Almost being cast in Grand Hotel would explain where Keaton got his idea for a parody, which unfortunately he didn’t get to do either:
After GRAND HOTEL was released, Keaton, who had parodied others’ work since his days in vaudeville, got an idea for a take-off. His would be set in a well-known fleabag hotel in New York, the Mills Hotel. Jimmy Durante would take John Barrymore’s part, Marie Dressler would stand in for Garbo, Oliver Hardy would play Wallace Beery’s role, Polly Moran would replace Crawford and Keaton would finally play the part that went to Lionel Barrymore. “In our version, Hardy would be a manufacturer of front collar buttons who is trying to arrange a merger with Stan Laurel, a manufacturer of back collar buttons,” Keaton writes in “My Wonderful World of Slapstick.”
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After GRAND HOTEL was released, Keaton, who had parodied others’ work since his days in vaudeville, got an idea for a take-off. His would be set in a well-known fleabag hotel in New York, the Mills Hotel. Jimmy Durante would take John Barrymore’s part, Marie Dressler would stand in for Garbo, Oliver Hardy would play Wallace Beery’s role, Polly Moran would replace Crawford and Keaton would finally play the part that went to Lionel Barrymore.
“In our version, Hardy would be a manufacturer of front collar buttons who is trying to arrange a merger with Stan Laurel, a manufacturer of back collar buttons,” Keaton writes in “My Wonderful World of Slapstick.”