CHARLIE CHAPLIN

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21323, 16 November 1934, Page 5

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

PLACE AMONG THE FAMOUS WIDE POPULARITY In a huge vault at the Chaplin home in Los Angeles there is a solid wall of shelves filled with books containing press clippings for the famous comedian from all over the world. A surprising element, as one thumbs through the clippings of to-day and yesterday and last week and last year, is that, in spite of the fact that he has not appeared in a film for more than three years and is only now starting on a new one, he still stands out in the news columns of the world press. Fifteen years ago, organised imitations of Charlie swept America t and other countries. On the vaudeville stage, in musical comedy, among amateurs, it was sure of a pleasant response from audiences. There were contests seriously undertaken on a large scale. Even the favourite parlour trick of the time was the never-failing imitation of Chaplin.

They arc stilJ going on. For recent clippings from Japan tell of a contest for the "best impersonation of Charlie Chaplin" in which hundreds of men and boys enrolled, swarming the

streets in Oriental imitations of the comedian.

At the present time in England, active preparations are under way for the half-bushel-basket-carrying championship sponsored by the Borough Market Charity Sports at Heme Hill, London. To help swell the fund, Chaplin was asked and agreed to give a special prize for the winner. He has contributed a prize—in the form of a suit, an overcoat, and a gold watch. This affair, entirely unconnected with the screen, is duplicated a thousand times in a thousand ways in the news items about Chaplin for the last three or four years. Still another contest has just been completed in England for "the best Charlie," for which prizes of a gramophone and a woven fibre chair were offered by a leading department store in the West End. A bridge has recently been completed in Rotterdam, Holland, with a lart'e statue of Chaplin on its parapet. He has been the subject of innumerable cartoons and comic strips. Books and articles of his life have been published, most of them displaying more imagination than veracity. Puppets of Chaplin arc featured m both Tonv Sarg's marionette show and that of the Yale Puppeteers. Among: the Celebrities "Vanity Fair" recently featured a page of celebrities who play the violin for no other reason than that they like the instrument. Chaplin was represented in such • distinguished and variegated company as Benito Mussolini Upton Sinclair, and Albert Emstein In another issue of the same periodical he was shown with Marconi Edison, and Ford as among the most prominent men of our time. Paderewski, on his last visit to New York declared in an interview that his trip was a disappointment, because none of the Chaplin films was showing." . at„... The Mark Twain Association in New York has just written Chaplin asking for his endorsement of its booklet issued in conjunction with the estato, lishment of "The Mark Twain Chan for the Advancement of Humour. To quote from the letter written by the head of the association: l I have always heard that it is easy. to go to the king for a favour, so I find by this experience that that statement is "in Hungary several weeks ago a poll was taken in one of the leading newspapers, asking its readers that if seven world-famous figures were in danger and only one was to be saved, whom would they choose to rescue Chaplin won a good majority of the V °One American newspaper discussed the subject: "Have you a dual character face?" Photographs used in this instance were those of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Chaplin. Another newspaper published a feature entitled "Distorted Faces of Celebrities. The face of Chaplin was distorted, along with those of Lloyd George and Ramsay Mac Donald.

Moving steadily *up the ladder is Fay Wray, who used to be admired chiefly for her ear-splitting screams when confronted by such monsters as Kins Kong. Her latest assignment is that of Frederic March's leading lady in the Twentieth Century production, "Call of the Wild," based on Jack London's story. The film is scheduled for an early start, and will be released through United Artists Miss Wray now is under contract to iwentieth Century. • * • "Ten Minute Alibi," the play which ran for over 16 months on the London stage, and which will shortly be brought to New Zealand, is to be done as- & £lov -in English, studios* i