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dium, but the migration continued until the failure of the Triangle Company, and Goldwyn's fiasco in 1917.
Some of the younger picture performers, more adaptable to new conditions, survived the change-over. Most of the first-generation players, however, among them Florence Turner, Maurice Costello, Florence Lawrence, Arthur Johnson, Mary Fuller, etc., gradually faded from the scene, along with the original producers and inventors whose demise we have already noted.
Comedy, a neglected stepchild of the industry, was less affected. Comedy was then dominated by Mack Sennett of Keystone, who relied on lively slapstick and a company of picturesque clowns headed by Ford Sterling, Mabel Normand, and Fatty Arbuckle. Vitagraph, more polite in its humor, featured John Bunny, who remained the leading screen comic from 1910 until his death in 1915. The middle-aged, rotund, and good-natured Bunny was usually teamed with skinny, old-maidish Flora Finch and young, dimpled Lillian Walker. Sydney Drew, uncle of the Barrymores, was another member of the company, though not yet paired with his wife in their later popular series. There were several minor comedians who, like Broncho Billy, were known by their screen names and appeared in weekly "series": Alkali Ike (Augustus Carney), Slippery Slim (Victor Potel), Swedie (Wallace Beery), etc.
Foremost among the European comedians was France's Max Linder, who had been making comedies since 1905 for Pathe and had developed a world following. Both in style and subject matter, he anticipated Chaplin who acknowledged later that he learned much from him. Among other French comedians were Rigadin (his real name was Charles Prince) who was also known as Whiffles in England, Moritz in Germany, Tartufini in Italy; Andre Deed, of the Gribouille series; Onesime, and others. These, not too well known in America, were