Fred Gabourie

(1881 - 1951)

Fred Gabourie was born in Eastern Ontario, Canada, and was a member of the Iroquois tribe of the Seneca Nation. Life in Canada was hard, and his family moved to Detroit, Michigan. His formal schooling ended in the fifth grade. Smart, intuitive, and possessing a talent for mechanics, engineering, and design, he began his career as a stage carpenter and designer touring the vaudeville theatre circuit, where he met Buster Keaton. In 1916 he relocated to Hollywood to work for many of the independent film companies. He left Metro Pictures in 1921 to work full-time as Keaton’s Art Director, responsible for all set design, construction, gag-props, and location scouting. However, his most important contributions to Keaton comedies were his passion for playing baseball on Buster’s team and his many talents as an ingenious problem solver and builder. In the 1920s Gabourie designed and supervised 31 pictures for Buster.