Category Archives: Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton’s Cops and Laurel & Hardy 1928 Year Two

Posted on June 28, 2025 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton’s masterpiece Cops (1922) is one of his seven films inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry as a work of “enduring importance to American culture.” Cops is his only independently produced film with no interior scenes. … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton’s Three Ages Leap of Faith

Posted on May 22, 2025 by John Bengtson

This post examines Buster Keaton’s ‘failed’ rooftop leap between buildings during his first feature comedy Three Ages (1923), one of the most remarkable stunts of his career. The movie tells three tales of love, set in the Stone Age, the … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton’s Backlot Adventures in Cops

Posted on April 15, 2025 by John Bengtson

One of the most iconic moments in Buster Keaton’s Cops (1922), in all of cinematic history for that matter, is Buster chased back and forth down an empty city street by a mob of angry policemen. The giant buildings at … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton Go West – many NEW discoveries on a new YouTube essay

Posted on October 19, 2024 by John Bengtson

Thanks to the brilliant research by frequent guest blogger Jeffrey Castel de Oro, and the beautiful remote Arizona desert photos shared by dedicated EPA attorney and devoted Keaton fan Marie Muller, we can ‘visit’ online today essentially all of the … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton – the Great SMILING Stoneface

Posted on September 13, 2024 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton – “The Great Stoneface” – the child vaudeville performer who famously never smiled on stage, the silent comedy star who promoted his deadpan persona on film. Yet working with friend and mentor Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster started his film … Continue reading →

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Caught On Film – Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman

Posted on July 30, 2024 by John Bengtson

Silent Locations has over 10 posts about various aspects of The Cameraman; filming in Hollywood, at M-G-M, around New York, in Santa Monica, Newport Beach, and so on. My new YouTube video compiles these posts and even more discoveries into … Continue reading →

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Colleen Moore and Buster Keaton Reveal a “Lost” Hollywood Intersection

Posted on March 30, 2024 by John Bengtson

Hollywood was a small, undeveloped community during the early years of cinema. Cahuenga Blvd, now a major thoroughfare, once ran south for two blocks from Hollywood Blvd past Selma to where it ended at Sunset Blvd. Through traffic would then … Continue reading →

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Solved! – Buster Keaton’s 100 Year Old Three Ages Bungalow

Posted on January 19, 2024 by John Bengtson

Love triumphs over all. Buster Keaton’s first feature comedy Three Ages (1923) tells three tales of love, set in the Stone Age, the Roman Age, and the Present Age (i.e. 1923), where against all odds underdog Buster wins the girl … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton’s San Francisco footsteps

Posted on December 30, 2023 by John Bengtson

Buster filmed scenes from Day Dreams (1922) and The Navigator (1924) across San Francisco. Most locations look remarkably unchanged a century later. My latest YouTube video reveals every SF locale with then and now views, intercut with scenes where sneaky … Continue reading →

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Keaton and W.C. Fields Cross Paths Again Near Buster’s Studio

Posted on November 11, 2023 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton filmed The Chemist (1936) and W.C. Fields filmed Running Wild (1927) beside the same apartment building still standing across the street from the Astoria studios where both movies were made in Queens, New York. (Links to detailed posts … Continue reading →

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Chaplin, Keaton, and Coogan on Sanchez Street – Three Films Revealed in a Brief Glimpse during The Kid

Posted on October 14, 2023 by John Bengtson

Accolades aside, Chaplin’s masterpiece The Kid preserves a treasure trove of visual history, including Olvera Street near the Plaza de Los Angeles, and the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley in Hollywood. It’s complicated (more below), but The Kid also captures the precise spot … Continue reading →

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The Keaton-Fairbanks Hollywood Fire Station

Posted on July 22, 2023 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton filmed FIVE movies at the former Hollywood Fire/Police Station. Douglas Fairbanks was likely the first major star to film here, and so far as known the only star to film the now lost building from all sides. Teaser … Continue reading →

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Hiding in plain sight – more cinematic magic from Buster Keaton’s Go West

Posted on December 24, 2022 by John Bengtson

Known only as “Friendless,” Buster finds himself working on an Arizona cattle ranch during Go West. There he meets Brown Eyes the cow when he kindly removes a painful rock stuck in her hoof. Soon after she returns the favor … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton’s “Electric House” Home

Posted on November 30, 2022 by John Bengtson

Buster filmed the graduation scenes from The Electric House (1922) at a commercial site still standing, just blocks away from his once magnificent real-life home (above) appearing later in the film. The film opens with graduating botanist Buster mistakenly receiving … Continue reading →

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The Kid, Cops, Intolerance revealed in a 125 year old photo

Posted on October 29, 2022 by John Bengtson

When the great silent comedians filmed the streets of LA one hundred or more years ago, many of those settings were already decades old. Focusing on a single vintage photo, let’s explore one of the most fascinating film locations in … Continue reading →

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Harold Lloyd’s “Hot Water” Sherlock turkey troubles

Posted on October 15, 2022 by John Bengtson

Wrangling a live turkey on a trolley, forced to walk it home, overlapping Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr., even more visual history is now revealed from Harold Lloyd’s Hot Water (1924). Newlywed Harold’s day is shattered when his better half calls … Continue reading →

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Case Closed! How Buster Keaton filmed Sherlock Jr.

Posted on July 2, 2022 by John Bengtson

Hosted by the Catalina Museum for Art and History, earlier this year I had the thrill and honor to introduce their screening of Buster Keaton’s brilliant comedy Sherlock Jr. (1924), accompanied by renowned pianist and composer Michael D. Mortilla. With … Continue reading →

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Keaton Sherlock Jr. – Valentino Blood and Sand – at Avalon Silent Film Showcase

Posted on May 8, 2022 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton’s brilliant comedy Sherlock Jr., and Rudolph Valentino’s smoldering performance as a conflicted bullfighter in Blood and Sand, highlight this year’s Avalon Silent Film Showcase, hosted on Catalina Island at the beautiful Avalon Casino Theatre, on May 13 – … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton’s Lost and Found “Seven Chances” Homes

Posted on March 27, 2022 by John Bengtson

During Seven Chances (1925) Buster’s character discovers on his 27th birthday he must marry by seven o’clock that evening in order to inherit a $7M fortune. After ineptly proposing to his longtime girlfriend, he speeds off to a country club … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton’s riverbank footsteps – Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Posted on March 6, 2022 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton filmed his final independent production Steamboat Bill, Jr. on location in Sacramento. The movie opens with an elegant scene filmed at the tip of what is now Discovery Park, slowly panning right to left from the American river … Continue reading →

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