 Near the turn of
the twentieth century, as the last vestiges of Muskegon’s lumbering era
faded from the horizon, a community that catered to theatrical
entertainers was started by C.S. "Pop" Ford. Lying in the shadow of a
massive dune known as Pigeon Hill in a portion of the city of Muskegon known as
Bluffton, Ford found a captive market in the actors who performed at the
summer show house at nearby Lake Michigan Park.Click image to view video from 1995.
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 The
Keatons1579 Edgewater “Jingles Jungle” was the summer home of Joe, Myra, Buster, Louise, and Harry “Jingles” Keaton. The cottage served the family until Buster’s move to Hollywood. The original structure was removed and rebuilt in the ‘50s.
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 "Big
Joe" Roberts1535 Edgewater A well-known figure on the vaudeville stage, Roberts performed in a variety of acts over the years. With the trio, Roberts, Hays and Roberts, "Big Joe" toured the country performing a routine known as “The Cowboy, the Swell and the Lady” with his first wife, Lillian Stuart Roberts. Roberts would go on to play the "heavy" in many of Keaton's silent films. Click image to view additional details.
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 Wick and
FolletteThe details about the lives of Jack "Pinky" Wicks and Elsie Follette have been lost in time. Members of the colony, they performed at club gatherings. Still performing in 1916, word is they moved west as the entertainment industry settled in Southern California. |
 Ed
Gray - The Tall Tale TellerReferred to as the Colony's historian and resident poet, the vaudeville monologist who, according to a 1917 newspaper review from Olean, New York, entertained crowds with “some very amusing stories and droll imitations” taken from life that “kept the audience convulsed with laughter to the very end.” touring the country as the “Tall Tale Teller”, Gray was notoriously lazy, and was renowned around Bluffton for his gadgetry and labor saving devices, including the "Ed Gray awakener", and a outhouse noted for it's collapsing walls. Unfortunately, the location of his residence (and the infamous outhouse) is unknown. However, it is said that when Buster went to Hollywood he adopted many of Ed's devices to create funny situations in his movies. |
 Rex
Faulkner A founding member of the American Newsboys Quartette with his brother Harry, Faulkner later paired with his wife, Lillian Jewel, a fourth-generation marionette operator from England, for a long career on the stage. Members of the Colony beginning in 1909, the couple moved west with a number of other colony members. Click image to view additional details. |
 Lex
Neal A childhood friend of Buster Keaton's during their days in the Actors' Colony. Neal later found work in Los Angeles as a screenwriter for Keaton Credited with working on Go West and Battling Butler, Neal later worked with Harold Lloyd, as a writer on the film, The Freshman, Speedy and others. Click image to view additional details. |
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 T.C.Y.C.1621 Edgewater Due to the increased size of the Actors' Colony, the group decided to build a larger clubhouse to replace "Cobwebs and Rafters," In 1916, the “Theatrical Colony Yacht Club” was christened with the first of many celebrations.
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One of the largest dunes on Lake Michigan, this mound of constantly shifting sand soared nearly 300 feet in the air and covered some 40 acres at its base. It dwarfed the surrounding landscape and served as a backdrop for the homes in the Actors' Colony. Click image to view additional details.
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Featuring entertainment facilities including a large bathhouse
pavilion, a dancing pavilion with bowling alleys, a 600-seat
theater, a lunch room, and in later years, an amusement park with a
Ferris wheel and a roller coaster. Located at the end of the
trolley line in Muskegon, it was referred to as the "Coney Island of
the West" in advertising. Now known as Pere Marquette Park, it
features one of the cleanest beaches in the United States.
Click image to view additional details.
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 A roster of Actors' Colony members from the 1908-1930 period. This roster is not necessarily a complete list of show business participants and includes some non-theatrical area residents who were active in some Colony activities. Also included are some out-of-town theatrical people who were occasional visitors. Click image to view additional details. |
View a variety of postcard images
of Muskegon and the Bluffton area from the era.
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Flemen
and Miller
Cobwebs
and Rafters
Postcard Images of the area
