The Styrous® Viewfinder: 20,000 vinyl LPs 336: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum w/Buster Keaton

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

vinyl LP, front cover detail

detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

Today is the birthday of silent film star, Buster Keaton, born on October 4, 1895, into a vaudeville family in Piqua, Kansas. His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton who had a traveling show called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. When he was about 18 months old, Keaton fell down a long flight of stairs without injury, an actor friend remarked, "Gee whiz, he's a regular buster!" After that, Keaton's father began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster.

Buster began performing with his parents as The Three Keatons when he was three years old. He first appeared on stage in 1899 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Buster Keaton ca 1897
photographer unknown

The act was mainly a comedy sketch. His mother, Myra, played the saxophone on one side of the stage, while Joe and Keaton performed center stage.

The Three Keatons
date & photographer unknown

Keaton goaded his father by disobeying him, and the elder Keaton responded by throwing him against the scenery, into the orchestra pit, or even into the audience. A suitcase handle was sewn into Keaton's clothing to aid with the constant tossing.

The act evolved as Keaton learned to take trick falls safely; he was rarely injured or bruised on stage. This knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of child abuse, and occasionally, arrest. However, Keaton was always able to show the authorities that he had no bruises or broken bones. He was eventually billed as "The Little Boy Who Can't Be Damaged", and the overall act as "The Roughest Act That Was Ever in the History of the Stage". Keaton said he had so much fun that he sometimes began laughing as his father threw him across the stage. Noticing that this caused the audience to laugh less, he adopted his famous deadpan expression when performing

Keaton is best known for his silent film work in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by his stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies". A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum was the final screen role for Buster Keaton.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

vinyl LP, back cover detail

detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum was inspired by the farce, Pseudolus, by the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (251–183 BC) and tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

vinyl LP, front cover

photo of album cover by Styrous®

The film plot takes place in the city of Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero, Pseudolus is "the lyingest, cheatingest, sloppiest slave in all of Rome", whose only wish is to buy his freedom from his master's parents, the henpecked Senex and his overbearing wife, Domina.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

vinyl LP, back cover

photo of album cover by Styrous®

The film is a wonderful essay in raucous humor due to the cast, which was perfect! Zero Mostel was Pseudolus with Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Keaton to back him up.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

vinyl LP, back cover detail

detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

In addition to an accomplished performer, he was a brilliant film maker, director and camera man. He said, "The first thing I did in the studio was to want to tear that camera to pieces. I had to know how that film got into the cutting room, what you did to it in there, how you projected it, how you finally got the picture together, how you made things match. The technical part of pictures is what interested me. Material was the last thing in the world I thought about. You only had to turn me loose on the set and I`d have material in two minutes, because I`d been doing it all my life."

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

vinyl LP, back cover detail

detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

Keaton's career declined when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and lost his artistic independence. His wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. He recovered in the 1940s, remarried, and revived his career as an honored comic performer for the rest of his life, earning an Academy Honorary Award in 1959. Late in his career, he starred in the only cinema work by Samuel Beckett, the silent and VERY surreal, Film (link below). Keaton had some great scenes in the 1965 film, Beach Blanket Bingo which starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello (link below).

Beach Blanket Bingo - 1965
movie still

Keaton was featured in the 1961 Rod Serling television episode of Twilight Zone, Once Upon a Time, written by Sci-fi author, Richard Matheson. It is the only comedy of the series.

He made cameos in the Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard and The Charlie Chaplin film Limelight (links below). Keaton is often described as having been ahead of his time; Anthony Lane wrote "He was just too good, in too many ways, too soon."

Buster Keaton

date & photographer unknown

Keaton loved television and he watched everything. Though he never mentioned it by name, among his favorite shows during the 1950s must have been the pioneering sitcom I Love Lucy, starring his friend and onetime MGM protégée Lucille Ball. When asked to name the best comedians of the up-and-coming generation he would often cite Ball as one of his “pets,” calling her timing “impeccable.”

Keaton had had a behind-the-scenes role in getting I Love Lucy on the air. In 1950, when CBS was trying to convince Ball to star in a sitcom based on her successful radio series My Favorite Husband, she agreed to sign on only if the show could costar her real-life husband, Cuban-American bandleader Desi Arnaz. The network balked at the idea of a domestic comedy centered around a couple of mixed race, so the two worked up a vaudeville routine to be filmed as an experimental pilot.

Keaton coached Ball in the big physical comedy scene, an act borrowed from the Spanish clown Pepito that involved Ball as a dimwitted but resourceful cellist auditioning for a spot in Arnaz’s orchestra. This pilot never aired at the time (and was lost until 1989, when it was discovered and aired on CBS as part of a Lucille Ball tribute special). But it was funny enough to convince CBS to give Ball and Arnaz their own prime-time series, which would run for 180 episodes and become perhaps the most influential of all early situation comedies. A pared-down version of the cello sketch found its way into a first-season episode, so although Keaton never guest-starred on I Love Lucy, he is nonetheless there as an influential presence.

Lucille Ball and Keaton - 1965

photo: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

20th Century is planning a biopic directed by James Mangold and Warner Bros. Television is in talks to develop a limited series based on the life of Keaton; the project would star Rami Malek as Keaton.

On May 29, 1940, Keaton married Eleanor Norris. She has been credited with salvaging his life and career. The marriage lasted until his death. Keaton died of lung cancer on February 1, 1966, aged 70, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. Despite being diagnosed with cancer in January 1966, he was never told he was terminally ill. Keaton thought that he was recovering from a severe case of bronchitis. Confined to a hospital during his final days, he was restless and paced the room endlessly, desiring to return home. In a British television documentary about his career, his widow Eleanor told producers from Thames Television that Keaton was up out of bed and moving around, and even played cards with friends who came to visit the day before he died. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

vinyl LP, record label details side 1 & 2

detail photos of record labels by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Tiba Solo - Into - Comedy Tonight
Vocals – Zero Mostel
Vocals [Company] – Annette Andre, Buster Keaton, Helen Funai, Inga Neilsen, Jack Gilford, Janet Webb, Jennifer Baker (2), Leon Greene, Lucienne Bridou, Michael Crawford, Michael Hordern, Myrna White, Patricia Jessel, Phil SIlvers, Susan Baker
3:27
A2 - Search For Mare's Sweat    0:39
A3 - Lovely
Vocals – Annette Andre, Michael Crawford
2:47
A4 - Tintinabula's Dance    0:58
A5 - Vibrata's Dance    0:45
A6 - Roman Emissary    0:35
A7 - Everybody Ought To Have A Maid
Vocals – Jack Gilford, Michael Hordern, Phil Silvers, Zero Mostel - 2:51
A8 - Riot At The Funeral    1:24
A9 - Domina Returns (Fanfare) - Into - My Bride, Vocals – Leon Greene, Vocals [Company] – Annette Andre, Buster Keaton, Helen Funai, Inga Neilsen, Jack Gilford, Janet Webb, Jennifer Baker (2), Lucienne Bridou, Michael Crawford, Michael Hordern, Myrna White, Patricia Jessel, Phil SIlvers, Susan Baker, Zero Mostel - 2:37

Side 2:

B1 - Erronious Returns - 0:27
B2 - Orgy Music... Roman Style - 1:57
B3 - Lovely (Reprise), Vocals – Jack Gilford, Zero Mostel - 2:16
B4 - In The Arena - 1:38
B5 - The Dirge, Vocals – Leon Greene, Vocals [Company] – Annette Andre, Buster Keaton, Helen Funai, Inga Neilsen, Jack Gilford, Janet Webb, Jennifer Baker (2), Lucienne Bridou, Michael Crawford, Michael Hordern, Myrna White, Patricia Jessel, Phil SIlvers, Susan Baker, Zero Mostel - 3:40
B6 - The Rescue Of Philia - Into - The Chase - 5:57
B7 - Comedy Tonight And Playout - 3:28

Companies, etc.

    Copyright © – United Artists Records, Inc.
    Pressed By – Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Pitman
    Mastered At – Customatrix

Credits:

    Directed By [Music Direction], Music By [Incidental Music] – Ken Thorne
    Engineer [Sound] – Eric Tomlinson
    Music By, Lyrics By – Stephen Sondheim
    Vocals [Domina] – Patricia Jessel
    Vocals [Erronius] – Buster Keaton
    Vocals [Fertilla] – Janet Webb
    Vocals [Geminae] – Jennifer Baker (2), Susan Baker
    Vocals [Gymnasia] – Inga Neilsen
    Vocals [Hero] – Michael Crawford
    Vocals [Hysterium] – Jack Gilford
    Vocals [Lycus] – Phil Silvers
    Vocals [Miles] – Leon Greene
    Vocals [Panacea] – Lucienne Bridou
    Vocals [Philia] – Annette Andre
    Vocals [Pseudolus] – Zero Mostel
    Vocals [Senex] – Michael Hordern
    Vocals [Tintinabula] – Helen Funai
    Vocals [Vibrata] – Myrna White

Notes:

    Written by K. Thorne* (tracks: A1, A2, A4 to A6, A9 to B2, B4, B6), S. Sondheim* (tracks: A1, A3, A7 to A9, B3, B5 to B7)

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Side A Label): UAL 4144 A
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Label): UAL 4144 B
    Matrix / Runout (Side A Runout Etched): UAL 4144A 1A
    Matrix / Runout (Side A Runout Stamped): o B P 2
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Runout Etched): UAL 4144 B 1A
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Runout Stamped): o B I P 2

Stephen Sondheim – A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Label: United Artists Records – UAL 4144
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono
Country: US
Released: 1966
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack

Viewfinder links:

Desi Arnaz

Frankie Avalon

Lucille Ball

Samuel Beckett

Charlie Chaplin

Roger Ebert

Annette Funicello

Buster Keaton

Rami Malek

James Mangold

Richard Matheson