Fy og Bi

The Danish duo Fy og Bi (Fyrtårnet og Bivognen) was the most famous comedy couple of the European silent cinema. Long Carl Schenstrom (1881-1942) and short Harald Madsen (1890-1949) became very popular in the 1920s with their short slapstick films, known under such different names as Pat & Patachon, Long & Short or Watt & Half-Watt. Between 1921 and 1940, they made around 55 films.


French postcard by Cinémagazine Edition, Paris, no. 426.


Russian postcard.


Dutch postcard. Fy og Bi were called Watt and Half Watt in the Netherlands. De Munt, Kalverstraat 226, Amsterdam, was the cinema for their films in Amsterdam.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 843/2. Photo: Hugo Engel-Produktion.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1053/3 1927-1928.

Vagabonds

In Germany and Austria, Fy og Bi were known as Pat & Patachon, in the Netherlands as Watt & Halfwatt, in France as Doublepatte et Patachon, in Great Britain as Long & Short, in Sweden as Telegrafstopen och Tilhengern and in the US as Ole & Aksel.

Before Abbott & Costello, Martin & Lewis and Laurel & Hardy, Fy & Bi were the world's first internationally famous comedy team.

In contrast to Laurel & Hardy, they were not thick and thin, but long and short. Fy's full Danish name was Fyrtårnet (lighthouse) and Bi's full name was Bivognen (sidecar). Fy og Bi also did not appear in suits and bowlers but were vagabonds. They ran around in torn clothes or used an old rope as a belt.

In their films the duo interferes in the everyday life of bourgeois society, which they help to find new happiness in love or domestic chaos using grotesque methods. Their films were successful box office hits in Europe.

Between 1921 and 1940 they appeared in 55 films. Lau Lauritzen senior directed their first 30 silent films. Even before the separation from Lauritzen in 1932, Schenstrøm and Madsen made several sound films with other directors like Alf's Carpet (1929). Since then, they filmed almost exclusively out od Denmark, mostly in Germany.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1052/1, 1927-1928.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1052/2, 1927-1928.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1052/5, 1927-1928.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1471/1, 1927-1928.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1471/2, 1927-1928.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1471/6, 1927-1928.

Circus

Carl Schenstrom (Fy) was born in Kopenhagen, Denmark, in 1881. He emigrated with his parents to America in 1890. Three years later they returned to Denmark.

Schenstrom finished a study as a bookbinder and started playing at theatres at the beginning of the 20th century. Because he did not earn enough money for his living he was looking for alternatives. In 1910 he joined the Nordisk Film Company in Denmark.

At Nordisk, he became acquainted with director Lau Lauritzen, with whom he moved over to Palladium in 1920. There he met Harald Madsen (Bi).

Madsen was born in Silkeborg on Ostjütland, Denmark in 1890. He already worked as an artist in a travelling circus since 1904. From 1915 he worked as a clown for different companies. He appeared in some films of the Svensk Filmindustri from 1917, in 1920 he changed to Palladium, where he worked as a comedian.

The following year, Schenbström and Harald Madsen (Bi) created Fyrtårnet og Bivognen in the short comedy Film, Flirt og forlovelse/The Film and the Flirt (Lau Lauritzen, 1921).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3117/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Süd-Film A.G.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5340. Photo: Verleih Leopold Hauk.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3828/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Lothar Stark-Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3828/4, 1928-1929. Photo: Lothar Stark-Film.


German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4363/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Lothar Stark-Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4463/3, 1929-1930. Photo: Lothar Stark Film. Still from Hallo! Afrika forude!/Hello! Africa ahead! (Lau Lauritzen, 1929).

The last laugh

After a series of 20-minute films in Denmark, Carl Schenstrom and Harald Madsen branched out into features produced throughout Europe.

Their first international performance was a small, very funny part as two drunken musicians in the German silent film classic Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1924) starring Emil Jannings.

By the late 1920s, their European popularity rivalled Charlie Chaplin's, being particular favourites of Soviet and German audiences.1000 Worte Deutsch/1000 German Words (Georg Jacoby, 1930) was their sound debut.

The outbreak of the Second World War brought their film activities to a near halt. Their last film as a team was the Danish I gode gamle dage/In the Good, Old Days (Johan Jacobsen, 1940).

Madsens’s health was affected by protracted illnesses. The circus he founded in later years went bust. He became afraid that the floodlight of the film studios would affect his health which made it difficult to shoot films with him. After Carl Schenstrom died in 1947, Harald Madsen tried to revive the legendary duo with a new partner, Carl Reinholdz, but he died the following year at the age of 59.


The famous scene from Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (1924). Source: Kinonik (YouTube).


Pat & Patachon in a scene from an unknown film. Source: Dermeister1A (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 23 April 2024.