Product Description

John Bengtson has created a unique visual history of early Hollywood (as well as other parts of Los Angeles, and locations in the Northwest, Southwest, and New York City) as depicted in Buster Keatons classic movies. Combining images from Keatons films with archival photographs, historic maps, and scores of dramatic then and now photos, Silent Echoes reveals dozens of movie locations that lay undiscovered for nearly 80 years. Part time machine, part detective story, Silent Echoes presents a fresh look at the matchless Keaton at work, as well as a captivating glimpse of Hollywoods most romantic era. More than a book for film, comedy or history buffs, Silent Echoes appeals to anyone fascinated with solving puzzles or witnessing the awesome passage of time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #782886 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 231 pages

From Library Journal
Buster Keaton ranks as one of the foremost clown princes of Hollywood. As a child, Keaton learned his craft as one of vaudeville's Three Keatons, where he was the target of knockabout comedy so rough many observers considered it a form of child abuse. Sadly, personal problems, alcoholism, and a lack of business acumen caused Buster to lose artistic control over the making of his films in later years, and he was reduced to taking bit roles in "Beach Party" films. Knopf (theater, Univ. of Michigan) offers a timely, academic appreciation of the great stoneface, examining why Keaton's films intrigued surrealists and intellectuals such as Salvador Dal!, Federico Garc!a Lorca, and Luis Bu?uel. (One of Keaton's final appearances was in a short film scripted by Samuel Beckett.) Knopf also does an excellent job of tracing the vaudevillian roots of Keaton's stunts and gags. On the other hand, Bengtson's Silent Echoes shows more than 100 sites from early Keaton films, comparing the film view with the scene as it exists today. (Unlike other silent film figures, Keaton preferred natural settings for his pratfalls. As a result, his early films offer a wonderful view of early Hollywood landmarks that are, like some of Keaton's films, now lost to posterity.) This dedicated bit of detective work will be of great interest to Hollywood and urban historians. Although the definitive history of Keaton's life and career has yet to be written, both books will nicely supplement the collections of libraries that already own earlier studies, like Keaton's Wonderful World of Slapstick, Marion Meade's Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase or Tom Dardis's Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie DownAnot to mention Kino on Video's ten-volume The Art of Buster Keaton. Recommended for all academic and large public libraries and specialized film collections.AStephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Any student of early filmmaking in Los Angeles--not to mention Keaton fans--will find this elegant volume to be indespensable." -- American Cinematographer Magazine

"Astonishing is a mild word for what John Bengtson has accomplished . . . this book is something like a miracle." -- Kenneth Turan, film critic, Los Angeles Times

"In Silent Echoes, author John Bengtson performs a great deal of detective work to uncover the areas of Los Angeles (carefully scouted by Keaton himself), which served as the famed settings featured in many of the comic's classic films. [P]ainstakingly researched...enabling current generations to relate to these films of a bygone era. Keaton scholars and fans in general will enjoy seeing the portrait of a city so close to their idol's heart." -- Francesca Dingasan, BOXOFFICE, November, 1999.

"The book is meticulous. It's ingenious. It's inexhaustibly fascinating." -- Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

"This is a cinematic and photographic detective story of the first order." -- Ken Burns, author/director, The Civil War, Baseball, etc.

"What John Bengtson has done is nothing short of remarkable: a deft combination of detective work, archeology, and film buffery. I can't get enough of it!" -- Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian

"With its blend of film history... and research, the book is like no other; may there be more like it." -- Ace Magazine

Reviews for Silent Echoes

Mindboggling!Leonard Maltin; Astonishing is a mild word for what John Bengtson has accomplished through a deft combination of instinct, observation and hard work. For any silent film fan whos ever wondered exactly where their favorite Keaton gags were shot, this book is something like a miracle. Kenneth Turan, film critic, Los Angeles Times; Thanks to his sixth sense, his detectives nose and historians tenacity, we can discover scores of locations which we had assumed had been flattened. He gives an entirely new level of interest to the city. I envy John Bengtsons achievement as much as I admire it. Despite all the resources of Thames Television, and eager researchers, we did not find out nearly as much as Bengtson did on his own. I suspect he may have created a new art form. Certainly its a godsend for film enthusiasts. Let us hope more of his location surveys appear in the future. Kevin Brownlow, Emmy Award-winning Producer/Director/Film Historian; Bengtsons zealous and patient research into the places where Keaton shot his dazzling silent comedies has a double fascinationa fresh look at the matchless Keaton at work, and a nostalgic glimpse of a simpler, gentler Los Angeles that has all but vanished in every sense. Charles Champlin, author of Hollywoods Revolutionary Decade, retired critic-at-large, Los Angeles Times; Mr. Bengtson must be some sort of filmic angel!Richard Lewis, Actor/Writer/Comedian -- From the Publisher

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Foreword by Kevin Brownlow, Emmy Award-winning Producer/Director/Film Historian. Los Angeles is the most photographed town in the world. A fascinating film could be made showing its architectural progress simply by using exteriors from the thousands of films shot in its streets. It was footage of the Los Angeles area, appearing in the first films to be made in California, that precipitated the incredible population explosion. Cameramen would select the prettiest street corner, wait until the light was right, and, when they saw the movie, a few hundred more disillusioned Easterners and mid-Westerners would pack their bags. And how attractive Los Angeles was when pictures were silent, and Buster Keaton was making his comedies. In Keatons day, Hollywood was as close as any town could get to paradise. With a backdrop of hills, Sunset Boulevard was still rural enough to have a bridle path down the middle. Busters studio already had a noble heritage, having been the headquarters of Charlie Chaplin under the romantic name of the Lone Star Studio. Nearby was the classical facade of the administration building of the Metro Company, which released Keatons films, and where Valentino appeared in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Hollywood still had all the attributes of a small town. The original inhabitants' mid-Western prohibitionists' may once have been shocked by the sudden arrival of the picture people, but by the 1920s most people appreciated the source of the towns prosperity. One should addfor it is easy to lose sight of this in modern Hollywoodthat the picture pioneers were remarkably pleasant people. I interviewed scores of them, including Keaton, and they were the most extraordinary characters I ever met, enthusiastic about their work, full of excitement, humour, and charmand they retained these qualities into their old age. On the other hand, Hollywood itself has grown a bit raddled. Whenever any of the veterans took me for a tour of the place, they invariably got lost and sighed deeply for the old days. All the old landmarks seem to have been ruthlessly bulldozed, from D. W. Griffiths studio at the junction of Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards (now a supermarket) to Lot Three at MGM (now a condominium development.) One assumed that evidence of the old Los Angeles, the old Hollywood, lay only in photographs and motion pictures. And then came John Bengtson. Thanks to his sixth sense, his detective's nose, and historians tenacity, we can discover scores of locations that we had assumed had been flattened. He gives an entirely new level of interest to the city. Of course, changes occur every day and more and more buildings are demolished, so youd better hurry if you want to see these locations. But either way, he has provided an excellent record, and he will have given new heart to other researchers. I envy John Bengtson's achievement as much as I admire it, because I have had a go at this sort of thing myself. With David Gill, I prowled the streets of L.A. and went to Cottage Grove, in Oregon, to film locations for our documentary Buster Keaton - A Hard Act to Follow. Despite all the resources of Thames Television and eager researchers, we did not find out nearly as much as Bengtson did on his own. I suspect he may have invented a new art form. Certainly it's a godsend for film enthusiasts. Let us hope more of his location surveys appear in the future. Kevin Brownlow, London

Customer Reviews

Film Book of the Year!
The Book of the Year!

This has been an exceptionally good year for books on Silent Films! New titles by Basinger, Brownlow, Drew, and Riley (below) - yet Bengston's SILENT ECHOES is ... clearly the Film Book of the Year! Whether you are a longtime fan of Buster Keaton & the Silent Film era or a newcomer, you will want your own personal copy of SILENT ECHOES. Frankly, I'd recommend two: one to wear out from the heavy use you'll give it when you watch the Keaton films discussed in the book, and a second one to put on your bookshelves for safe keeping. You can read about the book's scope & coverage, above. Here, just let me tell you what the book can do for you, personally, as a film lover. It does, in book form, what film critic Richard T. Jameson wrote that only the best films can do: After experiencing it, you see life ... a little differently. Think about the power of a film - or a book - to change your life a little bit. THIS one will! After reading this book, you'll see Keaton's films - and other films of this era - in a different way, too. You will never see Keaton's work in the same light again - you 'll not only enjoy the films even more, you will also notice the world that was being documented in these films, and rejoice that so many of the landscapes that Keaton filmed still exist, today! You'll begin to watch other films of this era with that new perspective, and you may be inspired to create a similar book of your own!

Other new titles also recommended: Jeanine Basinger's SILENT STARS Kevin Brownlow's MARY PICKFORD REDISCOVERED Willam M. Drew's AT THE CENTER OF THE FRAME: LEADING LADIES OF THE TWENTIES & THIRTIES Philip J. Riley's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

A Masterful Blend of Urban Archeology and Film Scholarship
About 25 years ago, the now-demolished Playboy Theater in Chicago ran a landmark Buster Keaton revival featuring newly struck prints, correct projection speed, and musical accompaniment to Buster Keaton's features and shorts. It was a revelation and the first time that I truly understood what was lost when silent comedy faded into, as Norma Desmond might say, Talk! Talk! and More Talk! Moreover, it was the first time it became clear to me the degree of modernity and surrealism in Keaton's work--particularly in contrast to Chaplin's Victorian emotionalism. In short, I fell in love with Buster and his work. Now, "Silent Echoes" comes along to lovingly excavate the faded world of Buster Keaton's Los Angeles. The book is infused with John Bengston's love of Keaton, encyclopedic knowledge of his work and relentless ingenuity as a urban archeologist. Even better, it inspired me to rent the Keaton ouvre on laserdisc and video in order to revisit the locations of his shots and the depth of his humor and humanity. "Silent Echoes" is a labor of love that's a treat for film lovers.

In A Class By Its Own
John Bengston analyzes the Keaton studio and points out in minute detail the locations that show up in his films (1920-28), with the help of fire insurance maps, aerial photos, archived photos from public institutions, old postcards, itinerant things he's dug up, etc. Judging by the contents of "Silent Echoes", Keaton preferred to film in the real world, as opposed to the inside of a soundstage, and because of this, Bengston has provided us some great then-and-now photos that illustrate just how much L.A. (and other locations) have changed in the last 75+/- years (which turns out to be pretty depressing).

One of the things I found fun about "Silent Echoes" was making my own discoveries of things that would not have been pointed out by the author. I got kind of a kick out of seeing a rock formation from the film "Three Ages" that looked exactly like Wallace Beery's face, Keaton's co-star in the film. Another thing is, Bengston makes it easy for the reader to analyze the comparisons he's trying to get across. I never had a problem understanding the content, which made it more enjoyable to read.

I enjoyed "Silent Echoes" so thoroughly that I found myself occasionally spending as much as a half hour studying a single page! This amazing, sometimes eerie, book is a must for all Keaton fans (especially those in the L.A. area, who can run around town and stand in the actual filmed spots), but you don't have to be one to enjoy it. However, it will help if you've seen the films showcased in this book.