Stout and youthful Babe Hardy puts away a tower
of flapjacks and mile-long sausage in opener segments of The Hobo I hope they didn't shoot
twice, his eating as prodigious as any screen-depicted before or since. Was
Babe's appetite half so ravenous in private life? It was vigorous golf that controlled
weight over a career's peak; real obesity came only with cessation of sport and
increase ofdrink, that being twenty-five years past The Hobo and Babe being
fresh-faced rival to Chaplin imitator Billy West, who really had CC nailed and
still can fool unwary watchers. How many less laughs did Chaplin fakes earn in
crowded theatres circa '17? The Billy Wests were not cheap affairs, and the best of
them are funny by standards of comedy that competed with Charlie. It helped too
to have former CC supporters on hand to do a same for West, in this case Leo
White from Chaplin's Essanay period. West runs through largely episodic antics,
two reels eating up inspiration fast, thus action spill out of train station
setting to purloined autos, police giving chase, and West sign-off with
Chaplinesque "pathos." I couldn't decide if that part was homage, or
Billy mocking Charlie for a device that by 1917 was familiar to CC's largerpublic.
Were people so desperate for anything Chaplin that they accepted a blatant copy? I guess so.
Funny how the present-day Billy West is a voice-over artist who can imitate pretty much anybody. You can find him on YouTube doing a killer Larry Fine.
Babe Hardy added so much to these - and the Larry Semon series. Not only was he a great foil onscreen, but his participation is probably one more reason why prints have survived!
Chaplin, ever the perfectionist, took his time making his films, so to satisfy moviegoers waiting for Charlie's next opus, West stepped into the breach with his faux-Chaplin films, as did Harold Lloyd with "Lonesome Luke."
Michael Hayde, noted author of the recent book, "Chaplin's Vintage Year," shares some observations re Billy West:
rnigma makes the same point that I did in a "Chaplinitis" presentation I gave at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention last month. West was indeed filling a void. Moreover, there was never any attempt to convince audiences that they were watching Chaplin. West's name is all over the text titles of his Bulls Eye comedies, and once he developed his own following, he gradually moved away from outright imitation.
It's significant that Chaplin never sued West. It took an impersonator named Charles Amador, who took the screen name "Charlie Aplin" to prompt Chaplin to legal action.
5 Comments:
Were people so desperate for anything Chaplin that they accepted a blatant copy? I guess so.
Funny how the present-day Billy West is a voice-over artist who can imitate pretty much anybody. You can find him on YouTube doing a killer Larry Fine.
I don't see West mocking Chaplin in anything he did.
One does not bite the hand that feeds them
Babe Hardy added so much to these - and the Larry Semon series. Not only was he a great foil onscreen, but his participation is probably one more reason why prints have survived!
Chaplin, ever the perfectionist, took his time making his films, so to satisfy moviegoers waiting for Charlie's next opus, West stepped into the breach with his faux-Chaplin films, as did Harold Lloyd with "Lonesome Luke."
Michael Hayde, noted author of the recent book, "Chaplin's Vintage Year," shares some observations re Billy West:
rnigma makes the same point that I did in a "Chaplinitis" presentation I gave at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention last month. West was indeed filling a void. Moreover, there was never any attempt to convince audiences that they were watching Chaplin. West's name is all over the text titles of his Bulls Eye comedies, and once he developed his own following, he gradually moved away from outright imitation.
It's significant that Chaplin never sued West. It took an impersonator named Charles Amador, who took the screen name "Charlie Aplin" to prompt Chaplin to legal action.
Michael
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