Held September 27-28, 1996
On opening day, Frank Scheide, film professor at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville,
opened the celebration by showing clips from several Arbuckle shorts, including
"Hey Pop" Arbuckle's first talkie.
David Shepard (left), who produced the Art of Buster Keaton series, and winner of last years' "Buster" award, lectured on Roscoe's development as a director.
Patricia Eliot Tobias (left), co-founder of "The
Damfinos: The International Buster Keaton Society" presented new
material on Buster by contrasting the relationships in Keaton feature films
he directed to the later M-G-M films he starred in. She showed the relationships
in the M-G-M features to be less well defined, and therefore weaker.
On the second day of the celebration, David Macleod (center), author of The Sound of Buster Keaton, explained in detail the scandal and three manslaughter trials that ruined the career of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle 75 years ago.
Mr. Macleod's magnificent speech was reprinted in the newspaper, The Iola Register.
Jim Kline (left), author of The Complete Films of Buster Keaton,
showed the collaboration of gags between Buster Keaton and Roscoe Arbuckle,
and their deep influence on each other.
Gregory Black (right), author of Condemned! The Catholic War Against the Movies then talked about the censorship in Hollywood that sprang from the uproar of the Arbuckle scandal.
Guest film critic and historian Leonard Maltin became the second annual winner of the "Buster." (He is shown here with last year's winner David Shepard, who presented the award).
Minutes earlier, Maltin (right) gave a wonderful speech about how, as a teenager, he'd met Buster on location during the making of Samuel Beckett's Film. He also talked about how he'd always try to find something new about Keaton everytime he met someone who knew him.
Later on, the speakers got together and had a roundtable discussion about Roscoe Arbuckle.
(Left to Right: Leonard Maltin, Frank Scheide, Patricia Eliot Tobias, Jim Kline, Gregory Black, David Macleod, and moderator Robert Butler)
The event was co-organized by Iola Celebration Committee, led by Clyde Toland and Mary Martin.
Many thanks to Patty Tobias and Frank Scheide for their help in the creation of this webpage. The photos on this page are from Frank Scheide's videotape of the event.
John Bengtson's article in the Winter, 1997 Keaton Chronicle was used as a reference for names and basic information.
For information about Iola 1997 Keaton/Chaplin Celebration, click HERE
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