Cornelius McGillicuddy (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner.The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds records for wins (3,731), losses (3,948), and games managed (7,755), with his victory total being almost 1,000 more than any other manager. Hal Roach signed with MGM, but Mack Sennett remained with Pathé Exchange even during hard times, which were brought on by the competition. They had three children, Earle, Roy, and Marguerite. [citation needed] During the 1920s his short subjects were in much demand; they featured stars such as Louise Fazenda, Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Harry Gribbon, Vernon Dent, Alice Day, Ralph Graves, Charlie Murray, and Harry Langdon. Two other Sennett shorts were made with Fields scripts: The Singing Boxer (1933) with Donald Novis and Too Many Highballs (1933) with Lloyd Hamilton. Film historian Richard Koszarski qualifies “fun factory” influence on comedic film acting: ”While Mack Sennett has a secure and valued place in the history of screen comedy, it is surely not as a developer of individual talents...Chaplin, Langdon and Lloyd were all on the lot at one point or another, but developed their styles only in spite of Sennett, and grew to their artistic peaks only away from his influence...screen comedy followed Chaplin’s lead and began to focus more on personality than situation.”[9], Sennett's first female comedian was Mabel Normand, who became a major star under his direction and with whom he embarked on a tumultuous romantic relationship. [33], In addition, as Mack entered his 80s, his once-keen mind began fading rapidly. Chief Bender, for instance, was "Albert" to Mack. The Yankees in particular lobbied for it to be Chicago businessman Arnold Johnson (1906-1960), who had recently bought both Yankee Stadium as well as Blues Stadium in Kansas City, home to the Yankees' top Triple AAA farm team in the second American Association. Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops, "The Survival of Mack Sennett's Comedies – Flicker Alley", Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, "Mack, comedian, Killed in Crash. Hundreds of other independent exhibitors and movie houses of this period had switched from Pathe' to the new MGM or Paramount films and short subjects. [9] He quit school after completing the eighth grade at age 14, intending to work full-time to contribute to the family's support, as several of his siblings had done. [14] In the winter of 1889, he jumped to the Buffalo Bisons of the new Players' League, investing his entire life savings of $500 in shares in the club. They remained fairly competitive for most of the first half of the 1930s. He could do and say things that got more under your skin than the cuss words used by other catchers.". [47] His friend Red Smith called him "tough and warm and wonderful, kind and stubborn and courtly and unreasonable and generous and calculating and naive and gentle and proud and humorous and demanding and unpredictable".[47]. He agreed to a salary of $3,000 (equivalent to $90,000 in 2019) and 25% of the club. "[36] It was generally agreed that he stayed in the game too long, hurting his legacy. He lived for a while in Northampton, Massachusetts, where, according to his autobiography, he first got the idea to become an opera singer after seeing a vaudeville show. Sennett went on to produce more ambitious comedy short films and a few feature-length films. He attended the 1954 World Series and the occasional regular season game, but in October 1955, he fell and suffered a hip fracture. Despite growing speculation he would step down, Mack brushed it all off and stated simply that he would keep managing as long as he was physically able to do so.[35]. People don’t like it...immunity of pretty girls doesn’t go as far as the immunity of the Shetland pony...you can have her fall into mud puddles. [16], As a player, Mack was "a light-hitting catcher with a reputation as a smart player, but didn't do anything particularly well as a player. However, Roy and Earle countered by buying out their younger brother, persuading their father to support them. (The 1935 Vitaphone short subject Keystone Hotel is not a Sennett production, although it featured several alumni from the Mack Sennett Studios. John Shibe died in 1937, and Mack bought 141 shares from his estate, enough to make him majority owner of the A's. Gay was a popular English playwright and poet, a friend and collaborator of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. One of the few things on which they agreed was that it was time for their father to step down. He valued intelligence and "baseball smarts," always looking for educated players. However, he had been operating head of the franchise since Ben Shibe's death. Fired on September 21, 1896,[20] he retired as a full-time player and accepted a deal from Henry Killilea to act as manager and occasional backup catcher for the minor league Milwaukee Brewers. Mack saw baseball as a business, and recognized that economic necessity drove the game. "He did not believe that baseball revolved around managerial strategy. As a result, many of Sennett's films from his most productive and creative period no longer exist. Yearly payments of $200,000 drained the team of badly needed capital, and ended any realistic chance of the A's winning again under the Macks' stewardship.[34]. For instance, he never installed a telephone line between the bullpen and dugout. He claimed that the most respected lawyer in town, Northampton mayor (and future President of the United States) Calvin Coolidge, as well as Sennett's mother, tried to talk him out of his musical ambitions. [15], His last work, in 1935, was as a producer-director for Educational Pictures, in which he directed Buster Keaton in The Timid Young Man and Joan Davis in Way Up Thar. However, Sennett enjoyed great success with short comedies starring Bing Crosby, which were more than likely instrumental in Sennett's product being picked up by a major studio, Paramount Pictures. The various social types, often grotesquely portrayed by members of Sennett's troupe, were adequate to render the largely “interchangeable routines: “Having a funny mustache, or crossed-eyes, or an extra two-hundred pounds was as much individualization as was required.”[7][8]. Mack's 50-year tenure as Athletics manager is the most ever for a coach or manager with the same team in North American professional sports, and has never been seriously threatened. FLATHEAD LAKE — Week two of the 2021 Spring Mack Days Fishing Event on Flathead Lake ended with winds bringing anglers off the lake early on Sunday before the predicted high winds began. [42] Under their agreement, Mack had full control over baseball matters while Shibe handled the business side. A few college coaches had longer tenures: John Gagliardi was a head football coach from 1949 to 2012, ending with 60 seasons at Saint John's of Minnesota; Eddie Robinson was head football coach at Grambling State for 57 seasons, from 1941 (when it was known as the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute) to 1997; and the upcoming 2018–19 season will be the 52nd for Herb Magee as head men's basketball coach of the institution now known as Jefferson (1967–present). In December 1890 Mack signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League and remained with them for the rest of his career as a full-time player. He swung right at my wrists. His parents married in 1879 in Tingwick, Quebec[1] and moved the same year to Richmond, where John Sinnott was hired as a laborer. His work has really taken off since then, so having him on to talk about his journey as an artist was a lot of fun. Goldie returns from five years at the state pen and winds up King of the pimping game. Sennett also won an Academy Award in the novelty division for his film Wrestling Swordfish also in 1932. In 1938, Mack in his middle seventies successfully battled a blood infection caused when a batted ball injured one of his shinbones. With the Athletics leading the Series three games to one, several New York writers predicted that the Athletics would deliberately lose Game Five in New York so that Mack would not have to refund the $50,000 in ticket sales for Game Six in Philadelphia. Sennett's bosses retained the Keystone trademark and produced a cheap series of comedy shorts that were "Keystones" in name only: they were unsuccessful, and Sennett had no connection with them. W. C. Fields conceived and starred in four famous Sennett-Paramount comedies. If you're a man wanting to hook up with a man or any open-minded person or couple looking for where sex happens, this site is what you've been looking for! ... Bob 64320 wrote... "That trolly could be handy for holding tools whilst doing a de-coke on the engine!!" "[17], Mack was one of the first catchers to position himself directly behind home plate instead of in front of the backstop. This doomed his attempt to re-enter the feature-film market with Hypnotized (starring blackface comedians Moran and Mack, "The Two Black Crows"). Mack and Shibe did business on a handshake.[22][41]. That team was dispersed after 1932 when Mack ran into financial difficulty again. In return, Mack was allowed to buy a 25 percent stake, and was named secretary and treasurer of the team. Shortstop Eddie Joost said "He wasn't senile, but there were lapses." Starting in 1909, it was home to the Athletics, and starting in 1938, it also was home to the Phillies, then from 1955 to 1970 was home to the Phillies alone, after the Athletics moved to Kansas City. Many of Sennett's films of the early 1920s were inherited by Warner Bros. Although Mack wanted to rebuild again and win more championships, he was never able to do so owing to a lack of funds. [6] His nickname on the baseball field was "Slats", for his height of 6 feet 2 inches and thin build. Jack Coombs, the ace of Mack's 1910-11 champions, became the longtime coach at Duke. Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for the club's first 50 seasons of play, starting in 1901, before retiring at age 87 following the 1950 season, and was at least part-owner from 1901 to 1954. In March 1938, Sennett was presented with an honorary Academy Award: "for his lasting contribution to the comedy technique of the screen, the basic principles of which are as important today as when they were first put into practice, the Academy presents a Special Award to that master of fun, discoverer of stars, sympathetic, kindly, understanding comedy genius – Mack Sennett."[13]. [15] But the Players' League went out of business after only a year, and Mack lost his job and his whole investment. The couple had four daughters and a son, Cornelius Jr. A faithful Catholic his entire life, Mack was also a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus (Santa Maria Council 263 in Germantown, which moved to Flourtown, Pennsylvania in the 1980s).[51]. Simmons was a coach for many years after his retirement as a player. [12] In 1879 his skills landed him a place on East Brookfield's town team, which played other town teams in the area. Mack introduced the Vision Day Cab in 2002 to support local operations. After reading this, Mack told his players that if they won Game Five he would give them the team's entire share of the Game Five gate receipts — about $34,000. [22] He managed the Athletics through the 1950 season, compiling a record of 3,582–3,814 (.484) when he retired at 87. In 1938 he was presented with an honorary Academy Award for his contribution to film comedy. He got even, though. Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'.. Born in Melbourne, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in the Biograph Company of New York, and later opened Keystone Studios in Edendale, California in 1912. Over the next five years, the team crumbled to the bottom of the American League. [4][5], Dubbed the King of Hollywood's “fun factory”, Sennett's slapstick comedies were noted for their hair-raising car chases and custard pie warfare, especially in the Keystone Cops series. College football pioneer Amos Alonzo Stagg also surpassed Mack in overall tenure, though not in tenure for a single employer; he was a head coach for 55 seasons in all (1892–1946), with the first 41 at Chicago (1892–1932). Sennett died on November 5, 1960, in Woodland Hills, California, aged 80. Mack would make strange decisions (which his coaches and players usually overruled), make inexplicable outbursts, and call for players from decades earlier to pinch-hit. [11], Mack was also a good athlete and frequently played baseball and some of its predecessor games with local players in East Brookfield. Fields. Studio. The Athletics did not have a black player play for the team until Bob Trice in 1953, three years after Mack retired. Some writers called him an outright miser, accusing him of getting rid of star players so he could "line his own pockets" with the money. On November 2, 1887, Mack married Margaret Hogan, whom the Spencer Leader described as having "a sunny and vivacious disposition." The following year, St. Louis beat the A's in seven games led by Pepper Martin. Sennett also developed the Kid Comedies, a forerunner of the Our Gang films, and in a short time, his name became synonymous with screen comedy which were called "flickers" at the time. In 1949, he provided film footage for and also appeared in the first full-length comedy compilation called Down Memory Lane (1949), which was written and narrated by Steve Allen. For instance, he kept Bender on the team payroll as a scout, minor league manager or coach from 1926 until Mack himself retired as owner-manager in 1950. He was the first manager to win the World Series three times, and is the only manager to win consecutive Series on separate occasions (1910–11, 1929–30); his five Series titles remain the third most by any manager, and his nine American League pennants rank second in league history. Mack was quiet, even-tempered, and gentlemanly, never using profanity. Seven years later, the New York Times reported, “The rescue of the Florida Everglades, the largest and most expensive environmental restoration project on the planet, is faltering. I will always strive for the good of the entire team rather than for my own glory. In order to pull off the deal, however, they mortgaged the team to the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (now part of CIGNA). Shetland ponies and pretty girls are immune.”— Max Sennett, from, Sinnott, 1999: “Sennett trained a coterie of clowns and comediennes that made the Keystone trademark world famous: Mabel Normand, Marie Dressler, Gloria Swanson, Fatty Arbuckle, Harry Langdon, Ben Turpin, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and W.C. Fields among them. Even when he collected rent from the Phillies, he was often in financial difficulties. [37] He was unable to handle the post-World War II changes in baseball, including the growing commercialization of the game. "[28], In any event, his managerial style was not tyrannical but easygoing. In 2006, the Pinnacle, which is known as the Mack Vision Elite in some regions of the world, succeeded the Vision. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds records for wins (3,731), losses (3,948), and games managed (7,755), with his victory total being almost 1,000 more than any other manager. Over the course of his career, he had nine pennant-winning teams spanning three peak periods or "dynasties." 51st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Major League Baseball all-time managerial wins, List of Major League Baseball player–managers, "Departure Without Dignity: The Athletics Leave Philadelphia", "Tyrus Cobb—Then and Now; Once the scrappiest, wiliest figure in baseball, 'The Georgia Peach' views the game as played today with mellow disdain", Photograph of Benjamin Shibe, Connie Mack, and others at the groundbreaking of Shibe Park (later Connie Mack Stadium), in 1908, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Connie_Mack&oldid=1018851128, Hartford Dark Blues (minor league) players, People from Worcester County, Massachusetts, Articles needing additional references from February 2018, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, September 11, 1886, for the Washington Nationals, August 29, 1896, for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Most managerial wins, losses and games managed in major league history. The war hurt the team badly, leaving Mack without the resources to sign valuable players. This continued even after he became majority owner, despite calls both inside and outside Philadelphia to step down. Toward the end he was old and sick and saddened, a figure of forlorn dignity bewildered by the bickering around him as the baseball monument that he had built crumbled away."[38]. "[24] He was "one of the first managers to work on repositioning his fielders" during the game, often directing the outfielders to move left or right, play shallow or deep, by waving his rolled-up scorecard from the bench. Also beginning in 1915, Sennett assembled a bevy of women known as the Sennett Bathing Beauties to appear in provocative bathing costumes in comedy short subjects, in promotional material, and in promotional events such as Venice Beach beauty contests. Rumors abounded that Sennett would be returning to film production (a 1938 publicity release indicated that he would be working with Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy), but apart from Sennett reissuing a couple of his Bing Crosby two-reelers to theaters, nothing happened. Career statistics and player information from, This page was last edited on 20 April 2021, at 07:11. [34], According to outfielder Sam Chapman, "He could remember the old-timers, but he had a hard time remembering the names of the current players." [citation needed], Sennett made a reasonably smooth transition to sound films, releasing them through Earle Hammons's Educational Pictures. I will always judge a teammate or an opponent as an individual and never on the basis of race or religion. The Sennett Bathing Beauties continued to appear through 1928. However, the A's never recovered from a dreadful May in which they only won five games. Mack was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York, in 1937. Pathé had a huge market share, but made bad corporate decisions, such as attempting to sell too many comedies at once, including those of Sennett's main competitor, Hal Roach. Mack never denied such tricks: Farmer Weaver was a catcher-outfielder for Louisville. They will laugh at that. Unfortunately, many of the films of this period physically deteriorated to the point of destruction, due to inadequate storage. With Max Julien, Don Gordon, Richard Pryor, Carol Speed. Dick Siebert, longtime coach at Minnesota, played for Mack from 1938 to 1945. If the umpire is aware that a bat has been tipped, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he calls catcher's interference.) The team's 117 losses set a modern era record and at the time was the second most losses behind the Cleveland Spiders' 130 in 1899. Several of his players went on to become well-respected college coaches. He also produced short features that displayed his Bathing Beauties, many of whom went on to develop successful acting careers. During the American Civil War, he served with the 51st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. By 1883, when Michael's brother George was born, John Sinnott was working as an innkeeper, a position he held for many years. Such important directors as Frank Capra, Malcolm St. Clair, and George Stevens also received experience under Sennett’s tutelage.”, Silver, 2009: “His gift was in providing a haven or school for ambitious young talents.”, Silver, 2009: “Fatty’s persona as the “jolly fat man” constrained him from being something more than that. However, Mack had enjoyed more or less a free hand over the baseball side since the team's inception. During that season, Giants manager John McGraw said that Mack had "a big white elephant on his hands" with the Athletics. His parents had all their children and raised their family in Richmond, then a small Eastern Townships village. Many talented actors began their film careers with Sennett, including Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Charles Chaplin, Harry Langdon, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, Raymond Griffith, Gloria Swanson, Ford Sterling, Andy Clyde, Chester Conklin, Polly Moran, Louise Fazenda, The Keystone Cops, Bing Crosby, and W. C. These Athletics, captained by catcher Ira Thomas, won the pennant in 1910, 1911, 1913 and 1914, beating the Cubs in the World Series in 1910 and the Giants in 1911 and 1913, but losing in 1914 in four straight games to the "Miracle" Boston Braves, who had come from last place in late July to win the National League pennant by 6 1/2 games over the Giants. Keystone possessed the first fully enclosed film stage, and Sennett became famous as the originator of slapstick routines such as pie-throwing and car-chases, as seen in the Keystone Cops films. In 1927, Hollywood's two most successful studios Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures, took note of the profits being made by smaller companies such as Pathé Exchange and Educational Pictures. When Shibe died in 1922, his sons Tom and John took over management of the business side, with Tom as team president and John as vice president. In 2006, the Pinnacle, which is known as the Mack Vision Elite in some regions of the world, succeeded the Vision. The other owners, as well as league president Will Harridge, wanted the Athletics sold off to a new owner. But he didn't swing at the ball. "[39], The American League's white knight, Charles Somers, provided the seed money to start the Athletics and several other American League teams. Plus, he was the first to get a talkie short subject on the market in 1928. I'll tell you I didn't tip his bat again. Directed by Michael Campus. I shall never forget Connie Mack's gentleness and gentility. No, sir, not until the last game of the season and Weaver was at bat for the last time. His partnership with Paramount lasted only one year and he was forced into bankruptcy in November 1933. Mack married a second time on October 27, 1910. The 1927 Athletics featured several future Hall of Fame players including veterans Ty Cobb, Zack Wheat and Eddie Collins as well as young stars like Mickey Cochrane, Lefty Grove, Al Simmons and rookie Jimmie Foxx. James believed that Mack's influence on the game, as great as it was, would have been even greater had the college game been more popular during the 1920s and 1930s, when Mack was at his peak. "[24] He wanted men who were self-directed, self-disciplined and self-motivated; his ideal player was Eddie Collins. Cornelius McGillicuddy (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner. His last contribution worth noting was to the NBC radio program Biography in Sound relating memories of working with W.C. Fields, which was broadcast February 28, 1956. He explained to his cousin, Art Dempsey, that "The best thing for a team financially is to be in the running and finish second. The 1954 A's attracted only 304,000 people, nowhere near enough to break even. [7], Mack's father became a wheelwright. [31], James summed up Mack's managerial approach as follows: he favored a set lineup, did not generally platoon hitters; preferred young players to veterans and power hitters to those with high batting averages; did not often pinch-hit, use his bench players or sacrifice much (even so, the A's led the league in sacrifice bunts in 1909, 1911 and 1914); believed in "big-inning" offense rather than small ball; and very rarely issued an intentional walk.[32]. If you win, the players all expect raises." The Philadelphia stadium, originally called Shibe Park, was renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1953. “In it’s pre-1920s heyday [Sennett’s Fun Factory] created a vigorous new style of motion picture comedy founded on speed, insolence and destruction, which won them the undying affection of the French, “It is an axiom of screen comedy that a Shetland pony must never be put in an undignified position. Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'. Mack himself never drank; before the 1910 World Series he asked all his players to "take the pledge" not to drink during the Series. That team was dispersed due to financial problems, from which Mack did not recover until the 20s, when he built his third great team. His original team, with players such as Rube Waddell, Ossee Schrecongost, and Eddie Plank, won the pennant in 1902 (when there was no World Series) and 1905. Although Roy and Earle had never gotten along with Connie, Jr., who was more than 20 years younger than them, Connie, Sr. intended to have all three of them inherit the team after his death or retirement. Beginning in 1886, Mack played 10 seasons in the National League and one in the Players' League, for a total of 11 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely as a catcher. His business style was no longer viable in post-World War II America due to various factors, including the increased expense of running a team. [5] Connie Mack never legally changed his name; on the occasion of his second marriage at age 48, he signed the wedding register as "Cornelius McGillicuddy". All told, the A's finished dead last in the AL seven years in a row from 1915 to 1921, and would not reach .500 again until 1925. His second wife was Catherine (or Katharine) Holahan (or Hoolahan) (1879–1966); the census records have various spellings (the wedding register reads "Catarina Hallahan"). For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Sennett was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard. Mack won nine pennants and appeared in eight World Series, winning five. The A's sold Shibe Park, now renamed Connie Mack Stadium, to the Phillies. Mack introduced the Vision Day Cab in 2002 to support local operations. [4] "Connie" is a common nickname for Cornelius, so Cornelius McGillicuddy was called "Connie Mack" from an early age. However, constant financial struggles forced repeated rebuilding of the roster, and Mack's teams also finished in last place 17 times. Margaret died in December 1892 after complications from her third childbirth. In more recent years, his descendants have taken to politics: Mack's grandson Connie Mack III was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida (1983–89) and the United States Senate (1989–2001); and great-grandson Connie Mack IV served in the U.S. House of Representatives (2005–13), representing Florida's 14th congressional district. Andy Coakley, who won 20 games for Mack's 1905 pennant winners, coached for over 30 years at Columbia, where he was the college coach for Lou Gehrig. Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team's logo, which the Athletics still use today. [21] He managed the Brewers for four seasons from 1897 to 1900, their best year coming in 1900, when they finished second. Unlike with the breakup of his second great team, the A's didn't tumble out of contention right away. Warner Bros. merged with the original distributor, First National, and added music and commentary to several of these short subjects. Tom died in 1936, and John resigned shortly thereafter, leaving Mack to take over the presidency. To that end, Mack persuaded sporting goods manufacturer Ben Shibe, a minority owner of the rival Philadelphia Phillies, to buy a 50 percent stake in the team—an offer sweetened by Mack's promise that Shibe would have the exclusive right to make baseballs for the American League. I will always conduct myself as a true sportsman—on and off the playing field. (He traded away Shoeless Joe Jackson despite his talent because of his bad attitude and unintelligent play. Even before then, he either did not (or could not) invest in a farm system. Taskmaster series 11 review: A gleeful hour of absurdity featuring a biker jacket-wearing Lee Mack. Though younger than his teammates by several years, Mack was the team's catcher and de facto captain.[13]. When that deal collapsed, a bitter Mack wrote a letter blasting his fellow owners for sinking the Crisconi deal. Mack's son Earle Mack played several games for the A's between 1910 and 1914, and also managed the team for parts of the 1937 and 1939 seasons when his father was too ill to do so. According to Bill James, by the time Mack recovered again financially, he was "old and out of touch with the game, so his career ends with eighteen years of miserable baseball. Money problems—the escalation of his best players' salaries (due both to their success and to competition from a new, well-financed third major league of the Federal League in 1914-1915), combined with a steep drop in attendance due to World War I—led to the gradual dispersal of his second championship team, the 1910–1914 team, who he sold, traded, or released over the years 1915–1917. Born Michael Sinnott in Richmond, Quebec, he was the son of Irish Catholic John Sinnott and Catherine Foy. At that time, Michael's grandparents were living in Danville, Quebec. Fields himself recalled that he "made seven comedies for the Irishman", his original deal called for one film and an option for six more, but ultimately only four were made with Fields as star. [3], With financial backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman of the New York Motion Picture Company, Sennett founded Keystone Studios in Edendale, California – now a part of Echo Park – in 1912. I will always abide by the rules of the game—on the diamond as well as in my daily life.