Andy, Walter & Harry at the Columbia Shorts Department

Last week's post on rubber-legged comic Leon Errol and Mel Brooks, as well as the previous one on The Three Stooges, has profoundly immersed this blog in the pratfall-packed world of slapstick. We've been heavily into Slapstickland, both silents and talkies, for the past three months. After all, this blog devoted a bunch of posts back in 2013 (which now feels like 1913) to The Columbia Shorts Department and Jules White. Mike Glyer's 2023 article The Rivals Of The Three Stooges, covers the stars from Columbia at length and gets us thinking of the guy who spent 20 years with The Shorts Department before going on to a career in television, former Mack Sennett stock company player Andy Clyde. Now it's on to character actor supreme, the guy who coached none other than Kate Hepburn in comedy chops during the making of Bringing Up Baby, the great Walter Catlett. Like Leon Errol and the comedy team of George Sidney & Charlie Murray, Walter is among the players who actually preceded The Three…