Tommy "Fatty" Wood, the silent film actor from Brainerd

Silent movies have a surreal quality about them. It's as if we're stepping into a mysterious world. But it's just a case of cinema being in its infancy. Minnesota had a connection to those early heady days of cinema. My mother told me about "Fatty" Wood when I was a child. "Fatty" was born in Eau Claire WI but he was for all practical purposes a native of Brainerd.
My mom Martha H. Williams, now age 93, was a 1942 graduate of Brainerd High School. She is most proud of her roots, her connections to that old railroad town. I recently put up a post (on my "I Love Morris" blog site) about Brainerd for which I did some cursory research about actor Wood. It was hard finding a whole lot of information at the start. Since then I dug and was able to do better. I'm intrigued buy this long-ago actor from Central Minnesota who appeared with the likes of Charlie Chaplin.
Those were the days before "synchronized sound" in the movies. But those movies were surely not "silent." They were accompanied by music performed right in the theater. I think we have all wondered how the public could really have been entertained by what seems to be such a crude product. Read cinema history and you'll see that the artistic community took this genre of entertainment seriously.
Chaplin is iconic in movie history annals. Right here I'll give you a chance to see Fatty with Charlie in an old movie - it's "Sunnyside." Just look for the very rotund gentleman - it's "Fatty." You may click on this YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZSza0MhLHY&t=824s
 
Fatty was born on May 6 of 1894 and died too young at age 38 on December 27, 1932. I'm assuming that his tremendous weight left him vulnerable to illness and death. He got a cold and died of pneumonia. He's buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Brainerd, same cemetery as my grandparents on my mother's side.
Brainerd celebrated its Centennial in 1971. My family was there and enjoyed it all, including the showing of a Fatty Wood film that was made in and around Brainerd. I heard this was a rare showing, rare because the film was old and delicate. Today of course such stuff would be digitized ASAP. I'm assuming that task has been done. However I could not find any of the Brainerd-centered material on YouTube. I'm going to contact the Crow Wing County Historical Society about this.
The full name of the actor we're featuring here is Tommy "Fatty" Wood. Old press accounts sometimes made the mistake of having his name appear as "Woods." He was featured in the role of "Farmer Corntassel" in footage that highlights Brainerd and Crow Wing County. The story is a comedy, described as "side-splitting" in a 1915 Brainerd Daily Dispatch account.
The movie begins with Farmer Corntassel meeting several well-known state officials at the Brainerd train depot. Fatty then goes to First National Bank where he meets a stranger who turns out to be a pickpocket! He gets past that encounter and then gets taken for an automobile ride around Brainerd. He visits various merchants until we again see the pickpocket. At first the thief appears to succeed in lifting Fatty's "roll," as the newspaper reports, but justice prevails as the thief ends up in the city jail.

Tommy is easy to spot: the big guy.

There is considerable humor through the course of this. We get scenes of the mines at Crosby and Ironton. We see the hydraulic work at the Hillcrest mine. "Beautiful Bay Lake" enters the picture. The movie ends with "Farmer Corntassel" visiting the Echo Dairy Farm. It's truly a cinema gem as we are treated to the sight of students leaving the high school. Prominent buildings and business streets enter the picture.
My family went to a Brainerd movie theater to watch some of the old stuff in 1971 for the Centennial. (I remember that admission was with a button!) I have just a vague memory of the content so I'm not sure if we actually saw the Farmer Corntassel piece or some other work.
My mother concluded high school as WWII began raging. She was most attuned to what was going on with the Brainerd National Guard unit for WWII. That unit was tragically captured by the Japanese in the Philippines. The Guardsmen were forced on the Bataan Death March. Only half of those young men made it back home after the war. My mom played in the band for ceremonies both at the time of departure and the somber return.
Brainerd was a company town and my grandfather worked for the railroad. His first Social Security check at the very start of that program was en route to him when he died of a stroke. Imagine life without Social Security!
Fatty Wood helped make Brainerd a pioneer in harnessing the fledgling medium of movies. All the locally produced work was seen as an economic asset for the beautiful lakes area. Fatty reported in February of 1916 that his weight had reached 470 pounds and was still going up. In January of 1917, Wood and "A. Anderson" led the Brainerd marching team at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. We read that "the tailor had to splice two measuring tapes together for Wood." April of 1917 saw the actor's weight bulge up to 600 pounds! Oh my. He went to Chicago for a tryout with the Mutual Film Company.

We're not surprised that the rotund fellow was turned down for military service. At one point he had to be weighed on a freight scale. "They don't make uniforms his size," the newspaper joked. Rotund, yes, but his " 'mile of smiles' is to be seen on the screen," the Brainerd Dispatch reported.
Wood was hailed as "first Minnesota man in movies." He ended his association with Chaplin in 1919. It was reported that he intended to start his own company. He was multi-talented with music and the ukulele standing out.

Fatty was in Los Angeles when Chaplin's brother Syd contacted him to give him the cinema break. "I made up my mind to be a motion picture actor," Fatty is quoted saying. Charlie invited Fatty to his house to enjoy cocktails, cake and tea. It was there that the Chaplins arranged for Fatty to be in "Sunnyside." The next day saw Fatty on the filming lot, there to rub shoulders with some of Hollywood's biggest names like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Fatty appeared to have a powerful presence. Too much so?

"Dim suspicion seized us," a newspaper account read, "that Tommy Wood of Brainerd MN and of Hollywood CA believed that Chaplin was a little piqued at the comedy powers of his heavyweight co-star." Tommy commented: "Those stars are all alike. They want to have the whole picture. Look at Edna Purviance, how long she has been with Charlie, and see how little she gets to do. Look at Bill Hart. He has a new leading woman in every picture. People in Los Angeles told me that was the way with stars and I found out that it's true." Thus we might better understand Wood's departure from Chaplin.
The Brained Daily Dispatch proclaimed in 1919 that "Tommy Wood is our biggest living advertisement of the Minnesota climate." Fatty's last reported cinema appearance was uncredited where he played a prospector in the classic "The Gold Rush" with Chaplin, a 1925 film.
The Brainerd newspaper reported the news of Fatty's death from pneumonia in December of 1932. His death came in Minneapolis. "The deceased weighed nearly 600 pounds at one time and gained considerable popularity throughout the country for his stage and musical endeavors." His parents preceded him in death. He was survived by two sisters. The Brainerd paper reported that funeral services were held at First Congregational Church with Rev. N.P. Olmstad officiating. I presume the church was in Brainerd.
Tommy once said "sometimes people think I'm Fatty Arbuckle. But most of them remember me in 'Sunnyside.' "
Indeed, Tommy "Fatty" Wood lived his life on the sunny side of the street.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com