damfino

in the 1921 film the boat (1921) buster keaton calls his boat damfino, presumably meaning 'damn fine'. by the end of the film, he has successfully demolished his house, drowned his car, sunk the boat, and he and his little family are lost, washed up after a storm at night on a deserted beach. 'Where are we?,' asks keaton's wife; 'damfino' he replies, shrugging his shoulders.

damfino was also a boat's name in college in 1925. this boat sank too, after being jumped into by an overzealous buster, who hopes to pilot it to local fame as coxswain of a rowing team.

these two sinking damfinos were probably inspired by another boat, a real one, one that appeared on the shores of lake muskegon in michigan. when buster and his family lived in an actors' colony founded by buster's father in Bluffton, on the outskirts of muskegon, michigan, during the summers from 1908-1916, they made friends with an actor by the name of big joe roberts. roberts would soon come to hollywood with buster, and would perform in all of keaton's productions until his death in 1923.

[http://www.busterkeaton.com/fdamstory.htm]