of his life in retirement; he died in 1960.
 

"From its alliterative title and a narrative as precise as comic timing, to a cinematic beginning that spotlights Sennett donning the horse suit, this is like watching a pie-in-the-face routine; it simply smacks with delight. Ingeniously staged and picture perfect, it's Brown's best book yet"
Booklist Starred Review
 

"This is a thoroughly enjoyable and accessible introduction to the life of the "King of Comedy" and to the history of early moviemaking in America."
School Library Journal

All contents copyright Don Brown 1999, 2000, 2001,2002, 2003, 2004, 2005