L-KO Motion Picture Company

[1] By the spring of 1914, Henry "Pathé" Lehrman had directed several important Keystone Cops comedies including The Bangville Police (1913) and Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), Charlie Chaplin's debut.

Henry Bergman had made one picture with Phillips Smalley before turning up at L-KO; not long after he would join Charlie Chaplin's regular troupe of character actors.

Author Kalton C. Lahue reported that there were stunt persons and bit players of the time who would not answer a call from L-KO owing to the possibility of danger;[4] stuntman Harvey Parry referred to the producer as "Suicide" Lehrman.

After Lehrman's departure, L-KO was taken over by Julius and Abe Stern—brothers-in-law to Universal's founder Carl Laemmle—and they named John G. Blystone director-in-chief.

Given Lehrman's preference for violent sight gags and Ritchie's confrontational style of humor, surviving L-KO films stand as some of the edgiest and darkest entries in the annals of American Silent Comedy.