Moments with Chaplin
Crooner
I just found an out-of-circulation book on CC
at a Sag Harbor used bookstore. It's called
MOMENTS WITH CHAPLIN by Lillian Ross.
It's a small book adapted from a reprint of an
article in THE NEW YORKER. I haven't gone
through it yet, but here are some teases:
* CHARLIE DID PIE THROWING BEFORE
SENNETT...commenting on the son of Oscar Hammerstein,
he says: "You know it was Willie Hammerstein
who first invented pie-throwing. The legend is that Mack
Sennett invented it. But when the Karno company
worked for Willie Hammerstein, he loved the act,
and he gave us a bit of business for the act with the
dour drunks...We had a boy in the box with me, and I used to
knock him over. One day, Hammerstein said, 'Why
don't you do it with a pie?' So we did. The goo of
it. The laughter we got lasted for two minutes, which
was a long time."
* CC ON HITLER..."When I first saw Hitler, with that
little mustache, I thought he was copying me, taking
advantage of my success. I was that egotistical."
* CC ON MUSIC..."I can't play anybody's music but
my own. I never took a lesson. I never even saw a
piano until I was 21. As soon as I touched a piano,
I could play. The same with the violin."
* MOTHER HANNAH -- WOMAN'S LIBBER...
without explanation he says, "She was one of the first
champions of women's rights..."
That's all for now. I want to get back to the book.
--
Crooner ~ always Singing the Blues...
______________________________________
Video Archivist http://www.erols.com/crooner
ICQ # 113571
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Crooner
Please share more with us!!
>
>Lori :)
MOMENTS WITH CHAPLIN is such a small book --
24 pages of print. It's not a great book, but it does
have CC talking about things that fans would find
interesting. So now if you want to be transported
back to the time when CC first came to NY with Karno,
I will share this reminiscence. Here Charlie gets nostalgic
about NYC & his early days with Karno as he & the author
stroll in NYC in 1952. Perhaps, Charlie had a portent about
things to come as his family embarks for England.
"Walking around the city is a ritual with me," Chaplin told me...
"I love to walk all over New York. It's a bloody ritual with me."
Not many people among the passersby seemed to recognize
Chaplin as we walked. He was smiling a bit to himself, as
though he noticed that he wasn't being recognized, and got
a kick out of it.
"The first time I came to New York from Hollywood, I
stopped traffic on Broadway," he told me when I
remarked on the near-anonymity. "One of the newspapers
had a big headline -- HE'S HERE! That's all. The police
chief I remember, made me get off the train at 125th Street
to avoid the mobs. That was in 1916."
Then he met the actor Mel Ferrer, who yelled 'Charlie!'
They shook hands. "I was just watching you on television last
night," he said. "One of your two-reelers. You in the ashcan,
remember?"
"Yes, yes," Chaplin said with his laugh. "You know, I haven't
seen any of my pictures on television. We don't have a
television set."
We walked along in silence. "Every time I walk, I get a
terrific exhilaration," he said. "Each new day is a day of
promise. There are always parts of the city to explore.
Always parts you've never seen. The first time I saw
5th Avenue was in 1910, when I arrived in New York,
from England, with Fred Karno's vaudeville troupe. I was
very poor. I was the leading comedian in a sketch called
THE WOW WOWS. I wasn't getting much money, even
though I was getting $25 more than the others in the troupe.
In those days, all the actors in the summeritme, used to go
to Coney Island to work as waiters. I never did it, because
I was getting more than the rest."
"You know in 1910, when I first arrived in New York, it
was this kind of day in September. Indian summer.
Funny thing. We got off the boat and had our luggage sent
to the theatre -- to the Colonial Theatre, at 66th & Second.
The theatre is gone now. I can conduct you on a tour.
Tell you all about New York in 1910 and in 1912. I've
outlived it all. "
Chaplin clasped his hands behind his back as we passed the
Scribner Bookstore. "I used to haunt the secondhand book
shops in those days," he said. "I was pretty lonesome. It was
the most terrible lonesomeness I've ever felt, that first year
in New York. Anyway, the day I got off the boat in
New York, I planted myself right in the middle of Broadway.
I didn't know how to function at all. I had taken a streetcar
and I got off at Times Square. There were all those old
brownstones, rooming houses, where English people looked
for digs, all along there. I took a little back room, for three
bucks a week. There used to be a saloon near where the
Paramount Theatre is now. I later stayed in a room above the
saloon. I was terribly ill there. For two days, I couldn't get
out of bed. They used to have a magnificent free lunch.
God, in those days! What an array! The pigs knuckles!
Ham sandwiches! Sauerkraut! Hot dogs! All free! Let's go
over that way. To where the American Music Hall used to be.
I played there with the Fred Karno troupe for six weeks in 1911.
Near the corner of 8th Avenue, on 42nd Street. I like to go
look at it. But let's not go on 47th or 48th Street. They're
very sad streets."
"None of the houses or anything are left now," he said. "You
know, I was very young when I lived here. Not yet 22. I had
my 22nd birthday in St Paul, Minnesota, with the Karno troupe.
A NIGHT IN AN ENGLISH MUSIC HALL, the act we were
doing then was called. Do you know what I used to do? I'd sit
in a box in the theatre and interfere with everything -- all the
business going on on the stage. I'd disapprove, disrupt, make
noise. In another act, A NIGHT AT A LONDON CLUB, I also
played a drunk. The comedians in those days always played an
older man. I remember going out to the West Coast and meeting
Mack Sennett for the first time. He had seen me at the American
Music Hall and thought I was a much older man. Offstage, at 22,
I looked about 16." Chaplin gave his laugh. "I'll never forget
the time I got the message that Mack Sennett wanted me for
Keystone. I was here in New York and got a message to come
to the Longacre Building, where all the lawyers had their offices.
My immediate thought was that rich relatives in America were
trying to find me. I was so disappointed when I learned that
Adam Kessel & Charles Bauman, who owned Keystone, wanted to
tell me that what I was wanted for was the 'movies.'"
When you compare this with CC's AUTOBIOBRAGHY, it
just goes to show how consistent Chaplin was about that
early remembrance.
MRS QT
Lou,
I heard of that book, but I couldn't find it anywhere.
Thanks for sharing - that stuff sounds great! Please share more with us!!
Lori :)
Feuillade
mr...@aol.com writes:
<snip>
> I heard of that book, but I couldn't find it anywhere.
The used-book website Interloc can help you find virtually any Chaplin book
you're looking for.
If it's out there somewhere, chances are you can find it on Interloc. They will
be able to steer you to a store in Idaho or South Dakota or somewhere that will
have a copy in fabulous condition. This is how I was able to obtain a beautiful
copy of the (out of print) hardcover edition of the Burton Raffel translation
of "Gargantua and Pantagruel."
Look them up in Yahoo! for the URL.
Tom Moran
Hanhuck
>From: feui...@aol.com (Feuillade)
Tom's right about Interloc -- I think I heard about it from him several months
ago. Using it and Advanced Book Exchange (ABE) I've found numerous Chaplin
books as well as hard-to-find movie books and mystery/crime novels. I have a
running ABE search and receive several emails per week notifying me of books
for sale with the keyword "Chaplin".
http://daniel.interloc.com/
http://www.abebooks.com/
BTW, I have _Moments with Chaplin_, and it's a nice little book. Just find a
copy that isn't too pricey.
Hannah
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It's fun to eulogize the people you despise, as long as you don't let 'em in
your school. -- Tom Lehrer
DzubeG
Crooner, thanks for sharing this text. I really enjoyed it. I don't have this
book either.
Deborah
MRS QT
Thanks again Lou!!!!
And to Tom and Hannah for the internet sites to try and find the book.
Lori :)