Buster Keaton Celebration Overview, Iola, Kansas

Sad news—

James Talmadge, Buster's older son, died Wednesday, February 14, 2007.

James Talmadge,
Buster Keaton's older son and father of
Melissa Talmadge Cox, passed
away Febraury 14, 2007, after a long illness.
With him goes yet another living link to memories of Buster.
He was kind, patient and gracious—and his memory will be cherished.
Our deepest sympathies are extended to the Talmadge family in their loss.

Two radio programs about 2005 event are now available on-line:

KRPS
Buster Keaton Festival
(playable with Real Player)
Date aired: October 10, 2005
There's a silent film festival in Southeast Kansas that celebrates the accomplishments of an unlikely hero.
KRPS's Martha Kungle visited Iola for this report.

American Public Media (playable with Real Player)
weekendamerica.org — Looking for Buster
Broadcast Date: October 8, 2005
What do New York filmmaker Woody Allen and Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan have in common?
They've borrowed 80-year-old comedy gags from Buster Keaton, an actor, director and writer
who would have been 110 years old this week.
Producer and Keaton fan Yolanda Perdomo traveled to a Keaton convention in Iola, Kansas,
to experience all things Keaton with one of his youngest fans, her three-year-old son.
See also:

Also from the APM site: Downloadable Buster Keaton movie video:

The Paleface (1921)
Daydreams (1921)
The Playhouse (1921)
The Blacksmith (1922)

Columbia University transcriptions and audio files of Keaton talking about his career:
Interview: Buster Keaton on Comedy and Making Movies
Session One — Buster Keaton's Vaudeville Childhood
Session Two — "Fatty" Arbuckle Puts Buster Keaton in the Movies
Session Three — Buster Keaton on Making Movies
Session Four — Buster Keaton on the End of Silent Films
Listen to the interviews, then take the Quiz.

Hear Buster play ukulele at a Hollywood party—excerpts from a tape once owned by his widow, Eleanor Keaton: NPR Lost & Found Sound: The Sounds of Silents

Visit: Generally Buster web site

Buster Keaton was almost literally "born in a trunk."
His parents had stopped in Piqua, Kansas in early October, 1895 while
performing with a traveling medicine show. Myra Keaton missed playing the saxophone at
the October 4th performance when Buster arrived,
delivered in a boarding house just across the street from the site of the evening performance.
Young Keaton began appearing on stage with his parents at a tender age,
became a child vaudeville star on Broadway, and earned a reputation as a comic genius
in the world at large with a body of classic silent film comedy.
He died in California in 1966.

In 1992, the city of Iola, Kansas, seven miles east of Piqua,
decided that it was time to start celebrating
the life of their Kansas native son with an annual Buster Keaton Celebration.