Buster had broken up his family's vaudeville act, "The Three Keatons", at the age of 21, when his father's drinking made their rough-and-tumble act too difficult and dangerous. It was based on a successful play, The New Henrietta, which had already been filmed once, under the title The Lamb, with Douglas Fairbanks playing the lead. With the exception of Seeing Stars, a minor publicity film produced in 1922, Limelight was the only time in which the two would ever appear together on film. Keaton, however, did not own any part of the company. "[12] In 2018, Peter Bogdanovich released The Great Buster: A Celebration, a tribute to Keaton featuring Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Werner Herzog and Quentin Tarantino, among others. Keaton is often described as having been ahead of his time; Anthony Lane wrote "He was just too good, in too many ways, too soon No action thriller of the last, blood-streaked decade has matched the kinetic violence at the end of Steamboat Bill, Jr., in which a storm pulls Keaton through one random catastrophe after another. (1933). After her step-grandmother Eleanor died in 1998, Cox became the family's Goodwill Ambassador on behalf of her Grandpa Buster. Allegedly, Keaton suffered a nasty fall, but displayed a nonchalant reaction to it. They were married in Mexico on January 1, 1932, before his divorce was final; then again legally in 1933. [4] In 1996, Entertainment Weekly recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, writing that "More than Chaplin, Keaton understood movies: He knew they consisted of a four-sided frame in which resided a malleable reality off which his persona could bounce. This is discussed in the TCM documentary Buster Keaton: So Funny it Hurt, with Keaton complaining about having to shoot lousy films not just once, but three times. "[28], In February 1917, he met Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle at the Talmadge Studios in New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joseph M. Schenck. While the first project he did for MGM ( The Cameraman in 1928) was rather good, as was his last silent film (Spite Marriage in 1929), Keaton's career was in decline. [7] The General is viewed as his masterpiece: Orson Welles considered it "the greatest comedy ever madeand perhaps the greatest film ever made". His career declined when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and lost his artistic independence. I just stood there, and everybody is hassling. During this period, he made another film in England, The Invader (released in the United States as An Old Spanish Custom in 1936).[45]. He was a motion picture comic actor, writer, producer, and director of the 1910s thru 1960s. . A drastic shift for silent film icon Charlie Chaplin, A Woman of Paris exchanged slapstick comedy for romantic drama and was the first of only . . A scene from Steamboat Bill, Jr. required Keaton to stand still on a particular spot. [45] In another telling, Keaton was fired after MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer "raided" Keaton's dressing room during a wild party with Keaton's "cronies and their girlfriends" and Keaton "angrily ordered Mayer to get out." Cox moved with her family to Cloverdale in the . A chance meeting with comedian Rosco "Fatty" Arbuckle led him to break that contract. Shortly after his son's birth, Joseph Keaton changed his son's name to Joseph Francis Keaton. The first of MGM's Keaton films was The Cameraman (1928), and Keaton sensed trouble immediately when he saw the script. [70], One of his most biting parodies is The Frozen North (1922), a satirical take on William S. Hart's Western melodramas, like Hell's Hinges (1916) and The Narrow Trail (1917). Several times I'd have been killed if I hadn't been able to land like a cat. 253 ratings60 reviews. According to one biographer, Keaton was made to go to school while performing in New York, but only attended for part of one day. Buster Keaton Remembered. After the child fell down a long flight of stairs without injury, an actor friend named George Pardey remarked, "Gee whiz, he's a regular buster! Adding to his mystique was a background on the vaudeville stage with all its tricks and sleight of hand. Vance, Jeffrey. Several factors, other than the loss of creative control, contributed to Keaton's downward spiral in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He received the nickname "Buster" while still an infant. Knopf: 832 pages, $40. At the end of the day, he asked to borrow one of the cameras to get a feel for how it worked. [48] The screenplay, by Sidney Sheldon, who also directed the film, was loosely based on Keaton's life but contained many factual errors and merged his three wives into one character. Today, she regularly travels around the country, attending film festivals and conventions in his honor. The death this week of, children. [25], Keaton served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France with the United States Army's 40th Infantry Division during World War I. Keaton endured this treatment for two more feature films, and then exchanged his independent setup for employment at Hollywood's biggest studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). "[44] Keaton made the film anyway, and was amazed that it became his biggest box office success. [59] In 1961, he starred in The Twilight Zone episode "Once Upon a Time", which included both silent and sound sequences. Fairbanks recommended Keaton to take the role[citation needed] for the remake five years later, since the film was to have a comic slant. His film career was briefly interrupted by military service during World War I. By 1935, this second marriage had ended in divorce. Many people today don't know that the great silent comedy star Buster Keaton (whose birthday is today) started out as part of a family act with his parents, Joe and Myra. Sherlock Jr. will be Keaton's most enduring commentary on the art of cinema. His impassive features gave him the nickname "The Great Stone Face.". By Kelly Braun. ", In 1954, Keaton and Eleanor met film programmer Raymond Rohauer, with whom they developed a business partnership to re-release his films. Buster Keaton Remembered. It's just where his parents, two traveling vaudevillians, happened to be performing. Production head Irving Thalberg would not permit Keaton to create a script from scratch because the studio had already purchased a stage property, Parlor, Bedroom, and Bath, at the suggestion of Lawrence Weingarten, who was Thalberg's brother-in-law and Keaton's producer. Still, he continued to find new situations in which to put his long-suffering face. Buster that the judge thought my mother was the bride! [8][9][10][11] Welles said Keaton "was beyond all praisea very great artist, and one of the most beautiful men I ever saw on the screen. The studio replaced Edwards, who had substance-abuse problems, with nightclub comedian Jimmy Durante. Well into his fifties, Keaton successfully recreated his old routines, including one stunt in which he propped one foot onto a table, then swung the second foot up next to it and held the awkward position in midair for a moment before crashing to the stage floor. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He stated that he learned to read and write late, and was taught by his mother. In his presentation for The General, filmmaker Orson Welles hailed Buster Keaton as "the greatest of all the clowns in the history of the cinema a supreme artist, and I think one of the most beautiful people who was ever photographed". Harry N. Abrams, 2001, pg. 1. He then moved to feature-length films; several of them, such as Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), and The Cameraman (1928), remain highly regarded. His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton who had a traveling show called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. ), Keaton was so demoralized during the production of 1933's What! In the last analysis, no one came near him. In In the Good Old Summertime, Keaton personally directed the stars Judy Garland and Van Johnson in their first scene together, where they bump into each other on the street. In 1965, Keaton appeared in a short film written and shot by French existentialist playwright Samuel Beckett entitled simply Film. Username and password are case sensitive. He worked with comedian Ernie Kovacs on a television pilot tentatively titled "Medicine Man," shooting scenes for it on January 12, 1962the day before Kovacs died in a car crash. Reaction was strong enough for a local Los Angeles station to offer Keaton his own show, also broadcast live, in 1950. His first directorial effort, The High Sign, was a short that apparently did not work very well. Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. Buster Keaton in a still from the 1927 film The General. the Number One enemy by giving generously te the Heart Fuad. He had cameos in such films as In the Good Old Summertime (1949), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Orson Welles interview, from the Kino November 10, 2009 Blu-Ray edition of The General. The program always includes talks by Keaton expertsincluding family memberssocial events and film screenings. The actors would phonetically memorize the foreign-language scripts a few lines at a time and shoot immediately after. that MGM fired him after the filming was completed, despite the film being a commercial hit. Arbuckle also wrote and directed this film. Two years later she changed their sons' last name to Talmadge. The audience roared. He was named Joseph to continue a tradition on his father's side (he was sixth in a line bearing the name Joseph Keaton)[1] and Frank for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of his parents' union. By 1923, Keaton was making full-length features. . $49.99 They had two sons: Joseph, called James[81] (June 2, 1922 February 14, 2007),[82] and Robert (February 3, 1924 July 19, 2009).[83]. Jimmy assists Spencer Tracy's character, Captain C. G. Culpepper, by readying Culpepper's ultimately-unused boat for his abortive escape. Other significant film appearances included Around the World in 80 Days (1956), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), and War Italian Style (1966). In this film, he broke his neck, but did not discover it until ten years later. His wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. [29] Keaton later said[where?] . Buster Keaton was one of three great silent film comedians (along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd). On May 31, 1921, Keaton was married time to Natalie Talmadge. He ran to meet misfortune and never failed to make connections. [94] He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California.[95]. Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' By the age of 5, Buster is part of his family's vaudeville act, and only 6 months later the Atlanta Constitution names him as "the star of the Keaton aggregation of three". Free shipping for many products! After Robert's birth, the marriage began to suffer. [79], Keaton designed and modified his own pork pie hats during his career. Buster Keaton. "[14], Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in Piqua, Kansas,[15] the small town where his mother, Myra Keaton (ne Cutler), was when she went into labor. Then in his twenties, he had outgrown his family vaudeville act, whose violent acrobatics had relied on a size . By the time he left the act to star in motion pictures with Fatty Arbuckle at age 22, he had already been doing slapstick comedy for over 86% of his life. [19] He was briefly institutionalized, according to the Turner Classic Movies documentary So Funny It Hurt. Maltin, Leonard, The Great Movie Comedians, Bell Publishing, 1978, Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, Chap. I said, 'I'd like to do something with a drunk and a fat lady and a kid. From acclaimed cultural and film historian James Curtis--a major biography, the first in more than two decades, of the legendary comedian and filmmaker who elevated physical comedy to the highest of arts and whose ingenious films remain as startling, innovative, modern--and irresistible--today as they . He was 70 years old. In 1964, he told an interviewer that in making "this particular pork pie", he "started with a good Stetson and cut it down", stiffening the brim with sugar water. Behind the camera, Keaton worked with a co-director, Eddie Cline, with whom he collaborated several times. Buster Keaton does some excellent comedy falls." With a new picture set to start, Keaton's salary was bumped to $75 a week, a measure of the added value he brought to . Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked . 616: Ruth Carbaugh 201; Elaine Weigle 513. Son of Joseph Frank Hallie Keaton and Myra Edith Keaton He was named "Joseph" to continue a tradition on his father's sidehe was sixth in a line bearing the name Joseph Keatonand "Frank" for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of the parents' union. [60], In 1961, Keaton appeared in promotional films for Maryvale, a housing development in the western part of Phoenix. In Seven Chances (1925), he faces a rockslide. In one sequence, Keaton even danced with himself. Keaton's wife Eleanor also was seen in the series (notably as Juliet to Keaton's Romeo in a little-theater vignette). The images and pieces have presentations and attendees from a #Buster Keaton Convention that is held the first week of October . Cox remembers him as being a lot of fun, and she always enjoyed visits to . [3][4] Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies". [47], Keaton's personal life had stabilized with his 1940 marriage to MGM dancer Eleanor Norris, and now he was taking life a little easier, abandoning Columbia for the less strenuous field of feature films. Marriage: xxxx Ohio, USA: Record information. Keaton invented comedy bits where Johnson keeps trying to apologize to a seething Garland, but winds up messing up her hairdo and tearing her dress. [80], On May 31, 1921, Keaton married Natalie Talmadge, his leading lady in Our Hospitality, and the sister of actresses Norma Talmadge (married to his business partner Joseph M. Schenck at the time) and Constance Talmadge, at Norma's home in Bayside, Queens. In 2018 filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich released The Great Buster: A Celebration, a documentary about Keaton's life, career, and legacy. A vaudeville child star, Keaton grew up to be a tinkerer, an athlete, a visual mathematician; his films offer belly laughs of mind-boggling physical invention and a spacey determination that nears philosophical grandeur. that he was soon Arbuckle's second director and his entire gag department. Free shipping for many products! MGM had been featuring comical musician Cliff Edwards in Keaton's films. "It was as long as War and Peace," Keaton recalled. "I went over (Weingarten's) head and appealed to Irving Thalberg to help get me out of the assignment. The General, set during the American Civil War, combined physical comedy with Keaton's love of trains,[33] including an epic locomotive chase. Keaton said he was lucky if he used only six hats in making a film. Piqua, Kansas's greatest claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Buster Keaton. By the time he was three, Keaton had become part of his parents' act, renamed "The Three Keatons." Best known for his silent film work, Keaton was ranked as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute in 1999. The first was Sherlock Jr., in which a daydreaming projectionist who longs to be a detective becomes part of the movie he is showing. [106], Comedian Richard Lewis stated that Keaton was his prime inspiration, and spoke of having a close friendship with Keaton's widow Eleanor. By Dana Stevens. Throughout the story, a simple good-guys-versus-bad-guys schema is applied to the Civil War, with the Confederates being the good guys, and Johnnie's hometown of Marietta depicted as a sort of bland, folksy utopia. In Go West (1925), he is stared down by a herd of cattle. The map below shows the places where the ancestors of the famous person lived. After Keaton's successful work with Arbuckle, Schenck gave him his own production unit, Buster Keaton Productions. They were popular, and contrary to Keaton's later reputation as "The Great Stone Face", he often smiled and even laughed in them. Keaton's writers included Clyde Bruckman, Joseph Mitchell, and Jean Havez, but the most ingenious gags were generally conceived by Keaton himself. (Arbuckle was eventually acquitted, with an apology from the jury for the ordeal he underwent.[30]). He directed three short films in 1938. Buster Keaton and Marceline Day in The Cameraman, 1928. Keaton said that he canceled the filmed series himself, because he was unable to create enough fresh material to produce a new show each week. Keaton's last commercial film appearance was in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), which was filmed in Spain in SeptemberNovember 1965. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". [57] In August 1960, Keaton played mute King Sextimus the Silent in the national touring company of the Broadway musical Once Upon A Mattress. Image via United Artists. It was too dramatic for some filmgoers expecting a lightweight comedy, and reviewers questioned Keaton's judgment in making a comedic film about the Civil War, even while noting it had a "few laughs. The "Great Stone Face" died in 1966, aged 70. [102], Film critic Roger Ebert stated, "The greatest of the silent clowns is Buster Keaton, not only because of what he did, but because of how he did it. Most of these 16 films are simple visual comedies, with many of the gags supplied by Keaton himself, often recycling ideas from his family vaudeville act and his earlier films. Alone in New York City, Buster was walking down the street when he encountered Lou Anger, an old family friend from their days on the road. The grandchildren delighted in deliberately mentioning Buster's name. Keaton became the new head of the company, which was owned by Joseph Schenck (who later became Keaton's brother in law). Buster Keaton is an American actor, known in the world of cinema as "The Great Stone Face" The popularity of the artist at the peak of his career was comparable to the demand of Charlie Chaplin. . However, Hart himself was not amused by Keaton's antics, particularly the crying scene, and did not speak to Keaton for two years after he had seen the film. When the Educational series lapsed in 1937, Keaton returned to MGM as a gag writer, supplying material for the final three Marx Brothers MGM films: At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940), and The Big Store (1941); these were not as artistically successful as the Marxes' previous MGM features. Vance, Jeffrey. He re-enacted a famous Keaton stunt for the finale of Jackass Number Two. I n the shadow of a massive dune known as Pigeon Hill. Educational primarily distributed short subjects; it is best known for its series of comedies starring Buster Keaton (1934-37) and the earliest screen appearances . The arrival of the sound era in 1929 did not work in his favor because of his voice. Keaton made his first full-length feature film, "Our Hospitality," in 1923. Keaton's widow, Eleanor, attended for a couple of years. His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, a native of Vigo County, Indiana. Buster Keaton With Camera Rare Candid 8x10 Photo. He was handed a script titled Sidewalks of New York (1932), in which he played a millionaire becoming involved with a slum-neighborhood girl and a gang of rowdy kids. By James Curtis. He'd say, "How about this?" Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 February 1, 1966)[1] was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Keaton was born into a vaudeville family. When a grant that funded the program ended in 2017, the festival moved to Kansas City for a year. Since then, the Something's Gotta . Keaton made Steamboat Bill Jr., his last film with Buster Keaton Productions, in 1928. Their son began appearing on stage with them as early as nine months of age. This will be the festival's return to Iola. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine show that included family friend, illusionist Harry Houdini. His parents were part of a traveling vaudeville act, and at the age of four he joined them, subsequently becoming known as . Father of Private and James Talmadge Keaton is rumored to have gotten the name Buster from Harry Houdini himself. During his time in uniform, he suffered an ear infection that permanently impaired his hearing. He and Natalie Talmadge divorced on bitter terms in 1932. Keaton supported himself throughout the 1940s by appearing on stage in Europe and the United States, and writing gags for MGM and 20th Century-Fox. Also, soundstages were then at a premium, and MGM usually reserved them for dramatic productions. Buster William Keaton Sr. from tree Keaton Family Tree. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 966 Hollywood Loses Tavo Hedda Hopper, Lamar Green 217. Late in his career, Keaton made cameos in Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, Chaplin's Limelight, Samuel Beckett's Film and the Twilight Zone episode "Once Upon a Time". (Thirty years later, both Keaton and Durante had cameo roles in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, albeit not in the same scenes. While his films were technically and creatively interesting, they were either critical or box office failures. An error has occured while loading the map. On May 29, 1940, Keaton married Eleanor Norris, who was 23 years his junior. [67] He played the central role in Samuel Beckett's Film (1965), directed by Alan Schneider. [24] Despite tangles with the law, Keaton was a rising star in the theater. By this time, Keaton had further developed his distinct signature style that consisted of lucidity and precision along with acrobatics of ballistic precision and kineticism. Joseph Frank Keatonthe silent film star belovedly known as Busterwas born the same year, 1895, that the Lumire brothers unveiled the first moving pictures to an audience of stunned Parisians. Joseph Frank Keaton was born October 4, 1895 to Joe, a comedic acrobat whose main aid was a table, and Myra, one of the . Please try again. Go Outside. Aerial stuntmen and daredevils from around 1920s - 1940s. Lost after the comedy epic's "roadshow" exhibition, the audio of that scene was discovered and combined with still pictures to recreate the scene.). [55], On April 3, 1957, Keaton was surprised by Ralph Edwards for the weekly NBC program This Is Your Life. He stars as a great fortune's sole heir that falls in love with the daughter of his family's greatest rival, played by . The most famous was legendary silent film star, Buster Keaton. Era By BOB THOMAS H list grows thin. Critic Dana Stevens published a cultural history of Keaton's life and work, Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. The laconic Keaton and the rambunctious Durante offered enough contrast to function as a team, resulting in three very successful films: Speak Easily (1932), The Passionate Plumber (1932), and What! But not MGM. By the time he was five, Buster was formally added to the family act and instantly made "The Three Keatons" a success. Later, the family had two more children. Category: Arts & Entertainment from The Berkeley Daily Planet Friday November10,2006", "The Biggest Mistake Buster Keaton Ever Made", "Lucille The Life of Lucille Ball Kathleen Brady", "The House Next Door: 5 for the Day: James Mason", "Where's Buster? Keaton suffered from several personal crises as well. On February 14, 2007, James Talmadge (born Joseph Talmadge Keaton) passed away peacefully with his wife of 63 years, the love of his life, Barbara Talmadge, by his side. This knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of child abuse, and occasionally, arrest. Keaton found his footing with his next film, One Week (1920), which focused on the tribulations of a do-it-yourself house. Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including in a 1964 interview with the CBC's Telescope. After this failure, Schenck sold his contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), where his son, Nicholas, just happened to be in charge. The young Keaton goaded his father by disobeying him, and the elder Keaton responded by throwing him against the scenery, into the orchestra pit, or even into the audience. The innovative special effects he developed for The Playhouse made him an early leader in the field. Keaton's loss of independence as a filmmaker coincided with the coming of sound films (although he was interested in making the transition) and mounting personal problems, and his career in the early sound era was hurt as a result. [54] In a series of silent television commercials for Simon Pure Beer made in 1962 by Jim Mohr in Buffalo, New York, Keaton revisited some of the gags from his silent film days. "Introduction." Service.[73]. In 1926, comedian, writer, and director Buster Keaton made a film titled The General, which featured a stunt involving an actual train falling from a burning bridge into a river. "stuntmen don't get you laughs," Keaton had said.[43]. Get 'em for me.' He took the camera back to his hotel room where he dismantled and reassembled it by morning. The one-story house, built in 1947, was bought with the $50,000 given to Buster by Paramount for the screen rights to his life story. Meanwhile, the eldest scion of "fun's funniest family" traveled on to New York and Ehrich House, where he arrived, according to his datebook, on January 18, 1917. . So that's how he did itit hurtbut you had to care enough not to care. In 1965, Keaton starred in the short film The Railrodder for the National Film Board of Canada. Prikryl, Jana (July 9, 2011), "The Genius of Buster". 3, Thames Television, 1987, Perez Gilberto 'The Material GhostOn Keaton and Chaplin' 1998. Evolved from the knockabout upbringing of the vaudeville stage, Keaton's comedy is a whirlwind of hilarious, technically precise, adroitly executed, and surprising gags, very often set against a backdrop of visually stunning set pieces and locationsall this masked behind his unflinching, stoic veneer. As a baby, he tumbled all the way down a flight of stairs to the landing below. Buster joined his family's act at a very young age. He made me believe in make-believe." Battling Butler (1926), a boxing movie, was a commercial success. It soon. It's a knack. Keaton was one of silent film's most famous comedians; his popularity waned in the 1930s, but he made a nostalgic flurry of films before his 1966 death. Keaton had designed and built a modest but comfortable, cottage-like home as a surprise wedding gift for his bride. Critics rediscovered Keaton in 1949 and producers occasionally hired him for bigger "prestige" pictures. Joseph Talmadge Keaton was the first son born to comic actor Buster Keaton and his wife, actress Natalie Talmadge; he was also a nephew of silent screen actresses Norma and Constance Talmadge. [23], The act ran up against laws banning child performers in vaudeville. Rerun it on video, and you can see Buster riding the collapse like a surfer, hanging onto the steering wheel, coming beautifully to rest as the wave of wreckage breaks. From left is Harry Keaton Jr.'s daughter, Lisa Geisler, and Keaton celebration committee chairman Frank Scheide. It was followed a month later by James Curtis' biography Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life. Comedy director Leo McCarey, recalling the freewheeling days of making slapstick comedies, said, "All of us tried to steal each other's gagmen. Buster Keaton and Ernest . [78], Buster Keaton's comedy endures not just because he had a face that belongs on Mount Rushmore, at once hauntingly immovable and classically American, but because that face was attached to one of the most gifted actors and directors who ever graced the screen. Everybody else in the studio likes the story. John Schneider, commander of the Toledo post, announced. He began performing with his parents as a three year old in the act 'The Three Keatons', first . The high point in the Educational series is Grand Slam Opera (1936), featuring Keaton in his own screenplay as an amateur-hour contestant. 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