Buster Keaton

John Frank Keaton
(Buster)

• Born October 4, 1895 in Piqua, KS USA
• Died February 1, 1966 in Woodland Hills, CA USA

Biographical Information

Buster Keaton was one of the earliest movie stars in the United States. Born to a vaudeville family, he began working in movies in New York City in 1917, working with Fatty Arbuckle, another early movie star. Working in silent film as both an actor and director, he developed a very physical style of comedy that depended on his early training as an acrobat.

Keaton was also a huge baseball fan, and his favorite method of relaxation while on a shoot was to organize a pick-up game with fellow actors and crew members. Apparently, an ability to play ball was a big help in securing a job on one of his projects.

A number of Keaton's movies deal with baseball themes:

• In College (1927), Keaton plays a student at fictional Clayton College who despises athletics, but tries out for the baseball team to impress a girl. His performance on the diamond is a disaster of epic proportion.
• In The Cameraman (1928), Keaton plays a newsreel photographer who is assigned to take action shots at Yankee Stadium. The only problem is that the New York Yankees are on the road that day, so he ends up shooting himself miming being a player at various positions.
• In One Run Elmer (1935), a talking picture, he plays a gas station owner who practices ballplaying with a rival, but all his pitches are hit into his establishment, breaking windows and walls galore. There is then a baseball game in which more slapstick and hilarity ensues.

His friend Arbuckle had a controling interest in the Vernon Tigers of the Pacific Coast League. He invited Keaton and other actors to stage a mock game before an actual contest. Keaton organized a number of charity games around Los Angeles, CA over the years, including a fundraiser for the 1932 Olympics that featured a large number of major leaguers and attracted 8,500 fans at Wrigley Field.

A number of major league players received roles in movies directed by Keaton, including Sam Crawford, who played a baseball coach in College, Mike Donlin who was a Union general in the Civil War picture The General, Jim Thorpe who had a bit part in One Run Elmer, and Byron Houck who got his start in his post-baseball career as a cameraman in Hollywood on his productions. Ernie Orsatti was employed as a prop man on various shoots.

Further Reading

• Ron Backer: "Baseball and the Great Movie Comedians", in Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 48 Number 2, Fall 2019, pp. 83-90.
• Rob Edelman: "Buster Keaton, Baseball Player", in Jean Hastings Ardell and Andy McCue, ed.: Endless Seasons: Baseball in Southern California, The National Pastime, SABR, Number 41, 2011, pp. 61-63.