Mention the name “Harold Lloyd” to anyone even remotely acquainted with classic film, and it will instantly conjure up the image of a bespectacled man, sporting a straw boater hat, hanging from a large clock. I would argue that this image of Lloyd hanging from the clock in Safety Last! (1923) is one of the all-time most iconic images of the silent film era. It is up there with Charlie Chaplin’s “Tramp” playing with the dinner rolls in The Gold Rush (1925) and Buster Keaton’s “Stoneface” standing on the front of a train’s cowcatcher in The General (1926).
In many of his films, Harold Lloyd plays a fictional version of himself. The “Harold Lloyd” character features a young man wearing round horn-rimmed glasses, a straw boater hat, and a suit. Unlike Chaplin’s Tramp character which conveyed his character’s destitution, via a disheveled, ill-fitting suit, too-large shoes, and a bowler hat, designed to illicit sympathy, Lloyd’s character was meant to be more innocent, more boyish, more romantic. Whereas Chaplin’s Tramp was always trying to find work, make a living, find romance, Lloyd’s character never had those same struggles. He almost always already has a job, girlfriend, etc. His comedy comes from his character’s naivete, which leads to him getting into some crazy situations. Keaton’s “Stoneface” character is somewhat in the middle, not as pathetic or as sweet as Chaplin’s “Tramp,” but not as friendly and innocent as Lloyd. His characters were often just struggling to fit in–leading to him getting into some wild situations.
Harold Lloyd’s name is often mentioned alongside Chaplin and Keaton’s, but it always seems to be listed as a distant third. There’s Chaplin and Keaton…then Harold Lloyd. I would like to argue that this isn’t fair and Lloyd deserves to be mentioned alongside both Chaplin and Keaton in the same breath. Lloyd’s unique brand of physical comedy, while different than Chaplin and Keaton’s, was innovative and furthered the way that physical comedy was filmed and portrayed on screen. One of Lloyd’s most innovative and impressive physical comedy stunts was captured in what is arguably his most famous film–Safety Last!
Safety Last! opens with Harold Lloyd and his fiancée, Mildred (Mildred Davis to whom Lloyd would be married from 1923 until her death in 1969) at the train station, saying goodbye. Harold is leaving their small town of Great Bend and moving to the big city–in hopes of making it big. His goal is to be successful, send for Mildred, and marry her. Harold arrives in the big city and manages to find work at the fabric counter at De Vore Department Store. There is a floorwalker, Mr. Stubbs, from whom Harold often has to hide or conduct some tomfoolery to stay out of trouble. Mr. Stubbs seems to have it in for Harold from the get-go.
Months pass and Harold still hasn’t been promoted from the fabric counter. Day in and day out he cuts fabric for the picky female clientele–and heaven help him if there’s a sale. To maintain the charade of becoming both successful professionally and financially, Harold has been spending his meager earnings on expensive gifts to send to Mildred. He cannot even afford to pay rent on his apartment and has resorted to pawning his personal belongings.
Harold’s fibbing about his finances and success backfires when Mildred arrives in town on the train, hoping to marry the successful Harold. To save face, he pretends to be the store manager. While retrieving Mildred’s purse from the manager’s office, Harold overhears the store manager proclaiming that he would pay someone $1000 ($18,900 in 2025) if they could come up with a plan to attract attention to the department store.
Harold comes up with a plan. He is going to call his friend Bill, who recently scaled the side of a multi-story building to escape from the police. Harold offers to give Bill half of the $1000 payout if he will perform the stunt and scale the side of the 12-story building that De Vore Department Store occupies. However, on the day of the stunt, Bill is detained by police and doesn’t show up–leaving Harold to perform the stunt himself.
Harold Lloyd performed the stunt himself. However, he was not climbing an actual 12-story building; but that does not mean that his stunt was any less dangerous. A series of different building facades were built on the rooftops of buildings of varying heights in downtown Los Angeles. Lloyd would then climb the facade. The facades were constructed near the edge of the building’s rooftop for purposes of the photography. There was a platform for Harold Lloyd should he fall, however, it provided a very small safety net as it would be very easy for Lloyd to fall and miss it completely, and he’d plummet to the ground. Trick photography was used to give the illusion that Lloyd was climbing the outside of the building. While Lloyd did perform most of the stunts himself, stuntmen were employed such as in the long shots of Harold on the outside of the building and when he is swinging (by his ankle) on the rope.
The famous clock scene was the last scene filmed. The clock was constructed on the rooftop of the Broadway Leasehold Building, a seven-story building in downtown Los Angeles. As of 2025, this building is still standing.
