Photo: Vanity Fair
The 61 year old actor was visiting the Alamo City in May 1957 for the premiere of the biopic “The Buster Keaton Story” starring Donald O’Connor ( as Buster Keaton ), Ann Blyth, Rhonda Fleming and Peter Lorre. It was showing at the Aztec Theater.
Photo: FilmAffinity
Photo: Buster Keaton and Donald O’Connor …IMDb
At a press breakfast in his suite at the St Anthony Hotel, Buster regaled stories of his legendary stunts . . . and the many pie-throwing scenes.
According to the “San Antonio Light,” he went into detail about those pie fights. He said, “The prop men always provided the pies. Each had two crusts…one fitting snugly inside the other. They had to be made this way. If you had only one thin crust, your fingers would go through it when you drew back to throw. The filling was a plain mixture of flour and water at the right consistency to stream over a person’s face and clothes. To make the pies look just right, and stain clothing, we had some whipped cream and blueberries on top.”
Photo: Buster Keaton and Alice Faye…NitrateVille
Photo: Buster Keaton taking a pie in the face…Reddit
He had the assembled reporters in his hotel suite captivated by the pie stories, and he admitted that he held “all of the pie-throwing records.” He then revealed that he was most proud of hitting someone smack in the face with a pie at a distance of 28 feet !!
Additional stories:
- Although Donald O’Connor played the role of Buster Keaton in “The Buster Keaton Story,” Buster himself had a small uncredited cameo role in the film . . . as a policeman taking a fall.
- Sidney Sheldon was deeply involved in “The Buster Keaton Story” as a Director, Co-Writer and Co-Producer.
Photo: Buster Keaton, Donald O’Connor and Sidney Sheldon…IMDb
Sidney Sheldon is also remembered for his contributions to screen successes like the TV shows “I Dream of Jeanne,” “Hart to Hart,” and “The Patty Duke Show.”
He also wrote a number of very successful novels like “The Other Side of Midnight,” “Bloodline,” “Rage of Angels,” “If Tomorrow Comes,” and “The Naked Face.”
Sources:
The San Antonio Light
mysapl.org
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