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,
The Buster Keaton Story Anderson). Eventually, she confesses to her fiancé her continued interest in Keaton, and they break up. While Keaton is in a drunken black-out, she marries him in order to move in with him and take care of him so he doesn’t die. Buster doubts Gloria’s motivation for marrying him and neglects and verbally abuses her. Things thaw between them; Buster has been offered a small part in a talking film by director Kurt Bergner. Buster quits the film in anger as he is not allowed enough screen time to develop any of his famous comedy routines. On his way home