Original subtitles

foreign

small hotel and I fell down

a full flight of stairs at the back to

the bottom

they come running UPS I set up and just

shook shook my head and shook it off and

didn't cry

so they knew I wasn't hurt

and Houdini says that was sure a buster

meaning a fall

because that's the only time it was used

it met a Bronco Buster or a fall

was never used as a name

my father said well let it be a good

name for him

it don't sound bad

sticky

they now call him a genius

intellectual critics claim him as their

own

yet he never saw himself like that

no man can be a genius he said in slap

shoes and a flat hat

a formal education

he was a totally intuitive artist most

at home working on the mechanics of gags

yet he had an astonishing understanding

of the power of film

the big screen was his element and on it

he displayed a dazzling sense of Cinema

yet his roots were in portable

he mocked the idea that he did

everything himself

he always acknowledged his team but the

vision was his

foreign

foreign

Kansas in 1895 the Joseph Keaton Jr made

his first appearance

I was born with a tent show on a

one-night stand in Kansas my mother

joined the show and I was two weeks old

and it was called the Keaton Houdini

Medicine Show company now that's Harry

Houdini the Handcuff King

his father found Buster joining the act

at nine months crawling on stage from

the wings

by the time I was four years old

I was a regular member of the ACT

wearing flat shoes protests clothes with

a ball-headed wig an Irish beard on

my dad was a comedian and

a Centric dancer and tricks he wasn't

exactly a macrobat

but darn near

and my mother played musical instruments

and danced within of course when I came

into the ACT then he got the idea of the

trying to show the audience how to bring

up children correctly and every time I

did something he didn't like he'd take

me to the back of the neck and thrown me

through a piece of scenery I grew up

getting knocked around

a child acrobat who knew Keaton was

Charles Lamont the finale of the ACT

the genetic Buster and thrown into the

orchestra bed and amongst the drums the

bass drum the Valiants or what have you

but it's a terrific sound of Crash and

the audience ate it up

that's where the abused child uh

accusation comes in which has been made

against his father absolutely untrue

absolutely untrue is investor told me

over and over again how much he enjoyed

that now he loved the Act and the

roughhouse there is no film of Keaton as

a child but in his comedies he'd use his

childhood experiences and his father

um

naturally it had a heart of Boston

because you know he's Flesh and Blood

he's not a piece of wood

and he wasn't padded

but he was had learned to how to protect

himself so he can avoid any serious

damage to his person

sure

it was like play

I had learned at an early age that I

happen to be the type of comedian that

couldn't laugh at anything he was doing

I also learned that the more serious I

took everything

and how serious life was in general

the better laughs I got

Master's parents were violating the

child labor law

his mother educated him as best she

could he hardly ever went to school

he may only have been five years old but

he was now vital to the ACT

the three kittens were hounded by the

Gary Society formed to stop the

exploitation of children

most people or a lot of people thought

he was a and the Gary Society had

to check it out

and this one official came backstage and

took one look at this

Affair here dressed in

costumed and makeup exactly like his

father and he couldn't quite tell

so he said one of the stagehands he says

how old is that guy

and the Sage Hand was wise to the deal

so he pointed to Buster's mother and he

says I don't know you'll have to ask his

wife

as Buster grew up Joe could no longer

throw him around here Keaton recreates

the act with Al St John

Louie's dresser on the same bill

remembers one particularly dangerous

routine he used to stand on a table back

of his father

whirling around a basketball on the end

of a rope

while Joe was trying to shave himself

with a straight edge razor the ball kept

getting closer closer and closer all of

a sudden bang

it was a very very tough Act really was

by the time I saw it his father had

taken to

so that it was in the timing was a

little bit off

when he kicked over my head he misjudged

it in the back of his kneecap caught me

right there back of the head

and I stiffened and went out and fell

straight back and he don't know he

didn't realize it what was wrong and my

head hit the floor first I'm out 18

hours

two more children Harry and Louise and

the three kittens became the five

kittens

bastoise and how the family's main

support

we didn't work in the summer our summer

home was a Musky

was the whole actor's Colony there

he met many of his future collaborators

and to here in 1917 his father returned

a confirmed alcoholic

Keaton had finally broken up the ACT

he was a veteran of the theater at 21.

in New York one wet March afternoon in

1917 Keaton met another Vaudeville comic

Roscoe Arbuckle now worked in the

picture business he had started as a

keystone cop with comedy producer Max

Senate

he ranked second only to Chaplin in

World popularity

producer Joseph skink had tempted him

away from Senate with a huge salary and

his own company

with complete creative control Arbuckle

directed his own films

he invited Keaton to the Talmadge

Studios on 48th Street and changed his

life

the first time I ever walked on the

front of a camera I came in to buy a

bucket full of molasses

in this his very first scene Keaton

instinctively used props as comedy

material

yeah he only had to turn me losing the

set and I'd have material in two minutes

because they've been doing it all my

life

Arbuckle and Keaton found an instant

Rapport a simple gag of molasses turned

into a classic sequence

when I put my hat back on to leave and

got the bucket of molasses he just has a

good day and I start and the hat won't

move

and I spilled my lasses all over they

got my feet caught in them

foreign

well the first thing I did in the studio

is to want to tear that camera to pieces

I had to know how that film got into The

Cutting Room what you did to it in there

and how you made things magic and how

you finally got the picture together

I just washed our buck I'll do it that's

all there was to it

all back from torkeeping one of the few

things he'd not experienced how to take

a sack of flour

I said how am I going to keep from

flinching

he says look away from me when I say

turn it'll be there

he put my head where my feet were

on the next door said the great dramatic

actress Norma Talmadge was finding it

increasingly difficult to work

the comedy unit

Joe skank recently married to Norma

obligingly moved them Uptown to the

Biograph studios in the Bronx

Tim was now second string to Arbuckle

with all Saint John

he also played many uncredited roles

revealed only by a close examination

I was only with her a buckle about three

pictures when I became his assistant

director that was the guy settled

outside of the camera and watched scenes

that he was in and ended up just

practically co-directing with him

oh

the Arbuckle company left to California

in late 1917 in search of better

backgrounds

I didn't know it at the time but I've

turned out to be Arbuckle's old riding

staff for days

after 12 films the war interrupted his

career but Keaton spent much of his time

in France entertaining the troops

back in California missing his family he

gravitated towards another

oh Buster he was both the original man

that came to dinner my brother-in-law

brought him home for dinner one night

and he stayed for three years

and of course Buster became one of the

family my mother was just

well she was crazy about him it was like

a son

to her and

wherever we move we figured on Buster I

think the extent of his wardrobe is a

toothbrush in which he carried in his

pocket

but he was a darling he's a doll

an important part of this family was

Roscoe Arbuckle

to the end of his life Keaton maintained

that our battle was his greatest

influence

greatest friend

working with Arbuckle it was hard even

for Keaton to keep a straight face

foreign

in 1919 skank split the ACT

Arbuckle went into features and skank

board Keaton his own studio in fact he

bought me chaplain's old studio and

named at the Keaton studio all he did is

the producer says you're to make eight

two reelers a year we're going to

release through the new outfit called

Metro

all right

Keaton started meant a thousand dollars

a week

25 percent of the profits

but first skank loaned him to Metro for

this feature-length comedy to sapphired

the stage success for Douglas Fairbanks

Metro approached Fairbanks for the lead

but he was making a film of his own and

Fairbanks as I know who to get he says

oh this is Keaton

he says well after all Keith has never

had anything on but Misfit clothes and

slaps used all his life where he says

you dress him up and he'll play Birdy

the lamb for you so I did

co-starring with William H crane was the

nearest thing to beam on Broadway Heaton

was now an actor

this Wall Street comedy was not Keaton's

style at all

the critics noticed an equality

much of it he played with the Stillness

which set him apart

said variety his quiet work in this

picture is a revelation

back to his own Studio Keaton embarked

on his first solo comedy the high sign

he brought in a decline as co-director

Klein a senate veteran played in many of

the films

at once there was a new approach

a new way of looking at things

foreign

face became his trademark

got the nickname of being called Frozen

face blank pan hole in the donut always

has some beautiful names

all right

Martin Burkett leading lady in the high

sign learned that the Frozen face wasn't

permanent

we'd be right in the middle of a tape

and he'd think of something funny he

said he'd laugh and ruin the take and

we'd have to do it over again but he

laughed at everything very easily and it

was hard for him to be so solemn you

know

in spite of the complexity of the sets

the Brilliance of the gags

Heaton was dissatisfied with the high

sign

he took one look

and rejected the film

his first release had to be far stronger

he closed the studio

he went on holiday to Lone Pine where

Arbuckle was filming

and to help him out played a big part as

an Indian

no

back in Hollywood Arbuckle visited

Keaton and his new heavy Joe Roberts and

served as a good luck symbol to launch

Keaton's first release

inspired by a documentary Keaton had

seen this Ford educational showed that a

newly married couple could purchase a

lot and in just seven days build a

portable home from delivery to

completion

thank you

my uncle gave me the portable house and

my aunt gave me the lot to build it

build it up there's a wedding

on it my former rival for the girl's

hand changed the numbers on the crates

so when I put the house up it was the

darndest looking thing you ever saw

good

and if we're finished I found out I

built it on the wrong line

foreign

one week was hailed as the comedy

sensation of the air

audiences quickly realized that a Keaton

comedy gave them more production values

than

yet Keaton's most remarkable effects

were often the simplest Down and Out

Buster decides on suicide

however simple this may look it took

immense skill the cameraman filmed King

with half the frame exposed then he

rewind the film and exposed the other

half

keep in time keeping dance to music play

Ed

been shot at once the problems

multiplied when Keaton wanted even more

the cameraman said it can't be done but

he did it

the same piece of film exposed nine

times

Keaton and his gagmen use no scripts

they thought up the gags as they went

along

and the minute we found something we

liked it says that's a fine start I said

now what's the Finish

well when we found to finish how to

round that out we never worked on The

Middle

we always figured the middle to take

care of itself

oh

foreign

thoughts had been on marriage for some

time but he was far too busy in

production then something happened on

the electric house

Keaton's foot caught on the top of this

escalator and he broke an ankle

when he convalesced he made up his mind

to marry Natalie Talmadge one of the

famous Talmadge sisters

Norma and Constance were stars Natalie

wasn't

the wedding took place at the Long

Island home of Joe skink and Norma

thomaj

I know he loved her very much and I

think she loved him very much in the

beginning

but I think Peg talmudge the mother of

the three girls

uh sort of wanted her married and off

her hands and since Joe skank made the

Constance tell me to Norma Tallmadge

films and made Buster's films

that would be keeping it in the family

of Natalie Marion Buster

but at the same time he was a lowly

comic as far as they were concerned and

not all that important in the business

or what they really would have liked to

have had for her as a husband

soon Keaton had the whole family living

with him most of them disapproving

with the sisters changed to Brothers he

made this view of domestic life

thank you

in May 1921 Keaton played an innocent

man falsely accused

four months later his closest friend was

charged with murder with fake pictures

and false accusations filling the papers

a girl had died after

trip everybody had their pictures in the

papers for days and days and weeks and

it was headline news WR hearstall just

egg in front of me says you this is hard

to believe but we sold more papers on

the Arbuckle trial than we did on the

sinking of the Lusitania

after his third trial the jury acquitted

our battle a heartfelt apology

but the industry banished him from the

screen

certainly was wronged he was no more

guilia that than I was

a Broken Man

as the third Arbuckle Crown near the ten

this was the film Keaton was making

oh

no

foreign

was the last of the top comedians to go

into feature-length films and when he

made the decision he did so with

understandable caution

foreign

to make the leap from two reelers to a

six reeler Keaton remembered intolerance

DW Griffith's epic of Love Through the

Ages which interwave four stories

he told his Tale in three

in three stone age Roman and modern

the stories of rival sutures could be

separated into three two-wheelers if

Keaton's idea proved too ambitious

it was full of two real slapstick

but it was the last set film Keaton

determined to convince his audience as

in the birth of his favorite sport the

baseball game he was very proud of his

uh Club was a very warped bumpy looking

affair

and the rock that was being thrown at

him was also very irregular

so it didn't go just the way Buster

wanted it to go on the first take or the

second take he said finally we gave up

NG in each take we NG 10 at a time

he said but on the 52nd take it worked

just the way it was supposed to and it

was worth all of the trouble

that had to hit that bat just right and

go and hit the villain just right or the

gag

was faked

and then he never faked to the gay again

another rule keeper now recognized the

audience should care about character

we had to get sympathy to make any story

stand up

but the one thing that I made sure

that I didn't ask for it

the audience wanted to feel sorry for me

that was up to them

I didn't ask for it in action

no two reelers have such scale yet these

sets are not as expensive as they look

some were standing already built that

same year for a Hollywood exposition

Keaton's art director Fred gabori

transformed them into ancient Rome

foreign

now he had the confidence to make a

full-scale feature

it was also a family affair Natalie

played his Leading Lady

his father Joe came along with his

famous Vaudeville hitch kick

even Keaton's baby son played in The

prologue

Keaton played Willie McKay of New York

who inherits an estate in the Deep South

and sets off for the long journey

these two reelers Keaton had been using

more and more eccentric gags we lost all

of that when we started making feature

pictures

he had to stop doing impossible gags and

what we call cartoon gags

they had to be believable

your story wouldn't hold up

foreign

was a reproduction of Stevenson's rocket

built at the Keaton studio with

authentic looking Rolling Stock

they weren't so fussy about Lane

railroad track I mean it was a little

level they just ignored it they laid it

over Fallen trees and over rocks

so I got quite a few laughs trying to

ride in that Railroad

taking the baby on location had been

against Natalie's wishes

but she gave in when she was made

Leading Lady

from the start however she had

misgivings about her role

and towards the end of that film she was

also

pregnant carrying their second son

Bobby and I guess before they were

through with her they were shooting her

behind bushes and that sort of thing

he's getting too thick in the waist

the location in Northern California was

Keaton's favorite Truckee and the

Truckee River played a key role in the

climax of the film

director Jack blyston set his cameras at

the Rapids

oh

it was here that a major accident

occurred

his cameramen were never allowed to cut

until he said so didn't matter what

happened because something better could

come out of it going wrong than what

they had planned

he was in the river

and they had a hold back wire on him so

that he would go at the same rate of

speed that the camera was going and you

can see in the film where the wire

snapped

enlarge the frame Keaton's Peril becomes

all the more apparent

and that's all in the picture because no

matter what they were not allowed to cut

they drown they did

had drowning

they just kept going

and he went down the Rapids over rocks

and he was half drowned with all the

foam and finally managed to get to the

edge enough to hang on to a branch of a

tree and he was totally exhausted

and even more challenging stuff Ed lay

ahead

far below forest and rock add an extra

dimension of danger to a stunt which may

be the most hazardous Keaton has ever

attempted

master has to rescue Natalie before

she's swept over the falls herself

foreign

state is a specially constructed

waterfall in the mountains so it's

always been thought

in fact the entire setup was built over

the swimming pool at the Keaton Studio

these photographs which have never been

made public show that the distant Valley

was a huge miniature planted with tiny

trees

oh

there was nothing faked about the stunt

Keaton needed all his courage and skill

even though we can see when we enlarge

the frame as a dummy was used for

Natalie

Keaton inhaled so much water a doctor

had to give him first aid and yet he

could have used a double

to my knowledge Buster Kate never had a

double I've heard a couple of fellas say

they doubled them but I have never seen

this happen

now

I don't believe knowing his bust as well

as I do

and doing things as good as I used to do

I don't believe I could have dubbed them

like he wanted them he knew what he

wanted

his father was a different fall he just

didn't slip and fall down he'd do a lot

of things before he fell down you know

you can't double A guy like that doing

those things

Keaton threw himself

and he was a first class athlete even

his running was impressive

musical action

he not only did his own stunts he

stunted for other actors

the drills and doubled the ACT to claim

the cop in a dangerous fall

uh I would say uh but weren't you ever

hurt in any of these things he said oh

he said all the time he said you see

this thing here on the top of my head

well I got that for seven chances he

said you see this thing on my leg and he

pulled off his family he said you see

this guy here you know I got that one

from Sherlock Jr he says and then you

see this one here and he pulled up his

shirt well I got that from Bailey Butler

you know what and it was something from

every film on his body

one film required a leap from one

building to another

above the Third Street tunnel in Los

Angeles a set was built to give a false

impression of height

with the street below it looked like we

were up in the air about 12 14 stories

hi

and I took advantage of the lid of a

skylight and laid it over the edge of

the roof to use the springboard

and I didn't make it

Keaton hit the ball before landing in

the net and was badly bruised Eddie

Klein and the crew suggested changing

the sequence to fit the shot Keaton

gladly agreed

foreign

from that on to a Rain spout

well it ended up as the biggest laughing

so it was in the picture

his friend William Collier Jr worried so

much about the risks that he acted as a

kind of troubleshooter on dangerous

scenes

each year that were

dangerous

and relied upon me to be sure that

everybody was nobody was kidding around

about

there's always some comedians off the

screen you know

and he relied upon me to calm everything

down to get it down and get it right and

get him alive

no one could have foreseen the mishap on

Sherlock Jr

the only other really bad accident he

had was with the water tower the train

went out from under him he rode the

water tower down to the track

he didn't realize how much force that

water had and it threw him against the

railroad track with the back of his head

he had a terrible headache I think they

called off shooting for a few days

anyway and then he went back to work and

that was the end of that until about 12

or 13 years later he went in for

complete physical X-rays and a whole lot

and

the doctor said when did you break your

neck he says I never broke my neck he

said yes you did break your neck so he

started thinking back and he said oh

yeah could it have been

you know when I knocked myself out and

hit the railroad track and so forth the

doctor says sounds reasonable to me

in Sherlock Junior Master plays

Detective here he Shadows his suspect

possible gags and Keaton had to find a

story to justify them

and I laid out a few of these tricks

some of the tricks I knew from the stage

I got that batch of stuff together

says I can't do it until a legitimate

story

because there are Illusions and they're

some of my clown gags some Houdini some

shingling full

it's got to come in a dream

you get what we're after

got to be a projectionist in a

projecting room

once you fall asleep you visualize you

yourself

as one of the important characters in

the picture you're showing

and go down by that projecting room

go right down there walk up on the

screen and become a part of it

now you tell your whole story

I think the reason we started off on

that story is because I had one of the

best cameramen in in the picture

business

Belgian Leslie

he originally was with Senate

Leslie's task was straightforward to

begin with

the picture on the screen here is part

of the theater set lit to look like a

movie

so is this the two simply cut together

it's more complicated when the scene

changes to an exterior

now Leslie had to film screen and

theater separately on the same strip of

film

to match the scenes precisely he had to

use surveyor's instruments

the picture was a success it grossed

nearly half a million yet critics said

it lacked originality and ingenuity

no wonder Keaton and his gagman had a

creative block when they tried to think

of an idea for their next comedy

when it came it came by chance a very

strange chance

in 1919 alleged Bolsheviks were rounded

up and deported to Russia on a ship

called the Buford

in 1924 the ship was due to be scrapped

when Fred gabori came across it in San

Francisco

and Keaton charted it for twenty five

thousand dollars from the shipping board

he and his gagmen worked out a story

centered on the liner

foreign agent said to Desert and ship

adrift but is it deserted foreign

foreign

foreign

neither one has ever been in the kitchen

in their lives

she would know how to

a cup of tea he's worse

yeah I mean you can't

get two more helpless people

well that's all all you set out to do

was to survive

laughs

helpless or not Buster has to learn deep

sea diving to stop the ship sinking

Keaton insisted on doing the part

himself even though diving in those days

was so hazardous

the cameras also went down in a special

box submerged in Lake Tahoe where the

water was crystal clear

worst problems in Tahoe was the water so

cold

that I could only stay down about 30

minutes at a time he'd go right through

you

cold also caused the glass panel of the

camera

I said to be packed around the cameraman

it took four weeks to complete the

sequence

to the South Seas

chip is attacked by cannibal

foreign

the

couple take to the Open Sea

Keaton and his team started the

Navigator without an idea they ended it

with a Triumph

This was Keaton's most successful comedy

he put him with Chaplin and Harold Lloyd

as one of the top three comedians yet

his finest work was still to come

Buster sets off for the most important

journey of his life to propose to the

girl of his dreams

thank you

with the Navigator Keaton had reached

the peak of his career

its success ensured his independence

he was known and loved all over the

world and he was rapidly becoming as

wealthy as a millionaire he portrayed

foreign

foreign

was a theme which ran through many

Keaton films

but at this period it was affecting his

life

he was now the father of two boys but

Natalie kept him at a distance she was

spending at the rate of 900 a week and

that was just for clothes they kept

moving to more and more expensive homes

with money borrowed from Keaton's

producer Joseph skink

so when skank bought a story Keaton

disliked he felt obliged to do it

master has to marry by seven o'clock to

inherit a fortune he'll try anybody

foreign

desperation Buster advertises for a

bride the response is alarming

Keaton directed this sequence with 500

women in the streets of Los Angeles

at the preview the audience barely

laughed Keaton was dismayed

at last something through a belly laugh

Keaton examined the film to find out

what

coming down the side of the hill and

there were some Boulder rocks in that

hill and I hit one accidentally

sliding down that hill on my feet most

of the time and I look behind me in the

scene

and here come three polar Rocks coming

at me bouncing down the hill with me and

I actually as cram to get out to get

away from them the sequence faded out

just as it was coming to life

if we went back and for a finish we

built 1500 rocks starting from

grapefruit size up to one with eight

foot in diameter

well I got in the middle of that rock

Chase and it saved the picture for me

thank you

thanks to the Rocks keeping top to Chase

and dispersed the women

the women in his films were terribly

important as props not so important as

love interest

but

his most beautiful Leading Lady he ever

had was then go west

thank you

Go West Seven chances and particularly

battling Butler made impressive sums of

money for Joseph skank and in 1926 skank

gave Keaton the go-ahead for his most

expensive and spectacular production a

film called The General

remember

I'm more proud of that picture I guess

than any picture ever made because I

took an actual happening out of the

Civil War out of the history book and I

told it in detail too the Northerners

coming in there as the civilians and

stealing that engine with the intent of

Burning Bridges behind him

foreign

was based on Civil War photographs of

Matthew Brady

Keaton told his crew make it so

authentic it hurts

the location was Oregon

Southern railroads were too crowded

we bought engines up there and with very

little work remodeled him into Civil War

engines then we built a passenger train

on the freight train on their flat cars

that they had the Rolling Stock for us

and all the track in the world we wanted

to use

it was already late for us

to Cottage Grove came 17 carloads of

equipment much of it to create this set

of Marietta Georgia

as direct Tech Heaton was in complete

control

he recreated the period so carefully

that for many modern audiences this is

the Civil War brought to life

yeah

the northern Raiders steel Busters train

and kidnap this girl Annabelle

with Buster in Hot Pursuit

but he needs something more powerful

than a hand car foreign

with another engine he discovers it

we found that as an actual a gun in the

Civil War the first railroad cut and we

duplicated that Cannon it almost looks

like a prop we invented that's the other

thing that kind of scared us when it

comes to use it says everybody's gonna

say well they invented the prop just to

get the gang

the idea was to show Buster's attempts

to Shell the Raiders on the Move every

shot had to be filmed on the move too

but Keaton was a master of the traveling

shop cameras were mounted on cars

themselves often mounted on Railroad

Flat cars this amateur film gives a rare

glimpse of Keaton directing

two locomotives run side by side on

double tracks one pulling the camera

train

the cannon has to fire its first round

straight into the cab a joke with real

gunpowder he said the only thing that

saved our lives and that was a pair of

tweezers right so what do you mean

he said well the first time we loaded

the cannon we only wanted the Cannonball

to just go and land into the engine cab

and uh he said first time we did it was

a good thing he was going around the

curve because it went huango and it

missed the car completely and landed

over in the field someplace so then we

put in a little bit less and it still

went too far he said we finally wound up

pushing the kernels of the gunpowder

aside and just counting kernels into the

thing finally got it so that when it

went off like

desperate to stop the Raiders Buster

uses a full Barrel load of powder

um

foreign

picture he could relax between scenes

although he looks distinctly and it is

here posing with the amateur

photographer's wife

but you had to play baseball to work

with Keaton

about at the slightest excuse and in the

most unlikely places

without a script Keaton liked to shoot

rehearsals as Marion Mack discovered to

her cost

when I went out that morning I was made

up and all ready to work

and I didn't know that they were going

to make a scene with the water spot

aimed for me that when the train was

stopped they would let me have it

but they didn't show me they're going to

do this

so the thing you see in the movie

that was quite a surprise

and I was pretty angry about it so I let

him in

for the Battle of Rock River Keaton used

the Oregon National Guard we had to have

artillery pieces Army Saddles and stuff

like that the uniforms for both gray and

blue with 500 men up there I could house

them for a week

and put them in Gray uniforms and bring

them going from right to left and take

them out put them blue uniforms bring go

left to right and fought the War

she had no shoes but the East guy was

counted out with his uniform

an 18 year old private in the Oregon

National Guard was John Wilson

well I do recall though that we had lots

of caps and we had with the uniforms we

had about 200 of the gray and about or

300 or so of the blue and not enough to

make Distribution on it they treat this

is like we were in a regular army

they had us come to attention and

measure off for a distance and then they

had us number all

and they gave us all our directions and

what we're supposed to do

expected us to carry it out the location

was at calp Creek where the full-sized

railroad bridge had been built simply to

be destroyed

I fell the timber that made the bridge

across the river put the locomotive down

we was working for this contractor

George Potter has had the job of putting

the tree to build a bridge across the

river they used for that scene

300 feet 400 feet from here we're across

the river

and it was built

but they tried it out three or four

times and put the locomotive across it

to show that they see how it worked

before they cut it so it would fall in

the creek

it was about 70 feet long across one

Bluff to the other

as Jack Little's powdermen laid the last

of their Dynamite

people came from Cottage Grove and all

over the state

I had the measles at the time and I

wasn't allowed out too much and this was

such a spectacular thing that my father

says you can't miss it you can't miss it

it's it's a just a One-Shot deal

and so my mother decided to take me

spots and all and I wasn't the only one

with spots there either it was quite an

epidemic

with the bridge of light keeping set in

motion the most expensive single shot of

the

people in the crowd scream someone was

on that engine and had a fight shirt as

well as I remember in a vest and his cap

by enlarging the frame we can see what

alarmed the crowd

one of the ladies faded because this

dummy leaned forward and we all thought

it looked like a real person in there

and when the train went down then it the

head of whistle on it a very shrill

whistle

kind of mindful of saying and everybody

felt I like it something really had

happened that was was really Dreadful

the battle was covered by six cameras

it was very exciting and a little bit

alarming because there were shelves

going off and there were they had

explosions going off and they blew parts

of trees to pieces and the horses and

Riders on them that weren't the greatest

riders in the world and some of them

were falling off and I know it was kind

of scary as far as I was concerned but

the funny part going down the hill I

happened to be a little bit in the rear

and they had Stakes out there where they

had smoke bombs or exposes of some kind

and someone that I forgotten how they

designated who would die and who

wouldn't but somebody would fall to this

stake and look at that steak and they'd

crawl like the devil to get away from

them

there were some of them would be thrown

off of the Cannons and the horses were

running wild and and they'd get run over

and it was

make more water

and we're supposed to be waitable but it

wasn't water wasn't just knee-deep it

was very clear with my head they said it

was 18 20 feet deep the hole where I

stepped into it and I swam the water was

much more of a river here and uh I

turned around I swam right back out in

the big hole and there's where I went

down three times I don't know how many

of them almost Bound in there we kept

pulling them out for 10 minutes I guess

all right

Keaton was ultimately responsible for

everything that happened but he shared

the risks nine men had been injured

several by explosions

one of them was too close to Buster

Keaton

and it knocked him over and knocked him

unconscious and he lay there on the

ground for quite some time unconscious

and he finally got him brought him two

and

he rested up a while and got back on the

job

foreign

like one Keaton climax topped by another

Sparks from the engine set fire to

Tinder dry forest

every man was rushed to the scene and

there was a lot of young fellas there

was there that had no experience

whatsoever in fighting a fire well they

thought all you had to do just go up

there and start in and fight it and

Buster himself he took his pass off and

leaves refresh of his with his pants

he'd been fighting the fire with these

pants while the rest of the men had been

using their uniforms so he would run

around these in long shorts with his

back down

and at that time he had a pitchfork and

he was sneaking up on a little puff of

smoke

and putting it out and of course

everybody was just hilarious they got to

fire it with no trouble but there was so

much smoke that they couldn't shoot

and they had to wait for a rain to come

and clear out the smoke when that could

be up to six weeks

or seven weeks or whatever so they had

to pack the whole thing in and come back

to LA and wait for a rain

and then when they finally got a

rainstorm and that cleared the smoke out

then they went back up and finished the

picture so that drove the budget up

considerably

Keaton was already wildly over budget

but he had produced what he and his

associates were convinced was his

masterpiece

but when the film opened in New York

reviews were mixed her few were positive

but the New York Times said this is by

no means as good as Mr Keaton's previous

efforts variety The General is far from

funny

Life Magazine

many of his gags are in gruesomely bad

taste

Keaton's favorite picture did not cover

its costs

skank insisted that in future he worked

with a production supervisor

the supervisor Harry brand had a

profound effect on Steamboat Bill Jr

Keaton Was preparing to flood the

Mississippi at his specially built

location at Sacramento California when a

real-life disaster intervened Harry

brand had seen these newsreels of the

real Mississippi floods and alerted Joe

skank

Keaton was working with director Charles

Reisner he was almost ready to shoot

I said I've already built my sets and

our gags are worked out because all I

could do is change it to a cyclone which

will take a lot of rebuilding so that's

better do that

they rebuilt

a dredger crane was used to tear

buildings from their Moorings

thank you

airplane engines provided the cyclone

as Keaton became more enthusiastic about

their

cables linked to light Breakaway set to

a cantilever the slightest touch could

lift it

foreign

Buster uh standing in the street and the

whole whole front of a building comes

off and crashes down and he's standing

right under it one of the most

spectacular stunts ever done

of course it was very dangerous

reps hold the wall into position

it's the whole front of the building was

on a base plate and on hinges the ropes

were cut simultaneously

behind a window you can just dim some

and Retreat him after giving the set a

final push

a thousand pounds a damn thing

the Buster was

six inches out of position one way or

the other they would have driven him

right into the ground like a little tent

Peg you know

where Buster was gone and my father who

was a very religious man he had a lot of

different religions but at this time he

happened to be a Christian Scientist and

he had a practitioner up there and they

were praying all day because here comes

the shot you know and he couldn't my

father couldn't bear to see he and the

practitioner were off for praying in one

corner and you know they had to wait

until

to find out whether Buster came through

it or not he's a gay little guy that

bustered

just before Buster made the shot came

news from skank that would mean the end

of his creative freedom uh he had been

arbitrarily turned over to MGM he was

having problems at home one thing in

another and he had reached the point

where he really didn't care that much

MGM at Culver City California was the

world's most prestigious Studio when

Keaton joined it in

1928. morale was high after successes

like Ben Hur and a big parade

52 pictures a year were turned out here

under the leadership of two remarkable

men Irvin fallberg and Louis B mail

in overall control was the president

Nicholas skank Joe's brother who owned a

palatial estate in the east

Mr skank took me on a little tour of

this marvelous estate that he now owned

at Sands Point Long Island and we walked

among the chicken

cooks that he had there were a number of

them and he had a lot of very valuable

chickens and it seemed that they had all

been in great fights with each other and

here among these white feathered little

chickens at times he saw a terrible

bloodied bodies and I of course I had an

impression on me he was the president of

the company telling me Marx take a

lesson from that it's only the tough

chicken that survives you've got to be

prepared to kill the other man if

necessary and that must have been Mr

skank's philosophy his company was

around like a corporate state with total

control of production

the individual took second place to the

team

and the director took second place to

the producer of these Top Flight

directors filmed in 1925 more than half

had resigned or been fired by 19

90 it was in this environment that

Keaton now had to work

yet he had Eddie Sedgwick an old

Vaudeville friend as director

and he had several of his old crew

for his first film he chose something

close to his heart a motion picture

camera

it was the camera which had so

mesmerized him when he first entered the

movies

but at MGM these films had to have a

producer

they were produced mainly by Larry

Weingarten who was a little more of a

sophisticated producer of comedies but I

think he was lost

in the bus to Keaton picture the

cameraman became one of Keaton's

favorite films he played a street

photographer with a tin type camera a

ticket tape parade sweeps past with it

come the newsreel cameraman

I saw the first weekly man and a script

girl with him so they got one look at

and fell Hook Line and sneaker well

immediately I went down and sold my 10

type thing to a second hand dealer and

bought a second hand motion picture

camera and of course I got one of the

oldest models there was well I set out

to be a news real cameraman

and of course I had my problem

foreign

Keaton had never had to work to a script

before

and this one was far too complicated

even if it did have Escape Clauses and

working on location in New York was

hopeless crowds gathered wherever Keaton

stopped

he cut the script and New York to the

Bone

and they got up at five o'clock on a

Sunday morning and did what few Street

Scenes they could get

oh

and then they packed it and they came

back here the studio and finished the

picture here

on the Backlot of MGM Keaton staged a

Tong wall in Chinatown

foreign

foreign

made use of all the resources of MGM the

studio even provided an elevator for one

of his finest sequences

Buster's been waiting all morning for

his girl to telephone

ha

foreign

foreign

the tremendous success of the cameraman

proved to the company not that Keaton

was right but that they were

they insisted his next picture had to be

scripted and budgeted more tightly most

of his crew went on to other pictures

on top of which his marriage was in

trouble

since the arrival of their second son

relations have been strained between

Buster and Natalie bastard now fallen

for another woman Dorothy Sebastian the

star of his new film despite marriage

Keaton played Elmo who loves an actress

from afar

but is too shy to admit it

thank you

foreign

Keaton wanted to do the film as a

talking MGM released it as a silent with

this track of music and occasional sound

effects despite front office

interference despite marriage had the

Keaton touch for the last time

at the end of the play Elmo is required

to kiss the heroine the object of his

love

thank you

foreign

taking risks

with the Falls stepping up on a table

and falling on his face him like God

you'd think that he was all the bones in

his body would be broken

and I tried my feelings and he says he

won't be able to play baseball he says

I'm only practicing and I'm your mercy

filming about his Yacht for spite

marriage Keaton indulged in some risky

stunt work it was the last time as far

as the front office was concerned

yes he could do the acrobatic stuff

because they knew he was capable but no

they wouldn't let him do anything else

if there was anything concerned with the

horses or automobiles or anything like

that but entailed any danger they

wouldn't let him do that

enlarging the frame shows that this

stunt was done not by Keaton but by

stuntman Bobby Rose

foreign

MGM were now ready for sound but not

ready for Keaton

it took them a year to find a subject

they considered suitable

would put in the grave and grab yourself

apart

so girls

here's your only chance that how

music plays You Can Dance for days to

this Amazing Race

the actual of getting into sound didn't

bother him at all because he had a good

baritone voice no stutter no lisp no

problem so the fact of speaking or

singing or anything like that no problem

he'd done it all his life

but the problem was not the voice but

the character in MGM tried to change it

anything

they made him a sad song but appealing

to sympathy

and the one thing he'd never done

began to sense the hopelessness of his

situation

New York stage directors

New York writers

dialogue writers

and musicians union all moved to

Hollywood

so the minute they start laying out a

script they're looking for those funny

lines

puns little jokes anything else

the queen has swing

everybody at Metro golden mirrors in my

gag Department didn't I take my hand off

right he took it but he got the lines

all mixed up they'd laugh their heads

off a dialogue written by all your new

Riders our uh joke happy the queen has

swooned say it after me the queen has

sworn say it after me they don't look

for the action

they're looking for funny things to say

in my fight with thalberg at MGM was his

lay out a script with me the same as you

always did

because as soon as our plot is set and

everything's going smooth I'm always

going to find places in my story where

dialogue does not call for

so you get those stretches in your

picture of six seven eight nine minutes

for there is no word of dialogue

well in those we get our old routines

thank you

Louis B Mayer insisted that in all

matters The Producers were be final

Irving Solberg admired Keaton but

expected him to work to a script

prepared by his scenario Department

they'd have six eight ten writers on it

and

everybody had to put their

foot in the pie and it just got to the

point where

he couldn't get any work done that he

thought was quality because there was

too many people interfering

you're not nervous Mr Butt are you no I

feel all right that's fine because you

know this is your first big scene and

there's one thing I want you to remember

never never look in the camera when

anybody speaks to you wait for the

reaction and answer them

if angry or perhaps you'd fall on you

during the action keep right on going as

if nothing happens you know of course

the foul a daughter line up and shoot it

over again if you forget your mind say

anything funny it's a comic Opera

remember the queen respect to remember

the little girl like her remember Volvo

serum remember the thing they were

picking stories and material without

consulting me and I couldn't argue him

out of it I'd only argue about so far

and then let it go you're not nervous he

wouldn't he wouldn't make a lot of noise

about it he just woke up and said what

time tomorrow

what's going on the company sent angry

telegrams Keaton's absences were costly

but now he lost creative control over

his only weapon he'd also started

drinking

thorberg encouraged him to take Natalie

on a European Vacation

did not bring them together

man afraid just to follow from Kansas

there's no experience

romance dashing listen I'll let you in

on a secret

I'm from Kansas myself

you're from Kansas

Abilene

Zoe solomenti on muchacho de kanzas

Oregon

these days they made a Spanish version

and a German version and once in a while

an Italian version of all of those films

and a French version also of those which

meant they would make the film in

English get a totally cut edited down to

size and they would go back and reshoot

the exact scene foreseen with an Italian

cast in German cast a Spanish and Buster

had to learn

to read

phonetically

all all his speeches off of a Blackboard

off camera and everything which meant he

was making each film four or five times

French versions were directed by Claude

autolara And I say it's maybe very good

for America but just pictures doesn't

mean anything for Frenchmen I don't

think they'd laugh at that picture

was told to shoot the script as written

when I came back off to lunch

I saw they put a moviola on the set and

from that minute I had to see the scene

of the American picture that that a

lighter as it has been shot in an

American version and to copy it exactly

in French

and I said Buster what can I do I see

my boy

he's too big if you don't the bed you'll

be fine Keaton disliked his next script

sidewalks of New York but he had to obey

orders or face suspension

one of its two directors was Jules white

who just graduated from making comedies

with dogs

I knew before the camera was put up for

the first scene that was practically

impossible to get a good motion picture

out of absolutely impossible

yet the picture grossed more than any of

his other films to Keaton's dismay what

chance had he now with MGM

that Christmas the usual publicity

pictures were especially poignant it was

to be Keaton's last with the family he

loved so much

New Year 1932 brought an ominous

development the company teamed him with

a New York nightclub comedian Jimmy

Durante

Keaton immediately took a back seat

well how are you Professor I'll have a

mic how did you get here Keaton's fight

against incessant talk was lost once

Durante entered the scene

but MGM argued that he'd missed the

point

okay

Jimmy being co-starred with him was an

attempt to make a team

that would presumably go through the

roof as a great comedy team

come on give the folks a kick a kick

although I also like Jimmy Durante he

was a totally different caliber of

comedian he had very little class so to

speak but that was part of his class

that he had in my class

that pained me at times to see some of

the movies I had to go to as a preview

of the new feature pictures from their

first film together Keaton was unhappy

good morning Jack fine weather for this

kind of stuff fine weather and then of

course when you give me a Jimmy Durante

dreads you can't not keep quiet he's

going to talk no matter what when the

Thunder happens you can't direct him any

other way

this is Mr Elmer total

Turtle this is the gentleman who is to

be shot

the one thing Keaton wanted was the one

thing the studio couldn't give him his

independence

he gave into a deep depression

he became progressively more unhappy as

time went on until finally he had now

had a breakup of his marriage what hurt

him most was the loss of his two boys

who'd been close to him Natalie changed

their name from Keaton to Talmadge

Keaton was now an alcoholic he'd lost

everything but his salary and he spent

that at the gambling table

well Buster seemed very unhappy after he

divinely divorced him she was they were

very much in love

but I think Mr drank too much and

Natalie just just went

have it I got stage where I didn't give

a dime with a school cap or not and then

I started drinking too much and and then

when I found out that they could write

stories of material button I could

anyway it would just be fighting with

them well of course you know I talk

about two bad pictures in the road I

still could split skids under you oh

everything happened

so many kinds of Alcoholics my God I was

married to and I'm with alcoholic myself

I'm a drunk uh and I love to get drunk I

mean there's all kinds of Alcoholics

and the bus was the kind I couldn't

drink

after he had two drinks didn't know what

the hell he was doing

I would keep on drinking and then they'd

put him in one of those places you know

okay like here that's where they give

you all you know just keep pouring it

into you before you think

sick of it

he killed several people but I know

about it and one of these cures keep him

as a nurse may scribbons they were

married in January 1933. Keaton couldn't

remember he was in an alcoholic Haze you

could see it on the screen the last two

or three films

beautiful

tell me what are you doing in this

Brewery I make beer would you like some

yes I'd like something I'll give you all

you want for nothing but but don't tell

my partners if you add it all up I would

say that buster drank out of loneliness

although he was with people he was a

lonely individual

and uh

the deadpan reflected that

in more ways than one

I think both of became an alcoholic

because he was very disappointed

intimately

have a way his career was being bounced

around have you anything to say in your

defense yes

he's got something to say why don't we

do to be mono listed like this what did

we do it's persecution that's what it is

persecution and let me tell you

something

on production citizens and from New York

the California

rates you won't say two men so intricate

and if you think that the people of this

community

quiet

on release exhibitors made their own

comment

even the cartoons had them Inseparable

Keaton was now living aboard his land

yacht Natalie had sold his ocean going

yacht

equipped with banks and run like a ship

when he chose to work he lived in the

MGM car park the trailer was moved to

for western side of the MGM studio and

it was a place of constant parties and

finally mayor had it drawn to his

attention Malaya was a highly moral man

no matter what people may say about him

and he did not want what could be a

potential Scandal erupting within the

studio a lot because they were having a

lot of girls show up it was tremendous a

lot of drinking and there was probably

some gambling and so consequently may

have sent Eddie Mannix

who was a studio manager to go down

there and stop all the carousing but

unfortunately Maddox was one who joined

in half the time so it was not exactly

the right thing

send a fire bug to put out a fire and

after May it realized that Eddie wasn't

getting anywhere he went down himself

and he had a tremendous confrontation

there with Buster Alby Mayer hated

Keaton and

Keaton always said that that lb mayor

was the worst

enemy he had

at the studio he finally reached the

point where Buster ordered him out of

the trailer

and mayor ordered him out of the studio

and that was the Final Exit of Buster

Keaton as far as into the production of

movies at the studio and I always

thought that buster had a wonderful exit

line because he said you Studio people

walk my character which was literally

true of course he couldn't make the kind

of movies he wanted to make

Pastor Keaton was only 37 years old

I suppose we loved him almost as much as

any actor I can think of Buster was one

of the real greats not only in his own

field but as a guy to work with and be

with

naturally when a man is easy to work

with and has great skill and great

understanding you think he's one of the

greatest guys in the world and he was

and he was

at the end of the cameraman Buster is

fired by MGM news and returns to his

humble tin type

but his girl tells him they've just seen

his work and it's wonderful

it took 30 years for the same thing to

happen to Buster Keaton

the 20 silent films were seen by a new

generation he was held at last as a

screen genius

in the early 20s Buster Keaton was one

of Hollywood's top comedians

early 30s like so many silent Stars he

was fading from public memory

fired by MGM divorced an alcoholic he

found himself increasingly alone but as

his character was tested in his films so

it would be tested in life

these were his treadmill years but he

and his talents would Triumph

1934

in Europe Pastor Keaton was still a

much-loved figure

in this French feature he hands out fake

banknotes as advertising any hope the

film would fulfill its promise was

dashed it never even reached America

yet it had some unique hidden touches

the boat back to New York was met by

newsreel man who filmed comedian Jack

Pearl

perhaps Keaton was reminded of the

Endless wisecracking of Jimmy Durante

perhaps he was just weary and depressed

but intentionally or not he sabotages

the act

in the middle of the ocean

yeah how'd you get off I got off the

boat walked down and went over to see

her lose this one yeah

how do you know

I'll pick it up

here in the middle of the ocean

light housekeeping

in the middle there she was

and I tell you something there was a

male mate she was playing the piano

playing with she was teaching the fishes

why don't you say something and another

thing you know I saw one fish tuning the

piano

a tuna fish

educational

Pig invited Keaton to join them in 1933

and submerged his reputation in a series

of cheap two reelers made in three to

five days on his own comedies he'd spent

more than a month

made a series of about 12 of the

educational films and the only one he

really thought was any good was called

Grand Slam Opera Keaton was credited

with the script for the

food with its parody of Fred Astaire

thank you

Keaton's director on the educationals

was his childhood portable friend

Charles Lamont easy man to get along

you're a very intelligent man

incidentally

I valued his thoughts

because I knew that he knew what he was

talking about and I accepted it

and but that made me a smart director I

wasn't one of those directors said look

I'm the director you just do what I tell

you I never did that to a person

who wondered if Keaton had burned

himself out

he seemed content to draw from the past

30 years before in Vaudeville he played

this act with his father

a director who knew Keaton many years

later was Anthony Simmons

he borrowed from the great treasury of

routines

Keaton was drawing all the time on his

old experiences he wasn't looking for

new ideas I mean we'd actually discuss a

scene he'd say well I remember that we

did so and so in the past why don't we

try and do that here I mean he was

looking for his old successes his old

experience to re re-adapt those

Bellboy 1918

love nest on wheels 1937.

the goat 1921

who blazes 1936.

Bellboy a horse used to pull a hotel

elevator

love nest on Wheels this

Buster's Sister Louise

from Boyhood Keaton had felt he had to

support his family but now he was

bankrupt the family was given work on

two educational pictures

an old man thoughts down the village

says unless we pay their 350 mortgage

we'll be moving while we are going to

get 350 dollars

facing enormous bills which he couldn't

pay Keaton turned more and more to drink

it helped bring his second marriage to

an end he was divorced from May

scribbons in 1935. he left to make a

feature in England for a refugee from

Central Europe

that was a Sam Spiegel one of his first

efforts

and

once again going into it he knew it

wasn't going to be any good and he just

did it for the money the director Adrian

Brunell was handed this note about

Keaton by Spiegel's assistant

don't let him drink

and I'm afraid the Buster was on the

bottle and had been on the bottle for a

number of years and it was quite obvious

during the filming that um he'd got a

little hangovers every day Keaton went

back early to the United States and

suffered a complete collapse

doctors gave him a choice give up

alcohol

for five years he never touched another

drop in 1937 he returned to MGM his

salary at stark contrast to the old days

and now he was just a humble gag writer

reporter who should have known better

asked him

how it felt to be making 300 a week

where he used to make three thousand

and Buster said well if I'm worth more

they'll pay me more

nothing sucky or uh or rueful about him

he was just uh a hundred percent just

really trying and really and and doing

it because he as I say he knew exactly

what he was doing he gave guys to all

those guys to the Marx Brothers even

before Keaton worked with the Marx

Brothers a sequence from the cameraman

with he and Ed Brophy in a changing

cubicle had inspired one of their most

famous scenes

ah come right ahead

it was an event when you could get all

three of them on the set at the same

time

the minute she started the picture with

the marsh Brothers you hired three

assistant directors

one for each Mark's brother

get two of them while he went to look

for the third one of the first two would

disappear they never worried what the

next setup was going to be or what the

routine or anything else is We'll add a

little bit when we get there

that they says when do we come and what

do we wear then they find out that they

start to shoot the picture with the

script's about yes didn't worry about it

they didn't try to

well that used to get Mike out because

my god when we made pictures we ate

slapping drained them

already

those days were over when Hollywood paid

his own kind of tribute to the silent

era Keaton was cast as something he

never was just another pie throwing

clown

this film within a film was directed by

malice and Claire who brought in Keaton

both to act and co-direct

the girl is Alice Faye

the sequence was a tribute to Comedy

Pioneer Max salad and his Keystone Cops

foreign

was happy to help out he never asked for

credit

Keaton was generous with gags in the

charity baseball games for Mount Sinai

Hospital he always led the comedian's

team

Buster would arrive at the game

with his gagman and

truck a truck with props that he had

fixed up that he had worked out and

things would happen

started the ball running michelin's

around the other hitter

all right

but luckily back to keep him within the

field in fact he's in the Outfield

in 1939 Colombia pushed him into doing

pale limitations of Harold Lloyd and

other comedians

Jules white directed the series and

Keaton disliked them all except the

first a remake of The Invader in two

reels instead of six

and directed by an old friend Del Lord

Dell was one director who adapted well

to sound and head of what I considered a

very fine rapport with Buster Keaton

they conferred seemed to agree and in my

opinion turned out a pretty good picture

considering the budget limitations of

any Columbia two-railer

hmm

in a little Spanish Town was on a night

like this

Stars where people going down was all A

Night Like This

true timing and she smiled CC

man these guys have turned to great

because we're far apart

many moons have passed away and still

she's in my heart

we made a promise

in a little Spanish Town was on a night

like this

in 1940 Keaton married a young MGM

dancer Eleanor Norris

the marriage transformed his life her

devoted wife 16 years ago

laughs

come on sit here everybody

fix it up there Mommy what if these

years of marriage to Buster men Eleanor

well we've been very happy of course

we've had some lean times too but

Buster's been so happy he's wanted to go

back to work I've been very proud of the

way he's come back into promise you bet

America's happy to have him back you

developed an ax so that Elder could

appear with you didn't you Buster did

you rehearse this

he always seemed like he was helpless

and everyone assigned themselves to be

his father uh Joe skank did his doctor

uh he had two or three mothers

but he just seemed like a helpless type

that everybody thought he needed caring

for in his silent films Keaton used this

as part of his character

he seemed equally helpless with money

in Sherlock Jr he finds the dollar bill

he didn't carry any money he didn't

necessarily want to carry any money

thank you

come on

in fact he was he was not a businessman

he uh

he didn't want to make decisions he

didn't want to make business decisions

it was always somebody doing that for

him when we decided to get married

the doctor and the other friend took me

aside separately

and for about two hours each

to convince me all the reasons why I

should not marry him

and I listened to all of it very

carefully

and then we went and got married

but they were protecting him from me

you've had enough trouble he didn't need

me

and 28 years later if they'd been around

they would have been surprised I think

the old films with Red Skelton this was

a remake of The General

Keaton adapted some of his old gags for

this scene

an earlier Skelton film ran into script

trouble

skeleton found himself in Esther

Williams house trapped by her dog

we're trying to get out the dog wouldn't

let him he put on Esther's clothes well

I wouldn't let him get out and he had to

get out somehow

and we didn't know how to work it so I

said we'll call Buster

and Buster came down and he looked at it

and like that he said I'll tell you what

you can do

but it was

like magic

1949 Master Keaton was in the news again

he was officially rediscovered

Life Magazine published a tribute to the

great silent comedians by James Agee

suddenly Buster was in demand by a new

medium once there was delightful in the

days when he was riding the quest the

20s and he's still a delight today he's

here with us tonight and now he's going

to do on our stage the very first scene

that he ever did an emotional picture

tonight he's going to do it with Billy

gilvin

foreign

as in the original the Molasses have

been poured into the Hat then back again

without Buster realizing

the obvious Delight of the live audience

was an inspiration to keep it took him

back to his youth in Portugal

oh

even though he was now well into his 50s

Keaton added a stunt not in the original

film

it was a lot of work but it was a lot of

fun

when Kiki started his own TV series it

was live

then he was asked to do a second then he

started on the second series I found out

that we're going to do it just through a

motion picture camera without an

audience

and for some reason this

this cannot be done with this type of

picture and I I wouldn't re-sign again

to commencement I knew what it was up

against

trying to make that Weekly show and dig

up new materials well it just can't be

done you can't dig it up that fast and

isn't a case of how many riders you can

hire

so I was contended to do nothing but

guess shots from then on

television meant that live audience

in his television appearances Eleanor

was now his regular partner

he's very precise very mathematical in

his work

and I had to do it be the same

just like all other so-called Leading

Ladies of his I was just one more prompt

to be handled and thrown around and

dumped on my head or whatever happened

to be called for

Eleanor went with Buster on two of his

engagements at the Cirque Medrano in

Paris the circus like imagined it like

an American circus a big turn to his

five or ten thousand people and he was

very scared if he thought of that he was

was scared but when he saw a place he

changed his mind because my place was

very small in places were 1500 people

but the clowns in the show used to

gather in the entrance way in the

shadows watching him each night

the clams learn from keeping for in each

of his acts he directed them oh yes he

directed it was quiet doing it and he

more or less get old he wouldn't rather

than talk he'd come and get hold of him

put you where he wanted you

and then

it is all get hold of you kind of a

thing stuff and move me around tell me

where to walk and where to stand what

shoulder to stand behind

myself and the other clowns amazed

that's about the only thing that I can

see

in England Keaton toured the musicals

he appeared with Veterans of the great

days like George Roby and Hetty King

the most famous veteran of all Charles

Chaplin gave Keaton a role in his story

of the English musicals Limelight

it was the only time they appeared

together

Paramount decided there was a movie in

Keaton's life story

it was a work of fiction

advisor he met

but no one acted on his advice

though right from the beginning what

Buster was telling him it was going in

one ear and out the other and they

really didn't follow any of this

magnificent story of Buster they they

labored on the thing of the drinking

period And I think everybody here has

had a drinking problem one time or

another as you know has had a lot of fun

with booze but that is not wasn't the

Paramount thing with him there were

moments in Boston

in his Sherlock Jr to escape from

gangsters he'd used an Old Stage trick

of his father's his faithful Aid dresses

as a peddler woman foreign

O'Connor duplicated the trick

and it was a marvelous trick and it was

very dangerous it had to go from the

sunlight into this dark hole and lay out

straight there was no way to tuck and

roll out of it you had to lay out

straight and worry about catching the

back of your head

going through the hole when I dove

through this tray that he was holding

they would let his legs down from the

back of the wall and the wall would

close this way and there was Buckshot on

the bottom of his skirt and he'd walk

away from the wall and the camera would

be on this black wall

because with Keaton around standing

watching you'll have this have this

feeling nothing's going to happen to you

if he's if he's around

the bastard Keaton story paid for a

modest house and a plot of land in the

San Fernando Valley where Keaton was to

spend the last 10 years of his life

called it his Ranch

he surrounded himself with gadgets and

machinery

many people said that if Keaton hadn't

been an actor he might have been a civil

engineer first time I met Buster I went

out to his house and Eleanor said he's

out in the garage and instantly he's

trying to quit smoking I slow really

okay I won't smoke around him then so I

went on the garage and this was Buster's

idea of giving up smoking he had a

little train he was working on with

something at the bench he had a little

train that went around all the way

around inside the garage

so when I walked in he had just taken a

puff off a cigarette and he put it on

the train and it slowly went around all

the way around inside and when he's he

stopped it and then he took another puff

on the cigarette but this is it was his

idea that was taking all this time to

get around that was his idea giving up

smoking

he had tracks that ran made a giant

circle around a picnic table and back

into the garage again one car would

carry three hard-boiled eggs and another

would carry a hot dog and pickles and

radishes and olives and all kinds of

things and he had this whole freight

train that was full of food and he would

take it out around the picnic table and

stop it so everybody could take what

they wanted

sometimes it's pretty strange you'd open

my refrigerator in the kitchen and

there'd be nothing in there except

Freight Train full of food waiting to go

out

the new owner of the Italian Villa

Buster's previous home James Mason who

made a surprising discovery in the

basement a pile of films which Keaton

had left behind

this brought Keaton into contact with

Raymond Roja

Roja ran his own Art Theater in Los

Angeles

and one night Keaton attended a showing

of The General

the meeting began a new career for Roja

and a new adventure for Keaton who never

thought his old films would survive I've

never noticed Preston Keating to have an

eagle

he just felt the that the public wasn't

interested in himself anymore

and he couldn't understand why I was

interested in Saving the films

the films were on nitrate stock which is

both inflammable and subject to chemical

decomposition

this would have been the fate of his two

reeler the boat

Roja transferred it to Safety stock in

the nick of time

foreign

classic moment of film comedy almost

lost by decomposition is the great day

of the launch

in the 1950s a new field opened up for

Keaton

foreign

at the big blue pure oil side when you

order a beer ask the man to draw Simon

pure

the happier hoppier beer and today my

pet is making commercials

easy work for me

I'm quick and stay home here and enjoy

life

this parody of commercial style Barbara

felden was never shown

it was intended for hudnut shampoos the

rashes when it has been discovered

thank you

Keaton was invited to be a guest on

Candid Camera

now watch the pepper the chapel come

over

his wristwatch went in the soup

the first thing he said was that I could

do some funny things while I'm having

breakfast and I said well that's

wonderful uh do you need any props he

said no nothing zero

I said well why don't you try it once

and I get an idea of what it looks like

we roll that camera

I noticed this lady

has a husband sitting next to her you

don't see him right now but he's telling

her what's going on

does she still embarrassed to watch

we'll go

and of course Buster adored that there

he was working not on stage but

it was a practical joke and you know he

loved practical jokes and that's the way

he considered it

foreign

watch carefully carefully

one gag right after another then one

take one take and that was all

he's truly a genius

apart from television Keaton returned to

the theater for a series of Road shows

in Merton of the movies a film had to be

shown on stage

they started out by trying ranting some

kind of film to be used in the second

act and it didn't make any sense at all

had nothing to do with Buster or what we

were doing

so we got my cat I had my movie camera

with me my little 16 millimeter camera

so we went out and made our own home

movie with the Slate number's on and

everything because in the play they were

supposed to be looking at the rushes

this film hasn't been seen for 30 years

oh

foreign

in 1959 Keaton received an Oscar for his

unique talents which brought Immortal

comedies to the screen

Hollywood might give him an award a film

was another matter

Anthony Simmons tried to set up a

feature with Keaton the same year nobody

in UK wanted to know at all and we

approached United Artists and we got

their backing from New York if they

could write it off against Europe they

couldn't guarantee a film with Keaton

for 22 000 pounds on the UK Market

the film was eventually made with Peter

Sellers and it wasn't me it wasn't the

script they were afraid of it was Keaton

they were afraid of and I find that very

sad

in 1960 Keaton and Roja paid a visit to

the French cinematake in Paris where an

amateur cameraman took these shots

and full of Keaton films were shown by

archives and film societies and Keaton

had a small but loyal following

the warmth and enthusiasm they received

encouraged valhara to plan the launch of

the first Keaton reissue in Europe

arranged a tour of Germany in 1962 for

Keaton's favorite film The General

and the journal was selected by Buster

himself

as the film because he felt that for

many reasons that if the public was

going to accept him at all that they

would accept him in that film and he was

all right

Buster loved anything that was

mechanical in planning the tour he was a

part of planning it and the fact that we

brought this engine it's an old engine

from Vienna and suddenly becomes fired

up with the idea that he could throttle

the train himself into the each train

station because we had a tour of 20

German cities

the train one were the ones that would

go into shock when once we get on train

and say are you ready okay let's go and

they're going you know

driving our train he's going to crash

our train

the general would now confound its

original critics it was instantly

recognized for the classic it was the

first show was in Munich we could hear

the laughter of the people out on the

street

and Buster said what are they laughing

at I say that your picture

he couldn't believe it he couldn't

believe it this is the reaction of the

people

so so I said well let's go over and see

it he said oh no I don't want to go into

the theater no I don't I said I I never

go in to see my own films at an audience

ever

and uh she said he's right he won't do

it she said Ray you can talk all day he

won't do it

so I said well Eleanor why don't you and

I go over and the bus just said all

right I'll wait for you so we had

reserved seats in the balcony and the

two of us went charging up the stairs to

see what was causing all the riot and it

was cops they were running cops ahead of

the general and I never heard such

yelling in my life couldn't believe it

they just loved every inch of it

and then when we walk back to Buster and

an Eleanor was all enthusiastic enough

she said oh busty it's hard to believe

with they're really laughing at you and

your comedy and you you know it's his

own he didn't say anything he just

listened

and then we went back to the hotel

so I said to him that same day I said

did you ever believe that you would see

your name on a marquee you know as a

star like that again

he said no he said I never thought it

would happen

the general inspired a young British

director working for the national film

Board of Canada Gerald potterton he met

Keaton in a New York hotel

and I said well we want you to basically

get on one of these little Railway cars

and go from the Atlantic Ocean to the

Pacific

he said sounds crazy

I'll do it

and there's a lot of noise coming from

outside the Central Park and he got up

went over to the window lifted the

window up and yelled out quiet to the

whole of Manhattan close the window sat

down and said when do we start

the national film board had the good

sense to make a film about the

production and they caught the intensity

with which Keaton treated his work

because of the danger he's just been

told that his gag crossing a Trestle

Bridge 200 feet up enveloped by a huge

map has been dropped in favor of another

instinctively he talks the language of a

film director

can't match scenes

I didn't have it in my mind that ways I

don't know if I went back now to protect

this Chase and close-ups eyewitness and

the slightest idea what I was doing at

the time I should be doing it so I Can't

Make Scenes match

there's still two other shots here we'll

eat the sequence but I said there's a

long shot on the bridge with them going

over

there that's the that's the whole the

center of the gag is that long shot on

the bridge I know the bridge the bridge

is not sure yeah

uh took a little look Keaton was not a

stubborn man but very occasionally he'd

dig his heels in and when that happened

no one could talk him around that was

too dangerous he says who suggested the

game so your differences I generally

know what I'm doing

that is not dangerous as child's play

for the lava Mike don't tell me about it

I don't laugh

do you think worse things in my sleep

than that

any dinosaur games or lamb them out in

advance you so often I will run into

guesswork or maybe his way is better

than doing it mine I just try to sell

yourself one way or the other because

there is a certain amount of guess has

to be but every now and then ain't no

guesswork

is one of them

eating one today

fantastic practical jokes personal if

you're standing by a locomotive coming

to a slow stop he will catch hold of the

bar

and stop it and it looked it really

looked like he

had stopped there's you know 150 ton

locomotive and I think that's the thing

that

really sort of got to people working

with and was his natural ability to

think up natural gags

today October 4th

1964. also the queen sense in regards

yeah

thank you Mr chairman but I'm not very

good in the the public speaking so but

destroyed that me hearts in the right

place I'll I'll find any man in the

house I loved Keaton he was everything

that you felt a great film comedian

should be

both on and off the screen and that was

that was fantastic to find out

you know somebody that was a God to you

was in fact a god

an experimental

directed by Alan Schneider featured

Keaton

it was virtually without sound

but now Buster was nearly 70 and his

health was failing rapidly

the park required him to wear a heavy

Overcoat in the New York summer or the

working conditions were abominable poor

Buster it was 110 degrees under the

Brooklyn Bridge and we weren't under the

Brooklyn Bridge we were alongside of it

and Buster was running running running

it was all Broken Bricks

he never complained the man I'm not

making him into a state it just it was

true he just simply could take any

amount of pain and travail

beckage film was invited to the Venice

Film Festival

and so was Keaton Bruno

Roja persuaded him to endure the barrage

of publicity for the sake of the reissue

of the films

when you get the first time the idea

what the

appears his voice tells us how ill he

was well it wasn't an idea but see I was

born with a show

um

Helena knew that too many interviews

would quickly exhaust him

and she knew his aversion to crowds

he was very shy

and he just could not stand crowds he

would absolutely Panic if he saw crowds

coming at him but what I didn't know was

that how much the Press is really

interested in Keaton because that of

course we didn't know until they arrived

master and Ellen agreed roja in Venice

the previous year the festival had

staged a retrospective of his work so he

was keenly awaited at the Sally Grande

so when we got to the auditorium

I said well we have to go in here so

we'll be going in there for us it uh he

said I thought we're going to go to the

hotel I said yeah well but we have to

stop off and say hello to the director

of the festival

he's in this building I said just go

through this door so I opened the door

and everybody in the room stood up

turned around to the back door and

started applauding bus to keep and I had

to push him in because he he wouldn't go

I pushed him on the back into the

auditorium so we had no choice Keaton

stomped onto the stage surrounded by

various Festival officials sat down in

the table in the middle of the stage and

just glared at us on smiling

then by some sort of curious mass will

we all got up and moved down into the

front of the theater you know somebody

shouted out Carl Buster photographer

shouted out and looked this way it

clambered up onto the stage like all the

Italian photographers do Keaton remained

passive on the stage the Applause

of shouting it was all joyful

pandemonium and then slowly a little

smile came over his face and he bent

forward and said glad to see you and

from that moment on the whole thing was

you know very mellow and nice

and so we're walking to the hotel and

Busters started to get a coughing spell

and his coughing got worse

and uh so we sat there for a few minutes

and um he said uh when I want you to

pick and choose who I have to talk to he

said well I can't do many

so

uh the first person that came to me was

James blue

and John Kelly uh we finished the

interview and we were just about to go

and Keaton moved over to the door the

end of this romance as a leading into

the bar took out his handkerchief and

just they neatly started wiping the

glass on the top of the of the door

and again we said goodbye and then he

gave us a rather Wicked looked into our

basement put his head through where the

glass should have been his hand and

opened the door from the other side no

glass there at all

the same year Keaton played in a comedy

of ancient Rome a Funny Thing Happened

on the Way to the Forum directed by

Richard Lester he was just the first

person

that Enchanted me totally in in terms of

sitting in the cinema and watching films

and I didn't really know anything about

what the cinema had to offer until I

started seeing Keaton's films and I was

just overwhelmed by what he did so

when the opportunity came up to have the

chance of working with him I left at it

because he to me was the master

a press conference made further demands

on Keaton's stamina

the fact that he was dying was a shock

but nobody seemed to realize quite what

state he was in and in fact not he

didn't either he thought he had a rather

Advanced case of asthma only through

dick Leicester given me permission to

say this that I dabbled him because the

man was ill

I mean he was dying you know

um

I would never have said it because

anyway if I said it in Cold Blood to um

anybody that I work with you know oh

yeah I doubled master key you know they

lock you up

this is Mick Dillon avoiding the

Chariots

this is Keaton Dylan

are the most refreshing climate in the

world

like a brick wall he ran straight into

the tree and it you know took

everybody's breath away well what's it

we thought he hadn't seen it but that

was the way he did it he just ran

straight into it with his head

Bang

marvelous

Keaton's last appearance on the screen

was in an industrial safety film made in

Canada describe

we've got a cold making a commercial up

in Canada

he thought that's what it was a bad cold

and pains and bronchial pains and one

thing another actually it was cancer of

the lung I was so far gone it was

inoperable

uh we never told him what was matter

with him he thought he had chronic

bronchitis

and uh outside of having really bad

coughing spells where he'd be almost

totally out of breath uh

everything

you know

he just kept getting progressively

weaker

and

we played Bridge all afternoon the day

before he died

one heart

when he was ready to

be buried

he had a Rosary in one pocket and his

death and a deck of cards in the other

so he was set for whichever direction he

was going

oh

I've often said that if I ever got

up to the Pearly Gates myself and looked

in

and there was only one person in there

it would be my grandmother but I had to

correct that

'd have to be two people in there

because one of them would be my

grandmother and the other would be

Buster Keaton he was a

for my money the one of the grandest men

that was ever put on this Earth

foreign

sure it was

all right

foreign