Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Keaton at Charlie Parker


Speaking of Keaton, here's a wonderfully atmospheric shot of Buster found over at IF CHARLIE PARKER WERE A GUNSLINGER, THERE'D BE A WHOLE LOT OF DEAD COPYCATS (http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/). The comedian's career was rather infamously derailed by alcoholism and yet in the late fifties, he was known for a series of clever TV beer commercials. Not sure where this pic comes from and since he looked prematurely aged from the late forties onward, it's hard to date. Not wearing his traditional hat though. Could be from real life. Check out the above site for tons of rare and unique photos.

3 comments:

  1. Dear, I suspect that this was a commercial or TV show given the large light in the back of the shot. JMHO

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  2. Hmmm... Got those new teeth. Maybe we should look at new glasses. Missed that light.

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  3. that's a fantastic photo, very moody. I tried to get my neice and two nephews into Buster Keaton a short while ago - I'd already successfully hooked them on Laurel & Hardy many many years before - but, alas, it was not to be. they sat there during the whole of THE GENERAL with bored looks on their faces, not a snicker or a guffaw amongst them. not enough product placement, I guess. I don't know.

    regards the last post, I haven't seen FILM, but I went through a phase in my late teens/early twenties of reading and seeing a whole lot of Beckett stuff. not sure why, maybe because I thought it was something I HAD TO READ AND SEE, but he was never really my bag, to be honest, although I remember seeing Billie Whitelaw performing HAPPY DAYS in a grotty little out-of-the-way theatre bar, and thinking it was the mutt's nuts. as for the comedian angle, I remember that Max Wall - a popular variety star from the 'sixties & 'seventies in the UK - did a recording of KRAPP'S LAST TAPE for the BBC in the early 'eighties which was pretty powerful stuff, for the time.

    ah, Beckett, 'ey? there's another one for the young 'uns.

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