Fred C. Newmeyer

Directing

Fred C. Newmeyer

Born 1888-08-08 · Central City, Colorado, USA

A native of Central City, Colorado, Newmeyer is best known for directing a handful of films in the Our Gang series and for directing several Harold Lloyd movies. With Sam Taylor, Newmeyer co-directed Lloyd in films including Safety Last! (1923), Girl Shy (1924), and The Freshman (1925). Newmeyer also had an extensive directing and acting resume in other comedy short films. He appeared as an actor in 71 films between 1914 and 1923. Prior to his film career, Newmeyer played professional baseball. Partial statistics exist for his time as a left-handed pitcher in Minor League Baseball at the Class D level from 1911 to 1913 in the Southwest Texas League, Michigan State League, and Central Association.[6] He made at least 66 appearances and was the winning pitcher of at least 26 games. Newmeyer was the original director of the first short in the Our Gang series, also titled Our Gang; his version tested poorly, and producer Hal Roach scrapped most of the footage and remade the short with Robert McGowan as the director. Newmeyer, after directing numerous other shorts at Roach, returned to the Our Gang series in 1936 to direct The Pinch Singer, Arbor Day, Mail and Female and the feature film General Spanky. Newmeyer and his wife, Berna, had a son, Fred W. After his film career, Newmeyer worked with the athletic department of University High School in Los Angeles. Newmeyer died on April 24, 1967, in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 78.

Acting credits

Safety Last! poster
7.7

When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.

Safety Last!

1923

Luke's Movie Muddle poster
4.9

Lonesome Luke has a movie theater and also works the box office and as an usher. He has to put up with, among other things, an incompetent projectionist who falls asleep all the time. Complications ensue.

Luke's Movie Muddle

1916

Captain Kidd's Kids poster
6.2

After a wild bachelor party, our hero finds himself aboard a sailing vessel where he encounters numerous adventures. In a dream sequence, he fantasizes that the ship is seized by a band of female pirates.

Captain Kidd's Kids

1919

Bumping Into Broadway poster
6.9

A young playwright spends his last cent to pay the past-due rent for the pretty dancer who's his boarding house next-door neighbor. Soon after, he winds up at a gambling club, where he wins big - just before a police raid.

Bumping Into Broadway

1919

We Never Sleep poster
NR

Luke is an inept detective who follows the wrong man to a seaside hotel.

We Never Sleep

1917

Young Mr. Jazz poster
5.9

While running away from his girl's father, Harold's car breaks down in front of a dance hall run by crooks. Harold has to not only stay one step ahead of the girl's father, but also those trying to rob them of everything they have.

Young Mr. Jazz

1919

Birds of a Feather poster
NR

Luke, running a chili parlor, inherits a million dollars and joins high society.

Birds of a Feather

1917

Luke's Late Lunchers poster
NR

Luke runs a beanery, in which the bad service, terrible food and filthy conditions lead to hi-jinx.

Luke's Late Lunchers

1916

Clubs Are Trump poster
5.2

In pre-historic times (dream sequence), our hero, in a loin cloth, battles other cavemen over the opposite sex.

Clubs Are Trump

1917

Don't Shove poster
6.1

Harold and his rival fight over Bebe on her birthday, first at her home and then at a nearby skating rink.

Don't Shove

1919

Luke and the Mermaids poster
NR

Lonesome Luke asleep in the briny deep.

Luke and the Mermaids

1916

Step Lively poster
4.6

Snub Pollard plays a drunken man-about-town who believes Harold has robbed him. Meanwhile, Bebe has her hands full with a lounge lizard who won't take no for an answer.

Step Lively

1917

Pipe the Whiskers poster
5.0

Our hero is a janitor in a old age rest home who actually runs the place.

Pipe the Whiskers

1918

No artwork available
NR

A short film starring Harold Lloyd.

The Tip

1918

Number, Please? poster
6.5

While at an amusement park, trying vainly to forget the girl he has lost, a young man sees the girl with her new boyfriend. When her dog gets loose in the park, both suitors have to help her catch it. Then, the girl's uncle, a balloonist, gives her a pass for two in his balloon, provided that her mother approves. She then offers to take along the first of her admirers who is able to get her mother's consent.

Number, Please?

1920

Over the Fence poster
5.9

Snitch steals Ginger's (stolen) baseball tickets and takes Ginger's girl to the game. Finding himself without tickets, Ginger dresses as a baseball player and wins the game. A possible debut of the "Glasses" or "Boy" character.

Over the Fence

1917

Luke's Society Mixup poster
NR

Luke, a mechanic, stands in for a famous violinist. At first, his bad manners and rough behavior are accepted as the eccentricities of genius. Then matters get out of hand.

Luke's Society Mixup

1916

Luke Rides Roughshod poster
NR

Out west, Luke changes clothes with an outlaw and proceeds into town. Of course, he is mistaken for the wanted man and a chase ensues.

Luke Rides Roughshod

1916

Luke, Rank Impersonator poster
NR

Luke crashes a society affair, thereby livening things up.

Luke, Rank Impersonator

1916

Billy Blazes, Esq. poster
5.9

Billy Blazes confronts Crooked Charley, who has been ruling the town of Peaceful Vale through fear and violence.

Billy Blazes, Esq.

1919

Luke's Fireworks Fizzle poster
NR

Luke, working in a fireworks factory.

Luke's Fireworks Fizzle

1916

Luke Locates the Loot poster
NR

As a detective, Luke is after a gang of crooks who are robbing party guests of their jewels.

Luke Locates the Loot

1916

A Sammy in Siberia poster
5.7

A bumbling American soldier saves a girl from a bunch of Cossacks.

A Sammy in Siberia

1919

It's a Wild Life poster
5.0

Harold invades the "Gilded Guzzle" café, where he appropriates a lady's roll of money, hides under a table and impersonates a cigar store Indian.

It's a Wild Life

1918

Behind the camera

Safety Last! poster
7.7

When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.

Safety Last!

1923

Now or Never poster
6.2

A young man, unaccustomed to children, must accompany a young girl on a train trip.

Now or Never

1921

Dr. Jack poster
6.8

Country doctor Jack Jackson is called in to treat the Sick-Little-Well-Girl, who has been making Dr. Saulsbourg and his sanitarium very rich after years of unsuccessful treatment.

Dr. Jack

1922

Why Worry? poster
6.5

A hypochondriac vacations in the tropics for the fresh air - and finds himself in the middle of a revolution instead.

Why Worry?

1923

Girl Shy poster
6.9

Harold Meadows is a shy, stuttering bachelor working in a tailor shop, who is writing a guidebook, The Secret of Making Love, for other bashful young men. Fate has him meet rich girl Mary, and they fall in love. But she is about to wed an already married man, so our hero embarks upon a hair-raising daredevil ride to prevent the wedding.

Girl Shy

1924

Grandma's Boy poster
6.4

A meek young man must find the courage within when a rogue tramp menaces his hometown.

Grandma's Boy

1922

Warming Up poster
9.0

Bert, a pitcher for a baseball team in a small town, is given the opportunity to try out for a team in the big leagues. Unfortunately, he incurs the enmity of McRae, the league's leading home-run hitter. In addition, he falls for the team owner's daughter, who McRae has designs on.

Warming Up

1928

The Freshman poster
7.0

An unathletic college freshman ridiculed by his peers for his mannerisms strives to become popular by making the football team.

The Freshman

1925

The Night Bird poster
7.0

A boxer falls in love with a girl he meets in the park.

The Night Bird

1928

Secrets of Chinatown poster
5.3

Private detective Donegal Dawn is summoned by the police commissioner to solve the reasons for a crime wave in Chinatown.

Secrets of Chinatown

1935

The Night Rider poster
8.0

Officer John Brown is after the outlaw known as the Night Rider. Posing as Jim Blake he takes a job on the Rogers ranch. He finds the secret passage from the Rogers mine to the Rogers house used by the Night Rider and also a note written by the Night Rider to his henchmen. Practicing his hand writing, he has a plan to trap him.

The Night Rider

1932

Never Weaken poster
6.9

A young man schemes to drum up business for his girlfriend's employer but after seeing her being intimate with another man, he attempts to commit suicide.

Never Weaken

1921

The Quarterback poster
6.5

Elmer Stone, quarterback of the 1899 Colton College football team vows to remain a student until Colton beats its biggest rival, State University. Twenty-seven years later, Elmer is still in school and is a classmate of his son, Jack. Other than driving a milk wagon in his spare time, Jack is also the quarterback of the football team. A matter of his eligibility comes up but he is cleared and goes out to do-or-die for Colton against State University. Maybe they will win The Big Game, and Jack's father can get a life...and a job.

The Quarterback

1926

Hot Water poster
6.8

Lloyd's look at married life and the issues of the in-law. Adventures include a ride on a crowded trolley with a live turkey; A wild spin in a new auto with the in-laws in tow. Finally, a sequence in which Hubby accidentally chloroforms his mother-in-law and becomes convinced that he's killed her!

Hot Water

1924

It Can Be Done poster
9.0

Jerry Willard, a clerk in a publishing house who is possessed of a massive inferiority complex, is fired from his job and, on the way out of the office, is mistaken for the boss, Watson, by Anne Rogers, the daughter of an author.

It Can Be Done

1929

Fast and Loose poster
5.3

A wealthy family is thrown into turmoil when the daughter falls for the family chauffeur and the son begins to keep company with a chorus girl.

Fast and Loose

1930

The Big Race poster
9.0

Bob Hamilton gets into trouble when crooks cause the defeat of his father's horse in the Derby, and it is reported he is in with the crooks. The old man disowns him and his sweetheart, Patricia , breaks their engagement. So Bob and "Skipper", the also-suspected trainer, head for the western tracks, taking with them the horse Hamilton Senior forced them to buy, determined to make good and prove they are on the level.

The Big Race

1934

No artwork available
6.0

Snub and his wife give up their bungalow and allow another couple to move in. Then it develops that they can't find another home, and must live in an improvised tent.

Raise the Rent

1920

The Savage poster
9.0

Rivalry between two behavioral scientists gets out of hand...

The Savage

1926

They Never Come Back poster
6.3

Prizefighter Jimmy Nolan, facing an opportunity to get a championship fight, is knocked out when he sustains what is apparently a permanent injury to his arm. From there, Nolan's path leads downhill. He is drawn into a romance with a nightclub entertainer, then is framed on a theft charge by a jealous suitor. After his prison term, Nolan makes a spectacular comeback in a fight which proves his courage and integrity, while disproving the fallacy about the old sports adage that "they never come back."

They Never Come Back

1932

That's My Daddy poster
9.0

A wealthy bachelor lies his way out of a speeding ticket by telling the cops he's on his way to visit his baby girl in hospital - ever helpful, they accompany him whereupon a little girl attaches herself to him, with hilarious results.

That's My Daddy

1927

On Your Toes! poster
7.0

Silent boxing sports comedy about a boxer whose grandmother wants him to be a ballet dancer, so he has the boxers at his training camp pose as ballet dancers to fool granny, with predictable results

On Your Toes!

1927

Queen High poster
6.5

The two partners of a ladies' garter business are constantly feuding with each other. When they ask their lawyer to dissolve their partnership, he proposes that instead the two of them play a single poker hand: the loser to become the winner's personal manservant for a year.

Queen High

1930

No artwork available
8.0

In this family comedy, the wealthy executive of a steel company must endure life with a strict, teetotaling wife, a wild daughter, and a deadbeat son. To gain some much needed attention, the lonesome fellow hires a hitman to kill him. Instead, the gunman kidnaps him to frighten the family into appreciating their devoted father.

No Ransom

1934