If you think of classic silent film comedy stars, chances are your mind will turn to Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy or Harold Lloyd.  But what about Florence Turner, Texas Guinan, Edna “Billy” Foster or Tsura Aoki?  Men did not have a monopoly on early twentieth century slapstick humor.  The next installment of Duck Soup Cinema at Madison’s Capitol Theatre features the “Queens of Destruction,” a new compilation of female comedians hell-bent on toppling gender stereotypes.  Maggie Hennefeld joined the Monday Buzz by phone to tell us about these early pioneers of silent comedy. Hennefeld is a professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, and co-curated the “Queens of Destruction” program.

Photo: Still from Léontine s’envole, 1911, courtesy Duck Soup Cinema

Web posting by Nicholas Wootton

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