My Wonderful World Of Slapstick

My Wonderful World Of Slapstick PDF Author: Buster Keaton
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786254964
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
Over half century ago the society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children complained to Mayor Van Wyck, of New York, that Joe Keaton, a vaudeville actor, was brutally mistreating his five-year old son. At each afternoon and evening performance the child, billed as “The Human Mop”, was slammed on the floor, hurled into the wings, and sometimes banged into bass drums. Unable to find a bruise or scratch on the lad, Mayor Van Wyck refused to ban the act. The “Human Mop” bounced on to worldwide fame as Buster Keaton, one of this century’s greatest comedians. In this intimate autobiography Buster Keaton tells his whole personal and professional story, beginning with his colourful and exciting childhood as the undentable tot in the “Three Keatons” whose proudest boast was having the rowdiest, roughest act in vaudeville. Buster has played with all the great ones, from George M. Cohen and Bojangles Robinson and Al Jolson to Jack Paar and Ed Sullivan and Red Skelton, during his sixty years as a star in vaudeville, silent and talking pictures, night clubs and television. Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle got him into the movies and taught him how to throw a custard pie. Buster could not even keep slapstick out of his eleven months as a draftee in our World War I army. He came out to help create the Golden Age of Comedy with his friends Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Arbuckle, Mack Sennett and the Keystone Cops. Marital troubles and alcoholism once got Buster down, but could not keep him down. MY WONDERFUL WORLD OF SLAPSTICK was written with the collaboration of Charles Samuels, co-author of His Eye Is On the Sparrow, Ethel Waters’ best-selling autobiography. Buster Keaton’s Life Story will enchant and thrill all those who enjoy looking past the glitter and the grease paint into a magnificent performer’s mind and heart.

My Wonderful World Of Slapstick

My Wonderful World Of Slapstick PDF Author: Buster Keaton
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786254964
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
Over half century ago the society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children complained to Mayor Van Wyck, of New York, that Joe Keaton, a vaudeville actor, was brutally mistreating his five-year old son. At each afternoon and evening performance the child, billed as “The Human Mop”, was slammed on the floor, hurled into the wings, and sometimes banged into bass drums. Unable to find a bruise or scratch on the lad, Mayor Van Wyck refused to ban the act. The “Human Mop” bounced on to worldwide fame as Buster Keaton, one of this century’s greatest comedians. In this intimate autobiography Buster Keaton tells his whole personal and professional story, beginning with his colourful and exciting childhood as the undentable tot in the “Three Keatons” whose proudest boast was having the rowdiest, roughest act in vaudeville. Buster has played with all the great ones, from George M. Cohen and Bojangles Robinson and Al Jolson to Jack Paar and Ed Sullivan and Red Skelton, during his sixty years as a star in vaudeville, silent and talking pictures, night clubs and television. Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle got him into the movies and taught him how to throw a custard pie. Buster could not even keep slapstick out of his eleven months as a draftee in our World War I army. He came out to help create the Golden Age of Comedy with his friends Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Arbuckle, Mack Sennett and the Keystone Cops. Marital troubles and alcoholism once got Buster down, but could not keep him down. MY WONDERFUL WORLD OF SLAPSTICK was written with the collaboration of Charles Samuels, co-author of His Eye Is On the Sparrow, Ethel Waters’ best-selling autobiography. Buster Keaton’s Life Story will enchant and thrill all those who enjoy looking past the glitter and the grease paint into a magnificent performer’s mind and heart.

Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton PDF Author: Buster Keaton
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781578069637
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Sweeney collects interviews from the beginning of Buster Keatons career in the 1920s and concludes with his 1950s and 60s television work. The pieces here provide a critical perspective on Keatons acting and cinematic techniques.

Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton PDF Author: Edward McPherson
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571278809
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
'Tracing Keaton's beginnings in vaudeville and how he eventually applied that form's traits to cinema, McPherson creates an excellent portrait of a formidable talent, also addressing the private demons that accelerated his eventual slide.' Empire'The author, rather like his subject, has the knack of sketching a poignant moment using minimum of sentimental flannel.' Sunday Telegraph 'McPherson wins one over because of his loving fan's attention to, and lively evocation of, the core of Keaton's achievement.' Telegraph'Graceful and charming... McPherson's account is animated by the same sort of colour and vitality as Buster's best work.' Scotsman

Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton PDF Author: James Curtis
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0385354215
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 833

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Book Description
**One of Literary Hub’s Five “Most Critically Acclaimed” Biographies of 2022** From acclaimed cultural and film historian James Curtis—a major biography, the first in more than two decades, of the legendary comedian and filmmaker who elevated physical comedy to the highest of arts and whose ingenious films remain as startling, innovative, modern—and irresistible—today as they were when they beguiled audiences almost a century ago. "It is brilliant—I was totally absorbed, couldn't stop reading it and was very sorry when it ended."—Kevin Brownlow It was James Agee who christened Buster Keaton “The Great Stone Face.” Keaton’s face, Agee wrote, "ranked almost with Lincoln’s as an early American archetype; it was haunting, handsome, almost beautiful, yet it was also irreducibly funny. Keaton was the only major comedian who kept sentiment almost entirely out of his work and . . . he brought pure physical comedy to its greatest heights.” Mel Brooks: “A lot of my daring came from Keaton.” Martin Scorsese, influenced by Keaton’s pictures in the making of Raging Bull: “The only person who had the right attitude about boxing in the movies for me,” Scorsese said, “was Buster Keaton.” Keaton’s deadpan stare in a porkpie hat was as recognizable as Charlie Chaplin’s tramp and Harold Lloyd’s straw boater and spectacles, and, with W. C. Fields, the four were each considered a comedy king--but Keaton was, and still is, considered to be the greatest of them all. His iconic look and acrobatic brilliance obscured the fact that behind the camera Keaton was one of our most gifted filmmakers. Through nineteen short comedies and twelve magnificent features, he distinguished himself with such seminal works as Sherlock Jr., The Navigator, Steamboat Bill, Jr., The Cameraman, and his masterpiece, The General. Now James Curtis, admired biographer of Preston Sturges (“definitive”—Variety), W. C. Fields (“by far the fullest, fairest and most touching account we have yet had. Or are likely to have”—Richard Schickel, front page of The New York Times Book Review), and Spencer Tracy (“monumental; definitive”—Kirkus Reviews), gives us the richest, most comprehensive life to date of the legendary actor, stunt artist, screenwriter, director—master.

The Parade's Gone By

The Parade's Gone By PDF Author: Kevin Brownlow
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520030688
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
Well illustrated book on history of silent movies

Keaton, the Man who Wouldn't Lie Down

Keaton, the Man who Wouldn't Lie Down PDF Author: Tom Dardis
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9780879101176
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Explores the complex nature of the enigmatic silent-film star through the eyes of his close friends and associates, recreating his vaudeville days, his great successes in the 1920s, and the years of decline

Forever Buster

Forever Buster PDF Author: Steve Lambley
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789491868054
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
The porkpie hat, the slap shoes, the deadpan expression - Buster Keaton is an icon of silent era comedies, but was also a masterful technician in exploring the possibilities of film, and remains one of cinema's most enduring stars. His early two-reelers, with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and then alone, include such gems as The Butcher Boy, One Week and Cops. His feature-length masterpiece, The General, although poorly received on its initial release, now regularly features on lists of the greatest films of all time. The dark days of the 1930s saw Buster contend with creative deprivation, alcoholism, two financially crippling divorces with the added anguish of him being denied access to his two much loved sons, and the death of his beloved friend and mentor Roscoe Arbuckle. And yet he took work where he could find it, always with professionalism and total dedication. Marriage to his third wife Eleanor in 1940 saw his life start to turn around, leading to his professional renaissance and finally the rediscovery of his work by a new generation of filmgoers. Forever Buster takes us through nearly fifty years of Buster Keaton's films. It gives details of each - cast, crew, production, release dates, timings - including a synopsis and a glimpse at the background of every film, as well as concise insights into how his on-screen appearances played out alongside the ups and downs of his personal and professional life.

Buster Keaton, the Man who Wouldn't Lie Down

Buster Keaton, the Man who Wouldn't Lie Down PDF Author: Tom Dardis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780816640010
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Dardis is a genuine film historian and his careful research & skilled narration pay off in this biography of the master comedian with the tragic mask who was all but forgotten at the end of the 1930s but is now on the curricula of film schools.

Camera Man

Camera Man PDF Author: Dana Stevens
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501134205
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
They were calling it the Twentieth Century -- "She is a little animal, surely" -- "He's my son, and I'll break his neck any way I want to" -- "The locomotive of juveniles" -- A little hell-raising Huck Finn -- The boy who couldn't be damaged -- "Make me laugh, Keaton" -- Speed mania in the kingdom of shadows -- Pancakes at Childs -- Comique -- Roscoe -- Brooms -- Mabel at the wheel -- Famous players in famous plays -- Home, made -- Rice, shoes, and real estate -- The shadow stage -- Battle-scarred risibilities -- One for you, one for me -- The "darkie shuffle" -- The collapsing façade -- Grief slipped in -- The road through the mountain -- Not a drinker, a drunk -- Old times -- The coming thing in entertainment -- Coda: Eleanor.

Bluffton

Bluffton PDF Author: Matt Phelan
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 076365079X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
A Scott O'Dell Award-winning graphic artist visualizes the story of young Henry, who in 1908 Muskegon, Michigan, bonds with a young Buster Keaton over games of baseball while the latter summers locally with a troupe of vaudeville performers.