When Charlie Chaplin Entered a Chaplin Look-Alike Contest & Got here in twentieth Place

Char­lie Chap­lin begin­ed seem­ing in his first movies in 1914—40 movies, to be exact—and, by 1915, the Unit­ed States had a significant case of “Chap­lini­tis.” Chap­lin mus­tach­es have been sud­den­ly pop­ping up each­the place–as have been Chap­lin imi­ta­tors and Chap­lin look-alike con­exams. A younger Bob Hope appar­ent­ly received one such con­take a look at in Cleve­land. Chap­lin Fever con­tin­ued burn­ing sizzling by way of 1921, the 12 months when the Chap­lin look-alike con­take a look at, proven above, was held out­facet the Lib­er­ty The­atre in Belling­ham, Wash­ing­ton.

Accord­ing to leg­finish, some­the place between 1915 and 1921, Chap­lin decid­ed to enter a Chap­lin look-alike con­take a look at, and misplaced, dangerous­ly.

A brief arti­cle known as “How Char­lie Chap­lin Failed,” seem­ing in The Straits Instances of Sin­ga­pore in August of 1920, learn like this:

Lord Des­bor­ough, pre­sid­ing at a din­ner of the Anglo-Sax­on membership instructed a sto­ry which can have an endur­ing life. It comes from Miss Mary Choose­ford who instructed it to Woman Des­bor­ough, “Char­lie Chap­lin was someday at a good within the Unit­ed States, the place a prin­ci­pal attrac­tion was a com­pe­ti­tion as to who may greatest imi­tate the Char­lie Chap­lin stroll. The true Char­lie Chap­lin thought there is likely to be an opportunity for him so he entered for the per­for­mance, minus his cel­e­brat­ed mous­tache and his boots. He was a fright­ful fail­ure and got here in twen­ti­eth.

A vari­a­tion on the identical sto­ry appeared in a New Zealand information­pa­per, the Pover­ty Bay Her­ald, once more in 1920. As did anoth­er sto­ry within the Aus­tralian information­pa­per, the Albany Adver­tis­er, in March, 1921.

A com­pe­ti­tion in Char­lie Chap­lin imper­son­ations was held in Cal­i­for­nia latest­ly. There was some­factor like 40 com­peti­tors, and Char­lie Chap­lin, as a joke, entered the con­take a look at below an assumed title. He imper­son­at­ed his well-known movie self. However he didn’t win; he was twenty seventh within the com­pe­ti­tion.

Did Chap­lin are available in twentieth place? twenty seventh place? Did he enter a con­take a look at in any respect? It’s enjoyable to imag­ine that he did. However, a cen­tu­ry lat­er, many con­sid­er the sto­ry the stuff of city leg­finish. When one researcher requested the Asso­ci­a­tion Chap­lin to weigh in, they appar­ent­ly had this to say: “This anec­dote instructed by Lord Des­bor­ough, who­ev­er he could have been, was fairly huge­ly report­ed within the British press on the time. There are not any oth­er ref­er­ences to such a com­pe­ti­tion in any oth­er press clip­ping albums that I’ve seen so I can solely assume that that is the supply of that hearsay, city fantasy, what­ev­er it’s. How­ev­er, it could be true.”

I’d prefer to imagine it’s.

Word: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this publish appeared on our website in ear­ly 2016.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

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