Buster Keaton Go West – many NEW discoveries on a new YouTube essay

Thanks to the brilliant research by frequent guest blogger Jeffrey Castel de Oro, and the beautiful remote Arizona desert photos shared by dedicated EPA attorney and devoted Keaton fan Marie Muller, we can ‘visit’ online today essentially all of the locations from Buster Keaton’s self-directed film Go West (1925), far more than as reported in my book Silent Echoes and in recent posts Go West blog index. You’ll see a few new discoveries below, but all of these many new discoveries are clearly presented in my visual essay for the Eureka Entertainment Masters of Cinema Blu-ray release of Go West.

This essay marks the 19th video hosted on my Silent Locations YouTube channel.

Above, the very spot where Buster was inspired to ‘Go West,’ still stands behind 861 Traction Avenue in downtown LA – as reported in Jeff’s guest blog HERE.

Never before posted, the closing scenes featured the Union Stock Yard just five miles southeast from downtown. The dome of the livestock sales pavilion appears at back.

To lure the cattle Buster puts on a red devil costume, but his trademark porkpie hat won’t fit over the horns. What to do? As Buster ponders his dilemma, pacing back and forth, contemporary audiences would have instantly recognized he was mimicking Felix the Cat, then a popular animated star. This was the final scene Buster’s character wore his porkpie hat during Keaton’s independent films. (During Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), as Buster tries on various hats in front of a mirror, a frustrated salesman slams a porkpie hat on his head that Buster quickly removes.)

Click to enlarge – another new discovery (there are many more, please watch) as Buster flees the cattle running west along Hollywood Blvd. you can first see his camera car reflected in the window, and then the reflection of the curved stairway entrance to the lost Garden Court Apartments that once stood at 7030 Hollywood Blvd. at the corner of N. Sycamore.

Check out the many Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd videos hosted on my Silent Locations YouTube channel. Below, my new video for Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus (1928), with new discoveries about its dramatic closing finale as Charlie walks away alone.

You can access all the other Go West blog posts here Go West blog index. Go West also has ties to Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Route 66, Riverside, and Safety Last! Enjoy the show to learn how. Eureka Entertainment Masters of Cinema Blu-ray release of Go West.

Below, near Tap Duncan’s Valley Ranch, where Buster meets Brown Eyes.