Of Chuckles and Charles Barton

So many of the classic comedy directors are fairly anonymous as compared with the comedians they helped make look good. I checked myself from using the word “great” with reference to Charles Barton (1902-1981), for his milieu was B movies and television, but much of what he turned his hand to has stood the test of time, and continues to commend the devotion of fans.

Barton grew up in San Francisco and the L.A. area, where his father managed a candy store. As a teenager he began performing in vaudeville and with stock companies, and to work as an extra in films, which led to handful of proper roles. He stopped growing at the height of five foot two, so he reasonably concluded that it might make more sense to pursue employment behind the camera. He worked for about five years as an assistant director and second unit director, starting with William Wellman’sWings (1927), and including such things as the Marx Brothers’ Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932), Eddie Sutherland’s screen version of George S. Kaufman’s and Ring Lardner’s June Moon(1931), Norman McLeod’s adaptation of George M. Cohan’sThe Miracle Man (1932), and Hello Everybody (1932) with Kate Smith.

Barton won a Best Assistant Director Oscar in 1933 (back when that was a thing), which resulted in his getting elevated to director status with the Randolph Scott western Wagon Wheels (1934). For a years he directed undistinguished programmers until he found his niche in comedy and musicals in the late ’30s. He directed films in the Five Little Peppers series (1939-40), Two Latins from Manhattan (1941) with Joan Davis and Jinx Falkenburg, Honolulu Lu (1941) with Lupe Velez and Leo Carrillo, Shut My Big Mouth (1942) with Joe E. Brown, Reveille with Beverly (1943) with Ann Miller, What’s Buzzin’ Cousin (1943) with Miller, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, and bandleader Freddy Martin, Is Everybody Happy? (1943) with Ted Lewis, Louisiana Hayride (1944) with Judy Canova, and many similar entertainments.

After years at Paramount and Fox, Barton went over to Universal where he directed Abbott and Costello in several of their vehicles including The Time of Their Lives (1946), Buck Privates Come Home (1947), The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947), The Noose Hangs High (1948), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Mexican Hayride (1948), Africa Screams (1949), Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949), and Dance With Me Henry (1956). Some of his other later screen comedies included Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952), two Disney classics, The Shaggy Dog (1959) and Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with the Circus (1960), and Swingin’ Along (1961) with Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall.

Meantime, Barton had also begun an incredibly prolific career directing sit-coms for television. The track record there most impressive: 79 episodes of The Amos and Andy Show (1951-55), 13 of The Great Gildersleeve (1955-56), The Mickey Mouse Club’s The New Adventures of Spin and Marty (1957), 14 episodes of The Gale Storm Show (1956-58), 17 of Zorro (1958-59), 10 of The Real McCoys (1960-61), 90 of Dennis the Menace (1960-63), the 1962 pilot of Medicine Man starring Ernie Kovacs and Buster Keaton, 9 episodes of McHale’s Navy (1964-65), 10 of Hazel (1965-66), 38 of Petticoat Junction (1965-67), and an amazing 106 of Family Affair (1967-71), along with scattered episodes of things like The Munsters,The Patty Duke Show, and the Smothers Brothers sit-com My Brother the Angel.

In 1973 he married actressJulie Gibson, a veteran of many classic comedies herself.

For more on vaudeville consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and for more on classic comedy films please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube — now also available on audiobook. These were the vineyards in which Charles Baton toiled!