Char­lie Chap­lin begin­ed seem­ing in his first movies in 1914—40 movies, to be exact—and, by 1915, the Unit­ed States had a serious case of “Chap­lini­tis.” Chap­lin mus­tach­es have been sud­den­ly pop­ping up each­the place–as were Chap­lin imi­ta­tors and Chap­lin look-alike con­tests. A younger Bob Hope appar­ent­ly gained one such con­take a look at in Cleve­land. Chap­lin Fever con­tin­ued burn­ing scorching by 1921, the yr 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 Occasions of Sin­ga­pore in August of 1920, learn like this:

Lord Des­bor­ough, pre­sid­ing at a din­ner of the Anglo-Sax­on membership instructed a sto­ry which could have an endur­ing life. It comes from Miss Mary Pick­ford who instructed it to Woman Des­bor­ough, “Char­lie Chap­lin was sooner or later at a good within the Unit­ed States, the place a prin­ci­pal attrac­tion was a com­pe­ti­tion as to who might finest imi­tate the Char­lie Chap­lin stroll. The actual Char­lie Chap­lin thought there could 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 current­ly. There was some­factor like 40 com­peti­tors, and Char­lie Chap­lin, as a joke, entered the con­take a look at beneath 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 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 wish to consider it’s.

Notice: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this submit appeared on our website in ear­ly 2016.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

6o+ Free Char­lie Chap­lin Films Online

What Would the World of Char­lie Chap­lin Look Like in Col­or?: Watch a Col­or­ful­ly Restored Ver­sion of A Night at the Show (1915)

The Char­lie Chap­lin Archive Opens, Putting Online 30,000 Pho­tos & Doc­u­ments from the Life of the Icon­ic Film Star

Char­lie Chap­lin Gets Strapped into a Dystopi­an “Rube Gold­berg Machine,” a Fright­ful Com­men­tary on Mod­ern Cap­i­tal­ism

Char­lie Chap­lin Films a Scene Inside a Lion’s Cage in 200 Takes