SYD SAYLOR
March 24th, 1895 -- December 21st, 1962

Above: Comical sidekick Syd Saylor at his pop-eyed best in a scene from the Republic B-western THE THREE MESQUITEERS, in which Saylor played "Lullaby Joslin" for the first and only time.

Another one of the exemplary "comic" sidekicks in serials was Syd Saylor. Syd's rubbery nose and round eyes, which looked as if they belonged to a cartoon character; a perpetual "gargling" note in his voice, as if he had a baseball stuck there; and his trademark gimmick of craning his neck in surprise or fear and letting his Adam's apple wobble back and forth--all of these marked him as a first-class clown. Serial audiences could expect plenty of laughs from Saylor the minute he appeared on screen--and they were never disappointed.

Born Leo Sailor in Chicago, Syd (or Sid--he used both spellings of his name throughout his career) came to Hollywood in 1926, and promptly found his comedic calling: his second film was a two-reel comedy called "And George Did!" which starred him as the hapless title character. Syd went on to star in over forty "George" shorts, but the series petered out in 1929, and Saylor began to play character parts or bit roles in major movies of all description, frequently as reporters, bus drivers, or other verbose individuals. In 1934, shoestring Mascot Pictures signed Syd to appear in their serials, as they had already signed such silent stars as Jack Mulhall, Frankie Darro, Raymond Hatton, Noah Beery Sr., and Harry Carey. Saylor's first cliffhanger for the studio was THE LOST JUNGLE (Mascot, 1934), a jungle-adventure cliffhanger that starred the famous Clyde Beatty--as himself, naturally. Syd was Beatty’s best friend, circus publicity man and former trapeeze performer Larry Henderson, and accompanied Clyde on a dirigible trip to Asia to capture tigers for the circus. The dirigible was wrecked en route, and Clyde and Larry wound up on a mysterious island stock with lions, tigers, bears, and every kind of ferocious animal imaginable. The two good guys quickly threw in with Captain Robinson (Ed LeSaint) and his daughter Ruth (Cecelia Parker), who had accompanied a British scientist to the island in search of the Buried City of Kamor. When the professor found a treasure chest in the buried city, Robinson’s crew broke out in open mutiny, and the professor was murdered by two of the sailors. It was then up to Beatty and Saylor to squelch the mutiny, recover the treasure, and bring everything to a satisfactory conclusion. Syd was almost a co-hero in this serial. Though frequently displaying his trademark jumpiness when pursued by bears, lions, etc., Syd continually proved of genuine help to the good guys, outsmarting the mutinous crew on his own for almost the entirety of Chapter Ten, and unmasking the so-called “Mystery Man” who lived in the Buried City of Kamor.

Above: Syd Saylor (with pork-pie hat) and Clyde Beatty (with rope) prepare for a descent into a tiger pit as a group of sailors watch in THE LOST JUNGLE (Mascot, 1934). Wheeler Oakman is on the far left, Max Wagner on the far right, and Jim Corey is second from right.

Mascot always kept their actors on the go; less than a year after the release of Syd's first serial, he was appearing in his second one, MYSTERY MOUNTAIN (Mascot, 1934). Once again a representative of the press--this time "Breezy" Baker, the "world's worst newspaperman", Syd helped cowboy great Ken Maynard (in one of his last starring roles) track down the Rattler, a masked outlaw mastermind. This modern-day Western featured the same kind of fast action and pacing that had made LOST JUNGLE a hit, and it provided an equally good vehicle for the talents of Saylor.

Above: Syd tries to follow Ken Maynard's (center) reasoning in MYSTERY MOUNTAIN (Mascot, 1934). Verna Hillie is the heroine.

Syd continued his character acting career, racking up an endless amount of credits through the forties, fifties, and sixties. It was in 1945 that he made his third and last appearance as a serial sidekick; Columbia producer Sam Katzman, no doubt recalling Saylor's Mascot outings a decade earlier, signed Syd for the part of Chuck Allen, yet another dim-witted pressman, in BRENDA STARR, REPORTER. As Brenda's (Joan Woodbury's) photographer, Syd helped the girl reporter and police lieutenant Larry Farrell (Kane Richmond) to unravel a mystery centered around a satchel of stolen money. Syd shared most of Woodbury’s misadventures and frequently proved helpful to the female newshound while being funny at the same time; Saylor actually appeared in more scenes than the higher-billed Richmond.

Above: Syd Saylor and Joan Woodbury appear to be nosing around for news in BRENDA STARR REPORTER (Columbia, 1945).

Saylor remained active in showbiz right up to 1962, the year of his death; one of the most notable of his latter-day roles was the part of Bozo the Clown on live TV circa 1950. He also had a regular role on THE ADVENTURES OF RIN TIN TIN, as old-timer Clem Pritikin, as well as guesting on MAVERICK, THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, and many others. In all of these parts and many more, Syd Saylor demonstrated the laugh-getting abilities he had perfected in the days of silents and brought to all his serial adventures.

Above: Hotly pursued by a gorilla in THE LOST JUNGLE (Mascot, 1934), Syd Saylor, Cecelia Parker, and Clyde Beatty (with treasure chest) make a timely escape.