Chaplin stand-up advertisement

On Mar 21, 12:22 am, "robfar...@yahoo.com" <robfar....RemoveThis@yahoo.com>
wrote:
> We all have a collective memory of seeing this thing and since a
> picture of the standee is not in any of the Chaplin books or docs, it
> may have been in some ubiquitous film history book, like Richard
> Mayer's The Movies or Terry Ramsaye's A Million and One Nights. Or
> perhaps its a mass hallucination based on all the descriptions we've
> read over the years. I types in "Chaplin I am Here Today" in Google
> Images and only got a segment of the Gilbert Seldes essay that used
> the phrase and a sketch by ee cummings. Type in "Chaplin" and you get
> over 92,900 images. Someone else is welcome to peruse them.
>
> Rob Farr
>
> On Mar 19, 11:37 pm, d....RemoveThis@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Constance Kuriyama)
> wrote:
>
>
>
> > "Robert Moulton" (robertjohnmoul...@gmail.com) writes:
> > > Maybe this thing never existed as an original, instead only as a
> > > reproduction of something that never existed in the first place. If
> > > I'm reading all the notes right, all the sightings are of
> > > reproductions.
>
> > I think there must have been an original.
>
> > What mitigated against the survival of these items was their size. After
> > they got worn, as they inevitably would, they would go directly into the
> > trash bin or incinerator, since they couldn't be comfortably slipped into
> > a drawer or a filing cabinet, or used as a bookmark, or pasted into a
> > scrapbook.
>
> > Unless somebody had the foresight to give one to the Smithsonian, it is
> > likely enough that they have disappeared.
>
> > Connie K.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

You may be right that there is no surviving example of the actual
advertisement, its size and fragility making it unlikely to have been
preserved, although it seems ironic that one of the most common and
familiar images of CC is now, apparently, non-existent. However, if
the standees used in, for instance, Attenborough's biopic are accurate
reproductions (the scene shows two different sizes of an identical
design), presumably the designer had some sort of reference available.

Just as strange is that something apparently so ubiquitous doesn't
seem to appear in any period photos of cinema fronts. It did occur to
me that there may have been an illustration, or at least a
description, in some press-book or catalogue of the period, but I am
unsure if such organised campaign material was used that early and by
studios like Keystone. (Were posters, lobby cards, etc. simply
distributed with the film prints, or were they purchased or requested
separately?) Does anyone know about this side of things?

Yes, I have searched extensively on the web without success so far,
although there are frustrating hints and teases here and there, such
as this period illustration:

http://www.flocom-world.com/Chaplin/6cartoonspaintings/cartoon3.JPG

which looks like a postcard by its style and is from around 1917 by
its content, and uses just such a standup advert as a pun, "I'm for
the front" being the purpose of the advertisement and the message of
one leaving to fight in WW1. And even this oblique reference seem to
assume the familiarity of such an object to any reader

Anyway, thanks again to everyone for their input and suggestions.
Generic film histories may be the next source to look at, but maybe
this will turn out to be one of those things that will suddenly turn
up from an unexpected source when I'm looking for something else
entirely.

Best,

Lance, UK
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