A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Behind the news of Hollywood divorces (which, statistics prove, are no more numerous than those of any other town in America) behind the lurid news that our people sometimes make while blowing off steam, is the story of a job being done – a job that has great influence on the public that seeks its diversion seven nights a week in movie theaters.

Dec. 29, 1940: Hedda Hopper still has good things to say about Charlie Chaplin. “ ‘The Great Dictator’ had faults, but deserved more than faint praise from some critics. It was the greatest work of slapstick Chaplin ever made, and was a cry from the depths of the soul of humankind, through the little man, for a world at peace and a people united for one cause  -- goodwill among men.” Eventually, Hopper will support “good Americans” in boycotting Chaplin’s films.

Comments

[Native Angeleno]

I just wish Hedda were still alive. I'd love to rotate a pie in her face.

Did you know that Limelight, which among other things included the only skit i'm aware Chaplin and Buster Keaton did together on film, was banned in LA in 1952 thanks to the Heddas of the Red Scare years, and was not released until i believe 1972, when it was awarded an Oscar for Chaplin's score, which included if memory serves the classic song "Smile". It was America that did not do Charlie particularly well in those years, an American jury finding him guilty in a paternity suit even after a blood test proved the child was not his.

REQUEST: I really like your recent focus on 1919-20, as well as 1909-10. But i would also love to see some coverage of the first years of the Depression in LA, a decade that has always seemed fascinatingly mysterious to me. '29 is past us, but i'd imagine '30 is a treasure trove of info on the evolution of the dirty thirties.

Thanks Larry, as always, appreciate what must be your many hours of hard work.