User:Tammany1936

Edward Watz (born 1958) is an American film historian whose primary field of expertise is the silent movie era, and with a special interest in the lives and careers of the classic silent and early sound movie comedians. He is the author of several books and articles, under his own name and in collaboration with others.

His well-received book The Columbia Comedy Shorts (McFarland, 1986, with Ted Okuda) is a historical overview of Columbia Pictures'

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short-subject department, detailing that studio's two-reel comedies starring The Three Stooges, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, and Charley Chase, among others, from the unit's inception in 1933 until its demise in 1958.

Watz's book Wheeler & Woolsey (McFarland, 1994), about the once-popular 1930's comedy team that starred in 21 features at RKO and Columbia, received great acclaim from reviewers for its copious research and numerous interviews with the collaborators of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey.

Watz also functioned as research associate on two-reel comedy director Edward Bernds' autobiography, Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood (Scarecrow Press, 1999).

Watz's recent work includes audio commentary tracks on DVD sets, including The Buster Keaton Collection (Sony Pictures, 2006), and The Harry Langdon Collection: Lost and Found (Facets, 2007).

In other film-related work, Watz preserved the only known existing negative of a rare Mack Sennett comedy short, Plain Clothes (1925), starring Harry Langdon and Vernon Dent. Watz also assisted film archivist Brian Anthony in a privately funded restoration of the 1927 Hal Roach comedy The Second 100 Years, one of the earliest films to star the team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

Most recently Watz has contributed the foreward to author Bill Cassara's biography Vernon Dent: Stooge Heavy (Bear Manor Books, 2010).