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Rosalind Shaffer, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 10, 1926.

Rosalind Shaffer

      Hollywood feature writer for the Associated Press

(...) Photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth,

Texas, Sept. 23, 1945

& NOT IN THE SCENARIO

      Charlie Chaplin is looking dejectedly on as firemen

finish putting out the studio blaze that cost him

$40,000. A short circuit in one of the Kleigs is believed

to be responsible for the fire.                                       

(...) Pacific and Atlantic Photo, Chicago Tribune, Oct. 10, 1926

„Saved himself unharmed“

Editorial content. „Charlie Makes an Exit

      Two Jumps Ahead of Fire

      By Rosalind Shaffer.

      Hollywood, Cal. – (Special Correspondence.) – Rare

business acumen was displayed by Charlie Chaplin

during the $40,000 fire that swept the circus tent set at his

studio recently. Lesser men, when caught in the

gripping fear of fire, have been known to emerge from the

wreckage clasping the family photograph album and

a pair of cotton sox, but not so Charlie.

      When Charlie was making his way from the set to his

adjoining dressing room, also under the big canvas

top he has erected for his circus picture, he was astounded

to see an ever growing mass of flames rapidly

licking up the canvas sides and wooden supports. The

flames from electric wiring in the sawdust of the

circus ring proved too much for Charlies equanimity, and

the funniest exit the comedian ever made was not

recorded by the camera.

      Charlie went out the door at a terrifying speed, with the

short tails of his coat standing out in the breeze like

a propeller on a plane. The derby known to fame and the

imperishable bamboo cane were his sole partners

in this rapid hegira. Loud cries of ,Fire, fire!‘ issued from

the lips of the impersonator of Napoleon. Merna

Kennedy and a company of twenty-five other persons had

just time to get out of the tent.

      The intense heat proved too great for the glass roofing

over the circus set, and the panes began popping

and falling in showers, the noise of which might have rivaled

the artillery at Napoleon‘s Waterloo. Charlie, by his

rapid and complete retreat, saved himself unharmed, thereby

rescuing the most valuable piece of property that

could have been brought out of the flames.

      The earning power of Charlie, the derby, and cane, can,

in a few days‘ work, pay the $40,000 damage done

by the fire. As for the other actors, Charlie followed Napoleon‘s

maxim, ,A man is the only thing that can take care

of himself,‘ and they did likewise. No one was injured.“

      Also in Daily News, New York, Oct. 10, 1926.

      Title: „Chaplin Makes Quick Exit As Flames Flare.“

Redaktioneller Inhalt

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