Thursday, February 24, 2011

Watching the Authors, The Actors, The Publisher, A Lawyer and a Curmudgeon Cavorting...





This vibrant slice of 1920's ambiance shows figures still of interest today: Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Alfred Knopf, Clarence Darrow, H.L. Mencken, Lois Moran (Fitzgerald's inspiration for Rosemary in Tender is the Night), Sinclair Lewis, Paul Robeson, Somerset Maugham, and so on. The succession of cameos may do no more than affirm the pleasure of boozing, but it's a festival of fun and satire.
A quote from a viewer (rlathbury) on YouTube

This short film is part of the Special Features on Warner Brother's 2fer release of Charlie Chaplin's films, A King in New York and A Woman of Paris.

The list of the entire cast is here.

According to IMDB, the "director" of this film's full name was Ralph Waldo Emerson Barton. One could assume his parents tried to fill him up to the brim with deep thoughts and fine literature. This probably accounts for the heavyweight guest lists at his dinner parties.

Either way, this ain't nothin' like my Great-Grand-Dad's home movies.

Those are basically endless reels of him, sitting in a rickety, wooden lawn chair, drinking beer and leering at my Great-Aunt Nancy...

But that, as usual, is another story.

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