In the press book for Modern Times, United Artists wrote
in "Chaplin the Collector" that Charlie Chaplin "has
been offered
huge sums for his Napoleonic Saxony porcelains." He collected
autographed first editions of Frank Harris’s novels, and "a
complete, beautifully bound set of Punch dating from its
first
issue. "Chaplin's extensive library also included such rare items
as a miniature set of The Complete Works of
Shakespeare
(1905) that one rare bookseller today quotes in his ad for a
similar set, "Bondy recalled having seen only one complete set
during his many years in miniature books, that was in the
collection of
Charlie
Chaplin." It is also well known that Charlie
collected the autographs of all the great and noble people that
he met over the years, a caricature of which can be seen in his
cameo appearance in Marion Davies’ 1928 silent film Show
People. In other words, if a person is to take his behavior
as
our model, he or she can quickly decide that collecting is a
respectable and worthwhile venture and was so, even for those
who are "collectible" today.
If a person decides to "collect
Charlie
Chaplin,"
the task seems
fairly easy. Look for anything and everything with his name on
it, associated with it, or juxtaposed to it in some manner.
This is
the easy way out, and, while rewarding—because there are
endless such items out there to be had—I want to propose what
I think is a more creative option. I will call this "context"
collecting for lack of a better term.
Context collecting, as I would
define it, is simply collecting around
Chaplin in history through
material culture.
Chaplin used to say, "If you want to know me,
watch my movies." Unfortunately, there are only 81 of those. In
this material society, humans hunger for more and more and
more, especially in the area of information. Why not then collect
some of that material and see what information it provides?
The ideas for context collecting
Charlie
Chaplin are endless. I
have presented below some ideas for context collections with
examples from each. Context collecting is infinite; there is no
rigid beginning or ending.
Sheet Music
Everyone knows that Charlie was a prolific composer
and it is easy to find examples of his work in the
form of sheet music. More difficult, and perhaps
more interesting, is collecting the music that inspired
his movies or that is associated with him in some
other way. In My Autobiography (MA), Charlie lets
us know that "Too Much Mustard" (Très Moutardé) set
the mood for his Keystone film Twenty Minutes of Love,
that "Mrs. Grundy"(and this one is hard to track down)
inspired The Immigrant ; "the tune had a wistful
tenderness that suggested two lonely derelicts getting
married on a doleful, rainy day". Likewise, The Gold Rush
was inspired by "Auld Lang Syne", and City Lights
by "La Violetera" — a song introduced to him coincidentally
by Raquel Meller whose American career Charlie tried to
promote in 1928 ("The genius of Raquel Meller is something
more than a native gift. Her work shows an intellectual
control and a refinement of feeling unexcelled by any other
artist I have ever seen. "—
Chaplin in press release) and
who had earlier been famous for this song in 1923 and
is, in fact, pictured on the cover of one version of
its sheet music.
David Robinson tells us in Chaplin :
His Life and Art that "And They Called It Dixieland"
was played on the set during the filming of The Count.
Other important songs are easy to figure out
from the movies themselves: "Je Cherche Après Titine"
from Modern Times is just one example. If this list feels
too confining, the collector can reach back further in
Chaplin’s career and find "The Honeysuckle and the Bee",
supposedly the first piece of music that awakened the
young man’s senses to the beauty of music or "Jack Jones",
the first piece he is to have sung onstage as a lad of
five (MA). Further afield are pieces that others
equate with Charlie experiences. Helen Hayes in her autobiography
A Life in Three Acts claims that Irving Berlin’s song
"Remember" takes her back to a specific night in her life
in New York City when Charlie Chaplin arrived too late for a particular
Greenwich Village party to which he had been invited and
suggested they all go over to Irving’s house for a while.
Hearing the song "Remember" brings back for her the image
of that night when Charlie and Irving sat at the piano in
Irving’s apartment and played the tune over and over throughout
the wee hours of the morning. What images might the hearing
of this song then bring to us?
Postcards
Collecting postcards is by far the most economical means of
context collecting and it can take endless forms. Collecting
postcards of Charlie’s friends, colleagues, girlfriends, wives,
leading ladies, or family members probably comes to mind first
and is the easiest. What about something more imaginative?
While it is not important to collect postcards contemporary
to the time period in question, it makes it more interesting.
Consider, then, the following categories: movie sites,
oft-frequented places—especially those mentioned in MA, hotels
and restaurants—both in California and New York, the 1918 Bond
Tour, and the European tours (especially 1921 and 1931-32),
and theatres included on the Sullivan and Considine circuit
that Charlie would have played in with Karno. This list is
by no means exhaustive and each category requires a bit of
research. The best part about this type of collecting is that
the collector him/herself decides what is worth including in
the collection. If it is not of interest or fails to provide
the type of knowledge about
Chaplin that is of personal importance,
simply don’t include it.
1. Consider the Hotel Stowell in downtown Los Angeles.
Chaplin misspells it in MA (Stoll) but describes it as his
place of residence upon returning to Los Angeles for good
for his seventh Essanay film — "a middle-rate place but new and
comfortable". It was here that he had an argument on
the phone with Anderson regarding a proposed appearance at
the New York Hippodrome for $25,000: "My bedroom window opened
out on the well of the hotel, so that the voice of anyone
talking resounded through the rooms. The telephone connection
was bad,-- "I don't intend to pass up twenty-five thousand dollars
for two weeks’ work!" I had to shout several times. A window
opened above and a voice shouted back: "Cut out that bull and
go to sleep, you big dope!"
In the second part of Collecting Chaplin, we will
continue with postcard collection and introduce you to
the collection of ephemera. |
