Johnny Hines — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸
The reason that Johnny Hines is one of the leading comedians in filmland is that he has to have an outlet for his effervescent humor, and the screen affords him that.
Before entering motion pictures, Johnny Hines, or “Torchy,” as he is better known, was on the stage for five years. Then he joined the World Film Company, where he worked in “The Man of the Hour.” That was in 1915. Since then he has been starred in his own two-reel comedies. In these films he created the character of “Torchy.”
The series of Torchy comedies started in 1920 and is still running, but occasionally Johnny makes a full-length feature just to show the world that he can handle a regular story.
His first full-length production was a great success. It was a comedy-melodrama entitled “Burn ‘em Up Barnes.” After another lapse of time in which he continued to make the two-reelers, he made “Sure Fire Flint” and “Luck.”
Johnny Hines was born in Golden, Colorado, July 25, 1895. But there wasn’t enough excitement to arouse his interest there, so he soon moved to Pittsburg, where he attended high school. Perhaps it was the desire to conquer that led him on to New York, where he attended college, because it was there that he started his stage career. It was also there that the stage lost a valued actor and the screen gained a comedian.
Johnny is a red-blooded American chap that enjoys outdoor life. Auto driving or, rather, racing is one of his pet hobbies. Having been born in the wild and woolly West, his love for horses comes next. To complete his versatility in recreations, he states that dancing is among his favorite pastimes.
He stands five feet ten inches in height, weighs 150 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes.
He is unmarried and his home is in New York City.
Some of his productions are: “Miss Petticoats,” “Tillie Wakes Up,” “Alias Jimmy Valentine,” “A Scrap of Paper.” “Neighbors,” “The Little Intruder,” “Heart of Gold,” “Three Green Eyes,” “Torchy Turns Cupid” and “Torchy’s Night Hood.”
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From a Sketch by Marcus • Los Angeles
Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)