Buster Keaton "Francis". His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, who owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. According to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton acquired the nickname "Buster" at about 18 months of age. Keaton told interviewer Fletcher Markle that Houdini was present one day when the young Keaton took a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Houdini remarked, "That was a real buster!" According to Keaton,
Buster Keaton Rides Again with a retrospective of Keaton's work including scenes from "The Butcher Boy" (1917), "The Frozen North" (1922), "Seven Chances" (1925), and "The General" (1927). Keaton and Gerald Potterton, his director on "The Railrodder", discussed and occasionally argued over gags in the film with the director concerned about the safety of his star. During the filming of "The Railrodder", Keaton celebrated his 69th birthday. He also had the opportunity to meet fans across Canada. Filmed concurrently with the production of "The Railrodder" during the fall of 1964, the NFB documentary was filmed in black-and-white, as opposed to the short film itself,