Best in Show

Charlie Chaplin committed the ultimate Hollywood sin. Not his interest in teenage girls. That is fairly common. Not his communist sympathies. They are all commies. Except Chaplin who really was not. He forever ruined his Oscar chances by saying the awards were stupid. Chaplin and The Circus were nominated for best picture, director, actor, writing. After he publicly complained about the awards all the nominations were cancelled. City Lights was nominated for nothing. Cimarron won best picture that year. Remember Cimarron? Directed by Wesley Ruggles? Modern Times was nominated for nothing. The best picture was The Great Ziegfeld directed by Robert Z Leonard. Anybody remember him?

Time Passages

My grandmother was born before DVDs, digital cameras, VCRs, cassettes, 8-track tapes, LPs. They had no cameras in their mobile phones. They had no mobile phones. Their phones were not even cordless or have buttons or a rotary dial. They had to pick up a separate receiver and tell the operator who they wanted to phone. They could listen to the radio but no FM. And they did not have transistor radios until much later. They had to go outside and get their entertainment at theatres and cinemas. Without Dolby THX or any kind of stereo sound, or colour film, or synchronized sound. The big A list star in my grandmother’s day was Charlie Chaplin.