The Waiters' Ball
1916 American silent short comedy film
title: "The Waiters' Ball" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1916-films", "1916-comedy-films", "1916-short-films", "1916-american-films", "1910s-english-language-films", "american-black-and-white-films", "english-language-comedy-short-films", "films-directed-by-roscoe-arbuckle", "films-produced-by-mack-sennett", "keystone-studios-films", "american-silent-comedy-short-films", "surviving-american-silent-films", "triangle-film-corporation-films"] description: "1916 American silent short comedy film" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waiters'_Ball" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary 1916 American silent short comedy film ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox film"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | The Waiters' Ball |
| image | The Waiter's Ball (Triangle-Keystone, 1916). One Sheet (28 X 41.5).jpg |
| caption | Theatrical release poster |
| director | Fatty Arbuckle |
| producer | Mack Sennett |
| starring | Fatty Arbuckle |
| Al St. John | |
| cinematography | Elgin Lessley |
| studio | Keystone Film Company |
| distributor | Triangle Films |
| released | |
| runtime | 20 minutes |
| country | United States |
| language | Silent (English intertitles) |
| :: |
| name = The Waiters' Ball | image = The Waiter's Ball (Triangle-Keystone, 1916). One Sheet (28 X 41.5).jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Fatty Arbuckle | producer = Mack Sennett | writer = | starring = Fatty Arbuckle Al St. John | music = | cinematography = Elgin Lessley | studio = Keystone Film Company | distributor = Triangle Films | released = | runtime = 20 minutes | country = United States | language = Silent (English intertitles) | budget = | gross =
The Waiters' Ball is a 1916 American silent short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. Arbuckle's nephew Al St. John has a memorable role as Roscoe's rival.
Plot
A cook and a waiter at a restaurant are both attracted to the pretty cashier. She sees an ad for a waiters’ ball coming up that night. Attendees must wear evening clothes; the waiter is distressed because he doesn’t have any.
The waiter tries to sweep litter from the restaurant into the kitchen at the same time as the cook tries to sweep it out; they fight, hitting each other rhythmically with brooms. The waiter calls out customers’ orders to the kitchen using hash house lingo – e.g., two eggs on toast is “Adam and Eve on a raft.” Meanwhile, the cook prepares the orders with much juggling and many sight gags. For example, the cook gets a fish out of a cooler, but it’s still alive, and it leaps wildly; eventually, everyone in the restaurant becomes involved in subduing it.
The waiter sees the cook kiss the cashier, attacks him with a knife, and steals his dress suit. The cook therefore puts on the fat female dishwasher’s evening gown instead.
At the ball, the cook enjoys a dance while the waiter enjoys a beer. The cook then sees the waiter wearing his suit, chases him, and pulls the suit off him, leaving him in his striped underwear. The dishwasher similarly pulls her dress off the cook. The cook chases the waiter out to the street, where a police officer arrests them both and makes them don barrels.
Cast
- Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as The Cook
- Al St. John as The Waiter
- Corinne Parquet as The Cashier
- Joe Bordeaux as Her Brother
- Kate Price as The Dishwasher
- Alice Lake as A Fair Customer
- Jimmy Bryant as Restaurant customer
- George Marshall as Laundry Delivery Man ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/The_Waiters'_Ball_1916.jpg" caption="Film still with Corinne Parquet and Roscoe Arbuckle"] ::
Influence
Arbuckle reused many elements of The Waiters' Ball in The Cook (1918), with Buster Keaton.
Preservation
Two copies are held by George Eastman House, and the film was released along with 30 other Arbuckle films on DVD by Mackinac Media, now defunct.
References
References
- "Progressive Silent Film List: ''The Waiters' Ball''". silentera.com.
- "The Waiter's Ball".
- "The Waiter's Ball".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::