''Seeing Stars'' is a 1922 black-and-white eight-minute one-reel "trailer" film notable for a scene shared by

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

and

Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...

. ''Seeing Stars'' was one of just two times the great silent comedians appeared together onscreen; 30 years later, ''

Limelight Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light)James R. Smith (2004). ''San Francisco's Lost Landmarks'', Quill Driver Books. is a type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illumination is created when ...

'' (1952) was the second occasion. In the film, Chaplin and his '' The Kid'' costar

Jackie Coogan John Leslie Coogan (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor and comedian who began his film career as a child actor in silent films. Charlie Chaplin's film classic ''The Kid'' (1921) made him one of the first child stars in the ...

share a banquet table with

Thomas Ince Thomas Harper Ince (November 16, 1880 – November 19, 1924) was an American silent film - era filmmaker and media proprietor. Ince was known as the "Father of the Western" and was responsible for making over 800 films. He revolutionized the mot ...

; Buster Keaton (as himself) plays a waiter who serves them. Keaton's sisters-in-law, Norma and Constance Talmadge, also appear on-screen. The film was produced by the Independent Screen Artists' Guild (headed by Chaplin and Norma Talmadge) and

Associated First National Pictures First National Pictures was an American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., an association of independent theatre owners in the United States, and became the count ...

, and was, for the most part, filmed at the Guild's December 15, 1921 inaugural banquet at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. A handful of shots are taken from other sources, such as a few frames of Keaton's '' The Balloonatic''. According to contemporary reports, the ISAC "planned to eliminate the middlemen and the Wall St. interests from pictures...Direct relations between exhibitors in the 18,000 theaters of the country and studios are the hope of the organizers who include all of the independent producers and the stars with their own units. They include:

, Norma Talmadge, Constance Talmadge, Mack Sennett,

. Sol Lesser (formerly of San Francisco), J. Parker Read, Jos. M. Schenck,

Mabel Normand Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893 – February 23, 1930), better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, director, and producer. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their K ...

, Thos. H. Ince...

Dorothy Phillips Dorothy Phillips (born Dorothy Gwendolyn Strible, October 30, 1889 – March 1, 1980) was an American stage and film actress. She is known for her emotional performances in melodramas, having played a number of "brow beaten" women on screen, bu ...

, Allen Holubar, Col. Wm. N. Selig,

Maurice Tourneur Maurice may refer to: People *Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr *Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and Lo ...

, Richard Barthelmess,

... Anita Loos...Mr. and Mrs. Carter DeHaven... Al Christie, C. H. Christie, King Vidor... Louis B. Mayer...

B.P. Schulberg B. P. Schulberg (born Percival Schulberg, January 19, 1892 – February 25, 1957) was an American pioneer film producer and film studio executive. Biography Born Percival Schulberg in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he took the name Benjamin from t ...

...and

Marcia Manon Marcia Manon (born Marcia Elizabeth Harrison, October 28, 1896 – April 12, 1973) was a film actress active during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s. She was a supporting player who worked with stars Mary Pickford, John Barrymore, Ethel ...

." ''Seeing Stars'' is available on the three-disc ''Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection'' DVD set.

References

External links

* {{YouTube, Zif7ENvTCgY, ''Seeing Stars'' 1922 films