City Lights 1930 1931 1932 next previous
City Lights Clippings 46/387
Grace Kingsley, Los Angeles Times, L. A., Cal., May 19, 1929
„I choose to work because it is fun“
Editorial content. „The COMEDIAN is Host
In which Stella sups at Charlie Chaplin‘s – and discovers
anew his rare humor.
Photo. „Charlie Chaplin as he appears in his new comedy,
,City Lights.‘“
By GRACE KINGSLEY
,JUST home folks!‘ announced Charlie Chaplin, as we
entered the beautiful living-room of his home. I was
going to call that living-room the drawing-room, but, of course,
you can‘t when your host says a thing like that.
Besides, despite all the beauty and elegance about
us, Charlie really made us feel that comfortable way about his
charming little dinner party.
,What a perfect host Charlie is!‘ whispered Stella,
as we went upstairs to leave our wraps. ,I suppose
if he were owner of a castle on the Rhine, he would step
forward to great you with that warm smile of his, and
you‘d believe him when, having introduced you to a couple
of kings and queens, he‘d remark easily, ,Just
home folks!‘
IT WAS a gesture of great graciousness on Charlie‘s
part which had led us up to his house in the first
place. We had told him of a little picture which a friend
of ours, Russell Birdwell, had made for the sum
of five hundred dollars, and which we considered a little gem.
Charlie is generously anxious to discover talent, and
he kindly invited us to his home for dinner and a showing
of the little two-reeler, Street Corners.
We had discovered the other guests there before
us, with Charlie avowing he was learning the tango, and that
it was very easy.
,Look,‘ he said, as he grasped that exquisite little
Diane Ellis and began circling the room with her. He made
it look easy, at that.
GEORGIA HALE was there, and Harry Crocker, too,
which made just the right sized party. But, then,
I think Charlie could make you feel that way about
any party.
,I like Georgia Hale awfully well,‘ Stella confided. ,She
has such a lot of brains, as well as beauty. And
I think Charlie loves the way she gives him an argument
when she doesn‘t agree with him. She is very clever
as well as very pretty.‘
Charlie showed us a new book of prints by Barton,
over which he was most enthusiastic. He also
showed us an original drawing by the artist from which
the print had been taken, and pointed out how
a reproduction loses something vital which the original
always has.
Dinner was announced just then, and we had a lot
of good talk over the table.
THIS great little comedian always has a reason for
everything which he admires or which he dislikes –
a reason that is penetrating and difficult to argue against,
we found.
For instance, we find he dislikes talking pictures very
much, and he put his argument thus – ,They lack
charm. That‘s because they go beyond their natural
limitations.‘
We find that Charlie doesn‘t mean ever to make any
talking pictures, either.
,I don‘t have to work any more unless I choose.
I choose to work because it is fun. Making talking pictures
wouldn‘t be fun,‘ he declared.
Charlie loves at the end of a serious little
argument to end up with a funny quip, putting everybody
at ease. He is awfully quick at a wise crack, too.
WE were talking about the human fly who walks up the
sides of buildings, and Harry Crocker was telling
us about the fly‘s wife, who sits at the foot of the building
and says to all comers, ,Ten cents to see the human
fly walk up the side!‘
,What would she say if he fell?‘ demanded Georgia.
,Oh,‘ retorted Charlie, ,she‘d probably call out
twenty cents!‘
Then Georgia and Charlie began an argument about
voice training, Georgia maintaining that voice training
was good for the stage or the talkers, and Charlie maintaining
that ether you can deliver lines or you can‘t.
Then it was learned that his first part was played
on the London stage when he was twelve years old and had
fifty sides to speak.
,I had never heard of voice culture,‘ he said, ,and yet
all the reviews next day spoke of my enunciation.‘
After dinner we looked at Birdwell‘s picture, and Charlie
was delighted with it.
OUR host played the phonograph for us after that – some
of Stravinsky‘s inspiring music and some excellent
Spanish music – and we found out then how Charlie hates
jazz, and much to Stella‘s delight dislikes Gershwin‘s
Rhapsody in Blue, which he pronounced without form and
utterly lacking in charm.
We found that the only very late piece of music he likes
is that tinkling Flapperette.
,Jazz never was meant to be taken seriously,
anyway,‘ he commented, thus again putting his finger exactly
on the chief objection to Gershwin‘s composition.
Then he began kidding about jazz.
,I can#t tell one tune from another when they jazz it up,‘
he explained with his funny little humorous grin.
,They say, ,Listen to this‘ – a bit from My Little Girl‘s a Real
Little Pearl – ,ta-ta-ta‘ – and then they say, ,Now
hear this‘ – When Onions Bloom in Bermuda or something –
,ta-ta-ta‘ – and it sounds just like the other one!‘
WE BEGGED Charlie to play the violin with hose supple
fingers of his, but when he pleaded to being out of
practice, Stella and Georgia dragged him to the organ and
made him play for us – such lovely, haunting old
melodies, most of them.
,What a sense of Charlie‘s essential loneliness
you get when you see that little genius playing
that big organ!‘ Stella whispered. ,He‘s wistful and child-like
somehow, then – like a child story by Barrie
or Quillier-Couch.‘
The evening had all too soon to come to an end, and
as we were winding down the hill toward home,
Stella expressed all our feelings when she remarked:
,Somehow I‘m in a sort of magic daze when
I leave Charlie‘s house. He makes a different place of this
old world – just as he does on the screen.‘“
Redaktioneller Inhalt
City Lights 1930 1931 1932 next previous
