Interview with Matt Phelan, Author/Illustrator of Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton

Matt Phelan and I at his Bluffton signing - Book Expo America 2013

I had the pleasure of interviewing author/illustrator Matt Phelan about his book Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton. Check out my original review here. You can find Matt Phelan on Twitter as @MattPhelanDraws, on Facebook, on Google+ and on his wonderful blog Planet Ham.

Now on to the questions!

Raquel: Could you tell us a little bit about your interest in Buster Keaton?

Matt: When I was a little kid, my brother and I would watch silent movies on my dad's super 8 projector. We had Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, but my favorites were our two Keaton films: Cops and The General (which required a few reel changes). I still think of those movies with the sound of the projector motor running.

My interest in Keaton really caught fire after Kevin Brownlow's amazing documentary A Hard Act to Follow came out (If anyone can tell me why this hasn't been released on DVD in the states, please do. I'm afraid my VHS copy might disintegrate from use). I became obsessed with Buster and tracked down all the books about him I could find as well as whatever terrible quality prints of his films I could dig up. This was pre-Internet and before Kino released all of his films on VHS, so there was a lot of poking around in used bookstores and libraries.

I was in film school at that time and I quickly realized that not only was Keaton brilliantly funny, he was the best filmmaker of the silent era period.

Raquel: That’s so wonderful that you enjoyed watching Buster Keaton films as a child! Was it your childhood fascination with him that inspired you to write and illustrate Bluffton or was there another motivation?

Matt: My fascination with Buster has always been a constant in my life. However, it wasn't until I read his autobiography My Wonderful World of Slapstick that I started thinking about writing a story about the summers in Bluffton. That was about twenty years ago. I didn't actually figure out that the main character should be a kid from Muskegon until about 7 years ago. Some stories take time (although I hope future stories won't take quite so long).

Raquel: I think it’s really interesting that you decided to tell the story through the eyes of your main character Henry Harrison and not Buster Keaton. How did you come to that decision and how did that effect the final book?

Matt: By making Henry the narrator, the reader has a way into this story. Who are the vaudevillians? What is their world like? Henry knows next to nothing about vaudeville at the beginning of the story and that is a very useful viewpoint. It helped me figure out how to tell the story. I could ask myself, "What would I do if I met Buster Keaton when I was a kid?" And I think by not having Buster be the narrator or main character, I could get a truer portrayal of him in a strange way.

Raquel: How did you want to portray Buster Keaton and how did you approach illustrating him?

Matt: I tried to be as true to him as possible. For instance, although some have argued that his childhood was near abusive (the rough act, the lack of schooling) Buster never saw it that way. So I'm sticking with his viewpoint on that matter. I've watched and read a lot of interviews with him so I was very careful in trying to replicate his speaking manner. That won't register with most readers but it was important to me. To draw him, I watched his movies with a sketchbook in hand. I found his shorts with Roscoe Arbuckle to be very helpful because he's the youngest in those. I also have photos of him as a kid. The real method is to take all of that in and then draw with that knowledge deep inside. Do the work, and then forget about it on a conscious level. My approach to illustration is not unlike an actor's approach to a role.

Raquel: Could you tell us more about those photos you have of Buster Keaton as a kid? Especially that one you found of him smiling!

Matt: The best photos of Buster (at all ages) are in a book called Buster Keaton Remembered by his wife Eleanor Keaton. There are great shots of The Three Keatons and also pictures of young Buster in Bluffton. The photograph that ends the book was something I came across completely by chance while I was on a research trip in Muskegon. I walked into a house that was having an estate sale and asked if they had anything about the Actors' Colony and Buster in particular. The woman was the granddaughter of a man who had run the neighborhood general store and he was friends with the Keatons. She rummaged around in a room and came back with this amazing photo of a smiling Buster with his father, Joe Roberts, Ed Gray and other regulars in front of their clubhouse Cobwebs & Rafters. She sold me the photo for ten dollars.

(Learn more about the photo and Phelan's research by reading his guest post at the Nerdy Book Club)


Raquel: I love that story! What kinds of research did you do on that trip to Muskegon?

Matt: I rented a cottage in Bluffton for a week in 2010. While there, Ron Pesch who is really the authority on the Actors' Colony (http://www.actorscolony.com/) gave me a detailed walking tour of the neighborhood. Ron introduced me to the current owner of the Keaton property (Jingles' Jungle has long since been taken down). He showed me the concrete wall out back where Joe Keaton carved his name years ago. Mostly, I just strolled around, staring at the lake, getting to know the feel of the place. I walked the base line of Buster's ball field and gauged how long it took to get from the Keaton's place to Cobwebs & Rafters and Pascoe's. I played with my daughter on the shore of Lake Michigan where the grand Lake Michigan Park once stood. It's not hard to see the appeal of the place.

Raquel: I think that’s a side of Buster Keaton that a lot of us are not very familiar with. What do you hope kids (and adults too!) get out of reading Bluffton?

Matt: I do hope the book will inspire interest in Buster and his work and spur readers on to check out his films (especially if they've never seen one). I also hope that the themes of friendship and finding one's place in the world resonate with readers. They are universal concerns no matter what the time period or setting.


Raquel: What are you working on now?

Matt: Right now I'm illustrating some picture books (one of which is the first I've also written). After that, I begin work on my next graphic novel which is a retelling of Snow White in 1930s Manhattan. I think I'm just going to keep writing books that require me to watch a lot of classic movies as research.

Raquel: Now, I've got to ask this question. What is your favorite Buster Keaton film?

Matt: Oh, picking a favorite Keaton film is very difficult. If pressed, I might have to go with The General. But I really love The Navigator. And Steamboat Bill, Jr. And his short film One Week is absolutely perfect. Can I just answer All of the Above?

Thank you Matt for taking the time to answer my questions!

Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton
by Matt Phelan
240 pages - Hardcover
Candlewick Press
9780763650797
July 2013

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My Lunches with Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles

My Lunches with Orson
Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles
Edited by Peter Biskind
July 2013
Hardcover 9780805097252
Metropolitan Books (MacMillan)

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There have been many classic film biographies published in the last decade but none quite like My Lunches with Orson. Within the pages of this book, you'll find transcriptions of conversations between director Henry Jaglom and the man he revered and championed for, Orson Welles. While some other books might attempt to publish interviews and conversations from memory or notes, there is something special about straight transcriptions from recordings. There was some editorial massaging of the Welles recordings due to sound issues and inaudible bits and for the sake of continuity and context. But for the most part these conversations are presented as though you were a fly on the wall listening in on Jaglom and Welles' lunchtime meetings at the restaurant Ma Maison as they talked shop and gossiped.

Jaglom recorded his conversations with Welles not only with his permission but on his request. The agreement made was that the recording device must always be hidden. Out of sight and out of mind, the hidden device recorded a very candid Welles talking about everything including his past career, projects he was eager to work on, people whom he admired and who annoyed him, how others perceived him, his love life and more. I wouldn't call Orson Welles' conversations lurid or salacious. On the contrary, we get a glimpse of a tortured genius, oftentimes paranoid and always opinionated. He felt he had a right to criticize people in the movie business because he was one of them. Jaglom is at times both lavish with his adoration and other times very particular about his questions in order to get Welles to open up about a certain topic. I think Jaglom made Welles feel at ease and because of that we get to read a much more candid Welles. We have to remember though that Welles was also an actor and sometimes these conversations were mini-performances in themselves.

The book starts with an introduction by Peter Biskind who summarizes the careers of Orson Welles and Henry Jaglom and how these conversations came to be and how they came to be transcribed (note that Biskind didn't transcribe them but did some editorializing of them). Part One transcribes the Welles-Jaglom conversations of 1983, Part Two is from 1984-1985. The last conversation recorded happened 5 days before Welles' death in 1985. Each chapter starts off with a choice quote from Orson Welles, often meant to pique the interest or scandalize. You can't help wanting to dive right in with each of those morsels. The backmatter includes an epilogue written by Henry Jaglom along with an appendix containing descriptions of Welles' various unfinished works and biographical summaries of the people whom Welles refers to in the conversations.

A lot of folks I know have already read and reviewed My Lunches with Orson so I don't necessarily bring anything new to the table other than my own opinions. Here are some of my thoughts:

Sometimes looking at the big picture gives us a shallow sense of what a thing really truly is and it's only when we focus in on one small aspect that we get a better understanding. There is a lot to learn about who Orson Welles was as a director, as an actor, as part of the Hollywood elite and as a man. You can't take everything Welles says in the book at face value.

"No, I think I'm absolutely genuine - that's a lie. I never tell the truth." Orson Welles to Henry Jaglom (pg 107)

Have a shaker of salt by your side when you read this book because you'll need it to take grains from. Sometimes things Welles says are his own true opinion and sometimes they are just to get a rise or reaction out of his audience (Jaglom and that hidden recorder). Welles was not afraid to divulge in detail what he liked about someone and what he didn't. Some of his opinions will shock you. His observations are either brutally honest or just plain brutal.

There were some observations that gave me pause and made me really reflect on the subject at hand. For example, Orson Welles did not care for Charlie Chaplin and thought he was an egotist with not much talent. He much preferred Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton and even went on to say that he thought The General was one of the best films ever made. I think over the past couple of decades there has been a huge shift in popularity of Keaton and Lloyd films and much more criticism of Chaplin's work. Maybe Welles' observations were ahead of his time? Welles also questioned the talents of favorites including Alfred Hitchcock (he hated Vertigo), Humphrey Bogart (he called him a second-rate actor) and more. He won't win any fans with these opinions however there is something to glean from his observations about the movie industry. Movies are entertainment and for Orson Welles I think movies were his way to express his creativity. Kind of like John Huston, I think Welles may have seen movies as a lesser of the arts but was still compelled to make them.

If anything, this book got me to think a whole lot about my perceptions of the movies. Some things Orson Welles said made stop and think and other times I wanted to throw the book across the room. Especially when Welles said he hated Art Deco!

If you have romanticized notions of old Hollywood and don't want anything to corrupt that pure ideal, then do not read this book. If you have a thicker skin than that, then don't miss out on the opportunity to reading this captivating, eye-opening, bittersweet and oftentimes wildly entertaining book.

Thank you to Metropolitan books for sending me a copy of this book to review!


UPDATE: There has been a lot of talk about My Lunches with Orson. Here are some interesting links for further reading.

My Lunches with Orson Puts You at the Table with Welles via NPR Books
Q&A: Director Henry Jaglom, Author of My Lunches with Orson via NPR Books
The Art of Irascible Conversation, Found in My Lunches with Orson via Biographile
Hollywood Gossip: At Lunch with Orson Welles via The Millions
An excerpt of the book via Vulture
Stardust Memories ‘My Lunches With Orson’ and ‘Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations via The New York Times
War of the Words via The Paris Review
Henry Jaglom's piece from 2008 via L.A. Times

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Warner Archive Wednesday ~ Tish (1942)

Where do I begin? How do I even talk about such an odd movie? Oh dear! Well, here goes nothing...

Tish (1942) is an adaptation of the Tish stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Tish Carberry (Marjorie Main) is part of a threesome of spinsters which includes Aggie Pilkington (Zasu Pitts) and Lizzie Wilkins (Aline MacMahon). Together they cause all sorts of ruckus in their small New England town. Tish lives in her childhood home, now owned by her nephew Charlie Sands (Lee Bowman), and her friends live in a nearby boarding house along with the orphaned teenager Cora Edwards (Susan Peters). All three ladies practically raise Cora.

Now let's add some romantic entanglements, shall we? Cora is in love with Charlie who is newly engaged to Kit Bowser (Virginia Grey) whose brother Ted (Richard Quine) is in love with Cora. That's quite a mess, no? Tish tries to meddle in the love lives of the young folks by trying to fix Cora up with Charlie. She takes them on a camping trip together (some hilarious moments ensue) but Cora has a change of heart. Charlie marries Kit in a church ceremony and Cora and Ted secretly elope before Ted is sent off to war.

So far this film is a light comedy about three delightful spinsters in a small New England town and the young people in their lives. The romantic entanglement, more of a circle than a triangle, gets settled but then the story takes a bizarre turn for the worst.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Cora becomes pregnant, finds out Ted is lost at sea, faints, has her baby and dies. Yes, dies. What the heck? Tish finds out about the baby and takes him into her care. But realizes that it might be a bit complicated because the baby is not hers nor did she go through the proper channels to legally adopt him. So Tish tells everyone she had the baby. No one believes her because she's too old to have a baby. She is so adamant that everyone starts to think she's crazy. Charlie reluctantly puts her in a mental institution. Eventually things resolve themselves and there is a happy yet somewhat bittersweet surprise at the end but good grief.

END SPOILERS

What could have been just a light 1940s comedy turned out to be a rather bizarre curio of the time. I haven't read the Tish stories so I'm not sure how much this film stays true to the original tales.

This film is notable because of Susan Peters and she's the main reason I watched the film. Playing Cora in Tish (1942) was Susan Peters' first substantial role at MGM. Studio heads were impressed with her and she went on to do Random Harvest (1942) and several other films. Peters was being groomed to become a leading lady and a starlet all thanks to the film Tish. Also, Susan Peters met her future husband Richard Quine while making this film. Peters and Quine married the following year, adopted a son and later divorced in 1948. Susan Peters became paralyzed as a result of a hunting accident in 1945, continued to have health problems and died in 1952 (it's a complicated story that I won't go into in this post). Researching the life of Susan Peters is a pet project of mine so it was imperative that I watch Tish (1942).

Susan Peters is really delightful in this film as are the other actors. So if you are a fan of anyone in the cast, Tish is worth at least one viewing. I'd like to also point out that Guy Kibbee has a supporting role as Judge Bowser (father of the characters Kit and Ted). Kibbee has some hilarious scenes and his character is often put in embarrassing situations courtesy of the three spinsters. Note that Aline MacMahon and Guy Kibbee played a couple in Gold Diggers of 1933 so it's nice to see them together again in Tish!

One last note for vintage hair and fashion enthusiasts. Watch this film for the outfits and hairstyles of Susan Peters and Virginia Grey. You'll get lots of ideas because the wardrobe and hair departments took extra effort grooming these two young ladies for the film.

Tish  (1942) is available on DVD MOD from Warner Archive.

Warner Archive Wednesday - On (random) Wednesdays, I review one title from the Warner Archive Collection. I received Tish (1942) from Warner Archive for review.