Buster Keaton -- Three Ages -- What the Well-Dressed Man of the Ages Should Wear -- March 4, 2024

Photoplay, March, 1924

This post is part of the Tenth Annual Buster Keaton Blogathon, hosted by Lea at Silent-ology. A blogathon that has lived for ten years is a rare creature

For the first annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton's time in vaudeville: The 3-4-5 Keatons.
For the second annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton and the Passing Show of 1917, the show he signed for after leaving vaudeville.
For the third annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster's transition from vaudeville to the movies, Buster Keaton: From Stage to Screen.
For the fourth annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton's time in the US Army: Buster Keaton Goes to War.
For the fifth annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton's time making short comedies with Roscoe Arbuckle, Comique: Roscoe, Buster, Al and Luke.
For the sixth annual blogathon I wrote about Buster Keaton's First Feature: The Saphead
For the seveth annual blogathon I wrote about Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts -- Reel One, a series of films produced during 1920-1921. Buster and his team had a very high batting average.
For the eighth annual blogathon, I started to write about the Buster Keaton shorts produced for the second season, 1921-1923. Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts -- Reel Two

For the ninth annual blogathon, I wrote about the rest of the Buster Keaton shorts produced for the second season, 1921-1923. Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts -- Reel Two and a Half

For the tenth annual blogathon, I have written about the first feature that Buster Keaton had control over, The Three Ages. 

Be sure to click on most images to see larger versions.

I first became interested in Buster Keaton when I watched The General with my grandfather and he told me how much he had always liked Buster Keaton.

When I discovered that the Anza Branch Library had a shelf of books about movies, I found two books about Buster Keaton, Buster's memoir My Wonderful World of Slapstick and Rudi Blesh's Keaton. I read both and I enjoyed learning about his career in vaudeville and his career in the movies.

Buster made a series of nineteen two-reel comedies in 1920-1922. No one ever asks me, but I tell people that this series of comedies and Charlie Chaplin's series for Mutual are the two best series of silent comedy shorts ever made. 

The movies of the first season had been released by Metro. The movies of the second season were released by First National. 

Motion Picture News, 03-February-1923

Buster's brother-in-law Joe Schenk negotiated with Metro to release Buster's features.  Most of his feature films would be distributed by Metro and its successors. 

Motion Picture News, 16-January-1924

Schenk made a deal with Metro to handle Buster's features. The plan was to make them five reels in length. "The first Keaton comedy is called 'The Three Ages.' The comedian recently completed this on the west coast under the direction of Eddie Cline. It is characterized as a burlesque on civilization."

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Many sources say that Three Ages is a parody of DW Griffith's 1916 epic Intolerance. I'm still looking for contemporary sources that say it was. 

Intolerance is an incredibly complicated movie that weaves together four stories which were set in wildly different eras. The fall of Babylon is set in 539 BCE. The story of Jesus, shortest of the four, took place around 30 CE. The Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre took place in 1572 CE. The modern story took place about 1915 CE. The film was not a simple presentation of four stories in order, but it jumped from place and time to place and time. 

Ridgewood Herald-News, 11-January-1923

"Buster Keaton, he of the solemn visage, is no longer a featured two-reel comedy star." Buster and his crew were working on a script. 

Motion Picture News, 08-September-1923

"Buster Keaton to Discard Pancake Hat." Gasp! He was going to ditch it for two-thirds of Three Ages and almost all of Our Hospitality.

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Three Ages, as the title implies, was set in three eras, prehistoric, ancient Roman and modern times. The three stories are lightly intertwined. Some sources say that if the movie had not been a success, it could have been cut into three two-reelers, but I haven't seen any contemporary references to that. 

The prehistoric story includes many anachronisms and stereotypes, such as a woman getting hit with a club as a courtship ritual, and Buster riding on the back of a stop-motion dinosaur. 

In the Roman story, Buster's chariot has a rear-mounted spare wheel and a license plate. He parks next to a No Parking sign in Latin and a cop tells him to move on. 

"The Present Age of Speed, Need and Greed" begins with Buster's Model T Ford disintegrating when it hits a rut in the road. 

The film continues, offering a variation on the same situation in each era. In each story, Buster competes with big, mean Wallace Beery for the hand of Margaret Leahy and Leahy's father, played by giant Joe Roberts favors Beery. Watch for the chariot race in the snow. 

Motion Picture News, 18-August-1923

Metro touted Three Ages with an expensive four-page ad with color in Motion Picture News. 

Motion Picture News, 14-July-1923

Three Ages premiered in London on 25-June-1923. Among the attendees were the Queen Mother Alexandra, mother of King George V and Princess Alice, wife of the king's brother, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.  

Perhaps the premier was in London was because leading lady Margaret Leahy was British. She toured the UK doing personal appearances where the movie was shown. Buster's sister-in-law Norma Talmadge had brought Leahy to the US. Norma received a thank you note from Princess Alice for her kindness to Leahy. 

Birmingham Age-Herald, 07-October-1923

"Six Reels of Mirth and Thrills." The five-reel thing didn't quite work out. 

I like the design of this ad for the Loew's Bijou in Birmingham, Alabama. The accompanying vaudeville program sounds like fun. The 3 Maxellas were "Superb Risley Gymnasts." Richard Risley Carlisle was a famous 19th Century gymnast and juggler. He was often billed as "Professor Risley." He developed the Risley Act, a routine which involved an acrobat lying on his back and juggling children or objects with his feet. Doris and Al Lester offered "Breezy Farcical Bits." The Dinus and Belmont players presented "A Musical Frappé" with "A Little Nifty Nonsense."

Film Daily, 14-October-1923

Douglas Fairbanks, one of the biggest stars in the heavens, said he was "Crazy about 'The Three Ages.'" He would "Thoroughly recommend it for the tired motion-picture man -- of whom I'm one these days." 

Indianapolis Star, 29-October-1923

This ad includes the stone age cliche of a man holding a club and carrying off a woman. "Something new in Comedy Pictures."

Moscow, Idaho Daily Star-Mirror, 01-December-1923

This ad for Moscow, Idaho's Kenworthy Theater shows Roman Buster with a lion. This is one of my favorite scenes in the film. If they had already launched the Academy Awards in 1923, the lion should have won Best Supporting Actor -- or Actress. 

Motion Picture News, 19-January-1924

CD Haug, "Metro's exploitation representative," helped the Crown theater in Mobile with "several novel exploitation stunts."

Motion Picture News, 08-December-1923

Loewe's New Orleans Crescent Theater held a Keaton hat contest. They distributed five thousand cut-out paper hats and gave tickets to the first twenty children who brought in one of the hats. 

San Francisco Chronicle, 08-October-1923

And then things got weird. Three Ages played in San Francisco at the New Mission and the New Fillmore, both owned by the Nasser brothers. "The Theaters Beautiful." The New Fillmore closed before I was born. My family used to eat at a restaurant near the New Mission. I remember its distinctive blade sign, but I don't think I saw a movie there before it became a furniture store in the early 1980s. I was surprised in the early 2000s, when the Alamo Drafthouse took over the building and converted it into a five-screen theater. All of this is not the weird thing. 

I wonder if my grandfather went to see the movie at the New Fillmore. He was living with his parents on John Street near the Cable Car Barn at Washington and Mason. He could have caught an outbound  Washington/Mason cable car at Mason and transferred to a southbound 22-Fillmore streetcar. This is not the weird thing, either. 

San Francisco Chronicle, 08-October-1923

Motion Picture News, 01-December-1923

What was weird was that this billboard showed up in two locations in San Francisco. It said "Prepare! K. K. K. is Coming!" This may have startled some people. The Second Ku Klux Klan was thriving in many parts of the US in 1923, but I don't think it had much influence in San Francisco. The members of the Klan hated African-Americans, Jewish people, Roman Catholics and foreigners. San Francisco's African-American population was very small before World War Two, but Jewish people, Roman Catholics and immigrants, like my grandfather and his family, made up a significant part of San Francisco's population. 

As the caption says, it turns out that "K. K. K." stood for "Keaton's Kolossal Komedy." I don't think that is a good slogan. 

Motion Picture News, 01-December-1923

And here we have another Metro trade paper ad with color. The walking billboard says the movie was playing at Loewe's Warfield, a theater on Market Street.

Motion Picture News, 03-November-1923

It turned out that the "K. K. K. is Coming!" campaign was created by "Metro Exploitation representative" CD Haug in Nashville. "Nashville Will Soon Know the Power of K. K. K." I believe that at this time the Klan had more influence in Nashville than it did in San Francisco. 

Los Angeles Times, 01-April-1923

Speaking of weird, while all of this was going on, Buster learned that there was a racehorse named "Buster Keaton." He went to see the horse run and later his sister-in-law Norma Talmadge bought an ownership share in Buster Keaton -- the horse.

And on top of that, in 2018 someone in South Africa named a thoroughbred gelding racehorse Buster Keaton. In 2024 he is still active, but appears to have only one first-place finish. 

This post is part of the Tenth Annual Buster Keaton Blogathon, hosted by Lea at Silent-ology. It is amazingly impressive to me to see a blogathon go on for ten years. Thank you to Lea for all the hard work. Thank you to everyone who visited, and I encourage you to read and comment on as many posts as you can. Bloggers love comments.

Big Joe Roberts of Movies is Dead -- October 28, 2023

Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, 29-October-1923

Giant Joe Roberts, who played villain or father or friend in Buster Keaton's series of silent short films and Buster's first two starring feature films, The Three Ages and Our Hospitality, died of a stroke 100 years ago today, on 28-October-1923. Roberts and Keaton had played in vaudeville and they were buddies. 

Motion Picture News, 29-April-1922

Keaton Romps Home While the Feature Also Ran -- April 20, 2022

Motion Picture News, 29-April-1922

Big Joe Roberts poses with Buster in a scene from "My Wife's Relations."

Moving Picture World, 29-April-1922

Moving Picture World, 15-April-1922

"The Boat," one of Keaton's all-time best, made a big hit at San Francisco's California Theater.

Motion Picture News, 08-January-1921

Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts -- Reel One -- March 22, 2021

Motion Picture News, 25-December-1920

This post is part of the Seventh Annual Buster Keaton Blogathon, hosted by Lea at Silent-ology. For the first annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton's time in vaudeville: The 3-4-5 Keatons. For the second annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton and the Passing Show of 1917, the show he signed for after leaving vaudeville. For the third annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster's transition from vaudeville to the movies, Buster Keaton: From Stage to Screen.   For the fourth annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton's time in the US Army: Buster Keaton Goes to War. For the fifth annual blogathon, I wrote about Buster Keaton's time making short comedies with Roscoe Arbuckle, Comique: Roscoe, Buster, Al and Luke. For the sixth annual blogathon I wrote about Buster Keaton's First Feature: The Saphead.

Be sure to click on most images to see larger versions.

I first became interested in Buster Keaton when I watched The General with my grandfather and he told me how much he had always liked Buster Keaton.

When I discovered that the Anza Branch Library had a shelf of books about movies, I found two books about Buster Keaton, Buster's memoir My Wonderful World of Slapstick and Rudi Blesh's Keaton. I read both and I enjoyed learning about his career in vaudeville and his career in the movies.

After Buster Keaton's time making short comedies with Roscoe Arbuckle and serving in the US Army during World War One, Buster appeared in a feature that he did not help direct or write, The Saphead for Metro. 

After The Saphead, Buster started making a series of  nineteen two-reel comedies (actually, he made one before The Saphead, but it would be too complicated to explain). No one ever asks me, but I tell people that this series of comedies and Charlie Chaplin's series for Mutual are the two best series of silent comedy shorts ever made.  For the Seventh Annual Blogathon, I am writing about the Buster Keaton shorts produced for the first season, 1920-1921.

Motion Picture News, 02-October-1920

"One Week" was the first of the series to be released, but it was not the first one to be made. It is also one of my two favorites in the series. Buster wrote and directed, along with Eddie Cline. They wrote and directed all the movies released in this season, except for the last one released. Joe Schenk produced the whole series. 

The days of the week are marked by the leaves of a calendar. On the first day, Buster marries Sybil Seely. Their relationship is one of the nicest in his movies. "Handy Hank, the fellow she turned down" is the person who drives the bride and groom away from the wedding. No one has determined the name of the actor who played Hank. Hank hands them a letter. 

Buster's Uncle Mike has given them a wonderful wedding present: "a house and lot No. 99 Apple Street."

The house turns out to be a prefabricated structure that was delivered in crates and barrels. Buster and Sybil study the directions. 

On the second day, Buster is working on the house and Sybil is cooking breakfast. They kiss each other twice and look as if they mean it. 

Seeking revenge, Handy Hank alters the numbers on the crates. 

PabloPicasso.org

On the third day, the sabotaged house is taking shape. Sadly, it is taking the shape of the droppings of a cubist dog. 

The house looks wrong to Buster, but Sybil paints two hearts with an arrow through them and Buster kisses her. Soon we have the famous scene of Sybil taking a bath. 

The print I watched may have been missing the transition from the third day to the fourth. 

On the fifth day, Friday the 13th, Sybil and Buster have a house warming party. Buster fights with Handy Hank. Buster is showing the guests a room upstairs when water starts coming though the ceiling. Buster opens an umbrella. In time, a mighty wind blows and makes the house start spinning. Buster can't get in. When Sybil and the guests are tossed out by centrifugal force, the guests leave and Sybil and Buster are left sitting on a box in the rain, which has grown into a biblical deluge. They kiss again.

On the morning of the sixth day, Buster and Sybil wake up sitting on the box. A man approaches them and says the sign was upside down. They were in lot 66. "You're on the wrong lot. Yours is across the railroad track." Sybil does not take this news well. They start preparing to move the house. 

Coincidentally, just a month ago, on 22-February-2021, a 139 year old Victorian house got moved several blocks in San Francisco. Lots of people watched in person or by live streams. People always enjoy watching a house move.

On the morning of the seventh day, the house is ready to move. It gets stuck on the railroad tracks. Buster took great pride in describing how he played with audience expectations in that gag. I won't spoil it for any poor soul who has not yet seen the movie.

Sybil and Buster give up on the house, but not on each other. They walk away hand-in-hand.

Moving Picture World, 09-October-1920

Motion Picture News, 20-November-1920

The series was a hit with exhibitors and their customers.

 

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The next release in Buster's series was "Convict 13." The pace is not as good as it was in "One Week." Incidents with fish and a dog seem unnecessary. 

Motion Picture News, 09-Septmber-1920

Golf comedies were always popular.

"His best attempt to win her heart." Buster Keaton and Sybil Seely are golfing. She is good at it.  He is not. She watches him from what appears to be the terrace of a country club. It seems strange to watch Buster not be proficient at anything that involves physical skill. Buster is knocked cold when his ball ricochets off of a shed. 

A death row convict escapes a nearby penitentiary and he exchanges clothes with Buster, who is still unconscious. The warden plans to hang Buster right away. Sybil is the warden's daughter and she saves Buster. He knocks out a guard and takes his uniform. He locks up a powerful inmate, played by huge Joe Roberts, and becomes deputy warden. Buster saves Sybil from the powerful inmate and  knocks himself out. Then he wakes up and learns it was all a dream. 

Co-director Eddie Cline played the hangman. 

Moving Picture World, 09-October-1920

Virginia Fox followed Sybil Seely as Buster's leading lady. 

Moving Picture World, 23-October-1920

Buster's next release was shot under the title "The Backyard."

Motion Picture News, 25-December-1920

Buster's next release was released under the title "Neighbors." It tells the tale of two lovers, Buster Keaton and Virginia Fox, who are separated by a back fence and their families. Buster's father is played by Buster's father, Joe. Giant Joe Roberts played Virginia's father. 

"Neighbors" does not hold up as well as some of Buster's other comedies. Buster winds up in blackface twice, or perhaps one and a half times, and a stereotypical scene has an African-American family scared by a ghost.

Motion Picture News, 25-December-1920

Co-director Eddie Cline played one of the cops chasing Buster.

Motion Picture News, 05-March-1921

Many of Buster's co-workers on the series of shorts also worked on his feature films. 

Motion Picture News, 01-January-1921

After finishing "Neighbors," Buster's crew won the baseball championship of Hollywood. 

Motion Picture News, 05-February-1921

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"The Scarecrow" was one film in the series that I did not see until I bought the Kino set. Buster and Joe Roberts are farmhands who share a room filled with labor-saving gadgets. The phonograph is a stove. The bookshelf is a refrigerator. Their breakfast is a wonderful scene. 

Both men are in love with the farmer's daughter, Sybil Seely. The farmer is Buster's father, Joe. 

Buster interrupts Luke the Dog, who was Roscoe Arbuckle's dog in real life, who is licking up the filling of a cream pie. Luke chases Buster, who thinks that Luke is rabid.  Luke chases Buster in and out of the windows and around the tops of the walls of a derelict adobe house.

Buster loses most of his clothes getting away from Luke. Buster meets Sybil and her father and runs from them. He pretends to be a scarecrow in the field. Buster and Sybil run away on a horse and then a motorcycle. They scoop up a minister, who marries them on the motorcycle. 

Co-director Eddie Cline plays a truck driver who runs into Joe Roberts. 

Motion Picture News, 08-January-1921

Buster may have been the first comic to appear on both ends of a bill, The Saphead as the feature and "The Scarecrow" as the short comedy.

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"The Haunted House" follows a common story in comedy, a group of criminals makes a house appear to be appointed to keep outsiders away. A highlight is a stairway that turns into a slide with the throw of a lever. Buster broke his ankle on the stairway. "The Haunted House" also throws in a low-rent opera company that has been performing Faust. 

Motion Picture News, 17-March-1920

Buster plays a bank clerk. Virginia Fox is the daughter of the bank president. Joe Roberts is a bank clerk and the leader of the criminals.  Buster has a mishap with some glue. The bank robbers also have trouble with the glue. Buster gets accused of the robbery and flees. The opera company runs away from its unhappy audience. They all wind up in the haunted house. 

The president's daughter follows the evil clerk to the house. After much running around and waving of arms, Buster captures the crooks and rescues Virginia, her dad and a couple of sheriffs. 

Co-director Eddie Cline plays a bank customer.

Motion Picture News, 01-January-1921

Keep in mind that Buster broke his ankle mading "The Haunted House." This must have messed with their schedule.

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"Hard Luck" was considered lost until 1986, when it was partly reconstructed. One major piece is missing. 

In "Hard Luck," Buster's character is suicidal. Harold Lloyd had attempted suicide in "Haunted Spooks." 

Buster has lost his job, his girl and his money. He tries to get hit by a streetcar and an auto and attempts to hang himself from a tree. He drinks whiskey from a bottle labelled "Poison." He volunteers for an expedition to capture an armadillo for the zoo. He recovers his confidence as he meets Virginia Fox at a country club fox hunt (!). Lizard Lip Luke, a bandit and train robber, appears with his gang. He is played by Joe Roberts. The gang invades the country club. Buster rescues Virginia from the clutches of Lizard Lip Luke. After a slight twist, we come to the missing ending. 

Motion Picture News, 26-March-1921

Motion Picture News, 16-April-1921

"The High Sign" was the first movie made in the series, but no one was happy with it, so they held it till almost the end of the first season before releasing it. It filled a slot while Buster recovered from his ankle, which had been broken in "The Haunted House." I remember when "The High Sign" was thought to be a lost film. 

listal.com

A high sign is a subtle hand signal, as we see in this example with Paul Newman in The Sting, used by members of a group to communicate secretly with each other. As you see in the example from "The High Sign," the high sign used by the Blinking Buzzards, a Black Hand-style gang of criminals, is a little less subtle.

Buster is thrown off of a train next to a beach-side amusement park. One of his greatest jokes follows, unfolding a never-ending newspaper which turns out to be a single sheet of paper. He finds a help wanted ad for a shooting gallery. Buster steals a policeman's pistol from his holster and substitutes a banana. 

Buster meets Al St John, his old friend and companion from the Roscoe Arbuckle movies.  Buster does some target practice, which doesn't go well.  The giant proprietor of the shooting gallery gives Buster the job. The proprietor is the leader of the Blinking Buzzards. Their next target is the town miser. They promise to kill him that day unless he pays a large amount of money.

The miser and his pretty daughter, played by Bartine Burkett, ask Buster to serve as his bodyguard. 

The proprietor has Buster join the gang, showing him the high sign and the secret knock. Buster is ordered to kill the town miser. There is a wild chase through secret passages in the miser's house. 

Motion Picture News, 26-February-1921

"The Goat" was the last movie of the first season. Buster and Mal St Clair co-directed this one. 

Buster is a poor guy who has to stand in a bread line. He gets mistaken for Dead Shot Dan, an escaped murderer. Buster gets chased by many policeman, including big Joe Roberts. My wife was walking by and she said "This must be 'Cops.'" I said no, it was just a bunch of cops.

Next year in Reel Two, I hope to write about the movies released in the second season, 1921-1922. 

This post is part of the Seventh Annual Buster Keaton Blogathon, hosted by Lea at Silent-ology. Thank you to Lea for all the hard work. Thank you to everyone who visited and I encourage you to read and comment on as many posts as you can. Bloggers love comments.