doug's Site Overtime Special: The Great Buster Keaton Pilgrimage

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Back in September, a friend and I, both fellow silent film enthusiasts from way back, took a trip up to central Oregon a few weeks back to pay homage to Cottage Grove Oregon site of the location for the great Buster Keaton film comedy, "The General." Here's a few personal pics and some from online sources.

Me Standing in front of Keaton Mural

The main entrance to the downtown area of Cottage Grove Oregon. It was here that Buster Keaton , the greatest of the American Silent Film Comedians, came with his family in May of 1926 to make his great Civil War silent epic, "The General", for United Artists. Keaton was both star and co-directer and one of the writers on the film. His intention was to make a film with so much authenticity to the time frame (Civil War Marietta Georgia, 1862) that no expense was spared. "Make it so real it hurts," he told the crew, who brought 26 train loads of Civil War designed cannons, costumes, musketry, uniforms, trains that closely matched those used in the period, etc. Hundreds of extras used used in the film--about 150 from the town people themselves as well as every available member of the Oregon State Guard whom Keaton's company outfitted in alternative Union and Confederate uniforms to create the scenes of armies on the move. Keaton choose Cottage Grove over locations in the South because this part of rural Oregon afforded him the right gauge of rails and because the terrain (The Willamette Valley around Eugene and Cottage Grove) reminded him so much of the areas of Georgia and Tennessee, a detail he picked up from his days travelling the country as a young lad with the family's vaudeville act.

Cottage Grove--Early afternoon, September 4, 2012

Downtown Cottage Grove. In addition to the Keaton film, the coming-of-age drama "Stand By Me" (1986), and the raucous John Landis-directed comedy "Animal House" with John Belushi (1978) were also filmed here.

Heritage Sign

A plague near The Cottage Grove Hotel marks the location where Keaton and the main part of his crew spent most of the summer of that year filming "The General". Keaton spent his rare off-time playing pick-up baseball with his film crew and local amateur baseball clubs. Newspaper accounts of the time report that Buster Keaton was a friendly man who enjoyed informality and often, despite his dead-pan demeanor on screen, was frequently smiling and laughing in his off-time. It was  fun on his sets but also hard work for all concerned. Keaton's character, Johnny Grey, is a Confederate train engineer who after being turned down for military service, goes up against a group of Union spies who steal his prize engine, "The General" in order to wreck havoc up the Southern rail centers toward the Northern lines. This was based on the real life incident in the war. Although the film is narrative-driven  and not a gag-fest, it is still funny. In 1927, some in America thought the mix of comedy with a Civil War backdrop was still controversial. Men who had fought in the war were still alive and old grudges died hard. So while this is considered his greatest film today, it was not a critical nor financially successful film upon release. Part of the reason was that it cost about $300,000 dollars more to make than was originally budgeted, a cost that of course would be 10-15 million in modern budget overages today.

The National Guard Building

One of the last major buildings left from the era when Keaton made "The General". In addition to their other duties, the Oregon Guard was used to put out a major forest fire that broke out near the town early in July of 1926. Keaton himself was apart of the brigade that fought the fire and he was later awarded a honorary position with the Guard for risking his life, something he also did in his stuntwork for every one of the silent-era films he made under his own direction. After the fire was put out, the amount of smoke in the air made it necessary to cease production until the skies cleared of smoke for several days in order to match the outdoor scenes already filmed.

A mural in Downtown Cottage Grove. Note the covered bridge depicted here. There are several of the old-fashioned wood bridges in and near the city.

The location of Cottage Grove, Oregon.

Comparison of South River Road: 1926 and 2008.

The site of the crash of "The Texas" locomotive--the most expensive single shot in US silent film history. The train was left in the Row River until the the Second World War in 1942, when plans were completed to remove the rusting iron and sell it for scrap iron in war production.

Covered Bridge, Cottage Grove

Posters for the Film

Poster for the Original Film release

Posters for the Film

Lobby card featuring Buster and his leading lady, Marion Mack. She lived into the 1980's and supplied biographers with a great deal of information into the making of the film and Keaton himself.