STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.

STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Filming Locations —

•	Freeport, Sacramento County: The scenes at the River Junction train station were filmed in the little town of Freeport.

•	Broderick, Yolo County: The rest of the movie was almost entirely at what is now Broderick, just across the Sacramento River from downtown Sacramento.

•	Sacramento, Sacramento County: Discovery Park, today crossed by Highway 5 just east of the panorama below, is in Sacramento.

I am indebted to Mr. Bengtson for identifying the locations in the pictures below.
Be sure to read his book, Silent Echoes, which goes over locations for all the Keaton movies.

This composited panorama faces north where the Sacramento and American Rivers meet.
From left-to-right: the film's fictional River Junction town specially-built on the Sacramento River,
the southern end of what is now Discovery Park, and then the American River.

A view of the river from the town.

That water-intake tower in the back-right is still there today.

All of this town was built from scratch for the film production. About a thousand locals were also used as extras.

The River Junction train station was filmed at Freeport, a few miles south of Sacramento,
although the station has long since been demolished.

The tower visible way in the background is located at 926 J Street at 10th Street in the middle of Downtown Sacramento.

The climax featued the impressive destruction of most of the buildings in a fierce storm.

This is one of the most famous scenes in all of Buster Keaton's films. Without special-effects, but with precise mathematical calculations, Keaton was standing so that the open window on the falling wall would pass safely through him.

•		Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
•	CAST: Buster Keaton, Tom McGuire, Ernest Torrence, Tom Lewis, Marion Byron, Joe Keaton....
•	WRITER: Carl Harbaugh
•	PRODUCER: Joseph M. Schenck
•	DIRECTOR: Buster Keaton, Charles Reisner
•	CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bert Haines, Devereaux Jennings
•	EDITOR: Sherman Kell

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