It’s October here in Athens, Ohio, and
as the leaves begin to put on their fancy
dress in colors of bright red, orange
and yellow, I’m reminded that Halloween
is just around the corner. Halloween isn’t
an international phenomenon, I realize,
but masquerading or dressing up as someone
else is, and I’m fascinated by it. What
motivates people to dress up as someone
else? How do they choose whom to become?
Why Chaplin’s Little Tramp, for instance?
At the Charles Chaplin Conference this
summer (2005) in London, papers on Charlie Chaplin imitators
and impersonators were well represented
and interesting. I certainly won’t try
to misrepresent those stellar efforts
here. Actually, I’m really more interested
in the everyday people—children, men and
women from all walks of life who, for
one reason or another, decide they’d like
to try on Charlie Chaplin’s togs, just for a little
while. We know that performers like Billie
Ritchie, Billy West, Stan Laurel, Harold
Lloyd, Charles Amador and others hoped
to ride the wave of the Little Tramp’s
popularity and success in some way. Their
motivations are still fairly transparent.
But what about people like you and me?
A dear friend and accomplished magician,
Carl Wilson, offers his own reflections
on the subject:
“The motivation is simple: Charlie Chaplin's
image has haunted and his pictures have
enthralled me since childhood. I can
think of at least 5 times that I have
dressed up like him for an event. I
understand what Chaplin meant when he
said that when he put on the costume,
the tramp was fully born. When you put
on the costume and the make up, one
cannot help but feel the character,
so whimsical and serious at the same
time. I find most characterizations
of him to be too "clownish".
He is a clown but is purely human. It
is fun to move and react to situations
like him. It makes people smile. And
for a few dollars at a thrift store,
puts me as close as I can be to the
character I admire.”
And, yet, there are other motivations.
Early last year, for instance, one Charlie Chaplin
masquerader decided to use his disguise
for a good cause. He staged a Chaplin-a-thon
on behalf of the threatened Fox Theatre
in Fullerton, California. Did you know,
for instance, that there was such a
thing as a Guinness World Record for
Chaplin impersonation? This guy was
only trying to go 24 hours, but, of
course, along with his costume wearing,
he also had to be silent!
Going
back in history a bit, the New York Times
reports at least one instance of mischief
on the part of Chaplin-looking folks.
On May 17, 1923 in Berlin, one masquerader
accessed the economic advantages of the
costume in an unusual way:
“Berlin’s Columbus Circle, has been the
scene every night recently of a free show
staged by an imitator of Charlie Chaplin.
Shuffling about in Chaplin’s characteristic
fashion, the imitator would suddenly seize
the nearest bystander as if to save himself
falling. The bystander would join in the
general laugh.
Last night a man who had arrived home
minus his watch and chain after attending
the entertainment, revisited the place
wearing a miniature clock so constructed
as to sound an alarm upon its removal
from his pocket. Just after the entertainer
seized this man in a pretended fall, the
alarm sounded and the performer was exposed
as a pickpocket. He escaped amid a rain
of blows from the spectators.”
But
what if we come at this discussion from
another perspective or two? For instance,
who did Charlie Chaplin himself dress like when
given the opportunity? Most of us have
seen the photos of Chaplin at one of W. R. Hearst’s big costume
parties at San Simeon, dressed as Napoleon.
His fascination for this character is
legend and really needs no further discussion.
What about other parties—other occasions?
One article in the New York Times for
August 1, 1927 reports that Chaplin appeared
as an “amusing twin” with a fellow called
Jules Glaenzer at a costume party at the
Orson Munns’. We are provided only with
the tantalizing description that Charlie Chaplin
and Jules “completely concealed their
identities by wearing enormous fake noses.”
Another mentions Charlie Chaplin and Joseph Schenck
together, even on the dance floor, as
a mismatched “couple,” with Schenck playing
the woman’s role (Schenck was a big guy,
needless to say). Anita Loos, author of
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and close friend
of Paulette Goddard, reported on a particular
comical picnic outing in the spring of
1939. She suggests a sort of disguise
for Chaplin that probably doesn’t provide
strong proof of an actual costume, but
the image she creates is so humorous (if
you know these personalities) that I have
to include it here. Anyway, we all know
that Charlie Chaplin didn’t need a costume to
assume a role or character:
“Both Aldous and Maria [Huxley—author
of Brave New World] loved picnics; the
thought of one made them happy as little
children. I recall one particular outing
with dramatis personae so fantastic that
they might have come out of Alice in Wonderland.
There were several Theosophists from India,
the most prominent being Krishnamurti.
The Indian ladies were dressed in saris
which were elegant enough, but the rest
of us wore the most casual old sports
outfits. Aldous might have been the giant
from some circus sideshow; Maria and I
could have served as dwarves, but with
our tacky clothes the circus would have
been pretty second rate . . .
Greta [Garbo] was disguised in a pair
of men’s trousers and a battered hat with
a floppy brim that almost covered her
face; Paulette wore a native Mexican outfit
with colored yarn braided into her hair.
Bertrand Russell, visiting Hollywood at
the time, Charlie Chaplin, and Christopher
Isherwood all looked like naughty pixies
out on a spree.” (Huxley in Hollywood
111)
And finally, since no one has ever
really dressed up as Charlie sans costume,
perhaps it’s worth ending this newsletter
with some speculations about who looks
like him anyway—who resembles Charlie
without trying to, in other words--outside
of his family, of course. I always thought
it was interesting that some of Paulette’s
subsequent paramours looked a lot like
Charlie—the young Burgess Meredith and
Anatole Litvak, to name two. And then
today, I’ve heard Jon Stewart’s name
bandied about. What do we think about
that one?
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