Tag Archives: Keaton Locations

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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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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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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Buster Keaton’s Early Days on Los Feliz

Posted on March 6, 2021 by John Bengtson

Straight from their opening-scene wedding in One Week (1920), staged on the steps of the Congregational Sunday School at the SE corner of Lillian Way and Romaine (kitty-corner from the Keaton Studio), Buster and Sybil Seely drive west along Los … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton – Hard Luck, The Goat – closeups at Westlake Park

Posted on August 15, 2020 by John Bengtson

Vintage movies and photos are time machines. This rare 1923 photo reveals exactly where Buster Keaton flees from Big Joe Roberts during The Goat (1921) nearly a century ago. This detail looks SE at the 7th Street and Alvarado corner … Continue reading →

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Time Travelers: Uncovering Old LA in Keaton Comedies

Posted on July 18, 2020 by John Bengtson

Criterion’s The Cameraman Blu-ray is loaded with extras, including Oscar-nominated Daniel Raim’s 2020 documentary Time Travelers: Uncovering Old LA in Keaton Comedies, revealing newly discovered connections between Keaton’s MGM debut and the earliest films of his career. Raim’s recent works … Continue reading →

Posted in Buster Keaton, Culver City, The Cameraman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Arbuckle and Keaton Filmed in Culver City Years Before Laurel and Hardy

Posted on May 23, 2020 by John Bengtson

Harold Lloyd and Snub Pollard filmed comedies for producer Hal Roach at the Bradbury Mansion Rolin Studio, on Court Hill in downtown Los Angeles, for years before Roach opened his new studio in Culver City in 1920. (Read how they … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton – More Backlot Scenes From Our Hospitality

Posted on April 26, 2020 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton’s modest studio made it necessary for him to film many famous scenes at other studios with larger backlots. His pursuit through an archway by an army of police at the climax of Cops (1922) was filmed at the … Continue reading →

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Keaton’s The Cameraman on the Santa Monica Pier

Posted on March 28, 2020 by John Bengtson

For their first date in The Cameraman (1928) Buster Keaton and Marceline Day strip down and go swimming in a public pool, because, why not? As reported in my book Silent Echoes, their natatorium adventure was filmed inside the Venice … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton’s Scarecrow Adobe

Posted on December 4, 2019 by John Bengtson

I’m delighted to host guest blogger Jeffrey Castel de Oro’s amazing post regarding the early California history appearing in Buster Keaton’s The Scarecrow. A friend for 20 years, Jeff has contributed many significant locations and photographs to all of my … Continue reading →

Posted in Buster Keaton, Culver City, The Scarecrow | Tagged , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Buster’s Paramount Backlot Plunge

Posted on March 21, 2019 by John Bengtson

I’m pleased to update this post to announce that the 2019 San Francisco Silent Film Festival will conclude Sunday May 5, with a 8:00 pm screening of Buster Keaton’s second feature comedy Our Hospitality (1923), to be accompanied by the … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton and W.C. Fields in Astoria

Posted on October 19, 2018 by John Bengtson

Buster Keaton and W.C. Fields filmed alongside the same Astoria apartment building, nine years apart. Who knew? While working on a post connecting Fields’ It’s The Old Army Game with Keaton’s The Cameraman (1928) and Harold Lloyd’s Speedy (1928) (all … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton’s Kennel on the MGM lot

Posted on September 23, 2018 by John Bengtson

As one of MGM’s biggest stars, Buster Keaton once had a private bungalow dressing room on the studio lot, jokingly dubbed “Keaton’s Kennel.” A reader correctly wrote long ago that the Kennel stood along the north side of the lot, … Continue reading →

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Keaton’s Seven Chances – On The Clock

Posted on May 12, 2018 by John Bengtson

Late for church, during Seven Chances (1925) Buster Keaton must marry by 7:00 p.m. that evening in order to inherit a fortune. But what time is it? Having just lost his pocket watch down a sewer drain, Buster stops in … Continue reading →

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The Surviving Sherlock Jr. Bungalow

Posted on April 21, 2018 by John Bengtson

A bungalow that appears in Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. (1924), and in his early short film Convict 13 (1920), is still standing today at 4908 McKinley Avenue, when it was moved 11 miles away from Buster’s studio in 1926, the … Continue reading →

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Keaton’s “What No Beer?” Barrel Avalanche

Posted on September 23, 2017 by John Bengtson

As Jim Kline writes in The Complete Films of Buster Keaton, MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer had already drafted Keaton’s termination letter by the time filming of What No Beer? completed in January 1933. For better or worse, this … Continue reading →

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Buster’s Manhattan Apartment – The Cameraman Part III

Posted on August 14, 2017 by John Bengtson

In a prior post, Bob Egan flexed his Manhattan research skills to locate Marceline Day’s now lost apartment in Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman, 20 West 58th Street. Now Bob has located Buster’s midtown apartment as well, 201 East 52nd Street. … Continue reading →

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Arbuckle – Keaton – the Good Night Nurse Hot Springs

Posted on July 29, 2017 by John Bengtson

Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, and Buster Keaton must have had special fun making their Comique film Good Night Nurse (1918), leaving their Long Beach studio behind to film certain scenes at the Arrowhead Hot Springs resort 75 miles to … Continue reading →

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Buster Keaton’s Haunted House

Posted on June 19, 2017 by John Bengtson

My friend architectural writer Steve Vaught made this amazing discovery – the “haunted” mansion appearing in Buster Keaton’s 1921 short film The Haunted House was the former Bonebrake Mansion, once standing on the corner of Adams and Figueroa. Steve noticed … Continue reading →

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Keaton’s The Goat – the geography of a gag

Posted on April 25, 2017 by John Bengtson

Particular yet pragmatic, Buster Keaton would travel hundreds of miles to find just the right setting for a joke, while also filming dozens of mundane locations within steps of his small studio in Hollywood. This post breaks down the geography … Continue reading →

Posted in Buster Keaton, Keaton Studio, The Goat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments