The originator of the Drunk in the famous Karno sketch Mumming Birds, Billie Reeves had appeared in three consecutive Ziegfeld Follies 1908-1910 and toured America with various stock companies before signing with the Lubin Mfg. Company of Jacksonville, FL, in 1915. According to some reports, studio czar Sigmund Lubin hired Reeves as an imitation of fellow Karno veteran Charles Chaplin. Appalled by this suggestion, Reeves refused to be an imitation of anybody, least of all his good friend Chaplin, and commenced instead to make a series of comedies based on his many stage characters. Surviving shorts, including A Day on the Force (1915), suggest a comic with possibilities of stardom had he not been impeded by Lubin's careless production methods. When director Arthur Hotaling was replaced by moonlighting actor Earl Metcalfe, Reeves gave up and returned to the footlights.
by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
