Monday, April 3, 2017

Can You Find the 20 Mistakes In This Story? -- April 3, 2017

Photoplay, October, 1930
I used the photo from this article for this year's April Fool's Day post:
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2017/04/charles-chaplin-and-mary-pickford-in.html

I will post the answers another day.  

Can You Find the 20 Mistakes In This Story? 
By Michael Woodward

 MR. CHAPLIN," began the interviewer, who had gone up to Charlie's home to interrogate the comedian about his life and work, "I wish you'd tell me some things about your new picture." "Ah, yes; my new picture, 'The Lights of the City,' " replied Chaplin, in that deep bass voice that goes so oddly with his diminutiveness of stature. He paused a moment or two, as though thinking of how to begin. Repeatedly he stroked a hand over his dark red hair, and occasionally tweaked nervously at that famous moustache of his.

"Well, with what shall I begin?" he resumed. "Shall I tell you, first, that I am hopeful that it will be by far the best thing I have ever done -- even finer than my last picture, 'The Kid '?"

"Yes, I remember that," said the interviewer, "that grand comedy that made little Davey Lee so famous. And tell me, are you using some child actor extensively, as you did in 'The Kid,' in this new film of yours?"

No. No. The action in my new story revolves principally around three characters -- myself, a millionaire played by Harry Myers, and the blind flower girl played by Georgia Hale."

THE interviewer recalled, as Chaplin talked, that Miss Hale was the leading lady, too, in "The Gold Rush" -- and also that Charlie has been seen with her quite frequently, and has admitted he hopes to marry her as his second matrimonial venture.

Charlie flipped another cigarette into the fireplace -- he had been lighting one from the other -- and went on:

"You know, this new picture of mine will be a very interesting experiment, in these talkie days. I do not like talkies. You know that. And so this new picture will be completely voiceless. There will be not a word! I am anxious to see what the public reaction will be -- and I know several big men of the picture industry are watching also. If the picture is as good, though, as the script reads, I can ask nothing more."

"You mean," interrupted the interviewer, "that there will be no sound whatever with the film?"

"Oh, yes -- there will be synchronized music, vou understand. With the orchestra-less theaters of today, we have had to synchronize a musical soundtrack on the film. The music has been written by Sergei Stenvich, the Russian."

CHARLIE paused again, and then his brown eyes twinkled as his thoughts turned, in one of those mental acrobaticisms of his, from his picture and its possibilities to the relaxation he contemplates.

"I'm going abroad this fall, after the picture is released." In his exhilaration, that slight French accent of his was intensified. He was born in Paris, you know -- Paris, where he has always been known as Chariot. "I've never been abroad since I came to America, and I'm anxious to see Europe again."

"I suppose you'll visit your old school?"

"Yes. I was educated at the Sorbonne, and I want to visit it again to see how my present reactions compare with my memories of the old days there," explained Chaplin.

And at this point, the pretty little maid came in to announce that Jim Tully, that famous author-friend of Charlie's, was calling again. And knowing that the intimacies of conversation between these two would preclude any further interviewing, the interviewer bade the comedian good-bye, and called it a day.

It developed later that Tully called on his old friend for the purpose of getting some lessons in acting. Tully is now working in one of Jack Gilbert's films, playing the part of a rough and ready sailor man. One of the property boys on the lot told me that Chaplin spent three hours throwing custard pies at Tully's face, teaching him to register astonishment.

READ this through, and see if you can tell all the errors of fact in this imaginative yarn about a Chaplin interview. There are just twenty errors, so you can keep your own score by crediting yourself with five points for each misstatement you recognize. That would make 100 points a perfect score. When you're stumped, turn to the list on page 143 of this issue, and see which mistakes you've missed, if any.

2 comments:

  1. Let's see...
    1- It's City Lights, not The Lights of th City
    2- Chaplin wasn't "diminutive"
    3- Chaplin didn't have red hair
    4- He didn't have a moustache in real life
    5- His latest picture was The Circus, not The Kid
    6- The kid in The Kid was Jackie Coogan, not Davey Lee
    7- The lead was Virginia Cherrill
    8- Chaplin's second wife was Lita Grey. He never had hopes with Georgia Hale.
    9- Did Chaplin smoke? I don't think so.
    10- There was no Sergei the Russian involved in the film
    11- Chaplin wasn't brown-eyed
    12- He was from London, not Paris
    13- He didn't have a French accent
    14- He had been abroad since he came to America
    15- He's never been to Sorbonne
    16- I don't think Chaplin was friends with Jim Tully

    Well, this is what I could find. I confess I had to Google Jim Tully!
    Amazing post, but now I'm curious for the answers.
    Cheers!
    Le

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Lê. Thenk you for playing. I think you've hit the important ones. I think Chaplin was short and slim, so diminutive might work. Let me dig out the official results from Photoplay and I will post them...

    ReplyDelete

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