Steamboat Bill, Jr. Steamboat Bill, Jr. Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a 1928 silent comedy film starring Buster Keaton. Released by United Artists, the film is the last product of Keaton's independent production team and set of gag writers. It was not a box-office success and became the last picture Keaton made for United Artists. Keaton ended up moving to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where he made one last film in his trademark style, "The Cameraman", before his creative control was taken away by the studio. Charles Reisner directed the film, and the credited story writer was Carl Harbaugh, although Keaton wrote the script and publicly called
Steamboat Willie not the first cartoon with synchronized sound. Starting in May 1924 and continuing through September 1926, Dave and Max Fleischer's Inkwell Studios produced 19 sound cartoons, part of the "Song Car-Tunes" series, using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process. However, the "Song Car-Tunes" failed to keep the sound fully synchronized, while "Steamboat Willie" was produced using a click track to keep his musicians on the beat. As little as one month before "Steamboat Willie" was released, Paul Terry released "Dinner Time" which also used a soundtrack, but "Dinner Time" was not a financial success. In June 1927, producer Pat Powers made an