Editing Harold Lloyd (section)

==Career==
===Silent shorts and features===
Lloyd worked with [[Thomas Edison]]'s motion picture company, and his first role was a small part as a [[Yaqui]] Indian in the production of ''[[The Old Monk's Tale]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=D'Agostino |first1=Annette M. |title=Harold Lloyd: A Bio-bibliography |date=1994 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-28986-6 |page=58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knFZAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> At the age of 20, Lloyd moved to Los Angeles and took juvenile roles in several [[Keystone Film Company]] comedies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Albert |first1=Lisa Rondinelli |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhI9kWopVwUC&pg=PA10 |title=So You Want to Be a Film Or TV Actor? |date=2008 |publisher=Enslow Publishers|isbn=978-0-7660-2741-1 |page=10 |language=en}}</ref>

He tried to find work at the [[Universal Pictures|Universal]] studio, but "the gatekeeper was a crabby old soul who let me understand that it would be a great pleasure to keep me out", as Lloyd recalled in his 1928 memoir. He solved his problem with the ingenuity of his later screen character: "The next morning I brought a makeup box. At noon I dodged behind a billboard, made up, mingled with the [extras] and returned with them through the gate without challenge."<ref>Harold Lloyd with [[Wesley W. Stout]], ''An American Comedy'', Longmans, Green and Co., 1928; reprinted by Dover Publications, 1971, p. 44.</ref>

Lloyd soon became friendly with aspiring filmmaker [[Hal Roach]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Encyclopedia of the Great Plains - Lloyd, Harold (1893-1971) |work=unl.edu |url=http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.fil.041 |access-date=April 13, 2015}}</ref> Lloyd began collaborating with Roach, who had formed his own studio in 1913. Roach and Lloyd created "Lonesome Luke", a comic character inspired by the success of [[Charlie Chaplin]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Hal Roach article |website=Silentsaregolden.com |url=http://www.silentsaregolden.com/articles/halroacharticle.html |access-date=July 21, 2016}}</ref> Luke was a comic grotesque with loud clothes and a false moustache, similar to many early screen comics, but the young Lloyd gave the character great energy and enthusiasm. His antics won a popular following, and his one-reel, 10-minute comedies were soon expanded to two-reel, 20-minute comedies. Hal Roach hired [[Bebe Daniels]] to support Lloyd in 1914; Lloyd and Daniels became involved romantically and were known as "The Boy" and "The Girl".

[[File:Lonesome Luke - Motion Picture News, March 3, 1917.jpg|thumb|upright|1917 advertisement featuring Lloyd as "Lonesome Luke", with [[Snub Pollard]] and [[Bebe Daniels]]]]

By late 1917, Lloyd had tired of Lonesome Luke and wanted to develop his screen presence beyond an imitation of his contemporaries. He envisioned an entirely new character, not a costumed clown but an everyday young man in street clothes who faced comic situations with resourcefulness. To make the look of the new character distinctive, he adopted a pair of lensless, horn-rimmed glasses.

Lloyd thought that [[Pathé]], Roach's distributor, would resist the new character because the Lonesome Luke films were proven moneymakers, and the company didn't want to lose that revenue. "Privately I believed that Pathé would conclude to hire another comedian and carry on with Lonesome Luke", wrote Lloyd. "Roach, however, argued my case better than I could have done."<ref>Lloyd, Stout, p. 60.</ref> Lloyd agreed to a compromise: He would continue to make Lonesome Luke two-reelers, but he would introduce his new "Glass" character<ref>{{cite web |title=Harold Lloyd biography |website=haroldlloyd.com |url=http://haroldlloyd.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115&Itemid=176 |access-date=November 12, 2013 |archive-date=April 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428070718/http://haroldlloyd.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115&Itemid=176 |url-status=dead }}</ref> in less expensive one-reel shorts. As the new character caught on, Lonesome Luke was phased out.

The "Glass" character (often named "Harold" in the silent films) was a much more mature comedy character with greater potential for sympathy and emotional depth, and was easy for audiences of the time to identify with. "When I adopted the glasses", Lloyd recalled in a 1962 interview with [[Harry Reasoner]],<ref>{{cite AV media |last1=Harold|first1=Lloyd |last2=Reasoner|first2=Harry |date=April 16, 1962|title=Harold Lloyd on Calendar with Harry Reasoner |trans-title= |type= |language=en |url=https://archive.org/details/Calendar_Harold_Lloyd |access-date=March 11, 2022 |format=Interview |time= |location= |publisher= CBS Television }}</ref> "it more or less put me in a different category because I became a human being. He was a kid that you would meet next door, across the street, but at the same time I could still do all the crazy things that we did before, but you believed them. They were natural and the romance could be believable."<ref name="eight">{{cite AV media |last1=Harold|first1=Lloyd |last2=Reasoner|first2=Harry |date=April 16, 1962|title=Harold Lloyd on Calendar with Harry Reasoner |trans-title= |type= |language=en |url=https://archive.org/details/Calendar_Harold_Lloyd |access-date=March 11, 2022 |format=Interview |time=8:43 |location= |publisher= CBS Television }}</ref>

Unlike most silent comedy personae, "Harold" was never typecast to a social class, but he was always striving for success and recognition. Within the first few years of the character's debut, he had portrayed social ranks ranging from a starving vagrant in ''[[From Hand to Mouth]]'' to a wealthy socialite in ''[[Captain Kidd's Kids]]''.

[[File:Promotional photo for the film A Sailor Made Man (1921) with Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis.jpg|thumb|Film still of Harold Lloyd and his future wife [[Mildred Davis]] in ''[[A Sailor-Made Man]]'' (1921)]]
In 1919, Bebe Daniels declined to renew her contract with Hal Roach, leaving the Lloyd series to pursue her dramatic aspirations. Later that year, Lloyd replaced Daniels with [[Mildred Davis]] after being told by Roach to watch Davis in a movie. Reportedly, the more Lloyd watched Davis, the more he liked her. Lloyd's first reaction in seeing her was that "she looked like a big French doll".<ref>{{cite book |last=Pawlak |first=Debra Ann |date=January 15, 2011 |title=Bringing Up Oscar: The Story of the Men and Women Who Founded the Academy |publisher=Pegasus Books |location=New York City|page=[https://archive.org/details/bringinguposcars00pawl_0/page/62 62] |isbn=978-1605981376 |url=https://archive.org/details/bringinguposcars00pawl_0/page/62}}</ref> Lloyd and Davis married in 1923.

[[Image:Grandmasboy.jpg|thumb|upright|Lloyd in ''[[Grandma's Boy (1922 film)|Grandma's Boy]]'' (1922)]]

On August 24, 1919, while posing for some promotional still photographs in the Los Angeles Witzel Photography Studio, he picked up what he thought was a prop bomb and lit it with a cigarette.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bengtson|first=John | title = Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd|year=2011| publisher = Santa Monica Press| isbn=9781595808882|page=25}}</ref> It exploded and mangled his right hand, causing him to lose a thumb and forefinger.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Norden |first1=Martin F. |title=The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies |date=1994 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-2104-6 |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wehWxBo_AWUC&pg=PA69 |language=en}}</ref> The blast was severe enough that the cameraman and prop director nearby were also seriously injured. Lloyd was in the act of lighting a cigarette from the fuse of the bomb when it exploded, also badly burning his face and chest and injuring his eye. Despite the proximity of the blast to his face, he retained his sight. As he recalled in 1930: "I thought I would surely be so disabled that I would never be able to work again. I didn't suppose that I would have one five-hundredth of what I have now. Still I thought, 'Life is worth while. ''Just to be alive''.{{'}} I still think so."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hall |first=Gladys |date=October 1930 |title=Discoveries About Myself |journal=Motion Picture Magazine |location=New York City|publisher=Brewster Publications |url=https://archive.org/stream/motionpicture1923040chic#page/n595/mode/2up |access-date=October 23, 2015}}</ref>

Beginning in 1921, Roach and Lloyd moved from shorts to feature-length comedies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nowell-Smith |first1=Geoffrey |title=The Oxford History of World Cinema |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-874242-5 |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MZwVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA83 |language=en}}</ref> These included the acclaimed ''[[Grandma's Boy (1922 film)|Grandma's Boy]]'', which (along with Chaplin's ''[[The Kid (1921 film)|The Kid]]'') pioneered the combination of complex character development and film comedy, the highly popular ''[[Safety Last!]]'' (1923), which cemented Lloyd's stardom (and is the oldest film on the [[American Film Institute]]'s List of 100 Most Thrilling Movies), and ''[[Why Worry?]]'' (1923). Although Lloyd performed many athletic stunts in his films, [[Harvey Parry]] was his stunt double for the more dangerous sequences.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Slide |first1=Anthony |title=The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry |date=February 25, 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-92554-3 |page=196 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnzsAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA196 |language=en}}</ref>

Lloyd and Roach parted ways in 1924, and Lloyd formed his own independent production company, the Harold Lloyd Film Corporation,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Slide |first1=Anthony |title=The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry |date=February 25, 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-92554-3 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnzsAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |language=en}}</ref> He now made feature films exclusively, releasing them first through Pathé, then [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]]. These included his accomplished comedies ''[[Girl Shy]]'', ''[[The Freshman (1925 film)|The Freshman]]'' (his highest-grossing silent feature), ''[[The Kid Brother]]'' and ''[[Speedy (film)|Speedy]]'', his final silent film. All of these films were enormously successful and profitable, and Lloyd eventually became the highest-paid film performer of the 1920s.<ref name=time1/>

===Talkies and transition===
In 1929, Lloyd had completed the silent feature ''[[Welcome Danger]]'', but talking pictures had become a sensation. He decided to remake the entire film with sound, using a new, stage-trained supporting cast for the dialogue exchanges. The silent version was made available to theaters that had not yet converted to sound, but the talking version became the standard edition of the film. ''Welcome Danger'' was a huge financial success, with audiences eager to hear Lloyd's voice on film.

Lloyd survived the transition to sound and made several talking comedies, including ''[[Feet First]]'', with a similar scenario to ''Safety Last'', which found him clinging to a skyscraper at the climax; ''[[Movie Crazy]]'' with [[Constance Cummings]]; ''[[The Cat's-Paw]]'', which was a dark political comedy and a big departure for Lloyd; and ''[[The Milky Way (1936 film)|The Milky Way]]'', which was Lloyd's only attempt at the fashionable genre of the [[screwball comedy film]].

[[File:Harold Lloyd in the Milky Way.jpg|thumb|Lloyd in ''[[The Milky Way (1936 film)|The Milky Way]]'' (1936)]]
To this point, the films had been produced by Lloyd's company. However, his go-getting screen character was out of touch with [[Great Depression]] movie audiences of the 1930s. Lloyd's rate of film releases, which had been one or two a year in the 1920s, slowed to about one every two years. As his absences from the screen increased, his popularity declined, as did the fortunes of his production company. His final film of the decade, ''[[Professor Beware]]'' (1938), was made by the Paramount staff, with Lloyd functioning only as actor and partial financier.

In 1931 he co-founded the 400-seat [[Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 December 1931 |title=Film Training School (con't from page 1) |url=https://archive.org/details/variety104-1931-12/page/n75/mode/2up?q=%22Beverly+Hills+Little++Theatre%22 |work=Variety |pages=21}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite news |date=30 October 1934 |title=Bronze Monikers: Harold Lloyd No. 1 on Seat Backs of Bevhills Midge |url=https://archive.org/details/variety116-1934-10/page/n289/mode/2up?q=Beverly+Hills+Little++Theatre+for+Professionals |access-date=23 March 2024 |work=Variety |pages=3}}</ref> Gladys Lloyd Cassell (wife of [[Edward G. Robinson]]), [[Sam Hardy (actor)|Sam Hardy]], and Lloyd's mother raised funds for it.

On March 23, 1937, Lloyd sold the land of his studio, Harold Lloyd Motion Picture Company, to [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pawlak |first1=Debra Ann |title=Bringing Up Oscar |date=January 12, 2012 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-60598-216-8 |page=178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cBtbBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT178 |language=en}}</ref> The location is now the site of the [[Los Angeles California Temple]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Los Angeles California Temple |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |url=https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/cgi-bin/pages.cgi?los_angeles |access-date=June 8, 2008 |quote=The land for the Los Angeles California Temple was purchased from Harold Lloyd Motion Picture Company on March 23, 1937.}}</ref>

Lloyd produced a few comedies for [[RKO Radio Pictures]] in the early 1940s, including [[Lucille Ball]]'s ''A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob'' in 1941,<ref name="har">{{cite book |last1=Kalat |first1=David |title=Too Funny for Words: A Contrarian History of American Screen Comedy from Silent Slapstick to Screwball |date=April 11, 2019 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-3652-8 |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FBKSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 |language=en}}</ref> but otherwise retired from the screen until 1947. He returned for an additional starring appearance in ''[[The Sin of Harold Diddlebock]]'',<ref name="har"/> an ill-fated homage to Lloyd's career, directed by [[Preston Sturges]] and financed by [[Howard Hughes]]. This film had the inspired idea of following Harold's [[Jazz Age]], optimistic character from ''The Freshman'' into the [[Great Depression]] years. ''Diddlebock'' opened with footage from ''The Freshman'' (for which Lloyd was paid a royalty of $50,000, matching his actor's fee) and Lloyd was sufficiently youthful-looking to match the older scenes quite well. Lloyd and Sturges had different conceptions of the material and fought frequently during the shoot; Lloyd was particularly concerned that, while Sturges had spent three to four months on the script of the first third of the film, "the last two-thirds of it he wrote in a week or less." The finished film was released briefly in 1947, then shelved by producer Hughes. Hughes issued a recut version of the film in 1951 through RKO under the title ''[[Mad Wednesday]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dickos |first1=Andrew |title=Intrepid Laughter: Preston Sturges and the Movies |date=April 1, 2013 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-4195-4 |pages=51–52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mmY1EAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> Such was Lloyd's disdain that he sued Howard Hughes, the California Corporation, and RKO for damages to his reputation "as an outstanding motion picture star and personality", eventually accepting a $30,000 settlement.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

===Radio, nude photography and retirement===
In October 1944, Lloyd emerged as the director and host of ''The Old Gold Comedy Theater'',<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last1=Lloyd |first1=Annette D'Agostino |last2=D'Agostino |first2=Annette M. |title=The Harold Lloyd Encyclopedia |date=2004 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-1514-4 |page=143 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=smlZAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> an NBC radio anthology series, after Preston Sturges, who had turned the job down, recommended him for it.<ref name=":1" /> The show presented half-hour radio adaptations of recently successful film comedies, beginning with ''[[Palm Beach Story]]'' with [[Claudette Colbert]] and [[Robert Young (actor)|Robert Young]].<ref name=":1" />

Some saw ''The Old Gold Comedy Theater'' as being a lighter version of ''[[Lux Radio Theater]]'', and it featured some of the best-known film and radio personalities of the day, including [[Fred Allen]], [[June Allyson]], [[Lucille Ball]], [[Ralph Bellamy]], [[Linda Darnell]], [[Susan Hayward]], [[Herbert Marshall]], [[Dick Powell]], [[Edward G. Robinson]], [[Jane Wyman]] and [[Alan Young]]. But the show's half-hour format—which meant the material might have been truncated too severely—and Lloyd's sounding somewhat ill at ease on the air for much of the season (though he spent weeks training himself to speak on radio prior to the show's premiere, and seemed more relaxed toward the end of the series run) may have worked against it.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

''The Old Gold Comedy Theater'' ended in June 1945 with an adaptation of ''[[Tom, Dick and Harry (1941 film)|Tom, Dick and Harry]]'', featuring [[June Allyson]] and [[Reginald Gardiner]], and was not renewed for the following season. Many years later, [[acetate disc]]s of 29 of the shows were discovered in Lloyd's home, and they now circulate among old-time radio collectors.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

[[File:Harold Lloyd Shriner 1946.JPG|thumb|left|Lloyd in 1946, when he was appointed to the Shriners' publicity committee]]

Lloyd remained involved in a number of other interests, including civic and charity work. Inspired by having overcome his own serious injuries and burns, he was very active as a Freemason and Shriner with the [[Shriners]] Hospital for Crippled Children. He was a Past Potentate of Al-Malaikah Shrine in Los Angeles, and was eventually selected as Imperial Potentate of the Shriners of North America for the year 1949–50.<ref>[http://haroldlloyd.com/news/bio.asp "Harold LLoyd"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122123330/http://haroldlloyd.com/news/bio.asp |date=January 22, 2009 }} "In 1949, Harold's face graced the cover of Time Magazine as the Imperial Potentate of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, their highest-ranking position. He devoted an entire year to visiting 130 temples across the country giving speeches for over 700,000 Shriners. The last twenty years of his life he worked tirelessly for the twenty-two Shriner Hospitals for Children and in the 1960s, he was named President and Chairman of the Board."</ref> At the installation ceremony for this position on July 25, 1949, 90,000 people were present at Soldier Field, including then sitting U.S. President [[Harry S Truman]], also a 33° Scottish Rite Mason.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lloyd |first=Harold |title=Phoenix Masonry Masonic Museum |work=Masonic Research |publisher=Phoenix Masonry |url=http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/masonicmuseum/harold_lloyd_masonic_bio.htm |access-date=July 29, 2012}}</ref> In recognition of his services to the nation and Freemasonry, Lloyd was invested with the Rank and Decoration of Knight Commander Court of Honour in 1955 and coroneted an Inspector General Honorary, 33°, in 1965.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

He appeared as himself on several television shows during his retirement, first on [[Ed Sullivan]]'s variety show ''[[Toast of the Town]]'' June 5, 1949, and again on July 6, 1958. He appeared as the mystery guest on ''[[What's My Line?]]'' on April 26, 1953, and three times on ''[[This Is Your Life (American franchise)|This Is Your Life]]'': in 1954 for a tribute to Mack Sennett and another for Bebe Daniels, and in 1955, when he was surprised for his own tribute.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

On November 6, 1956, ''The New York Times'' reported "Lloyd's Career Will Be Filmed".<ref name=":2">{{cite news |last1=Pryor |first1=Thomas M. |title=Lloyd's Career Will Be Filmed; Jerry Wald Movie for Fox to Concern Only Comedian's Professional Activity Vehicle for Dutch Actor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/11/06/archives/lloyds-career-will-be-filmed-jerry-wald-movie-for-fox-to-concern.html |access-date=January 12, 2022 |work=The New York Times  |date=November 6, 1956}}</ref> It said, as the first step, Lloyd would write the story of his life for Simon and Schuster. Then, the movie would be produced by [[Jerry Wald]] for [[20th Century-Fox]], limiting the screenplay to Lloyd's professional career. The tentative title for both was ''The Glass Character'', based on the glasses which were Lloyd's trademark. Neither project materialized.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Lloyd studied colors and [[microscopy]], and he was very involved with photography, including [[3D photography]] and color film experiments. Some of the earliest two-color [[Technicolor]] tests were shot at his Beverly Hills home (these are included as extra material in the ''Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection'' DVD Box Set). He became known for his nude photographs of models, such as [[Bettie Page]] and stripper [[Dixie Evans]], for a number of men's magazines.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} He also took photos of [[Marilyn Monroe]] lounging at his pool in a bathing suit, which were published after her death.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

In 2004, his granddaughter Suzanne produced ''Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D!'', a book of selections from his photographs.({{ISBN|1-57912-394-5}}).

Lloyd also provided encouragement and support for a number of younger actors, such as [[Debbie Reynolds]], [[Robert Wagner]] and particularly [[Jack Lemmon]], whom Harold declared as his own choice to play him in a movie of his life and work.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

===Renewed interest===
[[Image:World of Comedy.jpg|thumb|upright|Movie poster for ''World of Comedy'', Lloyd's compilation of film clips from the silent and sound eras, 1962]]

Lloyd kept copyright control of most of his films and re-released them infrequently after his retirement.<ref name="har"/>

Lloyd did not grant cinematic re-releases because most theaters could not accommodate an organist to play music for his films, and Lloyd did not wish his work to be accompanied by a pianist: "I just don't like pictures played with pianos. We never intended them to be played with pianos." Similarly, his features never were shown on television as Lloyd's price was high: "I want $300,000 per picture for two showings. That's a high price, but if I don't get it, I'm not going to show it. They've come close to it, but they haven't come all the way up." As a consequence, his reputation and public recognition suffered in comparison with Chaplin and Keaton, whose work generally has been more widely distributed. Lloyd's film character was so intimately associated with the 1920s era that attempts at revivals in 1940s and 1950s were poorly received when audiences viewed the 1920s (and silent film in particular) as old-fashioned.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

In the early 1960s, Lloyd produced two compilation films, ''[[Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy]]'' and ''[[The Funny Side of Life]]'', featuring scenes from his old comedies. The first film premiered at the 1962 [[Cannes Film Festival]], where Lloyd was fêted as a major rediscovery.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pawlak |first1=Debra Ann |title=Bringing Up Oscar |date=15 January 2011 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=978-1-60598-137-6 |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bringing-Up-Oscar/Debra-Ann-Pawlak/9781605981376 |language=en}}</ref> In 1965 he was interviewed by the [[Social Security Administration]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Harold Lloyd - Interview (1965) | website=[[YouTube]] | date=March 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj9cpWrduV8 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=8 May 1971 |title=Harold Lloyd - Famous Comedian and in 1950 was the Imperial Potentate of the Shrine of North America |url=http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/masonicmuseum/harold_lloyd_masonic_bio.htm |access-date=2 October 2011 |website=Phoenix Masonry}}</ref>

The film was well received by most critics and audiences as a reminder of Lloyd's creative output as the third (with Chaplin and Keaton) of the "Big Three" great [[silent comedy]] filmmakers.<ref>{{cite web |title=Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy / Funny Side of Life |url=http://theageofcomedy.com/hlworld.html |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425014925/http://theageofcomedy.com/hlworld.html |archivedate=25 April 2012 |access-date=2 October 2011 |website=The Age of Comedy}}</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/jul/16/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries "Alexander Walker Outstanding and outspoken film critic and writer"], ''The Guardian'', 16 July 2003 .</ref>

The renewed interest in Lloyd helped restore his status among film historians. Throughout his later years, he screened his films for audiences at special charity and educational events, to great acclaim, and found a particularly receptive audience among college audiences: "Their whole response was tremendous because they didn't miss a gag; anything that was even a little subtle, they got it right away."{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}
[[File:Harold Lloyd Grave.JPG|thumb|upright|Lloyd's crypt in the Great Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Glendale]]

Following his death, and after extensive negotiations, most of his feature films were leased to [[Time-Life]] Films in 1974.<ref name="Harold Lloyd: The Man on the Clock">{{cite book |last1=Dardis |first1=Tom |title=Harold Lloyd: The Man on the Clock |date=1983 |publisher=Viking Press |isbn=978-0-670-45227-9 |page=306 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-WlZAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> As Tom Dardis confirms: "Time-Life prepared horrendously edited musical-sound-track versions of the silent films, which are intended to be shown on TV at sound speed [24 frames per second], and which represent everything that Harold feared would happen to his best films".<ref name="Harold Lloyd: The Man on the Clock"/> Time-Life released the films as half-hour television shows, with two clips per show. These were often near-complete versions of the early two-reelers, but also included extended sequences from features such as ''Safety Last!'' (terminating at the clock sequence) and ''Feet First'' (presented silent, but with [[Walter Scharf]]'s score from Lloyd's own 1960s re-release). Time-Life released several of the feature films more or less intact, also using some of Scharf's scores which had been commissioned by Lloyd. The Time-Life clips series included a narrator rather than [[intertitles]]. Various narrators were used internationally: the English-language series was narrated by [[Henry Corden]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Division |first1=Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound |title=3 Decades of Television: A Catalog of Television Programs Acquired by the Library of Congress, 1949-1979 |date=1989 |publisher=Library of Congress |isbn=978-0-8444-0544-5 |page=246 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wCpjRQ3TkWkC |language=en}}</ref>

The Time-Life series was frequently repeated by the BBC in the United Kingdom during the 1980s, and in 1990 the documentary ''Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius'' was produced by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, following two similar series based on Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.<ref>Documentary: ''Harold Lloyd — The Third Genius''.</ref> Composer [[Carl Davis]] wrote a new score for ''Safety Last!'' which he performed live during a showing of the film with the [[Royal Scottish National Orchestra]] to great acclaim in 1993.<ref>{{cite web |title=Faber Silents Catalogue 2016 |website=Issuu.com |date=January 22, 2016 |url=https://issuu.com/fm_fortissimo/docs/faber_silents_catalogue_2016 |access-date=March 12, 2019}}</ref>

The Brownlow and Gill documentary was shown as part of the PBS series ''American Masters'', and created a renewed interest in Lloyd's work in the United States, but the films were largely unavailable. In 2002, the Harold Lloyd Trust re-launched him with the publication of the book ''Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian'' by [[Jeffrey Vance]] and Suzanne Lloyd,<ref>{{cite news|last=Loos |first=Ted |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/21/books/books-in-brief-nonfiction-a-matter-of-attitude.html |title=Books in Brief – Nonfiction – A Matter of Attitude |work=The New York Times|date=July 21, 2002 |access-date=July 21, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-mar-24-bk-turan24-story.html|title=Behind the Laughter|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=April 13, 2015|date=March 24, 2002}}</ref> and a series of feature films and short subjects called "''The Harold Lloyd Classic Comedies''" produced by Jeffrey Vance with executive producer Suzanne Lloyd and Harold Lloyd Entertainment. The new cable television and home video versions of Lloyd's great silent features and many shorts were remastered with new orchestral scores by [[Robert Israel (composer)|Robert Israel]]. These versions are frequently shown on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable channel. A DVD collection of these restored or remastered versions of his feature films and important short subjects was released by New Line Cinema in partnership with the Harold Lloyd Trust in 2005, along with theatrical screenings in the United States, Canada and Europe.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

[[Criterion Collection]] has acquired the home video rights to the Lloyd library and has released ''Safety Last!'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/films/28446-safety-last|title=Safety Last!|work=The Criterion Collection|access-date=April 13, 2015}}</ref> The ''Freshman'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/films/28510-the-freshman|title=The Freshman|work=The Criterion Collection|access-date=April 13, 2015}}</ref> ''[[Speedy (film)|Speedy]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/films/28497-speedy|title=Speedy|website=The Criterion Collection|access-date=May 19, 2017}}</ref> and ''The Kid Brother''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/films/28499-the-kid-brother|title=The Kid Brother|work=The Criterion Collection|access-date=May 8, 2025}}</ref>

In the June 2006, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Silent Film Gala program book for ''Safety Last!'', film historian Jeffrey Vance stated that Robert A. Golden, Lloyd's assistant director, routinely doubled for Harold Lloyd between 1921 and 1927. According to Vance, Golden doubled Lloyd in the bit with Harold shimmy shaking off the building's ledge after a mouse crawls up his trousers.<ref>{{cite web|title="Safety Last!: Notes on the Making of the Film" : Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Silent Film Gala program book, June 3, 2006 revised and reprinted as "Safety Last!" San Francisco Silent Film Festival program book, July 18–21, 2013|url=http://www.silentfilm.org/archive/safety-last|website=Silentfilm.org|access-date=July 21, 2016}}</ref>