Buster Keaton context (C3)

• Son of vaudevillians (specializing in acrobatics) – Buster added to the act when he was 3, becoming ‘The Three Keaton's’ act
• Keaton learnt how to get laughs at a very early age - ‘the more serious I turned, the bigger laugh I got’  
• Said to of been given his name by Harry Houdini after falling down a staircase as a child and he said, ‘that’s some buster your baby took.’ 
• Keaton remained in the family act until 21 when Roscoe Arbuckle invited him to play a small role in a two-reeler  
• Keaton went to work with Arbuckle with full co-star status as a supporting role and learning everything there is to know about motion-picture comedy  
• Why was his career interrupted briefly?


  He had to serve in WW1
• In what year did Keaton launch his own two-real series 'One Week'?

  1920
• In what ways did Keaton invent cinema?
• In what ways did Keaton invent cinema?

  Performance (old stone face), location shooting, move away from tableau style of filming