Book SummaryBuster Keaton, by James Curtis

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton's Beginnings and Rise to Fame

Curtis begins the book emphasizing Buster Keaton's prolific and long career in entertainment. He will cover Keaton's nearly seven decades as a performer onstage and onscreen, highlighting, in particular, the comedic genius and invention he brought to silent films and, later, television.

Early Vaudeville Career

Curtis launches into this long section by describing the arduous, hardscrabble realities of tent performances and the vaudeville circuits. The Keatons, a classic family act centered on the father, had been touring since Buster was just a baby, and there were few children who survived such an impoverished and rigorous life.

The Keaton Family's Routine: A Disordered and Comedic Foundation

From the outset, Curtis establishes how dangerous and chaotic the Keatons' act was, as Joe Keaton constantly tossed his son across the stage. He was actually among the main reasons many people didn't appreciate the family act, which, even though it was generally acknowledged to be hilarious, caused women in the audience to cover their eyes and men to wonder if the child was being abused.

When Buster was just eleven months old, the Keatons' "act" wasn't much of anything. Mostly, it was an assortment of haphazard pieces: Joe doing ethnic parodies, dancing, and singing, while Myra accompanied on the piano and contributed an occasional song or two. They did comedy sketches purchased from suppliers, and one of Joe's specialties involved a series of backward handsprings called "flip-flaps." Buster made his debut onstage when he learned to walk, and his early contribution was to crawl onto the platform and cause mayhem by interrupting routines and speeches, his appearances timed in such a way as to become what Curtis calls "a surefire laugh."

As the years passed, and the boy became more integrated into the act, Joe developed the signature routine "The Guy with the Tabletop," in which he was a sort of acrobatic comedian, while his diminutive wife sang and played the saxophone. Buster, clad in a child-sized replica of his dad's costume, mimed his actions and delivered an array of impertinent wisecracks. Joe acted on pure impulse and emotion, whereas Buster's manner was subtle and fluid. Typically, the performance would end with Joe chasing his son off the stage.

Context

• The act of tossing Buster was part of a comedic tradition that relied on slapstick humor, which often involved exaggerated physical actions and pratfalls to elicit laughter.
• It was common for family units to perform together in vaudeville, with each member contributing different skills to create a cohesive and entertaining show.
• The mixed reactions from audiences, with some finding the act hilarious and others concerned, highlight the differing societal norms and sensitivities regarding child performers and physical comedy at the time.
• The dynamic between Joe and Buster, with Joe's impulsive style and Buster's subtlety, created a comedic contrast that was central to their act's humor. This interplay was a key element in engaging the audience and enhancing the comedic effect.
• During this era, audiences expected high-energy performances with clear comedic elements. The chase would have been a humorous climax, aligning with the audience's desire for lively and entertaining conclusions to acts.

Buster Keaton's Onstage Persona and Unique Comedic Style

Curtis emphasizes the almost uncanny resilience Keaton demonstrated from early childhood onward. Nicknamed "Buster" as a one-year-old when a show manager was astonished at his capacity to fall down stairs without injury, his early screen persona came from replicating his father's actions. The audience laughed and applauded as he never cried or even let on that he didn't enjoy being tossed around the stage like a medicine ball. He was a professional from the very beginning and could endure physical punishment that would make any ordinary child shriek. Curtis calls him "a born ham bone."

Buster also brought an uncanny capacity for visual mimicry to the stage, incorporating gestures and mannerisms from the performers he watched from the theater wings, and then refining and presenting them for the amusement of audiences. When he reached age eight, he had perfected takeoffs of such vaudeville headliners as Press Eldridge, James Russel, and Dan Daly and was soon adding comedians to his repertoire as well.

Context

• Keaton's early experiences with physical comedy and resilience greatly influenced his later work in silent films, where he became known for performing his own stunts and maintaining a stoic expression, earning him the moniker "The Great Stone Face."
• The influence of his father's actions helped Buster develop a persona that combined physical daring with a stoic demeanor, setting him apart from other comedians of his time.
• Keaton performed in a family act called "The Three Keatons" with his parents. His father, Joe Keaton, was known for incorporating physical comedy into their routines, which often involved roughhousing and slapstick elements.
• Visual mimicry is a key component of physical comedy, which relies on body movements and facial expressions rather than dialogue. This style was crucial in silent films where actors like Keaton had to convey humor without spoken words.
• Perfecting these imitations by age eight indicates Keaton's early start in show business, highlighting his precocious talent and the rigorous demands of performing regularly from a young age.

Joe Keaton's Influence on Buster's Vaudeville Debut

Curtis shows that Joe Keaton was an indifferent actor who nonetheless had a natural talent for publicity. He was an expert at telling stories about himself and his relatives, embellishing incidents and changing the details over time, while never losing sight of the purpose of such anecdotes, which was to attract audiences to their shows.

Joe was also an...

Buster Keaton Summary Keaton's Challenges Transitioning From Silent Films to Talkies

In Curtis's assessment, Buster Keaton's move into talking pictures was not his idea, but rather the dictate of his investors who could see where the industry was going and were unwilling to buck the tide. But Keaton encountered a profound dilemma. He was essentially a physical comedian, an artist of sight and movement, whose gift went begging as the talking screen took over and actors were compelled to speak on camera, forcing dialogue into genres where, frequently, it was misplaced.

Friction With MGM

Curtis portrays Buster's artistic freedom being shattered by the corporate mentality at Metro. No longer protected, as when Joe Schenck was his manager, he was compelled to make comedies overseen by an array of producers and directors unsuited to his talents.

Creative Differences and Imposed Unsuitable Material/Collaborators

From the outset, Curtis underscores how unhappy and confused Keaton felt in the new sound-proofed world of the talkies. He saw it merely as a new set of technicalities and obstructions, something that limited his freedom as an artist. His solution was to take the new ideas that were being pitched to him -- and they were potentially good -- and,...

Buster Keaton Summary Buster Keaton's Private Life, Relationships, and Addiction Issues

Throughout the book, Curtis weaves Keaton the comedian's stories together with his life—the husbands, the fathers, the friendships.

Troubled Marriages

Keaton's relationships with female partners and the effects of his extraordinary talent and growing fame permeate this section. Everyone who knew him thought of him as a sweet gentleman, a man incapable of truly hurting anyone. Yet it was a life of extremes, on-screen and off, and the wives he took, except potentially Eleanor, found it difficult to adapt.

Natalie Talmadge: Influence and Disconnect From Buster's Lifestyle

Curtis depicts Buster's first marriage to Natalie Talmadge as a union of convenience, a decision based less on love than on the fact that Nat liked his name. Raised in a family where the mother determined which relationships were pursued and two daughters ranked as some of the highest-paid female film stars in the world, Natalie never really adapted to the casual lifestyle her husband preferred.

Natalie gauged her success by the residence she could provide for them. Three residences in five years chart her progression, a perpetual loop of acquisition and disappointment as she attempted to keep up...

Buster Keaton Summary Buster Keaton's Later Career: Reinvention in TV, Theater, & Europe

After thirty years in the wilderness, Keaton's creative resurgence, as Curtis portrays it, was motivated by several things. Initially, there were, unsurprisingly, financial pressures. Work was all he knew, and he was compelled to support the domestic environment he created for his mother, brother, sister, and new wife. But television demanded a different sort of creativity, different opportunities for story, and initially required a new scale for the humorous bits he delighted in devising.

Vaudeville Stage: Keaton Embraces His Roots Again

The great irony of the later years of Keaton's life was the fact that he had to return to his vaudeville roots, doing sketch comedy on tour, in order to make money with which to pay his taxes. Television could not yet support the budgets he'd require to produce on film shows with enough physical comedy in them to satisfy.

Moreover, the touring brought a fresh round of exposure, the old face familiar enough for a wide swath of American audiences who hadn't watched him in a generation. And the physical humor, especially during live performances, was now equally nostalgic and inventive.

Context

• As audiences grew nostalgic for the...

Buster Keaton Summary Keaton's Legacy and Impact as a Trailblazing Filmmaker and Comic

Curtis emphasizes the fact that Keaton never lost his sense of humor, even during moments when it appeared he had. He died with unfinished projects in the works, with roles committed to and with appearances scheduled, and with a general feeling of contentment that he had regained the measure of respect and love he'd been denied for so long.

Role of Critics and Historians in Reviving Keaton's Career

In his final years, Keaton became something of a darling to critics and historians who saw the magnitude of his work and the depth of his talents, and their voices would grow louder on his behalf as all the obstacles he faced in putting his films in front of audiences were finally cleared. This process began, Curtis chronicles, with James Agee, followed by generations of people who viewed cinema as a genuine art form and who wanted their own movies to be as good.

Context

• The rise of film studies as an academic discipline brought Keaton's work into classrooms, where students and scholars analyzed his contributions to cinema.
• James Agee was a prominent American film critic and writer in the mid-20th century. His essays and reviews were influential in shaping public...