Educational Pictures

In 1935 Mack Sennett, who had been idle for two years, tried to continue his career by signing with Educational as a director. It is quite possible that Sennett again clashed with studio head Earle Hammons, because Sennett left Educational's employ after only two shorts: The Timid Young Man with Buster Keaton and Way Up Thar with Joan Davis (both 1935).

Production in New York

By 1936, for economic reasons, Educational had been concentrating its production in New York. Star comedian Joe Cook was leaving the studio after completing five comedies, and Earle Hammons needed a "name" comedian to fill the vacancy. Hammons tried to persuade Lupino Lane, then living and working in England, to return to the screen in two-reel comedies. Lane gave the offer enough consideration for Hammons to announce it publicly, listing the new season's contract actors "and possibly Lupino Lane", but Lane finally declined and remained in England.

Hammons then invited Buster Keaton to make comedies in New York, perhaps in a bid for Keaton to relocate. Keaton agreed to three New York productions (Blue Blazes, Mixed Magic, and The Chemist) but returned to California where he finished out his Educational series. Buster Keaton was Educational's most expensive talent and Hammons, forced to economize, could no longer afford the comedian's services. Hammons discontinued west coast operations after the last Keaton short was completed in 1937.

Educational confined filming to New York during its last year of production (1937-1938). The technical staff was a small, close-knit crew: producer-director Al Christie; writer-director William Watson; assistant directors Robert Hall (promoted to director in 1936), Chris Beute, and Johnny Graham; writers Parke Levy, Arthur Jarrett (who also acted in some shorts), Marcy Klauber, and Billy K. Wells; script clerk Doris Barber, and the New York studio's staff cameraman George Webber. Webber was such a fixture at Astoria that the trade press noted it in print: "with George Webber, naturally, at the camera."

Earle Hammons replaced Buster Keaton with Broadway dialect comic Willie Howard, who appeared as the Hebrew Frenchman "Pierre Ginsbairge." Hammons also signed Bert Lahr for two-reelers, and continued the studio's musical-comedy series with dancers Buster West and Tom Patricola. Illustrator Jefferson Machamer starred in a series inspired by his "Gags 'n' Gals" newspaper cartoons. Character comedian George Shelton was now working solo; he and partner Tom Howard reunited on radio's It Pays to Be Ignorant.

Most of the later Educational series focused on youth; besides being less expensive talent, the young actors lent a high level of energy to their performances. Educational's freshman class included the comedy/dance team of Herman Timberg, Jr. and Pat Rooney, Jr., singers Niela Goodelle and Lee Sullivan, mild-mannered comic Charles Kemper (reminiscent of Educational's bygone star Lloyd Hamilton), wisecracking comedian Harriet Hutchins, ingenues June Allyson and Sally Starr, juvenile singing group The Cabin Kids, rubber-faced clown Imogene Coca, and up-and-coming dialect comedian Danny Kaye, who began as a supporting player and soon received starring roles.