Bluffton Actors' Colony

In 1908 Joe Keaton, actor Paul Lucier, and agent Lew Earl founded the Actors’ Colony. By 1911 over two hundred theater personalities flocked to Bluffton each summer. They included Keaton, his wife, Myra, and son Joseph Frank, nicknamed “Buster,” who were billed as “The Three Keatons.” Pascoe’s Place, a local tavern, became the unoffical club headquarters. By 1918 film began replacing vaudeville and the Actors’ Colony declined.

[Back]: “That he is an excruciatingly funny little chap will be granted by anyone who sees him,” raved a 1903 New York Times review of Joseph Frank “Buster” Keaton, child star of the popular vaudeville act “The Three Keatons.” Known for his ability to keep a straight face in any situation, Buster Keaton (1895-1966) left the family act in 1917 to work in silent film. He is recognized, with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, as one of the creative geniuses of silent comedy.