The origins of Buster Keaton’s stage name
The name of Buster Keaton is as heralded as his on-screen work, defining the golden era of silent filmmaking with his deadpan comedies and exaggerated physical mannerisms that landed him the title of ‘The Great Stone Face’ on the silver screen. In the 1920s, he had an impressive string of hits such as The Cameraman, Steamboat Bill Jr and The General, which Orson Welles described as “the greatest comedy ever made.” However, Buster is not the actor’s actual name, and the strange true story behind his stage name perhaps hinted at his later success.
Keaton grew up in a vaudeville family, a French form of theatre that is purely intended to be comical, with vivid costumes and dance sequences that are almost similar to a ballet. His birth name was Joseph, which followed a long lineage of people with the same name on his father’s side of the family.
Keaton began performing with his parents at only the age of three in a show called The Three Keatons, with his mother playing the saxophone while he and his father would dance in the middle of the stage. Occasionally, the shows would become quite animated in their physical comedy, with Keaton’s father sometimes throwing his son against the set or orchestra pit, even sewing a handle into his costume to make the process of throwing him a little easier.
There were many complaints filed against the Keatons’ performances, with people accusing them of child abuse as a young Keaton was flailed around on stage. But, it didn’t seem to phase him, and the actor continued to star in his parents’ shows and was even given the nickname of ‘The Little Boy Who Can’t Be Damaged’.
The mannerisms that he developed as a child became the crux of his screen persona as an adult, known for his stoic resilience in his films as his characters are silently tossed around and injured without him ever reacting. But perhaps his very early ability to do this came from one moment that preceded his vaudeville career, when he was only six months old.
So, how did Buster Keaton get his stage name?
As a baby, Keaton took a nasty fall and tumbled down a flight of stairs, but somehow reached the bottom completely unscathed and undisturbed, barely reacting to the incident. Harry Houdini, the infamous magician and illusionist, saw the fall, picking up Keaton and saying, “What a buster your kid took!” After this, the nickname of Buster seemed to stick, and his parents continued to use the name so aptly christened by Houdini himself.
While Keaton’s humble beginnings in the vaudeville world prepared him for his dazzling on-screen career, his early steps and subsequent falls were perhaps what protected him from the very real injuries he later sustained, appearing completely unfazed and unbothered by the antics in his movies.
If anyone can be thrown around like a sack of potatoes without blinking, it’s Buster Keaton, and what a strange way to be introduced to the world of performative violence. Where else but Hollywood could someone be celebrated for this skill?
