How Harold Lloyd filmed Safety Last! (1923)

By John Bengtson, author of Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd.

The scale is exaggerated, but the technique depicted in this July 22, 1923 story from the

Boston Post is correct.

Lloyd built this similar set for his talkie stunt-climbing comedy Feet First (1930). The Safety Last! clock set stood atop 908 S.

Broadway (oval).

This is the same set as the prior photo. Shooting down from the tower, the camera cut off the edge of the roof on which the set stood, showing only the street far below.

The first stage of the climb was filmed atop a two story building (now a parking lot) where Broadway splits at Olympic. The Blackstone Building (901 S. Broadway) appears at back.

The clock set stood atop the nine story building at 908 S. Broadway, across from the Blackstone

Building.

The concluding shot was also filmed atop 908 S.

Broadway, looking towards the corner of the

Blackstone Building (oval).

Kevin Brownlow and David Gill shown filming Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (1989), atop 908 S.

Broadway. The extant Hamburger’s Department Store building appears at back.

Remnants of J. EPSTEIN High Grade LADIES TAILOR Sixth Floor remain on the side of 820 S. Broadway

Lloyd lost his thumb, index finger, and half of his right palm during a 1919 photo shoot with a prop bomb that contained a real charge. Lloyd wore a light glove with prosthetic fingers, performing all of his stunt work with only one complete hand. Here his thumb does not grasp the rope.

The final stage of the climb was filmed atop the 13-story Merchants National Bank Building at 548 S. Spring Street. The Alexandria Hotel appears at back.

Safe at last, Harold grasps future wife Mildred Davis atop the Merchants National Bank Building. The Hotel Rosslyn appears at back.

copyright © 2012 John Bengtson

Harold Lloyd filmed a total of five high-rise stunt comedies in downtown Los Angeles. You can real all about these films, and

about how Lloyd filmed across silent-era Hollywood and New York, in my latest book Silent Visions.