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Suddenly realizing that he would be a target for ridicule when his mate and his crew got a look at his boy in that Freshman regalia he hurried to the nearest store and told the clerk to outfit his boy in working clothes and he would be back later to pay for them.
Aware that his father owned a boat and that he was the son of a Captain and wanting his dad to be proud of him Buster selected an outfit befitting a Captain's son, as swranky as anything that ever graced the bridge of the Queen Mary. And right there my troubles began.
When we started the camera and Buster stepped out of that store carrying a swagger stick and dressed in a nifty, perfectly tailored naval uniform and cap, the ensemble not in the least eccentric or exaggerated, serious objections were raised because Buster did not look comical enough.
The producer was quite sure that Buster's neatly fitting uniform would ruin any chance of getting laughs. And I had to admit to myself that putting Keaton into a neatly fitting uniform for laugh purposes did not at first glance appear logical. However, there was more to be considered than a neat uniform alone.
Prior to outfitting Keaton in that uniform we had built an unsightly river dock, an old side-wheeler of Civil War vintage, an aging Captain, rough, gruff and tough, and his motley, unkempt, hard-boiled crew completing the picture. And that scene wras built and cast that way in order to realize fully upon the contrast Buster would create when he arrived there.
But my analysis of the possibility of more and bigger laughs when Buster arrived at that unsightly boat and dock in a neat uniform got me nowhere. The only thing that saved the situation was the fact that we would have to take time off to have a comedy uniform made and that meant a half day or more lost and an added production cost of probably five thousand dollars or more.
So we went ahead and shot the scene with the neat uniform, hardly anyone convinced that it was the logical thing to do, and when the picture was completed and playing to packed theatres I won my argument.
If you were there, you will recall the howl that greeted Buster when he stepped out of the clothing
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