Luke: First Dog of Comedy

His career began in 1915, with an uncredited appearance in the Keystone comedy, Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day. But within a short time, the Staffordshire terrier had a contract for $150 a week (that's close to $3200, in 2012 dollars) and a firmly established status as co-star and stuntdog extraordinaire.

 

 

 



Luke and Roscoe Arbuckle, in Fatty's Faithful Fido (1915)


Presented as a gift by director Wilfred Lucas to Roscoe Arbuckle and his wife Minta Durfee, Luke demonstrated a talent and intelligence far beyond his (dog) years. He followed commands readily, showed no fear when it came to stuntwork, and rarely had to do a second take.

Keystone Studio boss Mack Sennett called Luke his "most dependable performer" and reportedly provided Luke a series of chauffeur-driver cars to bring him to work.





Helping Arbuckle deliver the mail (The Hayseed,1919)

When Roscoe Arbuckle struck out on his own in 1917, he took his plucky dog with him. Luke became the undisputed fourth member of Arbuckle's new comedy troupe for Comique Film Corporation, joining former Keystoner Al St. John (who also happened to be Arbuckle's nephew) and twenty-one year old vaudevillian Buster Keaton, who ditched his contract with the Winter Garden Theater's "Passing Show of 1917" on Broadway in favor of a much-lower paying job with Arbuckle. ($40 a week, versus the $250 a week he would've gotten for the Broadway show. As it turned out, the gamble paid off. And he got a raise.)

 

Keaton, Arbuckle, Luke and St. John, in a publicity still for Coney Island (1917)

The group disbanded in 1920 to pursue separate endeavors: Arbuckle, to accept a feature-film contract with Paramount, and Al St. John, to star in films for Warner Bros. (St. John would go on to attain a legendary status of his own as "Fuzzy St. John" -- a.k.a. "Fuzzy Q. Jones" --  in several Western films and serials throughout the 1930s and 1940s -- most famously with Buster Crabbe and Lash LaRue.) The Comique studios were turned over to Buster Keaton.





With Buster Keaton, on the set of The Scarecrow (1920)

 

By this time, disgruntled with typecasting, Luke had decided it was time to retire. His last credited movie appearance was in Buster Keaton's fourth solo outing, 1920's The Scarecrow, in which he portrayed -- what else? -- the dog.

He spent his remaining years in Hollywood, watching and brooding as his Dog Star was eclipsed by some mixed breed nobody named Rin Tin Tin.

Thanks to recent preservation efforts, though, and the release of Luke's films on DVD, the comedic canine's antics have one again found an appreciative audience.

See one fan's tribute to Luke on YouTube.








Luke, relaxing between takes with Keaton and St. John

Join Conyers-Rockdale Library in celebrating Luke and the other pioneers of silent film.

You can find The Best Arbuckle / Keaton Collection, Buster Keaton: the short films collection, and other silent films on DVD in the PINES catalog and on our silent films display next to the New Books section.

And keep your eye on the dog.

Woof.