Buster Keaton

• 1. The Boy Who Could Not Be Damaged

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  Joseph Frank Keaton arrived in Piqua, Kansas on the 4th of October 1895. His father Joe ran a traveling medicine show called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company. The family act became known as The Three Keatons. A young Joseph appeared on stage in Wilmington, Delaware during 1899. He wore slapsoles and bald-headed wigs alongside his parents Myra and Joe. The routine involved throwing the child against scenery or into the orchestra pit. A suitcase handle was sewn into his clothing to help with the constant tossing. Authorities occasionally arrested him for what looked like child abuse. Keaton always showed them he had no bruises or broken bones. He eventually earned the billing The Little Boy Who Can't Be Damaged. At eighteen months old an actor friend named George Pardey gave him the nickname Buster after a fall down stairs. Harry Houdini later claimed credit for the name but the family did not meet him until years afterward.

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• 2. The Silent Era Masterpiece Years

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  Keaton began working with producer Joseph M. Schenck and director Edward F. Cline in the early 1920s. They created a series of successful two-reel comedies including One Week released in 1920. The Playhouse arrived in 1921 followed by Cops and The Electric House both in 1922. He moved to feature-length films shortly thereafter. Sherlock Jr. appeared in 1924 while The General came out in 1926. Steamboat Bill, Jr. and The Cameraman were released in 1928. Orson Welles later called The General the greatest comedy ever made. Critics praised these works for their inventive stunts and physical comedy. A scene from Steamboat Bill, Jr. required Keaton to stand still as a two-ton building facade toppled forward on top of him. The prop had only a few inches of clearance around his body yet he emerged unscathed through a single open window. During the railroad water-tank scene in Sherlock Jr. Keaton broke his neck when a torrent of water fell on him from a water tower. He did not realize the injury until years afterwards.

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• 3. The Fall From Independence And Alcoholism

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  Keaton signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1928 after losing financial control over his independent productions. His first wife Natalie Talmadge divorced him that same year. He descended into alcoholism during this period of professional decline. Louis B. Mayer fired him on the 2nd of February 1933 for good and sufficient cause. MGM staffers recalled a wild party where Mayer raided Keaton's dressing room. The studio chief ordered him out of the trailer while Keaton ordered Mayer out of the studio. Keaton's absences cost the company three thousand dollars per day. He became visibly intoxicated both on-camera and off-camera. Production head Irving Thalberg was on medical leave for eight months which left Mayer temporarily in sole charge. This made Keaton's standing at the studio even more fragile. He later cited the MGM contract as the worst business decision of his life. The giant studio ran along strict factory lines with everything planned and budgeted in advance. Keaton could no longer create scripts from scratch or develop projects freely.

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• 4. Resurgence In Two-Reel Comedies

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  Buster Keaton made a screen comeback in two-reel comedies for Educational Pictures starting in 1934. Most of these twenty-minute shorts were simple visual comedies with gags supplied by Keaton himself. Grand Slam Opera released in 1936 featured Keaton in his own screenplay as an amateur-hour contestant. The series was very well received by theater owners and movie audiences. He earned two thousand five hundred dollars per film equal to nearly sixty thousand dollars today. Educational closed its Hollywood studio in 1937 thus forfeiting Keaton's services. Columbia Pictures hired him to star in two-reel comedies beginning in 1939. These ten films comprised his last series as a starring comedian. Trade critics raved about Pest from the West calling it one of the funniest shorts of the season. Film Daily noted that Buster Keaton was a natural box office gold mine. Boxoffice magazine reported that reissues brought back domestic rentals of twenty-three thousand dollars. The Spook Speaks picked up another twenty-four thousand two hundred dollars during the 1949-50 season.

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• 5. Television Stardom And Final Years

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  Comedian Ed Wynn invited Keaton to appear on his CBS Television comedy-variety show called The Ed Wynn Show in 1949. A local Los Angeles station offered Keaton his own show also broadcast live titled The Buster Keaton Show in 1950. Producer Carl Hittleman mounted a new series again titled The Buster Keaton Show in 1951. This attempt to recreate the first series on film allowed nationwide broadcasting despite only thirteen half-hour episodes being filmed. Keaton appeared in early television series Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town and guested in successful shows like The Ken Murray Show and The Garry Moore Show. He successfully recreated old routines including one stunt where he propped one foot onto a table then swung the second foot up next to it. Garry Moore recalled seeing bruises under Keaton's jacket after asking how he did all those falls. Keaton died of lung cancer on the 1st of February 1966 aged seventy in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. He was never told he was terminally ill despite being diagnosed with cancer in January 1966.

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• 6. The Deadpan Persona And Physical Precision

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  Keaton frequently maintained a stoic deadpan facial expression that became his trademark earning him the nickname The Great Stone Face. Film critic David Thomson described his style as inclined towards belief in nothing but mathematics and absurdity. His large deep eyes were the most eloquent feature capable of conveying emotions from longing to mistrust. James Agee wrote that no other comedian could do as much with the dead pan. He used this great sad motionless face to suggest various related things including mulish imperturbability under wild circumstances. His short-legged body moved with sudden machinelike angles governed by daft aplomb. When he ran from a cop his transitions from accelerating walk to easy jogtrot to brisk canter were distinct and soberly in order. Keaton designed and modified his own pork pie hats during his career. In 1964 he told an interviewer that he started with a good Stetson and cut it down stiffening the brim with sugar water. He estimated that he and his wife Eleanor made thousands of hats during his career.

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• 7. Posthumous Recognition And Cultural Legacy

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  Keaton received an Academy Honorary Award on the 3rd of April 1957 at the 32nd Academy Awards held in April 1960. Six of his films have been included in the National Film Registry making him one of the most honored filmmakers on that list. The International Buster Keaton Society was founded on the 4th of October 1992 which is Keaton's birthday. A 1987 documentary titled Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow won two Emmy Awards. Entertainment Weekly recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director in 1996. Roger Ebert wrote that no one had more courage than Buster. Filmmaker Orson Welles hailed Keaton as the greatest of all the clowns in the history of cinema. Mel Brooks credited Keaton as a major influence saying he owed him a lot on two levels. Ahmed Best was influenced by Keaton for the character of Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace. Kino Lorber released The Ultimate Buster Keaton Collection in 2012 as a fourteen-disc Blu-ray box set. In 2018 filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich released The Great Buster A Celebration about Keaton's life and legacy.

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