User Reviews

When Buster Keaton was first picked by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle to appear in his shorts, the initial offering was The Butcher Boy. In that one, Buster is trying to buy molasses from Roscoe at his store. The quarter used to pay for the item is in the bucket Buster brought with him. You can probably guess what happens there. When live television became a popular medium for the public during the late '40s, vaudeville comedians like Ed Wynn became weekly regulars for the initial home viewing audience. Buster also got some good exposure for new fans here. So one of the things Keaton did with Wynn was to recreate that molasses sketch. It was much the same as the original Arbuckle one except when we need to know what is being said-since it's presented with no talking-we see Buster and Ed take written cue cards to express them. I liked the one where Wynn put one that said "Hey!" which causes Keaton to turn around as if he was being shouted at! Other additions include a large cash register drawer having a small piggy bank and seeing Buster fall after putting both feet on the counter and the aftermath I won't reveal here. Much of the material still worked and the audience seemed to enjoy it enough for respectful applause. So on that note, this segment that I watched on the "Industrial Strength Keaton" DVD collection made me want to watch the rest of what this episode of "The Ed Wynn Show" contained. Maybe if I searched YouTube...

Buster Keaton was never a prima donna. He was a team player, from his earliest days in vaudeville with his family. When we see a Keaton performance, we see what those around him brought out in him. So when we see him in this delightful episode of "The Ed Wynn Show", we see what Ed Wynn brought out in him. And Ed Wynn knew how to tap into Keaton's comic genius.

The premise was simple enough. They set out to recreate Buster Keaton's film debut: the molasses bit from "The Butcher Boy" (1917). But while those of us who are familiar with "The Butcher Boy" will recognize the skeleton of the sketch, Keaton and Wynn put new flesh on it and breathed new life into it. Some of the freshest reworking comes in the way Buster and Ed made fun of the medium of silent films even while paying tribute to them. And the whole bit is funny in itself, and not purely in how it references familiar material.

I won't spoil any of it for you by giving it away. You can find it and watch it -- the entire episode -- at the Internet Archive. The Keaton bit is at the end, the final fifteen minutes. But the early part of the episode is worth watching as well, particularly for what Wynn did with his sponsor -- Spiedel watch bands -- and a pair of ballet dancers.