{{Short description|Actor, film producer, film company executive, and film director (1889–1956)}} [[File:COUNCILMEN CLASH WITH MOVIE STARS IN BASEBALL GAME Edit Trim.jpg|thumb|right|Binney (center) plays baseball with Los Angeles City Councilmen W. A. Roberts (left) and Fred C. Wheeler, 1915]] '''Harold "Josh" Binney''' (1889 – 1956) was an actor, film producer, film company executive, and film director in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wFHWAAAAMAAJ&q=the+joint+is+jumping+1948+binney|title=The Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures|date=May 22, 1949|publisher=Film and Television Daily|via=Google Books}}</ref> He worked as an actor before establishing the Florida Film Company in Jacksonville, Florida in 1918 and produced and producing their films through his Harold J. Binney Productions division.<ref name="van">{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYqAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Harold+J.+Binney%22&pg=PA401|title=The Moving Picture World|date=May 21, 1918|publisher=World Photographic Publishing Company|via=Google Books}}</ref> He moved on to Canada and then Sonoma, California.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9KmFDgAAQBAJ&dq=josh+binney+silent+film+comedy&pg=PT69|title=The Springs|first=Michael|last=Acker|date=March 27, 2017|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781439659946|via=Google Books}}</ref>
==Early life== Harold Joshua Binney was born in Kansas City. He studied at the University of Washington and was an actor in vaudeville productions and with stock companies before becoming a film actor. He acted in films for Biograph, IMP, and Vogue.
==Career in film production== He established Florida Film Corporation in Jacksonville and in 1918 producing and directed five comedies for the studio featuring Hillard “Fat” Karr who began his career in comedy films at Josh Binney Comedies in Florida. The films are ''Fabulous Fortune Fumblers'', ''Fred's Fictitious Foundling'', ''Freda's Fighting Father'', ''Fatty's Fast Flivver'', and ''Fatty's Frivolous Fiance''. Hilliard, Frank Alexander, and Bill "Kewpie" Ross went on to form a team of heavyweight comedians in "Ton of Fun" comedies. Florence McLaughlin was another one of the actors in his Florida film crew. He also worked with Vangie Valentine in 1918 on her film debut in ''Velvet and Rags''.<ref name="van"/>
Binney then moved to Canada and established Canadian Photoplay Productions but it fell through.<ref>Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema, 1895-1935 by Oeter Morris</ref>
In 1922 he was involved in a film project in Oregon. He solicited photographs from community members interested in participating and Oregon governor Ben Olcott and Salem mayor George E. Halvorsen were said to be taking part.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90066132/1922-05-06/ed-1/seq-1/|title=Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, May 06, 1922, Image 1|first=National Endowment for the|last=Humanities|date=May 6, 1922|via=chroniclingamerica.loc.gov}}</ref>
In late 1923 Binney set up operations just outside of Sonoma, California. Leasing a former resort, he started production on a proposed series of twelve short comedies. Later that year he was caught passing a bad check with local merchants. His backers paid his debts, but he was soon under investigation in Montana for bilking investors there. In Butte, in 1924, he was tried and convicted of fraud and sentenced to three to six years in prison. He was paroled in November 1925.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Downey, Lynn, 1954-|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/848918385|title=A Short History of Sonoma|date=2013|publisher=University of Nevada Press|isbn=978-0-87417-913-2|oclc=848918385}}</ref>
===Films of African American performers=== [[File:Hi-De-Ho (1947).webm|thumb|right|''Hi-De-Ho'' (1947) starring Cab Calloway directed by Josh Binney]] In the 1940s Binney directed several musical "race films" with African American casts for All-American News film company. The films included ''Hi-De-Ho'' (1947) starring Cab Calloway, ''Boarding House Blues'' with Moms Mabley and Dusty Fletcher<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/mrcvault/videographies/theme/black-cast-films|title=Black Cast Films | UC Berkeley Library|website=www.lib.berkeley.edu}}</ref> as well as ''Killer Diller'' (1948) starring Fletcher and Butterfly McQueen. He directed a British comedy feature film called ''Merry-Go-Round'' starring Bonar Colleano in 1948.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHt0DwAAQBAJ&dq=bonar+colleano+merry-go-round&pg=PT2966|title=The British Film Catalogue: The Fiction Film|first=Denis|last=Gifford|date=October 24, 2018|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317837015|via=Google Books}}</ref>
==Filmography== ===Actor=== *''A Hash House Fraud'' (1915), extant *''Merely a Married Man'' (1915) *''Court House Crooks'' (1915), extant *''Only a Messenger Boy'' (1915) *''The Best of Enemies (1915 film)'' (1915) *''A Janitor's Wife's Temptation'' (1915) *''A Submarine Pirate'' (1915) *''The Candy Cook'' (1916) *''The Snow Cure'' (1916)
===Producer and director=== *''Fred's Fictitious Foundling'' (1918) *''Fabulous Fortune Fumblers'' *''Freda's Fighting Father'' *''Fatty's Fast Flivver'' *''Fatty's Frivolous Fiance''
===Director=== *''Midnight Menace'' (1946) *''Chicago After Dark'' (1946) *''Hi-De-Ho (1947 film)'' *''Boarding House Blues'' (1948) *''Killer Diller (1948 film)'' *''The Joint is Jumpin''' (1948)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sTGSCgAAQBAJ&dq=fats+waller+joint+is+jumpin%27+film+binney&pg=PA95|title=African American Films Through 1959: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Filmography|first=Larry|last=Richards|date=September 17, 2015|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476610528|via=Google Books}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Binney, Josh}} Category:Mass media people from Kansas City, Missouri Category:American silent film directors Category:Silent film producers Category:1889 births Category:1956 deaths Category:20th-century American people