Bikes on Film: Homesick

 Homesick, staring comedian Sammy Cohen, opened at the Boulevard Theater, in Los Angeles, on 6 January 1929. I know this, not because I am some film aficionado, but after stumbling upon the story while researching for the second volume of Fast Digs. In the film, which I have not seen (nor know where one might find a film of that generation to watch) Cohen plays Sammy Schnable who answers a husband wanted advertisement from a "lonely servant girl" (Marjorie Beebe) in California. Sammy, who is not in California, joins a cross-country bicycle race in order to save the expense of having to hire a car for the journey. Built around that basic plot, then, the story follows Sammy through a never-ending succession of comedic mishaps during the race, as well as the intrigue of competing against a rival would-be husband.

The 1920s gave us Cohen, the 1930s had Joe E. Brown, the '30s transitioned to the '40s with Moe, Larry and Curly (who did plenty of bicycle slapstick), and Pee Wee Herman rode across the screen in the 1980s. Who will be the 2000s first "great" bicycling comedian?