Inside the historic depot in Muskegon, Mich. – a train station built in the late 1890s – a curious clue illustrates how Buster Keaton came through town: Above the reception desk, now the Muskegon County Convention and Visitors Bureau, hangs a framed copy of Keaton’s diary entries. On two dates, a sketch of a train car shows a stick figure jumping off to its destination. Next to the figure, one penciled-in word says it all: “Home.”
Along with contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, Keaton is considered one of the greatest actors of the silent film era. He’s also one of the most innovative directors in motion picture history. His ability to perform acrobatic stunts while maintaining a deadpan facial expression earned him the nickname “The Great Stone Face.” And even if you don’t know the man, you’re bound to know his trademark porkpie hat.
Keaton’s formative years were spent in Muskegon, and his lakeside experiences helped shape his movie-making legacy. An annual convention in October pays homage to the comedic great’s local ties.
THE DAMFINOS CONVENTION
The 14th annual convention, celebrating the life and laughs of Buster Keaton, is billed as a “once in a lifetime” event, promising surprises that date back more than 80 years. The convention will be held on Oct. 3 and 4 at the Shoreline Inn in Muskegon, Mich. Keaton’s movies will be shown on the silver screen at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Muskegon.
Friday, Oct. 3: Damfinos are in for a rare treat when they attend a special screening of a Keaton silent film with footage that hasn’t been seen in more than 80 years. The only clue, according to convention organizers, is that it’s “radically different” from the original film. Bill Bodell, technical and operations director for the Frauenthal, says he’s beyond excited about working with the rare Keaton print. “I schedule
my world in such a way that I’ll be available for this event. I get chills thinking that I’m going
to be the one to run this movie for the first time in 80 years.”
Saturday, Oct. 4 (Buster’s 113th birthday): The Frauenthal will host two Keaton classics: Battling Butler and The Navigator.
For more information on Buster Keaton and the upcoming convention, visit actorscolony.com, busterkeaton.com and silent-movies.com/2008/.
Keaton’s career began just as the silents were beginning to entertain American audiences in the early 1900s. By the time of his death in 1966, he’d starred in more than 140 films and directed close to 50, including some of his most famous films, The General, The Navigator, Our Hospitality and Battling Butler. Although Keaton was born in Kansas when his vaudeville performer parents Joe and Myra made an unscheduled stop, scholars of the silent film star say the lakeside town of Muskegon, Mich., was his first real home before making it big in Hollywood.
“They came over here to perform and spotted the lake, and they loved it. And that’s when they started really coming back. Joe and a couple of others (Paul Lucier and William “Mush” Rawls) set up the Artists’ Colony Club (later known as the Actors’ Colony) in 1908. And then they started talking it up with the other vaudevillians,” says Ron Pesch, lifelong Muskegon resident and Keaton historian. Keaton’s father purchased property in Muskegon’s Bluffton area, sold part to his performer colleagues, and together, they created an artists’ community that at one point hosted more than 200 people.
“This was really their first home. In vaudeville, because of the lack of air conditioning, they would retire from the road in the summer and prepare material for the coming season. The Muskegon area was always referred to as ‘the Riviera of the Midwest,’ and it was because of the cool breezes that came across the water. So this was kind of a wonderful place to escape to.”
Keaton himself recalled fond Muskegon memories in his autobiography, My Wonderful World of Slapstick. The comedian wrote, “The best summers of my life were spent in the cottage that Pop built on Lake Muskegon in 1908.” In the book, he details his carefree time relaxing with friends while honing his comedy chops with stunts like riding his bike off the dock and into the lake, shocking passersby.
Keaton, who describes himself as “mechanically inclined,” also rigged the walls of a neighbor’s outhouse to collapse at the pull of a string if trespassers attempted to use it. Horsing around with his friends and neighbors became the comedic catalyst for his future work in the movies.
“When you look at the sand dunes in the area and then you compare that to Keaton falling down in the movies, you can probably see where that came from. When you see a boat called The Damfino (a play on the words ‘damn if I know’) in a movie and you’re laughing at the joke, you know that boat docked in Muskegon and was here when Buster was 18 years old,” notes Pesch. “And most likely, he took that with him when he went to Hollywood. That was the stuff he drew on.”
In 1917, Buster left the family act, which then included his younger siblings Louise and Harry, to pursue work in the movies. That same year, he debuted in Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s feature The Butcher Boy. The rest, as they say, is cinematic history.
Bluffton historian and Keaton fan Mary Anderson is Pesch’s partner in crime and together, they seek out pictures and other historic artifacts of Buster that Muskegon residents may have without even knowing it. Anderson befriended Keaton’s sister, Louise, and corresponded with his brother, Harry, better known to everyone as “Jingles.”
“I’m talking to Louise and I got a note from Jingles and it said these were the happiest days of their lives because the others were on the road the whole time,” remembers Anderson, who also got to know Eleanor Keaton, Buster’s third wife. “And this way, Buster could be relaxed and just be a kid and play baseball and go fishing.” It’s not clear how many times Keaton returned to the lakeside town, but his 1949 trip was documented. That year, he visited with Eleanor and they took pictures of places like Pascoe’s, a tavern that would serve as the unofficial headquarters of the Actors’ Colony, along with his old family cottage.
Pesch also befriended Eleanor Keaton in the early 1990s, and she returned to Muskegon for the first Damfinos Convention in 1995, which also marked what would have been Buster’s 100th birthday. As a token of Keaton’s affection for Muskegon, she gave Pesch several rare snapshots of their 1949 visit. Unlike Charlie Chaplin, whose home in Switzerland is being converted into a museum, and Harold Lloyd, whose family owns the rights to his movies, Keaton didn’t leave much behind for his fans.
“I don’t think that stuff meant much to him. He was creative, but it wasn’t about acquiring stuff,” says Pesch, who put together a website detailing Keaton’s history in Muskegon and the history of the other performers he worked with (actorscolony.com). “Even to hear Eleanor talk about going to presentations of his films, he was sort of embarrassed that these people were standing up and applauding him for his great insight. He was just trying to make people laugh.”
While performers of the Actors’ Colony and their original cottages have passed on, some remnants are still visible. Tracks from the trolley taking Muskegon’s train station passengers into Bluffton still line the streets near the lakeside cottages. Keaton’s place, known as “Jingles Jungle,” sat facing the lake on the corner of Edgewater Street and Windward Drive. The original cottage was torn down in the 1950s because, according to David D’Alcorn, the property’s current resident, it was run down beyond repair. His father bought it in 1927 and it’s been in the D’Alcorn family for the better part of the last 50 years.
D’Alcorn cheerfully greets tourists making pilgrimages to see the former homestead of the silent film star and his family, even showing them the place on a concrete wall where Joe Keaton wrote his name (and Myra’s) in cement in 1914.
“I do remember the interior of that old cottage. It was kind of like knotty pine in the grooves. I suppose it’s like going into the pyramids and seeing the inscriptions there,” says D’Alcorn with a laugh. “People come a long way to see this. This wall is a very important thing in the Buster Keaton tradition. It’s hard to believe that little inscription would have that much importance, but it does.”
Every year, “Damfinos” (the name given to the fans who attend the annual convention in Muskegon) get the chance to see the sites that Buster called home. Pesch gives walking tours of the area around Keaton’s cottage, the place where Pascoe’s once stood, and even a baseball field where it’s said that Buster played ball. He knows that Keaton, and silent films in general, only appeal to a limited audience. But Pesch wants people to know that Keaton still lives on in Muskegon, and the town lives on in his movies.
“What Batman draws in a single weekend will probably exceed the number of people on the face of the earth today who have seen Keaton’s films. It’s sad to say, but accurate,” he says. “My goal is to let them know that he is not forgotten in the city of Muskegon. And if you come here, you’ll find items that were an inspiration to him once he got to Hollywood. The things that he drew on while making those films.”
Porkpie hat photo courtesy of Beth and Mark Pederson of the Damfinos. One Week (1920) Photo of Buster Keaton and Sybil Seely, courtesy of the Damfino Archives. The Haunted House (1921) poster, reproduced for promotional purposes only for this article, collection of Victoria Sainte-Claire of the Damfinos. The Cameraman (1928) reproduction poster from an original print courtesy of the Damfinos. Buster Keaton is Cleaning Up (1923) original two-sheet from the collection of Victoria Sainte-Claire of the Damfinos.
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