xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxThere’s no evidence that Buster Keaton
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxand Scott Fitzgerald ever crossed paths
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx—Dana Stevens, “Camera Man”
Fitzgerald’s old friend from his St. Paul days, Don Stewart, set it up on a Saturday at Musso & Frank, Keaton already seated in the back and doing his best to look alert, but even as the introductions were made Don explained he had a two o’clock meeting at MGM, leaving them to bring each other into focus. “Is this a blind date?” Buster asked, sounding more serious than he intended.
“I guess so,” Scott said, smiling. Then both men studied their menus, with Scott feeling a bit lost without an attentive waiter or a Coke sidling up in a tall chilled glass.
“I had a crush on your sister-in-law,” Fitzgerald said after a young man took their orders.
“Constance?” Buster asked, sounding interested.
“I heard about that screenplay you gave her. My flapper comedy,” Scott said, and hung his head in mock shame. “Constance didn’t even crack a smile the whole time. She kept saying, ‘Magic lipstick? Magic? You actually wrote this?’”
Buster started laughing. “Don’t blame yourself too much,” Buster said. “Irving Thalberg tried everything to get near our girl, and those days Thalberg could really work the charm.”
Scott brightened when the producer’s name came up and a Coke arrived. Don Stewart had warned his friend that the comedian might be too quiet for Scott’s taste, but the author of Lipstick was beginning to enjoy himself, telling Buster about the time he saw Keaton’s Battling Butler one snowbound Christmas Eve with Ring Lardner, and how afterward they staged their own fake fight outside the movie house while a real Manhattan blizzard raged and a few bored ticket buyers watched, and Keaton hardly looked surprised when Scott started in on another Coke, and asked Buster if he had ever slept with Constance.
Grey Sparrow Journal 