Some New Stuff on The Gold Rush

I was e-mailed this thread earlier today. I didn't think my e-mail to
Connie would be paraphrased and posted!

I'm happy to discuss these Chaplin matters off the newsgroup--if my
opinion is of any use to any of you--but I'm not comfortable with them
becoming posts on the internet.

However, to finish what has already been started: I think some things
were lost in Connie's paraphrase regarding THE GOLD RUSH. If I wrote
it vaguely to you, Connie, I'm sorry. That's my fault and not yours.

Some of THE GOLD RUSH elements were discarded after the 1942 reissue
but the majority was retained until the closing of the Chaplin
Studios. In 1953 this material--along with all the other material that
was supposed to be junked--was sold to a scrap company. Rohauer
acquired all this material from the scrap company in 1954.

The above can be verified by examining the Chaplin Studios vault
inventory prepared in 1946 by Rollie Totheroh and UA legal documents
of which I have photocopies. Moreover, if the bulk of the THE GOLD
RUSH material had been scrapped soon after the 1942 reissue, Rohauer
would have had little to work with to make his version of THE GOLD
RUSH in the 1950s.

Rohauer confirmed much of this in an interview with Kevin Brownlow. He
also told this to various other people (I even heard a similar version
of these events from him in the early 1980s).

Chaplin considered the 1942 version of the film THE version. It was a
great commercial success and his music score is excellent. Indeed, the
1942 version was even nominated for two Academy Awards (Music and
Sound Recording). Chaplin and audiences were very happy with the
revised THE GOLD RUSH. That is why he did not request anything but
elements from the 1942 version shipped to his storage vaults in
England.

I think it was a lot easier just to keep film material at the Chaplin
Studios rather than to junk it. To throw out a film or outtake ran the
risk of someone recovering it and exploiting it in some fashion. For
example, Chaplin did not own the outtakes from his Mutual comedies. He
did not produce or own those films. These outtakes, as I make mention
in an endnote in my forthcoming book, were purchased by Chaplin in the
1920s because someone else was using them to make new Chaplin films.
The outtakes were purchased to prevent competing (and unauthorized)
Chaplin product. This material was not saved by Chaplin out of a sense
of historical value. Sydney Chaplin, however, thought they might be
worth something after his brother died or ceased making films (he was
right!).

Chaplin was forced to junk his outtakes when he could no longer store
them at his studio. The scrap company was supposed to destroy the
Chaplin Studios footage. It had no authority to sell the material it
was supposed to scrap.

Chaplin had little use for outtakes or unused material. Naturally,
there are some exceptions. He loved the stick in the grate scene
outtake from CITY LIGHTS and wanted to keep things like that, but the
visitors to the studio, the footage used to reconstruct HOW MOVING
PICTURES ARE MADE (aka HOW TO MAKE MOVIES), and a host of other
examples were chosen to be retained by Rollie Totheroh (who shipped
them to England in 1953).

Chaplin had asked his business manager, Rachel Ford, to destroy this
unwanted outtake and private material not long after THE CHAPLIN REVUE
was completed. She did not carry out his wishes. Ms. Ford, did,
however, destroy a large cache of non-Mutual outtakes returned to
Chaplin from Raymond Rohauer in the 1960s. This is why the BFI holds
precious little outtake material from his First National comedies and
United Artists features.

One last thing. I have been asked about MODERN TIMES and the extra
verse. Chaplin himself made this cut for the UA 1954 (not 1956)
reissue. This reissue was a worldwide reissue except for the US and
Spain. The US may have seen this reissue as early as 1956, but it had
its big US release in 1959--through a distributor called Lopert. Two
fine grains exist: One with the verse (representing the original 1936
release) and one without the verse (representing the 1954 reissue).
David Shepard used both fine grains to achieve the best
looking/sounding MODERN TIMES in 1992 for his CBS/Fox Laser Disc.

Rollie Totheroh helped prepare this edit, so it had the authority of
Chaplin as well as the film's cinematographer. It was Totheroh's last
assignment on the Chaplin library.

Over and out!

Jeffrey Vance (jeffrey.vance@warnerbros.com) writes:
> I was e-mailed this thread earlier today. I didn't think my e-mail to
> Connie would be paraphrased and posted!

Sorry, Jeffrey. I'll ask first in the future. In fact I usually do,
but since you'd just posted in response to a rather heated debate,
I honestly didn't think you'd mind. _The Gold Rush_ has been
a topic of interest here for some time, and your information was too
good to keep to myself--especially the insight about the desired running
time of the reissue. It had never occurred to me that the cuts might have
such an eminently practical motive, although Pam Paumier did tell me that
money was one reason for the reissue.


> I'm happy to discuss these Chaplin matters off the newsgroup--if my
> opinion is of any use to any of you--but I'm not comfortable with them
> becoming posts on the internet.
>
> However, to finish what has already been started: I think some things
> were lost in Connie's paraphrase regarding THE GOLD RUSH. If I wrote
> it vaguely to you, Connie, I'm sorry. That's my fault and not yours.

It wasn't at all vague, but on reflection I realized that there were
still gaps in what I knew--such as exactly when the unused material
scrapped. I was leaning toward the conclusion that it must have been
in '53, since the Rohauer's were largely the same as those in the
Japan material.

> Some of THE GOLD RUSH elements were discarded after the 1942 reissue
> but the majority was retained until the closing of the Chaplin
> Studios. In 1953 this material--along with all the other material that
> was supposed to be junked--was sold to a scrap company. Rohauer
> acquired all this material from the scrap company in 1954.
>
> The above can be verified by examining the Chaplin Studios vault
> inventory prepared in 1946 by Rollie Totheroh and UA legal documents
> of which I have photocopies. Moreover, if the bulk of the THE GOLD
> RUSH material had been scrapped soon after the 1942 reissue, Rohauer
> would have had little to work with to make his version of THE GOLD
> RUSH in the 1950s.

Unless he had other sources of material. But apparently he didn't,
although he was notoriously resourceful, to put it politely.

> Rohauer confirmed much of this in an interview with Kevin Brownlow. He
> also told this to various other people (I even heard a similar version
> of these events from him in the early 1980s).
>
> Chaplin considered the 1942 version of the film THE version. It was a
> great commercial success and his music score is excellent. Indeed, the
> 1942 version was even nominated for two Academy Awards (Music and
> Sound Recording). Chaplin and audiences were very happy with the
> revised THE GOLD RUSH. That is why he did not request anything but
> elements from the 1942 version shipped to his storage vaults in
> England.
>
> I think it was a lot easier just to keep film material at the Chaplin
> Studios rather than to junk it. To throw out a film or outtake ran the
> risk of someone recovering it and exploiting it in some fashion. For
> example, Chaplin did not own the outtakes from his Mutual comedies. He
> did not produce or own those films. These outtakes, as I make mention
> in an endnote in my forthcoming book, were purchased by Chaplin in the
> 1920s because someone else was using them to make new Chaplin films.
> The outtakes were purchased to prevent competing (and unauthorized)
> Chaplin product. This material was not saved by Chaplin out of a sense
> of historical value. Sydney Chaplin, however, thought they might be
> worth something after his brother died or ceased making films (he was
> right!).

This is interesting, because somewhere I read that Chaplin didn't
actually own this material. Evidently what I read is false--hardly
for the first time.

> Chaplin was forced to junk his outtakes when he could no longer store
> them at his studio. The scrap company was supposed to destroy the
> Chaplin Studios footage. It had no authority to sell the material it
> was supposed to scrap.
>
> Chaplin had little use for outtakes or unused material. Naturally,
> there are some exceptions. He loved the stick in the grate scene
> outtake from CITY LIGHTS and wanted to keep things like that, but the
> visitors to the studio, the footage used to reconstruct HOW MOVING
> PICTURES ARE MADE (aka HOW TO MAKE MOVIES), and a host of other
> examples were chosen to be retained by Rollie Totheroh (who shipped
> them to England in 1953).
>
> Chaplin had asked his business manager, Rachel Ford, to destroy this
> unwanted outtake and private material not long after THE CHAPLIN REVUE
> was completed. She did not carry out his wishes. Ms. Ford, did,
> however, destroy a large cache of non-Mutual outtakes returned to
> Chaplin from Raymond Rohauer in the 1960s. This is why the BFI holds
> precious little outtake material from his First National comedies and
> United Artists features.
>
> One last thing. I have been asked about MODERN TIMES and the extra
> verse. Chaplin himself made this cut for the UA 1954 (not 1956)
> reissue. This reissue was a worldwide reissue except for the US and
> Spain. The US may have seen this reissue as early as 1956, but it had
> its big US release in 1959--through a distributor called Lopert. Two
> fine grains exist: One with the verse (representing the original 1936
> release) and one without the verse (representing the 1954 reissue).
> David Shepard used both fine grains to achieve the best
> looking/sounding MODERN TIMES in 1992 for his CBS/Fox Laser Disc.
>
> Rollie Totheroh helped prepare this edit, so it had the authority of
> Chaplin as well as the film's cinematographer. It was Totheroh's last
> assignment on the Chaplin library.
>
> Over and out!

What a wonderful post. Thank you! I hope it didn't make you too
uncomfortable to put it up.

Connie K.
--
"Our century is inconceivable without its . . . inconclusive mob of isms."