Buster was born on October 4th, 1895 as Joseph Frank Keaton. From an extremely early age (three) he was performing on vaudeville with his parents (Joe Keaton, Myra Keaton). This act was called The Three Keatons and it was full of rough and tumble slapstick. In fact the act involved his father throwing him across the stage. Story goes he received his nickname "Buster" because of famous magician Harry Houdini, who worked on the same bill as the Keatons. In that time a "buster" meant to take a fall or spill. One day the young performer fell down the stairs without getting hurt, and Houdini gave him that name. While being a part of this vaudeville act he learned that he got less laughs if he smiled. Not smiling would become a major part of his screen character later.
Buster would start his film career in 1917, after he met famous comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Arbuckle offered him a job in film. To convince him, Arbuckle gave Keaton a movie camera to play with and Buster soon became very fascinated with this new device. He would appear in 14 shorts with Arbuckle and would soon be co-directing the films with the famous movie comedian. It wasn't long until Buster would be able to make films on his own as an independent filmmaker. However first he appeared in a less comic role in his first feature 1920's The Saphead. After this Buster went on to direct and star in some of the greatest comedy shorts of the silent era such as One Week, Cops and The Playhouse. 1923's The Three Ages marked the first feature he directed. This parody of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance was a big hit and lead to some of the greatest silent feature films ever made, including Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr., The Navigator, Seven Chances, The General, College and Steamboat Bill Jr.. Despite how popular they are today and what great films they are the last few of these features did not do as well at the box office as expected and Buster needed help funding these movies. To make up for this he signed up with MGM. He would later call this the worst business decision of his life. Though the first two movies he made for this studio (The Cameraman, Spite Marriage) were great movies, soon MGM would take too much control over his films. He was no longer a director or a gag writer, but instead just an actor. Free and Easy (his first talkie) was just awful and proved that MGM now had no idea what to do with Buster. He was often put into farce comedies, which he hated. Though some of these movies were good, none of them could be held up to his silent masterpieces. After 1933's What No Beer Keaton was fired. Keaton's next Hollywood gig would be to make short comedies for Educational pictures then later Columbia. With the Educational films Buster was once again allowed to write gags for these shorts, and as a result, some of them are completely delightful, especially the excellent Grand Slam Opera. The Columbia films did not give Buster the same freedom and he was often put under the direction of Jules White, who is most famous for his work with The Three Stooges. Buster hated these films and left two-reelers after 1941's She's Oil Mine. Despite this such shorts as Pest From the West are actually pretty good. Buster would spend most of the rest of his movie career playing small roles. He would appear in some big name films such as In the Good Old Summertime, Sunset Boulevard and Limelight. On TV however he would have his own show called The Buster Keaton Show which first aired in 1950. This show was delightful and is definitely a must watch for fans of Buster.
So celebrate his birthday by watching some of his best films, because they will always be some of the greatest comedies ever made. Happy birthday Buster.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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