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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio Pillo and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that charts the river of history one day

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Speaker 1: at a time. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're celebrating

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Speaker 1: one of the last great works of one of Hollywood's

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Speaker 1: first great comedian's, the inimitable Buster Keaton. The day was

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Speaker 1: May twelve, ninety eight. Buster Keaton's silent era masterpiece, Steamboat

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Speaker 1: Bill Jr. Premiered at the Realto Theater in New York City.

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Speaker 1: The film received mixed reviews at the time of its release,

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Speaker 1: but has since been reevaluated as one of Keaton's finest films.

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Speaker 1: It also contains one of the most famous and dangerous

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Speaker 1: stunts in movie history, but we'll get to that a

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Speaker 1: little later. Buster Keaton was born as Joseph Frank Keaton

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Speaker 1: on October fourth, eighteen ninety five. He was born in Pequaw, Kansas,

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Speaker 1: but only because his performer parents happened to be in

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Speaker 1: town for a show when his mother went into labor.

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Speaker 1: Myra Keaton was a singer and dancer, and her husband,

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Speaker 1: also named Joseph, was an actor. They both worked together

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Speaker 1: with the legendary Harry Houdini in a traveling medicine show,

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Speaker 1: and once Joe Junior was old enough to crawl, he

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Speaker 1: got in on the act too. In fact, it was

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Speaker 1: Houdini himself who gave Buster Keaton his nickname. As the

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Speaker 1: filmmaker explained in a nineteen sixty three interview quote, I

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Speaker 1: fell down a flight of stairs when I was around

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Speaker 1: six months old. They picked me up, no bruises, didn't

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Speaker 1: seem to hurt myself, and Houdini said that was a Buster,

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Speaker 1: And the old man says, that's a good name. Aime,

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Speaker 1: we'll call him that. Not long after, the Keaton family

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Speaker 1: struck out on their own as the Three Keaton's and

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Speaker 1: quickly became a hit on the vaudeville circuit. They proved

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Speaker 1: so popular that the family continued touring both the United

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Speaker 1: States and England for the better part of twenty years.

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Speaker 1: Their act changed a little as time went on, but

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Speaker 1: in the early days it included a pretty reckless slapstick

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Speaker 1: routine in which young Buster was hurled around the stage

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Speaker 1: and sometimes off of it for comedic effect. It was

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Speaker 1: such a big part of the act that Buster actually

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Speaker 1: had a suitcase handle sewn into his stage clothes so

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Speaker 1: that his father would have better leverage when he sent

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Speaker 1: him flying. This led to allegations of child abuse on

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Speaker 1: more than one occasion, but those were generally dismissed once

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Speaker 1: Buster showed authorities that he hadn't sustained any injuries. There

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Speaker 1: was certainly an element of danger to the act. He

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Speaker 1: really was being tossed around by his father, but because

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Speaker 1: Buster had mastered the art of the trick fall at

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Speaker 1: a young age, he was able to stick the landings

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Speaker 1: without being injured. In fact, far from being in pain,

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Speaker 1: Buster routinely laughed with glee as he flew through the air.

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Speaker 1: That is until he realized that he got an even

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Speaker 1: bigger laugh from the audience when he didn't show emotion himself.

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Speaker 1: From that point on, Buster didn't smile or laugh while

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Speaker 1: on stage. Instead, he developed the frozen, deadpan expression that

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Speaker 1: eventually became his trademark, the one that earned him his

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Speaker 1: other famous nickname, the Great Stone Face. The three Keaton's

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Speaker 1: finally went their separate ways in nineteen seventeen, and twenty

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Speaker 1: one year old Buster made the jump to silent films

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Speaker 1: not long after. He made his film debut that same year.

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Speaker 1: After being hired as a gag writer and actor in

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Speaker 1: a Fatty Arbuckle comedy short called the book Your Boy Buster.

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Speaker 1: Keaton went on to write and appear in thirteen more

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Speaker 1: shorts with our Buckle over the next three years, learning

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Speaker 1: the ins and outs of the film business and medium

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Speaker 1: along the way. He was especially keen to learn the

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Speaker 1: mechanics of filmmaking, since that was the only part of

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Speaker 1: the process he didn't know anything about. As Keaton later recalled, quote,

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Speaker 1: the first thing I did in the studio was to

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Speaker 1: tear that camera to pieces. I had to know how

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Speaker 1: that film got into the cutting room, what you did

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Speaker 1: to it in there, how you projected it, how you

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Speaker 1: finally got the picture together, how you made things match.

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Speaker 1: The technical part of pictures is what interested me. Material

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Speaker 1: was the last thing in the world I thought about.

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Speaker 1: You only had to turn me loose on the set

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Speaker 1: and I'd have material in two minutes, because I'd been

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Speaker 1: doing it all my life. Following his successful partnership with

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Speaker 1: our Buckle, Keaton was given charge of his own production

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Speaker 1: unit at United Artists Studio. He soon began churning out

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Speaker 1: his own popular series of two reel shorts and eventually

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Speaker 1: feature films. Many of these now classic comedies not only

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Speaker 1: starred Keaton, but were written and or directed by him

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Speaker 1: as well. This includes highlights like One Week the Playhouse,

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Speaker 1: Sherlock Junior, Go West, and The General. Endlessly clever and

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Speaker 1: surprisingly modern, Keaton's films were more ambitious than most slapstick

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Speaker 1: comedies of the silent era. His characters weren't over the top,

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Speaker 1: if anything, just the opposite. They were calm and accepting

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Speaker 1: in the face of the many adversities and humiliations that

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Speaker 1: came their way. Keaton's characters were underdogs who won over

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Speaker 1: audiences with unassuming charm and ingenuity, rather than brash heroics.

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Speaker 1: In addition, his physical comedy, sometimes subtle sometimes broad, was

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Speaker 1: integrated into stories that were unexpectedly poignant, rather than just

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Speaker 1: being vehicles for gags. This was all the more impressive

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Speaker 1: when you consider that Keaton's films used far fewer title

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Speaker 1: cards compared to other silent comedies. His stories were told

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Speaker 1: primarily through facial expressions, gesture and movement, planned and executed

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Speaker 1: with graceful precision. Plus, he did all his own stunts

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Speaker 1: and had the bruises to prove it. He could have

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Speaker 1: hired a stuntman, but, according to him, quote stuntmen don't

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Speaker 1: get laughs, and only a good comedian knows how to

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Speaker 1: do things funny. Fans of Keaton's work have long debated

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Speaker 1: which film is the actor's best, but for many, myself included,

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Speaker 1: the conversation always circles back to nine Steamboat Bill Jr.

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Speaker 1: It was the tenth and ultimately last feature film to

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Speaker 1: be made under his unit Buster Keaton Productions. Before shooting

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Speaker 1: was over, Keaton would learn that his production studio was

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Speaker 1: being shut down. His recent films, The General in particular,

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Speaker 1: had gone way over budget and then didn't earn enough

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Speaker 1: at the box office to cover that high cost. Steamboat

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Speaker 1: Bill Jr. Was the end of an era, then, the

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Speaker 1: last time Keaton would ever have complete creative and financial

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Speaker 1: control of a movie. If he had to go out, though,

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Speaker 1: at least he went out with a bang. If you've

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Speaker 1: never seen the film before, and obviously I recommend that

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Speaker 1: you do, it follows Keaton as a young college graduate

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Speaker 1: trying to earn the respect of his estranged father, a

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Speaker 1: gruff Mississippi riverboat captain named William Canfield Sr. A k A.

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Speaker 1: Steamboat Bill. The film opens just before Junior's arrival in

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Speaker 1: the town of River junction where he's due to visit

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Speaker 1: his father. Bill hasn't seen his son since infancy, but

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Speaker 1: he's so excited to show him off that he brings

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Speaker 1: his first and only mate to the train station to

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Speaker 1: meet his no doubts strapping sun business had been tough

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Speaker 1: for steamboat Bill is broken down boat, the Stonewall Jackson

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Speaker 1: could no longer keep up with a fancy paddle steamer

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Speaker 1: owned by his rival John James King. For Bill, a

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Speaker 1: visit from his son is a chance to change his fortunes.

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Speaker 1: With his brawny son as a partner, he'd be able

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Speaker 1: to fix up the boat and carry on the family business.

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Speaker 1: Imagine Bill's disappointment then when off the train steps a

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Speaker 1: scrawny dandy with a pencil mustache, a ukulele and a

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Speaker 1: checkered beret. Neither canfield is quite what the other expected,

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Speaker 1: and it isn't long before Bill Sr. Tries to toughen

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Speaker 1: up his son by teaching him the basics of running

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Speaker 1: a steamboat. Junior is eager to please, but not well

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Speaker 1: suited for a life at sea. He's forever bumping into

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Speaker 1: equipment and tripping over the rigging. In one scene, he

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Speaker 1: accidentally knocks a life preserver into the water, and it

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Speaker 1: immediately sinks. The gag is a perfect visual metaphor for

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Speaker 1: both the rickety nature of his father's ship and for

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Speaker 1: Junior's own incompetence as a sailor. He can't even get

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Speaker 1: a life preserver to float. The relationship between the two

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Speaker 1: Bills is the heart of the movie, the story of

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Speaker 1: a rugged, judgmental father gradually and begrudgingly learning to accept

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Speaker 1: and even respect his quirky, sensitive son. But there's a

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Speaker 1: little romance in there too. As Bill Junior endeavors to

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Speaker 1: win his father's approval, he also tries to win the

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Speaker 1: love of Kitty King, the daughter of his father's business rival.

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Speaker 1: These storylines intersect during the film's stunning climax, in which

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Speaker 1: Bill Junior must rescue his father, Kitty, and Kitty's father

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Speaker 1: from a raging cyclone. Since the movie was set on

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Speaker 1: the banks of the Mississippi River, although filmed on the

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Speaker 1: banks of the Sacramento River in California, the original plan

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Speaker 1: was to end the film with a flood sequence, not

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Speaker 1: a cyclone. However, when a real life flood devastated Mississippi

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Speaker 1: during production, Keaton was pressured to change the sequence so

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Speaker 1: it wouldn't hit so close to home. Annoyed but undeterred,

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Speaker 1: he got to work on the new scenes. He brought

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Speaker 1: in airplane engines to simulate the cyclone and ordered the

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Speaker 1: construction of breakaway building facades that could fly apart or

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Speaker 1: collapse on q. The retoold sequence ultimately led to one

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Speaker 1: of the most memorable stunts in showbiz history. As a

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Speaker 1: cyclone sweeps through river Junction, the front wall of a

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Speaker 1: two story house falls forward to where Keaton is standing,

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Speaker 1: but instead of being crushed, he passes perfectly through the

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Speaker 1: frame of an open window, completely unharmed. It's a striking

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Speaker 1: visual gag that still elicits gasps from the audience nearly

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Speaker 1: a hundred years later. A big reason the stunt play

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Speaker 1: so well is that there was nothing fake about it.

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Speaker 1: The house was just a facade built on a hinge,

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Speaker 1: but it was made with the same materials as a

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Speaker 1: regular house and weighed about two tons. As a result,

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Speaker 1: there was no camera trickery involved either. Buster Keaton simply

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Speaker 1: calculated exactly where he needed to stand and then drove

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Speaker 1: two nails into the ground to mark where his heels

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Speaker 1: should be. If all went well and the window fell

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Speaker 1: where it should, he would have about two inches of

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Speaker 1: clearance on either side. Of course, if his calculations were

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Speaker 1: off by any more than that, he'd be hammered into

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Speaker 1: the dirt like the nails beneath his feet. Everyone present

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Speaker 1: that day was well aware of the danger. In fact,

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Speaker 1: half the crew reportedly walked off the set, refusing to

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Speaker 1: participate in a stunt that could have very easily gotten

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Speaker 1: the star killed. Those who remained were still incredibly nervous.

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Speaker 1: Keaton later recalled seeing several crew members saying prayers prior

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Speaker 1: to shooting the scene. He also claimed that the cameraman

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Speaker 1: turned away as the scene was being filmed, too afraid

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Speaker 1: to watch the outcome. Luckily, the stunt went just as planned,

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Speaker 1: though the frame of the window did graze the actor

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Speaker 1: on its way down a close call. The question remains

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Speaker 1: why was Keaton so determined to perform such a dangerous

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Speaker 1: stunt despite all the anxiety had caused his collaborators. One

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Speaker 1: sad and likely answer is that Keaton simply didn't care

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Speaker 1: if he lived or died that day. The changes to

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Speaker 1: the film's climax, the ones he didn't want to make,

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Speaker 1: had put the movie behind schedule. And over budget. That

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Speaker 1: was the last straw for United Artists, and on the

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Speaker 1: day before the big stunt was filmed, Keaton was informed

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Speaker 1: that his production studio was being shuttered. Around the same

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Speaker 1: time his first wife, Natalie Talmidge, filed for divorce. Keaton

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Speaker 1: was being cut loose personally and professionally, and the grief

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Speaker 1: may have caused him to take risks he would have

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Speaker 1: otherwise avoided. Many years later, the actor said as much himself.

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Speaker 1: He called the stunt one of his greatest thrills, before

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Speaker 1: admitting quote, I was mad at the time, or I

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Speaker 1: would never have done the thing. Ill advised though it was,

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Speaker 1: Keaton did do the thing, and it made for a

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Speaker 1: thrilling climax to Steamboat Bill Jr. The ending of which

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Speaker 1: I won't spoil here. Buster Keaton made many more films

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Speaker 1: before his death in nineteen sixty six after Steamboat Bill Jr.

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Speaker 1: Though he was rarely given the chance to make sharp,

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Speaker 1: elaborate comedy like he did in the nineteen twenties. Still,

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Speaker 1: even when he could no longer make films the way

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Speaker 1: he wanted to, he continued doing what he knew, what

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Speaker 1: he loved. He didn't like to dwell on disappointment either,

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Speaker 1: something he made crystal clear in his nineteen sixty memoir There,

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Speaker 1: Keaton reflected on his life and film, writing quote, as

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Speaker 1: long back as I can remember, I have considered myself

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Speaker 1: a fabulously lucky man. From the beginning, I was surrounded

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Speaker 1: by interesting people who loved fun and knew how to

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Speaker 1: create it. I've had few dull moments and not too

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Speaker 1: many sad and defeated ones. Not long ago, a friend

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Speaker 1: asked me what was the greatest pleasure I got from

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Speaker 1: spending my whole life as an actor. There have been

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Speaker 1: so many that I had to think about that for

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Speaker 1: a moment. Then I said, like everyone else, I like

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Speaker 1: to be with a happy crowd. If you feel the

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Speaker 1: same way, gather a few friends around any screen larger

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Speaker 1: than a phone and put on Steamboat Bill Jr. You

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Speaker 1: will be with a happy crowd in no time at all.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay, Bluesier, and hopefully you now know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can

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Speaker 1: learn even more or about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at T d I HC Show, and if

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Speaker 1: you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to send

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Speaker 1: them my way at this day at I heart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another day in history class