
Our Hospitality
1923

Credits
Directed by: Buster Keaton and Jack C. Blystone
Release Date: November 3, 1923
Length: 7 Reels (6220 feet)
Starring
Buster Keaton: Willie McKay
Kitty Bradbury: Aunt Mary
Joe Keaton: Lem Doolittle, The Engineer
Jack Duffy: Sam Gardner, the Train Guard
Natalie Talmadge: Virginia Canfield
Francis X. Bushman Jr.: Clayton Canfield
Craig Ward: Lee Canfield
Erwin Connelly: Husband Quarreling with Wife
Monte Collins: Rev. Benjamin Dorsey
Prologue
Edward Coxen: John McKay
Jean Dumas: Mrs. McKay
Buster Keaton Jr.: Willie McKay (Age 1)
Tom London: James Canfield
Joe Roberts: Joseph Canfield
Copyright
11/20/1923: Joseph M. Schenck Productions
11/19/51: Loews (Transferred to Rohauer, then to Cohen Media)
2019: Public Domain
Credits courtesy of Jack Dragga
Trivia
OUR HOSPITALITY is the only film to feature three generations of Keatons: Buster, his father Joe (who played the train engineer) and Buster’s 14-month old son James (who played the younger version of Buster’s character in a prologue).
When Buster was being carried away in the rapids, the alarm you see in his eyes was for real; his protective guide-wires had snapped, and he was nearly drowned while being swept downriver. But his cameramen were instructed to never stop cranking until Buster called “cut”; thankfully the scene is preserved nearly 100 years later.
OUR HOSPITALITY was the 18th and final Keaton film appearance for Big Joe Roberts; he suffered a stroke during filming, but returned to work few weeks later, insisting on finishing his role. Big Joe died a month after his final scene, just six days before the film’s premiere.
From the Archives
The KEATON CHRONICLE is a publication of the International Buster Keaton Society, available exclusively to our members. Over the last quarter century, we have released over 100 issues, complete with original research, reviews, interviews, artwork, trivia, and more.
We devoted our entire Autumn, 2011 issue to OUR HOSPITALITY, and we offer it to you, free of charge, below. In it, you’ll find:
• Buster at the Smithsonian
• Reviews of OUR HOSPITALITY on blu-ray
• Production stills
• And of course: More!
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