Now that they had funding with distribution from a major studio, Reg and Pollard resumed filming the third episode, “Round Three: Payment Through the Nose,” at Universal’s Fort Lee studio. Impressive location work in New York’s Times Square at night was ballyhooed in the press at the time, and indeed the scene along Broadway, with a masked “Kid Roberts” in an open roadster advertising his next fight, is a striking achievement, filmed with a large Sunlight Arc truck providing the necessary illumination (note the marquees lit up with such Universal titles as The Fox and Foolish Wives). Also featured are scenes shot in the Hotel Navarre, demolished just eight years later.
In this episode, Halliday is smitten with Estelle Van Horn (Doreen Banks), a venal chorus girl. In true boxing promotion fashion, he plays up his ringside persona’s foppish character, leading the spectators as well as opponent Al Kennedy (the performer remains unidentified) to presume he’ll be an easy sparring partner – frustratingly, the print is missing a minute or two of footage from the fight’s climax. His manager hopes to teach him a lesson about women, but as the finale makes clear, the Kid still has an eye for the ladies. French actress-turned-aviatrix Andrée Peyre can be seen in the small role of Estelle’s roommate.
Although Universal was now in charge, releasing the shorts under the Universal Jewel label, financial worries continued to plague Denny, Pollard, and Messmore when the lenders who financed the first two episodes demanded payment. In order to clean up their legal problems and continue production of the series – six episodes were in the can – Laemmle shut down their credit and, as a liability measure, forced Knickerbocker into bankruptcy while Universal paid off their debtors to take full ownership of the series.
Filming of the next six episodes, grouped as “The New Leather Pushers,” resumed in California on the Universal City Studios lot. Their popularity was such that the studio commissioned a further series of six episodes; by then Denny’s star power was outgrowing the format, and for the fourth series, released in 1924 and directed by Edward Laemmle, Carl’s nephew, he was replaced by Billy Sullivan.
The print  While prints of other episodes are known to exist in private collections, only “Round Two” and “Round Three: Payment Through the Nose” can be found in archives, in 16mm prints. The copy screened comes from the Moving Image Archive at Indiana University Libraries and has been scanned at 4K. Although some clean-up and stabilization have been performed, the DCP reflects the compromised yet more than watchable nature of the 16mm material.

Kimberly Pucci