"Citizen Chaplin" (a definitive mini-psychobiography)

George Shelps wrote:

> Shush wrote:
> >You'll admit (I hope) that admiring Lenin
> >in 1921 is one thing;
> >admiring him in 1961 or 1971 would've
> >been something else again, and we don't
> >know that Chaplin still felt that way after
> >the facts about the early USSR were
> >widely known.

> Very little of Chaplin's actual views
> has been recorded. You'd have to be in
> his presence socially on a regular
> basis to know for certain.
>
> Maybe someday someone will break
> the 'omerta" about what CC really
> was like and what he really thought.


I'm sure there's no conspiracy of silence out there, but it seems
incredible that no reporter ever got Chaplin's straightforward views on
communism and international politics during his post-U.S. years.

But as Connie says, his views tended to shift and drift on a whim,
so even if we had such testimony, it may not help us understand him
better.



--Shush--
 >> Stay informed about: "Citizen Chaplin" (a definitive mini-psychobiography) 

Shush wrote:

>You'll admit (I hope) that admiring Lenin
>in 1921 is one thing;

Not a very smart or discerning thing.
though.


> admiring him in 1961 or 1971 would've
>been something else again, and we don't
>know that Chaplin still felt that way after
>the facts about the early USSR were
>widely known.

We don't know, but I don't think he had
an antipathy towards the "Evil Empire."

Very little of Chaplin's actual views
has been recorded. You'd have to be in
his presence socially on a regular
basis to know for certain. I wonder
why Sydney has never written much
about his father. He probably knows
if dear old Dad ranted frequently against
the US or in favor of the Sovs.

Chaplin by all accounts was a domineering social figure. Oscar
Levant said "conversationally, he
was a one-man cadenza." We have
that anecdote from Joan Collins'
book where he forced her to look
at pictures of the Holocaust at a
dinner party. The host with the most!

Maybe someday someone will break
the 'omerta" about what CC really
was like and what he really thought.

Hints abound---but extrapolation
is still required. Agnosticism such
as your own can still pass muster.







++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentis."
 >> Stay informed about: "Citizen Chaplin" (a definitive mini-psychobiography) 

Shush wrote:

>I'm sure there's no conspiracy of silence
>out there,

Why are you sure? Showbiz leftists don't
want to grant any credibility to the "witch
hunters" even after all these years---and
even after it has been shown by revelations of the Sov archives that
there was indeed a major subversive
network in the postwar era.


> but it seems incredible that no reporter
>ever got Chaplin's straightforward views
>on communism and international politics
>during his post-U.S. years.

He was careful not to reveal that.


>      But as Connie says, his views
>tended to shift and drift on a whim,

Ach! Don't buy into Connie's fake
"uncertaintly.' That's her intellectual
style, to deny that anything can be
be known for certain and then slam
anyone who tries to deny that by
attempting to establish something
as true.


> so even if we had such testimony, it
>may not help us understand him better.

I understand him perfectly, So does
Connie, who affects to be apolitical
and "open-minded" but is neither.







++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentis."
 >> Stay informed about: "Citizen Chaplin" (a definitive mini-psychobiography) 

James Neibaur (jneibaur@wi.rr.com) writes:
> George Shelps 10/7/05 12:30 AM
>
>> CC's hero's mummy may be removed
>> from the public tomb at the Kremlin
>> and buried.
>
> what are they going to do with his hero's daddy?
>
> sorry, couldn't resist
> JN

Amazing how someone can leap from an offhand comment that Lenin was a great
man to the conclusion that he was "CC's hero."

That's not what Claire Sheridan said, and she was actually present when
they discussed Lenin.

Connie K.
--
"To hell with the pillow in the background. It's a good scene, and that's
more important." Chaplin, Interview with Richard Meryman, 1966.
 >> Stay informed about: "Citizen Chaplin" (a definitive mini-psychobiography) 

Constance Kuriyama wrote:

>an offhand comment that Lenin was a
>great man to the conclusion that he was
>"CC's hero."

Whoever thought he was a 'great man"
would certainly be ascribing an heroic
character to Lenin.

Hurrry up, though. The worms may end
up as his only admirers soon.







++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentis."
 >> Stay informed about: "Citizen Chaplin" (a definitive mini-psychobiography)