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Buster Keaton: Natalie Talmadge
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In 1921, Buster Keaton married Natalie Talmadge, sister-in-law of his boss, Joseph Schenck, and sister of actresses Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge. During the first three years of the marriage, the couple had two sons, James (1922-2007) and Robert (1924-), but after the birth of Robert, the relationship began to suffer.
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In February 1917, Keaton met Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle at the Talmadge Studios in New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joseph M. Schenck. He was hired as a co-star and gag-man. Keaton later claimed that he was soon Arbuckle's second director and his entire gag department. Keaton and Arbuckle became close friends, a bond that would never break, even after Arbuckle was embroiled in the scandal that cost him his career and his personal life. After Keaton's successful work with Arbuckle, Schenck gave him his own production unit, The Keaton Studio. He made a series of two-reel comedies, including One Week (1920), Cops (1922), The Electric House (1922), and The Playhouse (1921).
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According to Keaton in his autobiography, Natalie turned him out of their bedroom and sent detectives to follow him to see who he was dating behind her back. Her extravagance was another factor in the breakdown of the marriage. During the 1920s, according to his autobiography, he dated actress Kathleen Key. When he ended the affair, Key flew into a rage and tore up his dressing room. After attempts at reconciliation, Natalie bitterly divorced Keaton in 1932, taking his entire fortune and refusing to allow any contact between Keaton and his sons, whose last name she had changed to Talmadge. Keaton was reunited with them about a decade later when his older son turned 18.
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In the last decade of silent film, Keaton worked as an independent auteur. He usually used the same crew, worked with trusted riggers who understood his thinking, conceived his screenplays mostly by himself. He had backing from the mogol Joe Schenck (they were brothers-in-law, both married to Talmadge girls), but Schenck sometimes missed the point. He was outraged that Buster spent $25,000 to buy the ship used in "The Navigator," but then. without consulting Keaton, spent $25,000 to buy the rights to a third-rate Broadway farce that Buster somehow transformed into "Seven Chances."
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In 1921 Keaton married Natalie Talmadge. She ran off the previous year and eloped, then wrote to Keaton to send for her, and he did. They had been friends for a while by then. Their marriage was miserable.... "Nate" insisted that they build a palatial estate, ignoring Buster's desire for a comfortable cottage. Keaton built her a 10,000 square foot mansion in Beverly Hills.
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Keaton suffered from several personal crises as well. He and Natalie Talmadge divorced on bitter terms in 1932. Two years later she changed their sons' last name to Talmadge. Keaton had a short-lived second marriage with Mae Elizabeth Scriven, a nurse, hairstylist and playwright. They were married in Mexico on January 1, 1932, before his divorce was final; then again legally in 1933. By 1935, this second marriage had ended in divorce.
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Natalie Talmadge