Bringing Buster Keaton Back to Life

*LAYTON, UT / ACCESSWIRE / August 16, 2023 /* Buster Keaton, one-time vaudevillian, pioneering filmmaker, and comedy genius, was synonymous with the 1920s. And a century on, our sole purpose is to bring him back to life - to audiences worldwide of all ages.

We are the International Buster Keaton Society, founded somewhat by accident on October 4th, 1992: his 97th birthday. A cake that Patricia Tobias was baking for the occasion was a spectacular fail, so she decided to found IBKS instead.

It wasn't as if Buster could eat the cake anyway. By then, he'd been dead for 27 years. The man himself, known for his deadpan expression, had intended to live to at least 100, but he was shy by three decades. However, by our reckoning, he's outlived many of the silent-era comedians of the time, as have his films. This year his first innovative independent feature film, "Three Ages," and his second, "Our Hospitality," celebrate their centenaries. And we will celebrate at our annual convention, held on October 6th & 7th in Muskegon, MI - his childhood summer home.

The volunteer-run society, including Buster's granddaughter, Melissa Talmadge-Cox, has been busy spreading the word of Buster Keaton's life and work across social media, where entirely new audiences have discovered that his humour and death-defying stunts remain as relevant today on TikTok, as it did accompanied by piano in the ol' local flea-pits. We've invested in his legacy by preserving artefacts, such as his trademark pork pie hat and hundreds of unique photographs and documents in collaboration with the prestigious Academy Library in Los Angeles. We've uncovered a host of "new" and "lost" materials - we're still on the hunt for "A Country Hero," the only gap in his silent filmography! We've even interviewed him…although we admit we had to cheat using artificial intelligence.

Buster Keaton's 46 silent films, plus many more sound pictures and television projects - he started performing aged three and didn't stop for over 65 years - have inspired countless performers in film. Most notably, Jackie Chan and Tom Cruise, whose latest Mission Impossible movie sets a train crashing off a bridge into the waters below, a direct homage to the most expensive shot of silent film history - the Texas falling into the river in Buster Keaton's magnum opus, "The General," 1926. And without Buster Keaton, perhaps Wes Anderson and Peter Jackson wouldn't be quite so brilliant directors.

We want you to help us continue to ‘Keep it Keaton!' by joining us at busterkeaton.org - discover his films, laugh, learn, and be inspired by a man that was…IS…a true creative.

*Contact:*
Ruth Sharman
Ruth@busterkeaton.org
+447931731093

*SOURCE: *The International Buster Keaton Society
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