16th Annual Buster Keaton Celebration

October 1 and 2, 2010

Muskegon, MI

That Was Hollywood

By EVE M. KAHN
Published: July 22, 2010

Museums about Hollywood history must compete for visitors with movie back lots and celebrity-home bus tours, and have trouble gaining traction. A museum in Hollywood devoted to Max Factor’s beautification of stars lasted about a decade in the 1980s and ’90s, and the actress Debbie Reynolds has been trying for years to set up her Hollywood Motion Picture Museum in Tennessee after plans for a Los Angeles site fell through.

The Hollywood Entertainment Museum, which opened in 1996 on Hollywood Boulevard and took on the Max Factor collection, closed four years ago and is now auctioning off much of its contents. The sales will help finance the museum’s current focus: education programs in entertainment-industry skills for at-risk youth. “The goal is,” said Phyllis Caskey, the museum’s president, “what can we do, and can we save us?”

Super Auctions in Huntington Beach, Calif., has held a half-dozen online and live sales for the museum so far and plans more in the next few months. The lots available now range from four photos of Errol Flynn dressed as a physician, miner and, of course, pirate ($75 to $150 for the set) to Max Factor’s “Beauty Calibrator,” a 1932 filigree metal hood used to detect facial flaws ($85,000 to $150,000).

Super Auctions has rented extra warehouse space near its office to sort through the museum’s thousands of objects. Melissa Storment, the company’s vice president, has been trying to research each artifact; on the back of a 1928 production still she found a sketch of Dopey signed “Dick F” that she has tentatively attributed to the animated film director Richard Fleischer. (Disney scholars said it did not come from one of that studio’s staff members.)

She is also trying to market the material to other nonprofit institutions. This spring a Michigan foundation paid $22,000 for a life-size bronze statue of Buster Keaton that stood beside the museum’s Hollywood Boulevard entrance. The statue was re-erected a few weeks ago outside a 1929 Moorish Revival theater in Muskegon, Mich.; Keaton wears rumpled clothes and a porkpie hat while dwarfed by a movie camera.

A version of this article appeared in print on July 23, 2010, on page C28 of the New York edition under the headline, The Rediscovery of the Snake Man.

Contact: Chris McGuigan

President

Community Foundation for Muskegon County

(231) 722-4538

CMcGuigan@cffmc.org

Hollywood star relocates to Muskegon

Dedication Ceremony 5:30 pm June 30

FOR IMMEIDATE RELEASE

June 24, 2010

MUSKEGON, Mich. – A life-sized bronze statue of silent film star Buster Keaton has left its longtime home in Hollywood and will be unveiled June 30 at its new home outside the Frauenthal Theatre in downtown Muskegon.

Why Muskegon?

Keaton spent his summers basking in the sun along Muskegon’s scenic shoreline. He loved the lakeside town so much that he bragged about it to other actors of the vaudeville era whom followed him here. They became known as the Actors Colony of Bluffton, a reference to the neighborhood where they stayed.

For years, the beautifully preserved statue greeted visitors outside the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. It depicts Keaton in his signature vest and porkpie hat standing behind his camera.

It’s only fitting that the statue returns to Muskegon, given Keaton’s affection for the town’s waterfront charm.

“The best summers of my life were spent in the cottage (my father) had built on Muskegon Lake,” Keaton wrote in his autobiography, “My Wonderful World of Slapstick.”

Emmanuil Snitkovsky, who enjoyed international acclaim for his imaginative artworks, created the Keaton statue. He also crafted statues of actors Charlie Chaplin and Lucille Ball.

The Alta Daetz and the Sydney and Eunice Bush Funds from the Community Foundation for Muskegon County – which are dedicated to downtown beautification – provided the majority of the $22,000 purchase price for the statue.

“That’s a bargain since I am sure these pieces were double or triple that amount when they were originally commissioned,” said Community Foundation for Muskegon County President Chris McGuigan.

According to the website actorscolony.com, the Keaton family discovered the Muskegon area during trips to perform at the former Lake Michigan Park Theatre.

“I think it’s fantastic that someone who comes to Muskegon and walks around the downtown will bump into this statue and realize, ‘Wow! Buster has ties here,” said Ron Pesch, a Muskegon historian on Buster Keaton. “Buster is widely considered one of the absolute greatest directors in cinema history.”

The grand unveiling of the statue will be part of the annual gathering at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts. The event will be held 4 to 6 pm on June 30 in downtown Muskegon.

Looking Back: Preservationists unable to save Pigeon Hill from sand miners

by Dave LeMieux | Muskegon Chronicle
Monday, June 21, 2010

	This undated photo of Pigeon Hill is from local historian Charles Yates' collection. Thought to have been taken from the current site of the Muskegon Country Club, its shows the dune which some believed protected Muskegon from the full violence of Lake Michigan storms.
Chronicle file photo

This week 85 years ago...
A year after Nugent Sand Co. and the Pere Marquette Railroad first moved to begin mining operations at Pigeon Hill, the doomed fight to preserve the local landmark began.

The Chronicle said on June 25, 1925
Committee told to work out plan to prevent land mark’s destruction

With a view to saving Pigeon Hill, not alone for its scenic beauty, but because of its commercial value as well, the directors of the Chamber of Commerce authorized the parks committee to proceed with a plan toward saving the hill Wednesday.

Two plans were discussed, one of working up sentiment to have the city bonded for the amount to purchase the property and another to have a syndicate formed for the purpose of buying the land and later selling it to the city.

The action taken by the directorate of the commerce board yesterday followed a move made three weeks ago, or two days after the city commission had granted the railroad right to extend its track to the hill.

The directorate of the chamber at that time instructed its committee to start work to determine the amount of dune property involved and the proceedings that would be necessary to have the hill kept intact.

	The mining operations that removed Pigeon Hill, which once towered 217 feet above the western shores of Muskegon Lake, began in 1926. By 1938, the ancient dune was leveled. The only spot left higher than 10 feet above lake level were the port facilities, shown in this undated photo. The dock and conveyors were razed in 1974.
Chronicle file photo

Value inestimable
Pigeon Hill’s value to the city is inestimable, it was decided, but the question remains as to how to proceed. Floating of a bond issue to make the purchase of the hill possible and distribution of these bonds over a period of possibly 25 years would make the increase in taxes very small it is pointed out.

On the other hand, the hill might be purchased by a syndicate and sold to the city at a time when the city sees fits to purchase it, it being understood that the purchase syndicate would not sell the sand.

The hill belongs to Robert Ferguson, the Nugent Sand Company, and the Pere Marquette Railroad, and it is understood that the sand is to be sold and the ground to be developed as a home site after the sand has been removed.

Must act at Once
The city commission has granted permission to the railroad to extend its line to the hill and it is felt that if something is to be done it must be done immediately.

Sentiment here is strong for the preservation of the hill, mainly because of its scenic beauty. Few people in town have expressed the sentiment that it is not worth thousands of dollars in bringing tourists here and in preserving the beauty of the lake front.

Lakeside, it was declared by A.E. McCrea and Herman W. Freye, directors on the board of the chamber, is strongly in favor of the preservation of the great mound.

MORE ABOUT THE STORY

Within two years, a legal technicality sealed the fate of Muskegon’s once-iconic landmark.

Nugent Sand Co. needed rail access to the site to make mining the prehistoric dune profitable.

The company got what it needed when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that although the long-unused Pere Marquette Railroad spur along Beach Street was buried deep beneath the shifting sands, it was not abandoned as Beach Street residents contended.

When reconstruction of the line began, Pigeon Hill was as doomed as its then-extinct namesake, the Passenger Pigeon.

	Despite a 1925 mining company proposal that it would build homes on the site and city attempts to turn the area into a park in the early 1960s, this 1977 photo shows how Pigeon Hill looked from the time mining operations ceased in the early 1950s until construction of Harbour Towne began in 1992.
Chronicle file photo

Sand from the Bluffton dune, which stood sentinel between Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake, was sold to the foundries that made Muskegon prosperous.

Although in later accounts the legendary hill’s height grew to upwards of 300 feet, it was precisely measured at 217 feet in 1907 by Muskegon High School’s trigonometry class.

Local residents and civic organizations fought hard to save the dune, deposited there during the last ice age by an ancient ancestor of the Muskegon River.

Adding their talents to the preservation effort were famed North Muskegon artist Victor Casenelli, who painted it, and beloved Muskegon poet Douglas Malloch, who wrote about it.

Well-known Detroit newspaper columnist and radio announcer Curtis Custer Bradner spread word of the famed sand hill statewide.

All efforts were in vain.

Soon after the supreme court ruling in December 1926, trainloads of sand from Pigeon Hill began arriving at local foundries.

Construction of port facilities for lake freighters were completed by mid-May in 1928 when the J.E. Savage sailed from the new dock at Devil’s Kitchen for Milwaukee with 7,000 tons of sand.

Although mining operations would continue into the 1950s, by 1938 Pigeon Hill was reduced to a collection of sandy humps, none more than 10 feet high.

The land lay vacant until construction began on Harbour Towne in 1992.

Local grocer John Bennink’s words provide the most fitting epitaph for Muskegon’s lost legacy. During the battle to save the dune, Bennick told the city commission: “Pigeon Hill was placed there by God to protect this city. It saves us from storms that sweep in over the lake. If it is removed, the wrath of God will be upon us.

— By Dave LeMieux

Buster Keaton set for permanent stay in Muskegon

Bill Iddings | The Muskegon Chronicle
Sunday, May 30, 2010,

Forty-four years after his death, Buster Keaton’s back in town.

A life-size bronze statue of the great silent-film comedian has been purchased, for $22,000, by the Community Foundation for Muskegon County.

Subject to approval on an encroachment permit from the city of Muskegon, the statue will be unveiled publicly on June 30.

Chris McGuigan, president of the foundation, said the statue will be placed, on a raised platform, on the west side of Western Avenue, facing the historic Frauenthal Theater. A commemorative plaque will be placed with the statue, she said.

The acquisition of the Keaton statue continues an ongoing project to display interactive public art in downtown Muskegon.

Purchasing the statue and placing it downtown recognizes Keaton’s link to Muskegon.

“We have such a long history with Buster Keaton that (buying the statue) seemed like absolutely the right thing to do,” said Patricia Johnson, chair of the public art committee of the Downtown Development Committee. “He was such a tradition in Muskegon.”

	This bronze statue of Buster Keaton will be placed on Western Avenue June 30. Formerly on display in California at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, the statue arrived in Muskegon last week.
Contributed photo

Keaton, who died in 1966 at age 70, summered during the early 1900s in Muskegon with his family.

Keaton’s father, vaudeville entertainer Joseph Keaton, helped establish a show-business enclave here called The Actors’ Colony. The colony was situated in the Bluffton neighborhood, operating from 1908-1938.

A historic marker commemorating the Keatons’ ties to Muskegon stands in a tree-lined area off Lakeshore Drive.

For the past 15 years on the first weekend of October, the fall convention of Buster Keaton’s fan club — Damfinos: International Buster Keaton Society — is held in downtown Muskegon. The convention screens Keaton movies at the Frauenthal Theater.

The statue’s purchase was underwritten by the Community Foundation beautication funds of Alta Daetz and Eunice Bush, according to the foundation.

Ron Pesch, a Muskegon resident, historian, Keaton expert and Damfinos officer, said Keaton’s years in Muskegon influenced Keaton as a filmmaker — many of Keaton’s movies were set on or around water. The statue is symbolic of that influence, Pesch said.

“It’s really a symbol, for the city to recognize that the area itself really impacted Keaton’s films” he said.

Two previous examples of public art being permanently displayed in downtown Muskegon are the “Muskegon Rising” sculpture towering above the traffic circle at Western Avenue and Third Street, and a statue of late Muskegon philanthropist Charles Hackley sitting on a bench at the corner of Clay Avenue and Third.

The Keaton statue, created by artist and sculptor Emmanuel Snitkovsky, depicts Keaton behind an early motion picture camera that towers over the 5-foot-6-inch actor and director.

The Muskegon foundation acquired the statue after it went up for auction this spring. It was dedicated at the Hollywood museum in 1996, when the museum opened.

The museum closed its location on Hollywood Boulevard in 2006, and moved to downtown Los Angeles, as The Education Center for the Entertainment Arts. It has been selling off its museum assets to fund its mission of providing after-school programs for at-risk youth.

According to the local history book “Buster Keaton and the Muskegon Connection” by Pesch and Marc Okkonen, Keaton last visited Muskegon in 1949. He ceased summering in Muskegon after reaching movie stardom. Pesch said Keaton spent summers here from 1908-1917.

McGuigan said Pesch informed her in March about the Keaton statue going up for auction. She said she subsequently visited the Huntington Beach, Calif., auction house where the statue was being stored.

When the statue did not receive a minimum bid, Pesch said, it was withdrawn from auction. The Community Foundation subsequently decided to purchase it.

The Frauenthal Theater, which is inside the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts complex, opened in 1930 as the Michigan movie theater, and this year is commemorating its 80th anniversary. The community foundation owns and operates the complex and theater.

Pesch said the Damfinos this fall also will have a Muskegon dedication ceremony for the statue. The 2010 convention will be Oct. 1-2.

Bill Iddings is a Chronicle correspondent.

Actors'
Colony
at Bluffton
1908 - 1938
_____________

Buster Keaton
and the
Muskegon Connection

Home | Members | Maps | Historical Marker | Walking Tour | Convention|
Coverage | Links | Contact

16th Annual Buster Keaton Celebration

That Was Hollywood

A version of this article appeared in print on July 23, 2010, on page C28 of the New York edition under the headline, The Rediscovery of the Snake Man.

Looking Back: Preservationists unable to save Pigeon Hill from sand miners

Buster Keaton set for permanent stay in Muskegon

Home | Members | Maps | Historical Marker | Walking Tour | Convention| Coverage | Links | Contact

Actors' Colony at Bluffton 1908 - 1938 _____________ Buster Keaton and the Muskegon Connection

Home | Members | Maps | Historical Marker | Walking Tour | Convention| Coverage | Links | Contact

16th Annual Buster Keaton Celebration

That Was Hollywood

A version of this article appeared in print on July 23, 2010, on page C28 of the New York edition under the headline, The Rediscovery of the Snake Man.

Looking Back: Preservationists unable to save Pigeon Hill from sand miners

Buster Keaton set for permanent stay in Muskegon

Home | Members | Maps | Historical Marker | Walking Tour | Convention| Coverage | Links | Contact

Actors'
Colony
at Bluffton
1908 - 1938
_____________

Buster Keaton
and the
Muskegon Connection

Home | Members | Maps | Historical Marker | Walking Tour | Convention|
Coverage | Links | Contact