I bet nobody reading this article was a cinemagoer during the silent era of movies as that ended more than 90 years ago. I suspect most readers have never watched a silent film as they are not shown on television and most have been lost with the passage of time. Surprisingly, a number of Hollywood silent screen stars visited or filmed in Borehamwood.

Harold Lloyd visited Elstree Studios in 1960, long after he had retired. He was famous for his onscreen comedy stunts ­— often at great heights ­— which were even more amazing as he wore glasses and had a damaged right hand from a special effects explosion that went wrong. Harold had a huge Hollywood mansion and gardens. You can look it up online and the mansion is still there.

Harold Lloyd

Harold Lloyd

Buster Keaton was also a comedy actor who was famous for his onscreen stunts. Sadly his career nosedived with the coming of sound and he became an alcoholic, although he lived to see a revival of his films in the 1960s. Buster was employed to make a low-budget film at what is now the BBC Elstree Centre in the 1950s by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The father of Douglas was of course a famous swashbuckling athletic movie star of the 1920s, although his last film was shot in Borehamwood and not Hollywood. He died from a heart attack in 1939 and is buried in an elaborate tomb, which I have visited. Doug junior showed me his dad's honorary Oscar when I visited his apartment overlooking Central Park in New York in 1989. When he died in 2000 he was buried with his father.

Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

Charlie Chaplin was the biggest star of the silent screen, earning more each year more than 100 years ago than most of us could dream about today. In his private life Charlie liked teenage girls and even married a couple of them. He never became a naturalised American, so in the 1950s when he was suspected of communist leanings they forbade his return when he had been abroad so he set up home in Switzerland. Just before his death he was invited back to Hollywood to receive an honorary Oscar and got a somewhat belated knighthood here. After his funeral his coffin was dug up and held for ransom but luckily it was soon found and reburied.

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie visited Borehamwood in the 1930s and, seeing four studios operating, declared it to be the Hollywood of England. Another visitor around that time was Stan Laurel, one half of that famous duo Laurel and Hardy. Their careers survived the coming of the talkies. I have visited their graves on my trips to Tinseltown.

Perhaps the best remembered of the silent stars is Rudolph Valentino, who is still a household name today although he made only a handful of films and died aged 31 in 1926. One of his producers was responsible for building Elstree Studios and had Valentino not died was likely to have made a film here. I have also visited his grave. Incidentally when I was grave visiting in 1988 there were no mobile phone cameras so I took shots with an old fashioned camera. It was not quite a box brownie but dated even then. My chemist used to say when developing the photos they were rather strange holiday shots.

Another star due to have made a film at Elstree Studios with Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s was John Gilbert, the great silent screen lover. His career was ruined with the coming of the talkies as his voice did not match his image. He drank himself to death before the film was due to be made.

I would have made a good silent screen star as I could never remember lines but would have probably looked like Lon Chaney rather than Valentino. Until we next venture down the boulevard of broken dreams I remain ready for my close up, Mr DeMille. That is one for film buffs...

Paul Welsh

Paul Welsh

Paul Welsh MBE is a Borehamwood writer and historian of Elstree Studios