Tuesday, October 4th, marks silent screen icon Buster Keaton’s 116th birthday. TCM has already named Buster their “Star of the Month” and will be featuring a number of his beloved films and shorts on Sunday nights, beginning this evening with a showing of one of the actor’s most popular (and best) movies, The General (1926).

In honor of the legendary “Great Stone Face,” the Kitty Packard Pictorial is hosting a month-long tribute and salute to Buster Keaton. Allow KPP to explain:

“Project Keaton will be a month long open forum in which writers, artists, everyday Joes and everyday Janes (like me) from all over the world are being invited to tip their pork pie to Buster. The goal is to foster a month of creative exchange, with Buster as muse, and to celebrate one of cinema’s few, true geniuses.

There are no rules as to content: essays, reviews, art, critiques, tributes, prose, poetry, all are welcome. And, since this is a month long project, there are no pressing deadlines: participants may contribute as little or as much as they wish any time at all during the course of October.”

To that end, we’ll be presenting a couple of posts about Buster and his comedic legacy here at True Classics throughout the month, so keep an eye open for those. And make sure to check in with the Kitty Packard gang all month to join in the discussion and share your appreciation for one of the greatest comedians to ever grace the silver screen.