Born 100 years ago today, child star Lawrence “Sunny” McKeen (1924-1933).
McKeen was only two years old when he was cast as Snookums in a series of silent comedy shorts based on George McManus’s comic strip The Newlyweds, which ran from 1926 through 1929. There were 39 of these shorts, produced by The Stern Brothers for Universal. The name was a partial inspiration for Fanny Brice’s “Baby Snooks” character. The basic premise is that the child was a monster and stirred up all kinds of havoc wherever he went. (Perhaps he was cranky about what they did to his hair, which at one point was trained rather severely into one single weed-like sprout that rose from atop the boys head like an antenna.)
After The Newlyweds ran its course, the child starred as “Sunny Jim” in six sound shorts for Universal (1929-30). This was popular enought that Melster Candies of Cambridge Wisconsin named a candy bar after him.
McKeen also played a bit part in the Paul Whiteman film King of Jazz (1930).
Of all the child stars of the era, and there were many, Jackie Coogan, Baby Peggy, Baby Leroy, the Our Gang bunch, etc. Sunny fell by the wayside and is one of the least remembered. I think this can be chalked up to a couple of things. One is that these comedies were relatively buried. Only a few are still extant, and these were never in frequent circulation in later decades like many of the movies starring those other children. (At present, one of the Newlyweds shorts, Snookum’s Tooth, is available to watch on Youtube, as is one of the Sunny Jim shorts, Baby Talks. Hoo boy is the latter a weird movie. I first caught at one of of Nelson Hughes’ screenings at QED a few months ago, prompting this post).
The other reason McKeen is forgotten is that the child died when he was only seven or eight (my math says eight; this contemporary news iten from the LA Daily Mirror says seven, but I believe them to be in error:)
As you see, the article mentions measles and blood poisoning in connection to the child’s demise. Sepsis and septic shock are rare complications of the disease. Luckily measles itself has become rare. That can certainly change, though, if enough goddamn fools refuse to get their children vaccinated. (Sorry, had to get that off my chest).
For more on silent and slapstick comedy films please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube — now also available on audiobook!