Who Is Al Alt?

Don’t answer that! The question is both rhetorical and a joking reference to Atlas Shrugged. Al Alt (Alexander Alt, 1897-1992) was a comedian of the silent and early sound eras, who worked behind the cameras in various capacities in his later years. His name just happens to be nearly unpronounceable, especially if you’re Tom Brokaw.

Alt came on to our radar because we learned he was briefly partnered in films with Bobby Ray, whom we wrote about just a couple of days ago. Steve Massa’s Lame Brains and Lunatics, everyone’s go-to guide for the most obscure of silent comedians tells us that Alt started out in vaudeville. Early in his career (circa 1920) he was teamed in pictures with fellow vaudeville vet Helen Howell (believed to be Frank Capra’s first wife and not to be confused with Hazel Howell or Alice Howell). For a time he was one of the many middling comedians (Jimmie Adams, Neely Edwards, Harry McCoy, Zip Monberg, etc) who starred in the Hallroom Boys series. After success as part of a team with Bobby Ray he got his own starring series at Educational which was well received — but then sound came in. The last of these Contented Wives was released in late July 1929, quite late for a silent picture.

Alt had appeared in nearly 50 comedy shorts throughout the 1920s. Now things slowed down for him substantially. He had a supporting role in a 1931 RKO short called The Gossipy Plumber. He has a bit part in Hold’ Em Jail (1932) with Wheeler and Woolsey, and a larger role in Moran and Mack’s unfortunate Two Black Crows in Africa (1933), his last times before the camera. For a couple of years he worked at supervisory production jobs at small independent studios. He worked throughout the 1950s quite steadily as an uncredited assistant director for major Hollywood films, including such well known ones as Westward the Women (1951), The BandWagon (1953), Tribute to a Bad Man (1956), Danny Kaye’s Merry Andrew(1958), and Watusi (1959). More detail about Al Alt’s career can be found on The Lost Laugh’s website.

For more on vaudeville history, please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,and for more on silent film comedy read  Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.