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Originally posted by AlabamAlum
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So, the Charlie Chapman Museum in Vevey Switzerland: I know Wizard is anxiously awaiting this particular tome and will tell me to STFU after reading and enjoying it's worldly thoughtfulness that will clearly expand the mind of this limited Nebraskan........ I visited in the month of Chaplin's birthday. He was born April 16th, 1889 so the Museum and the city of Vevey had a special month long celebration. Very cool.
Chaplin was immensely popular and very successful in the film industry of the early 20th century. He became rich and famous and continued writing, acting in and directing films in the US well after that. In 1952, he was traveling to London from NYC for the opening of one of his films. Enroute, he received notice that his American visa (he was English by birth) had been cancelled - don't come back you Commie was the implication. McCarthyism was to Hollywood what Hitler was to the Jews. A real stain on American history. He was invited back to the US in 1972 where he received two Oscars and a long, unstoppable standing ovation during which he wept openly.
After he was shut out of the US in '52, Chaplin took up residence in Vevey Switzerland on the edge of Lake Geneva. He acquired a beautiful home that in 2016 became the Charlie Chaplin museum. Chaplin died in his sleep in the early hours of Christmas day in 1977 at this residence. He was 88 when he passed. He is loved to this day by the Swiss.
The museum is a loving omage to Chaplin created by the local Swiss government. It depicts in picture and artifacts of Chaplin's life an amazingly detailed and complete history of the actor, philanthropist and family man - there is a family tree in the house. There are nineteen living, directly descended from his three marriages, Chaplin relatives. I knew of him but not of his amazing impact on the motion picture industry that spanned 70+ years. He was funny, intelligent and in his public persona, humble. Privately, he thought he was pretty damn good and, after seeing the Museum first hand, he was exactly that in so many ways I had no clue about. One part of the museum which is on the grounds he and his family owned is what is called the Studio. You enter and watch a short film about his movies. After that is over you move into an area divided into spaces honoring several of his most famous films.
Wax figures and artifacts from his film making days adorn each display which are recreations of the sets the films were made on in Chaplin's Hollywood studio he owned, managed and shot as well as directed most of his later films. Chaplin was the original anti-Hollywood big studio guy who got tired of Warner brothers and their ilk taking advantage of performers, writers, directors and musicians. I particularly liked the space honoring his film, The Great Dictator, released in 1940. Subsequently nominated for five academy awards it was Chaplin's most commercially successful film and also his first talkie.
It is classic political satire done in a way that puts current political satire to shame. Chaplin later said in his autobiography that if he had known of the horrors European Jews suffered under Hitler, he never would have done it. You can watch it for $3.99 on Amazon Prime.
This is a pretty good recap of his life for those interested, like the Wiz will certainly be:
Next feature I'll write and I know you will all be waiting breathlessly for it will be about the Musee Olimpique in Lausanne. It celebrates the Olympic movement, which I did not know took shape in Lausanne, and it's history.
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