Dan Mason

Dan Mason
Mason in 1902
Born
Daniel Grassman

(1857-02-09)February 9, 1857
Syracuse, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 6, 1929(1929-07-06) (aged 72)
Bearsville, New York, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1913–1929

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. 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):

Other lost films in the series have been documented:

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. Eckhart and Helen Howell:

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1914 The Active Life of Dolly of the Dailies
1917 Over the Hill Reverend Timothy Neal
1918 Jack Spurlock, Prodigal Spurlock, Sr.
All Woman Cabdriver
1919 Lure of Ambition Sylvester Dolan
1921 Why Girls Leave Home Dodo
1922 Iron to Gold Lem Baldwin
1924 Conductor 1492 Mike O'Toole
Idle Tongues Henry Ward Beecher Payson
1925 Wages for Wives Mr. Tevis
The Big Parade
Seven Sinners Doctor
Sally Pops Shendorf
1926 The Fire Brigade Peg Leg Murphy
1927 The Hero on Horseback Jimmie Breeze
1927 Out All Night Uncle

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Faivre, Antoine; Couderc, Jean-Jacques (March 14, 2000). Les Petits Maîtres du burlesque américain, 1909-1929 (in French). CNRS Editions. ISBN 9782271056917. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  2. ↑ Dan Mason at the Betzwood Film Archive
  3. ↑ Greene, Lawrence. "Betzwood Studios". Library. Montgomery County Community College. Retrieved September 2, 2026.
  4. ↑ Greene, Lawrence. "Toonerville Trolley series: Betzwood Film Co. 1920-1921". Library. Montgomery County Community College. Retrieved September 2, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Ira M Lowry". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  6. ↑ "For the Freedom of the East". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  7. ↑ Greene, Lawrence. "Wilna Hervey". Library, Montgomery County Community College.
  8. ↑ "The Toonerville Trolley That Meets all Trains". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  9. ↑ "The Skipper's Narrow Escape". George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York.
  10. ↑ "The Skipper's Narrow Escape". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  11. ↑ "Boos-em Friends". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  12. ↑ "The Skipper's Flirtation". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  13. ↑ "The Skipper's Flirtation". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  14. ↑ "Toonerville Tactics". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  15. ↑ "The Skipper's Treasure Garden". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  16. ↑ "Toonerville's Fire Brigade". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  17. ↑ "The Skipper's Scheme". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  18. ↑ "The Skipper Has His Fling". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  19. ↑ "Toonerville Tangle". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  20. ↑ "The Skipper's Sermon" – via www.bdfci.info.
  21. ↑ Oliver J. Eckhardt; born September 14, 1873, St. Louis, Missouri; died September 15, 1952, in Hollywood, California, aged 79;
  22. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's Movie Queen". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  23. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's One Horse Play". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  24. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's Clever Catch". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  25. ↑ "Pop Tuttle, Fire Chief". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  26. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's Grass Widow". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  27. ↑ "Pop Tuttle, Deteckative". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  28. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's Long Shot". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  29. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's Polecat Plot". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  30. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's Lost Control". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  31. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's Lost Nerve". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  32. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's Russian Rumor". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  33. ↑ "Pop Tuttle's Tack-Tics". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.