Bunny Backslides, John Bunny Figurine

original production material

A promotional piece, possibly the first ever attempted, to tie a named person to the flickers. John Bunny was the first well known comedian who made over 200 shorts for Vitagraph, in Brooklyn, NY, from 1910 to his death in 1915. Many amazingly survive. He often used his own name as the character and later many of the films bore his name in the title. He teamed with poker faced actress Flora Finch for most of these films, portraying a scheming henpecked husband to her shrill "I'll get you...you lazy bum!" put upon wife. Louis Amberg Co. issued a large molded character doll of Bunny in 1914 - a year before their Charlie Chaplin - he was that famous. By 1917 he was all but forgotten.
Also, a rare cutout Penograph from Motion Picture World magazine.