So, last week I watched the movie Chaplin starring Robert Downey Jnr, which is loosely based on the life and Biography of Charlie Chaplin. I had seen the movie years ago, and felt like a trip down nostalgia lane - and it was. Not just the re-discovery that Robert Downey Jnr is a fabulous actor, but it also took me back to a time when this world - silent movies - were my fascination, my passion.
I spent the majority of my early-mid teens immersed in the glamour and intrigue of the early 20th Century film world. The glamour of names like Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks, Swanson, Valentino, Bow, the intrigue of 'Pickfair', the creation of United Artists, the scandals and just the general creation of the motion picture.
So last night, on the way home from my Swing Dance class in Fremantle (swing originally came out of dances like the Charleston - a popular 1920's partner dance - there is a connection here I promise), I started thinking about travelling back to that time period. What would I do and where would I go if, in fact, I had my own DeLorean?
I have always had a love for the era's between 1920-1960. I don't know why, it's something I can't explain, but I am drawn to America during this period. From the 1920's Silent Era, to the invention of 'Talkies', from the glamour of the Ziegfeld Follies & Gypsy Rose Lee to the Wall Street crash of 1929 plunging the country into Depression. From FDR to Hoover, the Gangsters, MGM Musicals to WWII and the 1940's with all the Big Band music to the Golden Age of Hollywood and Doris Day, this is where my passion lies, even to the extent that for a lot of my teens I wanted to be an historian. I was lucky enough, as part of my Year 11 History class, to be able to study 'America: Between the Wars' and this just helped to fuel the fire. So I guess, if I were to jump in the Delorean and have Doc set the date, these are some of the things I would like to do:
- Experience when the Movies became more than 'a fad'
- Drink Gin from a tea cup in a real 'Speakeasy'
- Have a dance lesson with Gene Kelly
- Crash the set of Gidget
- Ride in a Chrysler Imperial E80
- Become an avid listener of many Radio Programs
- Participate in a Dance Marathon
- Join the hordes of screaming fans at Grauman's Chinese Theatre for the premiers of Gloria Swanson and Charlie Chaplin films.
- Explore New York City and the birth of 'Broadway'
- Participate in the war effort
- Cut my hair short, put on a Cloche hat and dance the Charleston
- Listen to the Glenn Miller Orchestra LIVE
- Make a Mack Sennett picture
- Be an extra in a Beach Party Movie or MGM Musical
- Wear authentic Vintage Clothes!
- Hang out at the Cotton Club
- See Babe Ruth hit a home run
- Experience the music of Gershwin and Cole Porter for the very first time
- See the HOLLYWOODLAND sign
- Go to opening nights of so many shows
- Have a soda at Schwab's Drug Store
- Walk around the MGM Studio lot - when it was still MGM
- Sneak a peak at Hoover's secret files!
- Be at the first meeting of United Artists
- Be styled by Max Factor
- Attend a party at Pickfair
- Hear the Andrews Sisters live - and many other performers for that matter!
I wouldn't want to try and change the world or the events of history causing my very own 'Butterfly Effect' because, as the wise Doc Brown said: 'the consequences of that could be disastrous'. And I believe everything happens the way it does for a reason. I would just like a glimpse into those times that interest me, so that I may have a better understanding of them, a better grasp on what was or wasn't, in any case, it would be interesting.
So, where would you go?
1 comment:
I would like to go back to cave man times and be the one that knocks the man on the head and pull them out of the cave by their hair....I think it would change a lot of things for women in the future.....lol
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