Silent Film Buster Keaton Statue moved from Hollywood to Muskegon

Travel Tips: Buster Keaton Statue on Hollywood Boulevard moved to Muskegon

Buster Keaton Statue on Hollywood Boulevard Photo by Eileen Ludwig

My visit to Holly wood Boulevard was in 2006 where I wandered aimlessly taking pictures of stars on the walkway and just enjoying the ambience beyond the sleazy dive stuff that was there at the time. There was much development with the Kodak Theatre and Disney El Captain and the parking garage just a short distance from Hollywood Bowl. The sculptures at the end of the street of a camera and camera man fascinated me. There were a number of other structures. In a future posting on just Hollywood Boulevard I will include more. For now let’s concentrate on the sculpture of The Cameraman.

After posting the photo of the film camera man for Where in the World Am I, I started researching to find out more about the sculpture and was surprised no matter how I search on several terms I could find nothing. Hollywood Boulevard is famous and I could find nothing on this statue. Searched Flickr too.

On my flickr account, someone posted the question, Is that Buster Keaton? I started to search flickr with that and there it was. There was a Hollywood Entertainment Museum where the Statue had been at the Entrance to the Elevator to the underground Museum. No wonder I never went. I had no idea what was there and with the elevator on a seedy street I wasn’t going alone to who knew where. Reading about the Museum now, I should have gone.

Anyway, Buster Keaton was part of the Silent Film Era and he played a Cameraman in a movie by that name. The Sculpture was done by Emmanuil Snitkovsky wearing the outfit he wore in the movie even though the camera was not the same. The Museum close in 2007 and after several unsuccessful attempts over the years to auction the statue, the town of Muskegon in Michigan where his family had summered bought the statue and have it there with the Artist Colony. There are numerous videos on YouTube of Buster Keaton and his Acting and slapstick stunts to enjoy with a simple search. Go and enjoy and other time period in Film Making.

Resources

Buster Keaton and the World of Objects by Geoff Nicholson

New home of the statue Muskegon Actors Colony

Seeing Stars Buster Keaton Statue