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The vice president and general manager of the ill-named Educational Pictures, Inc., E.W. Hammons wielded an important influence on American screen comedy in the 1920s and 1930s. A vociferous champion of two-reelers, by then considered mere fillers by Hollywood's major companies, Hammons helped steer Educational from producing and distributing travelogues to becoming a prolific producer of slapstick comedies able to compete with both Hal Roach and Christie. With Lloyd Hamilton and British import Lupino Lane as his most prominent stars, Hammons had captured an important niche in the independent comedy field by the end of the decade, and in the early '30s Educational relocated to the Astoria Studios in Queens, NY. Filming in the old Paramount studios, such waning luminaries as Harry Langdon and Buster Keaton would make their comedies alongside newcomers like Danny Kaye and Bert Lahr. Educational promised to be "the spice of the program," but their two-reelers were never really equal in quality to Hal Roach or the short subject departments at the major studios, although, as short subject historian Leonard Maltin has pointed out, "they were made in most cases by seasoned veterans." With major corporations such as MGM, Warner Bros., and Columbia Pictures issuing a steady stream of low-budget but glossy short subjects, Educational and Hammons were finally forced out of the business in 1940.