Dan Mason (born Daniel Grassman; February 9, 1857 – July 6, 1929) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films from 1913 to 1929. He performed as the "Skipper" in the "Toonerville Folks" comedy short films.Dan Mason at the Betzwood Film Archive He performed as Pop Tuttle in the Plump Center Comedies short films, for Paul Gerson Pictures Corporation.
Career From 1913 to 1915, Mason performed for Edison Studios with William Wadsworth, Gertrude McCoy and Arthur Housman.
From 1920 to 1922, Mason starred for the Betzwood Film Company (1912-1922), an organization distantly affiliated with the defunct Lubin Manufacturing Company (1902-1916), in the Toonerville Trolley Series: 17 two-reel short films.
They were adapted from Toonerville Folks an American newspaper comic strip by Fontaine Fox
They were directed by Ira M. Lowry (For the Freedom of the East), with Wilma Wild, Robert Maximilian, Helen Gerould Rose and Wilma Wilcox. All of the Toonerville films were directed by Ira M. Lowry, except for The Skipper's Treasure Garden, which was directed by Robert Eddy.
In the films, Dan Mason played the driver of a horse-drawn trolley in a small town.
The first of the series, The Toonerville Trolley That Meets all Trains, debuted in September 1920.
Only 7 films of the series are extant (still exist): The Skipper's Narrow Escape (1920) Boos-em Friends The Skipper's Flirtation The Skipper's Flirtation Toonerville Tactics The Skipper's Treasure Garden Toonerville's Fire Brigade
Other lost films in the series have been documented: The Skipper's Scheme The Skipper Has His Fling Toonerville Tangle The Skipper's Sermon (1922), directed by Ira M. Lowry
Dan Mason, who was 63, plays an old, tall, thin man with a long, white beard, who wears a cap.
Later, from August 1922 to May 1923, for Gerson Pictures Corporation, directed by Robert Eddy, Mason played Pop Tuttle in the Plump Center Comedies short films, set in an imaginary city, Plump Center, with performers: Wilna Hervey, Oliver J. EckhartOliver J. Eckhardt; born September 14, 1873, St. Louis, Missouri; died September 15, 1952, in Hollywood, California, aged 79; and Helen Howell: Pop Tuttle's Movie Queen (1922) Pop Tuttle's One Horse Play (1922) Pop Tuttle's Clever Catch (1922) Pop Tuttle, Fire Chief (1922) Pop Tuttle's Grass Widow (1922) Pop Tuttle, Deteckative (1922) Pop Tuttle's Long Shot (1923) Pop Tuttle's Polecat Plot (1923) Pop Tuttle's Lost Control (1923) Pop Tuttle's Lost Nerve (1923) Pop Tuttle's Russian Rumor (1923) Pop Tuttle's Tack-Tics (1923)
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes1914The Active Life of Dolly of the Dailies1917 Over the HillReverend Timothy Neal1918Jack Spurlock, ProdigalSpurlock, Sr.All WomanCabdriver1919Lure of AmbitionSylvester Dolan1921Why Girls Leave HomeDodo1922Iron to GoldLem Baldwin 1924Conductor 1492Mike O'TooleIdle TonguesHenry Ward Beecher Payson1925Wages for WivesMr. TevisThe Big ParadeSeven SinnersDoctorSallyPops Shendorf1926The Fire BrigadePeg Leg Murphy1927 The Hero on HorsebackJimmie Breeze1927Out All NightUncle
References
External links
Dan Mason at AFI Catalog of Feature Films