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What are the young people of today coming to?
If anything.
— Roscoe "Fatty"Arbuckle,
Buster's comedy mentor,
"What the Well-Dressed Man Will Wear",
PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE, 1920.
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The 16th Annual Buster Keaton Celebration, to be held September 26th & 27th, 2008 in Iola, Kansas, would like to announce its first annual Student Presentation Competition. The winner will receive a spot on the schedule of respected film and cultural authorities who are asked to take part in the celebration each year and will receive a travel
grant of $500 to facilitate his/her attendance. The student presenter
will be expected to present a 30- to 40-minute presentation to the
Celebration audience in PowerPoint format (with images--either still or
moving) and so must be able to attend the conference as scheduled.
Eligibility: Full-time matriculated Undergraduate and Masters
students at any point in their academic career, not affiliated with
any employee or volunteer of the Buster Keaton Celebration, the Kansas Humanities Council or the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
Required:
1. Applicants must complete an application to Frank Scheide
frank.scheide@gmail.com or by sending a letter to Susan Raines, Bowlus Fine Arts Center, 205 East Madison, Iola, KS 66749-0705). Proof of current matriculation will be required as part of this application.
2. Applicants must submit their complete 30- to 40- minute
presentation script for committee review, along with the above
application, by the due date of May 1, 2008 along with images to be
used in the final PowerPoint document. The applicant must also
present evidence that images he or she wishes to use are available and
in the applicant's possession. Scripts must be typed and double-
spaced (they may be in essay format, marked with indications as to
what images will be utilized where in the presentation). Please do
not submit the final PowerPoint demonstration.
To learn more about this year's topic, please read the essay "Buster
Keaton and Will Rogers: American Comic Heroes", which can be found by visiting the Buster Keaton Celebration web site at http://iolakeatoncelebration.org/. Committee members will be looking for original approaches to this topic and are especially interested in papers linking the two performers in some manner.
The Celebration Student Presenter committee will choose one winner and one runner-up, who will serve as an alternate. An announcement of the winner will be made by June 1st. The winner will have until June 30th to accept or decline the award. He or she will then have until July 31st to make his/her travel arrangements (assistance with this
task will be provided by a committee volunteer). The winner will receive a spot on the schedule and a stipend of $200 and travel expenses up to $300 (airfare or mileage) to facilitate his/her attendance. Lodging and a daily food allowance will be provided by the Buster Keaton Celebration from Thursday evening, September 25th, through breakfast on Sunday, September 28th.The chosen Student Presenter will be assigned a Celebration volunteer
to assist with any and all parts of the actual presentation process,
during the two days of the festival, in order to make the experience a
successful and rewarding one for the student--and for the Celebration
attendees!
The Comedy of Charlie Chaplin
Artistry in Motion
Comedian, Damfino and author Dan Kamin (he created the physical comedy sequences for the films Chaplin and Benny and Joon, and trained Robert Downey, Jr. and Johnny Depp for their acclaimed performances) has an upcoming book on the man W.C. Fields referred to as "the best ballet dancer in the world" - Sir Charles Chaplin.
You can pre-order now direct and find out lots more by clicking this url: Dan_Kamin_Chaplin.
Thanks to Dan Kamin for the tip! Be sure to visit his website at : www.dankamin.com
Buster's Italian Villa is again featured in a new design/architecture publication called "Trends" and is available for view online, along with some stunning new photos. The magazine is also available for purchase on their website, click here to view:
http://trendsideas.com/ViewArticle.aspx?article=10823®ion=4
Thanks to Chris Arvin for the info!
(There are some stunning photos also at the Lafia/Arvin website! Click here for a direct link.)
Strade del Cinema, the international silent film festival, organizes the seventh edition of the Young European Musicians Contest in partnership with the Turin National Museum of Cinema. It aims at giving the opportunity to under-35 musicians (solists or bands) to compose the soundtrack of a silent film and to play it live during the festival which takes place in Aosta (Italy) in August. In 2008, the festival will be dedicated to Buster Keaton.
The winner of the contest receives Euro 1,500 to compose the soundtrack of a silent film loaned by the Museum of cinema and the first three classified get the opportunity to record their music on the CD Notes on frames 2008. Registration is open until April 30th.For further information, visit the website www.stradedelcinema.it
(or direct link to the festival and contact page in English at
http://208.106.249.52/concorsi/index.cfm/strade-del-cinema_3-1-0-0.html) and download the contest rules in 3 languages: Italian, French and English.The festival also is sponsoring an Art contest, but this is only open to young Italian students, or foreign artists living in Italy.
Good luck to all contestants, and thanks to Anne Dawson (Damfinos) and to Alexia Zuzaniuk of the Associazione Culturale Strade del Cinema for the tip!
Hollywood Heritage Inc. presents
Buster KeatonPresented by Dale Duffy and Patricia Eliot Tobias
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Thursday, January 17, 2008 7:30 pm The Hollywood Heritage Museum in the Lasky-DeMille Barn 2100 North Highland Avenue (Across from the Hollywood Bowl) Free Parking, Refreshments available |
Screening BUSTER KEATON'S LOST FILM!! …a very short short made for the 1957 stage production of Merton of the Movies and shot by Eleanor Keaton…along with The Frozen North (1922) and The Boat (1921). Featuring rare live theatre ephemera, from this and other productions during the long career of Hollywood theatre producer Henry Duffy (Dale Duffy's father). Other rare images provided by Dale Duffy and Marc Wanamaker .
| Price: | Hollywood Heritage Members: $5.00 |
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| Non-members $8.00 |
For more info visit this url: http://www.hollywoodheritage.org/events.html
11/18 @ 4pm
Fatty Arbuckle Shorts Matinee
with live appearances by Chris Kattan & Preston Lacy
Presented by Argus Entertainment
In 1920, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was the most popular movie star in the world, rivaled only by Charlie Chaplin. Roscoe signed an exclusive contract with Paramount to create feature–length comedies, becoming Hollywood’s first “Million Dollar Man.” After being scandalized in the unsolved death of actress Virginia Rappe, Arbuckle was banned from Hollywood and a number of his films were destroyed. Today’s generation has rediscovered this comedy legend, and he now enjoys his rightful reputation as one of the four pioneering comedy geniuses, along with Chaplin, Keaton and Harold Lloyd.Presented by Argus Entertainment and featuring live appearances by Chris Kattan & Preston Lacy from the forthcoming filmThe Life of the Party, the screening will include "Fatty and Mabel Adrift", "The Butcher Boy" (Buster Keaton's first film), "Coney Island", "Goodnight Nurse" and "The Garage". An Arbuckle historian will be on-hand for a Q&A session.
Tickets - $12
For more info and to purchase tickets online, please visit their website:
http://www.silentmovietheatre.com/calendar/events.html#fatty
Thanks to Doug Peterson, of Mad Rabbit Films, for the tip!
The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York presents a special showing of
Buster Keaton in "Battling Butler on Friday, November 30th at 7:00 p.m.
The show has live accompaniment by 8-piece chamber ensemble BQE Project
(you can hear and see them at their website, http://thebqeproject.com/thebqeproject_files/default.htm), and
the
accompanying short film is Felix the Cat in Sure-Locked Homes
(
all Keaton fans will recall the comparison between Buster and Felix;
below Felix does Buster's hand-across-the-eyes movement).
You can find out more and purchase tickets online here: http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/battlingbutler.html
By phone (212) 496-3809 or at the Box Office:
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam
Plaza Level, NYC
For automated information, please call: (212) 875-5600
for 24 hour up-to-date schedule and theater information
Thanks to Steve Grenyo, Associate Director of Marketing and NYFF Industry Liaison
at the Film Society of Lincoln Center for telling us about this event.!
Buster's Playhouse
Buster's Italian Villa, built in 1926 to his own specifications, may be one of the last surviving movie sets of Buster's career. It has been appearing regularly in such magazines as The Robb Report and Architectural Digest since its most recent renovation by designers at the artistic firm of Lafia/Arvin. The house was also featured in an upcoming "Best of" of the Robb report Luxury Home magazine. The current issue (March/April 2007) features a 17-page spread as well as featuring the playroom (now the media room) on the cover.
The Villa now houses the work of several surrealist painters
(and in Dali's case, a filmmaker), as well as cubists and Dadaists.
Thanks to Chris Arvin for the info!
(There are some stunning photos also at the Lafia/Arvin website! Click here for a direct link.)
LET'S HELP NEW ORLEANS LAUGH!
To help boost morale and bring some much-needed comedy to the folks in
the New Orleans area,
International Buster Keaton Society member and professional costume designer Peggy Rosefeldt
is asking people to send her short comedy VHS and DVDs.
She and her colleagues will schedule screenings at churches and other public facilities.
It's been more than a year since Katrina, and things are still not easy in the Big Easy.
It's been very hard for the folks down there -- the suicide rate has increased 1,000% --
and this is a way you can help make life a little better for them.
Send VHS and DVDs to:
Peggy Rosefeldt
c/o David B. Pearson
317 Magnolia Drive
Picayune, MS 39466
THANK YOU!!
Fourteen of the sixteen shorts are all new transfers from 16mm original prints in their own collection. The two others are taken from excellent video sources.
It doesn't stop there, however, as you'll also get a number of bonus features including: "Way Up Thar" (a Joan Davis and Roy Rogers short costarring the Keaton Family, sans Buster); various Keaton TV performances from the 1950s and '60s; alternate takes from the silent feature "Go West"; a very special color excerpt from the 1965 tribute to Stan Laurel featuring Buster and Lucille Ball and, finally, a number of easter eggs hidden throughout the six-disc set.
The whole package sells for $65 (+$4 s/h), BUT if you pre-order by November 3rd using PayPal they'll give you a special 10% discount! Don't miss out on this special offer. After the release date of the Buster Keaton Educational set the discount will be withdrawn. This set will ship on November 3rd, 2006.
ED HICKMAN's DVD OF THE GENERAL
The DVD of Alabama musician Ed Hickman's original concert band performance to Keaton's 1927 silent film, The General, is now available. The score includes four major marches, jazz, Dixieland, polka, ragtime, and ballads, and was played to the film by the Huntsville area's finest musicians in a concert band on June 22, 2006. Included is Conductor Ed Hickman playing a passage with tenor banjo. The performance was recorded live in front of an enthusiastic audience by Allen Smith of Riverland Recording.
Ed Hickman, MSEd, of Robbins Music Center, Huntsville, AL, was band director at Dothan College (AL) and Navarro College (TX), and has a long-standing interest in music to silent film.
The International Buster Keaton Society helped publicize the June 2006 performance, and thanks Ed Hickman for his music and for the screening of Keaton's film.
The General, 1927, b/w, with original concert band score by Ed Hickman, MSEd., approx. 75 minutes. DVDs $15.00, available now at www.silentmoviemusic.com .
REELING's AWARDS
On Sept., 25, 2006, playwright Barry Kornhauser won the Twin Cities 2006 Ivey Award for Playwriting. This was for Barry's "silent" play, Reeling, which features a Keatonesque "Little Fellow", performed at the Children's Theatre Center in Minneapolis, MN from Jan. 17 - Mar. 4, 2006. Peter Brosius was Artistic Director. Dean Holt, who performed acrobatic physical comedy as the play's "Little Fellow", won the Acting award - "without speaking a line!" Reeling's two awards were among 12 total individual awards presented by 110 judges who saw 168 productions from 53 theatres. Congratulations, Barry and Dean!!
(Above, Lake Michigan Park Theater)
And before you visit Muskegon this year, you can visit the Actor's Colony on the web,
put together by Ron Pesch. Follow the links to see more photos of the Keatons
at play in their summer home and see the historical marker dedicated to
Buster, along with rare photos and posters.
Thanks to Ron Pesch for the info!
http://www.actorscolony.com
The 14th Annual Buster Keaton Celebration
Sept 29-30, 2006, Iola, KS
This year's theme: Buster Keaton & the "Funny Ladies"
as a Mirror of their times
For more info, please visit :
Being There
"Buster Keaton's Italian Villa - Then and Now" is our self-published
collection of anecdotes, articles, and historical information about Buster's
1926 Beverly Hills home.
The booklet also contains many black and white photos from the vaults
showing
Buster at home, along with photos taken at an event attended by members
of the
Keaton and Talmadge families and Damfinos worldwide.
Specially priced at only $10, please contact Graceann Maciolek at gmaciolek@wi.rr.com
for details and payment options.
Our webmistress Victoria Sainte-Claire would like to announce the launch
of Cybertints Curious Goodies, her digital image
collection of high resolution royalty free vintage oddball
photos and illustrations with additional artwork added (so you don't have
to!)
Images are available on the CD (100 300 dpi images) or in
single downloads (150 dpi).
Victoria has done all the art and layout work on this site for the past
five years, and it was her interest in antique images and early color
film that first attracted her to Buster Keaton. She has also designed
a promotional
site for John Bengston's book, "Silent Echoes". She plans to
add new things
to her site soon so have fun browsing around!
Clicking here will take you there:
www.cybertints.com
or visit my new shop at: http://www.cafepress.com/cybertints
DISCLAIMER
The Damfinos: The International Buster Keaton Society
is not responsible for any materials, transactions,
copyright infringements, or correspondence you may enter into
via these links, which we provide for information only.