Buster Keaton - WKTV Journal

Buster Keaton's "The Haunted House" will be featured in the opening concert. — Buster Keaton’s “The Haunted House” will be featured in the opening concert.

Join the Grand Rapids Public Museum for the first Mighty Wurlitzer Organ Concert of the 2016 series with performances by Scott Smith on Friday, Oct. 14 and Saturday, Oct. 15. Titled “Fall, Fun and Flicks,” Smith will play a variety of genres including a special spooky twist.

Just in time for Halloween, Smith’s performance on the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ will be accompanied by the short, 20-minute silent film “The Haunted House” starring Buster Keaton. Other selections will be a patchwork of eras and genres.

Born and raised in Lansing, Michigan, Smith began performing on the Barton organ as a teenager at the old Michigan Theatre. While the theater was demolished in 1980, Smith, who at the time was seventeen, saved and restored the organ. He later opened his own business, Scott Smith Pipe Organs, LLC, a full-service pipe organ business that restores both church and classical pipe organs. Today, Smith performs many concerts accompanying silent films, gives lectures on the history of pipe organs, and has published several articles in various pipe organ journals.

Shows will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, and at 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15, in the Meijer Theater at the GRPM.

Tickets for individual concerts are $10/general, $8/Museum members and $5/children 17 and under. Tickets bought in blocks of 10 or more are $8 each. Season Ticket packages are $50 each for the general public and $45 for Museum members. Tickets are available by visiting www.grpm.org/Organ or by calling 616.456.3977.

The second concert of the series will be “Broadway to Big Band” performed by Lance Luce on Friday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Nov.19, at 2 p.m. Luce’s performance will include a variety of musical styles.

The third and final concert of the series will be Holiday Classics on Friday, Dec. 16, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 17, at 2 p.m. by Dave Wickerham. This holiday classic is a sellout show, great for the entire family. Tickets are recommended to be purchased early.

The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ

The Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, New York, manufactured and shipped Opus #1836, a “3 manual special,” to the Stanley Theater of Jersey City, New Jersey, on Feb. 9, 1928. The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ spent two decades entertaining customers at the Roaring 20’s Pizza Parlor on 28^th Street in Grand Rapids, before it was moved to its current location at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

The Grand Rapids Public Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, with its main location in downtown Grand Rapids, MI at 272 Pearl Street, NW. For additional information including hours of operation, admission fees and exhibit/event listings, please visit www.grpm.org.

“The best summers of my life were spent in the cottage Pop had built on Lake Muskegon in 1908.” Buster Keaton in his autobiography, “My Wonderful World of Slapstick”

How did actors survive hot summers a 100 years ago, when theaters without air conditioning shut down for the season? About 200 of those performers chose to head to Muskegon where an artist colony of vaudeville performers flourished in the 1900s. Buster Keaton and his performing parents joined their fellow artists in card-playing, fun in the sun and the bracing waters of Muskegon Lake and Lake Michigan.

Those glory days are celebrated this weekend with the return of the International Buster Keaton Society to the city Buster Keaton claimed as his hometown. The group numbers between 400 to 500 members, some from as far away as the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada. Annual attendance for the convention is usually between 50-100. 88 people are registered for the convention this year!

Society member Ron Pesch, who lives in Muskegon, will conduct a private tour for convention-goers to explore the neighborhood where Keaton lived, and other areas in the Bluffton community where the big names of the vaudeville circuit partied and sunbathed during their off-season.

1924: American comedian Buster Keaton (1895-1966) sitting in the funnel of a ship in a scene from the film 'The Navigator'. — 1924: American comedian Buster Keaton (1895-1966) sitting in the funnel of a ship in a scene from the film ‘The Navigator’.

If you’re inclined to ask, “Who’s that?” when you hear Buster Keaton’s name, you can probably be forgiven. His star shone most brightly after vaudeville waned in the 1920’s. As a major star of silent film, Keaton’s comic routines and deadpan expression landed him equal billing with comic geniuses such as Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd–and if you’re still saying, “Who?” you probably like video games more than movies.

But Pesch says Keaton’s influence is cited by a number of major stars including Johnny Depp, Jackie Chan, and even Drew Barrymore. Pesch added, “The first ten minutes of the Pixar classic ‘Wall-E’ are filled with references to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.”

On Saturday night, October 3, 2015, at 8 p.m. (doors open at 7:30), two Buster Keaton films will be screened for fans, “The Railrodder” and “Battling Butler” at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts. Director Gerald Potterton will attend, who actually directed Keaton in his film “The Railrodder.” Potterton is best known for directing the cult classic, “Heavy Metal.” Dennis Scott will perform on the Barton Theater Organ, and Pesch notes, “Anyone who experiences a silent film in that theater with the organ accompaniment will be a Keaton fan forever.” Tickets are $8 per person or $21 for the whole family. For more information, visit www.frauenthal.org .

For more information about the artist colony in Muskegon.

Editor’s Note: Lake Muskegon was changed to its proper name of Muskegon Lake.