The Third Annual Buster Keaton Blogathon has come to a close, and I wanted to say:
Yes, you are seeing that correctly. That is the world’s most mindblowing photo of Buster Keaton, LAUGHING OUT LOUD for the world to see!! (Look at his TEETH!! WHEN DO YOU EVER GET TO SEE THOSE.) I first saw a copy of it thanks to historian Ed Watz, and this particular one was illustrating a 1930s magazine story about Buster directing shorts for MGM. It was published in March 1938 (I don’t know the magazine unfortunately–let me know if you do!)
This was one of the best Buster blogathons yet. Every year we are treated to new research, fresh insights, and fun trivia, and this year our bloggers really raised the bar. A hearty THANK YOU to all of you for your hard work–I know how time-consuming these projects can be! And an equally hearty THANK YOU to the many readers who stopped by to read all the posts and help make this event such a success!
As promised, here are the results of the drawing for participating bloggers! I held this very solemn event in my kitchen, drawing the names out of my 1920s-style cloche hat:
Nothing says solemn like a cloche hat.
So without further ado:
The $25 Buster Stuff gift certificate goes to: Senseless Cinema
The copy of the book The Persistence of Comedy by Imogen Sara Smith goes to: The Wonderful World of Cinema
The copy of the Industrial Strength Keaton DVD goes to: Grace Kingsley’s Hollywood
Congrats, slightly blurry bloggers!
I’ll be in touch with the winners as soon as I can! If you guys see this post first, contact me on my “About Silent-ology” page so we can email each other. NOTE: I know that many of us Buster fans will snap up as much merchandise as we can, so if you already have the book or DVD let me know if you’d like to give it to someone who’d appreciate it or if I should draw another name.
Thanks again, everyone!
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Silent-ology 
Omg yay! 😀 I’m very impatient to read this book now 🙂
Buster has great teeth! And thanks again for hosting 🙂
Congrats, Virginie!! Yes, doesn’t he have amazingly nice teeth?! And for growing up before the era of modern dentristry, too. I’m all, “why didn’t you show those off more often.” 😀
I saw the film Coney Island at the movie theatre once. He smiles in this one! 🙂
I didn’t even know there was going to be a drawing at the end! Had I known, I would have written lots of posts so I had bigger chances 😀
😀 Well, I keep it to one entry per blogger, but I appreciate your ambition!
Buster laughing??? I must be in the Twilight Zone. :O
A sight as rare as Sasquatch!!
Congratulations and thank you for hosting such a stellar event.
You’re welcome, it was a very cool event!
Hi Lea. That’s a great hat. Thank you for another wonderful blogathon. I learned a lot from it. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into these. I’m entertaining two ideas for the fourth blogathon, in case you want to have another one.
There will certainly be a fourth one, so definitely keep on entertaining those ideas! I love your contributions. 🙂
Nice job, Lea. You’ve done Buster proud, as always.
Aw, thank you Steve! 🙂
Glad to have been part of a great blogathon. Such variety!
I love your blog Lea! Just wanted to pass along the source of “laughing Buster.” It’s an image from an MGM in-house/trade magazine called “Shorts Stories” and is available on the Internet Archive. It’s not quite an interview, unfortunately – it looks like more of a recap of his bio, with a few older photos from his childhood and some from the MGM days. The Internet Archive scan includes many issues from 1937-38 and your source was correct, this is March, 1938.
Awesome, thank you so much! I’m so used to researching on Lantern that I’ll forget to check the Internet Archive too. Lots of goodies on there!
I know his teeth!! Besides the smile!!
The original pages:
From something called MGM Shorts Story (1938)
Thanks, Vicky! And seriously, Buster has Colgate commercial teeth. Pretty lucky for someone born in 1895! 😀
Thanks to catsandjammer for posting the MGM Shorts story from 1938!
You’re welcome, Amy!