Recently, my mother started giving me some information about her side of the family and mentioned in passing that my great-great-uncle and some of his siblings were "in a few movies after they came over from Scotland." First time she's ever mentioned anything of this sort, so I was surprised by the news. She knew his name was Andy Clyde, but little else.

I've found some info on Andy, but not a whole lot and would like to dig in a little deeper to see some of his stuff. I'm also curious to learn more about his background and perhaps help pin down if I'm really am related to the man or if it may be some older family members stretching the truth a bit (the only one who claims to have spent time with Andy doesn't have the best reputation in the family when it comes to telling the truth, I'll put it that way). :lol:

Anyway, I'd appreciate any suggestions on what's out there to see. Especially any of the comedies he did. Thanks!

As a kid, I knew him from the TV show, "Lassie." He was in a lot of TV shows, a lot of westerns, and some of the Hopalong Cassidy movies as a regular character. (I know at least one of the Hopalong movies he's in, THE MARAUDERS, was released on VHS.)

He starred in hundreds of comedy shorts, both silent and sound. Footage of him from silent comedies is found in the compilations, THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY (1957), WHEN COMEDY WAS KING (1960), and THIRTY YEARS OF FUN (1962). Those may be easier to see than any of the actual complete shorts. You may be able to find some of the shorts in an archive. (Library of Congress? University of Madison-Wisconsin? Museum of Modern Art?) But you'd have to spend some money and make a special trip for that.

For two decades, he starred in a series of shorts for Columbia Pictures (home of the Three Stooges). During the 1970s and 80s, I used to see the shorts on a UHF channel out of Boston. They were in a package of non-Stooge Columbia shorts syndicated under the banner LAUGH (or LAFF) CLASSICS. Edgar Kennedy, Buster Keaton, and Leon Erroll shorts were also in the package. I somtimes got him confused with Chester Conklin. I used to enjoy the Clyde comedies and would like to see them again. If I'm not mistaken, the Clyde shorts were covered in Leonard Maltin's book THE GREAT MOVIE SHORTS. I'll check tonight. I've seen the Andy Clyde shorts available through grey market sellers.

A company called Bygone Video is selling four volumes of Andy Clyde shorts.

http://bygonevideo.com/shop/cart/index.php...s∏_id=771

Here's a link to the first of the Andy Clyde pages. I sure hope this site is legit, because it offers a lot of stuff I've never seen that I'd love to get (e.g. the Audie Murphy and Serials sections). But none of this stuff is p.d., as far as I can tell from a quick check.

But it's nice to know that Dale can satisfy his curiosity without having to go to the Library of Congress! :D

Thanks, guys! I'll definitely check this out.

--Dale

MILLION DOLLAR LEGS with W.C. Fields shouldn't be too hard to find (not as good as I used to think it was, alas, but still fun enough)-- Andy plays the title character, more or less.

And if you just want to hear him right now, Dale, I think the old radio section of the Internet archives should have episodes of HOPALONG CASSIDY, with Andy playing California.

I always liked him more than I did Fuzzy St. John, if that means anything.

According to DVDDrive-In, the Hammer "Icons Of Adventure" collection will include an Andy Clyde short called "Hot Paprika".

http://www.dvddrive-in.com

Hey, thanks, Chas! I may get that in the meantime while working on getting some of the other stuff mentioned!