Supposedly Buster did this backflip in 'Coney Island', 1917 for the hell of it. There again, if I could do a backflip I'd be showing it off as often as possible ;)
According to his autobiography, 'My Wonderful World of Slapstick', the apple didn't fall far from the tree. His Pop's early repertoire included: 'songs, witty sayings, making funny faces and doing flip-flaps, as back somersaults were then called.' In fact, the flip-flaps were pretty much all his Dad could do at first.
Talking about his own acrobatic abilities: 'Though I have been called an acrobat I would say I am only a half acrobat, at most. I did learn to fall as a kid, just as Chaplin, Lloyd, and Fairbanks did. And I taught myself a few acrobatic tricks, including the round-off back somersault and other simple stunts.
I could do butterflies, a series of cartwheels in a circle, without touching hands to the floor. But anyone who ever saw me throw a flip-flap realised I wasn't a professional acrobat. Audiences think a back somersault, in which you regain your feet without touching the floor, is difficult. But much more difficult to do is the flip-flap, a back somersault in which your hands do touch the floor. The back somersault only looks harder.
What I do know about is body control. When you start to go through the air your head is your rudder—it steers you.'
