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Charley Chase

Posted: February 20th, 2011, 1:51 pm
by silentscreen
I've heard it said that the only reason he was not among the big three or four was that he never made a feature.
Seen him in a few films, both silent and sound, and he was terrrific. I thought at least as good as Lloyd. Last night
I saw him in "Limousine Love", which was improbable, silly, fast paced, and just one gag after another in the space
of a two reeler. I know he had a serious drinking problem that led to his death from a heart attack at the age of 47,
but you could never tell it in his films.

Does anyone know why his career never made it to the top, and he's only known among the most passionate of
classic film buffs?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178706/

Re: Charley Chase

Posted: February 20th, 2011, 2:12 pm
by silentscreen

Re: Charley Chase

Posted: February 21st, 2011, 8:06 am
by intothenitrate
Really great article--thanks for the link. I've got some Charley Chase talking shorts that I recorded during the Thelma Todd day of Summer Under the Stars. I have to admit that I couldn't quite warm up to him. I remember thinking, "There's something tragic about that guy," and when I looked up his bio on IMDB, read about how he ended up.

In commentaries about the careers of both Harold Lloyd and Clara Bow, I've heard it noted that their films were so rooted in 20's culture, that when the 30's came along--and people were suffering from the ruin caused by the excesses of the previous decade--the public shunned certain personalities who had epitomized the era.

Lloyd and Chase go for a lot of laughs from "being embarrassed." Maybe that just stopped being funny.

Re: Charley Chase

Posted: February 22nd, 2011, 9:34 am
by movieman1957
Chase always looked the same. I've seen some of his silent shorts and he looks just like he did later. He seems to have made a very easy change into the talkies. I like some of his sound shorts that have music in them. They are pretty rare in the comedy short world.

Re: Charley Chase

Posted: April 30th, 2011, 6:27 pm
by Uncle Stevie
My Family lore tells me that my Grandfather new Chaz Chase personally. My Grandfather was a projectionist at the Capitol Theater in New York and also an inventor of movie projector advances at that time. He sold some patents to Louis B Mayer and spent some time in California. This was before he returned to New York and his Daughter, my Mother, gave birth to me. I know nothing more than I just told you. I did find copies of his patents on the internet under his name, Michael Berkowitz.

Re: Charley Chase

Posted: April 30th, 2011, 7:02 pm
by Rita Hayworth
silentscreen wrote:I've heard it said that the only reason he was not among the big three or four was that he never made a feature.

Does anyone know why his career never made it to the top, and he's only known among the most passionate of
classic film buffs?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178706/
I watched a lot of documentaries on Silent Screen Stars from the 1920's to 1935's ... and he was being overshadowed by the likes of Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Roscoe Arbuckle. Not, to mention John Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks, and Rudolph Valentino. There were too many powerhouses - these seven are major players back in those days and Charley Chase did way too many shorts and not enough full length silent movies. I do admire his work as an actor - but I felt that he never gotten the attention that he deserved. To me, that's cruel injustice ... My Grandfathers and Great-Grandfathers told me that he wasn't well known in many parts of our country back then. The reason why ... is that most cities when they do get a silent movie ... its always the four that I mentioned earlier and that alone contributed to the fact that he wasn't well known back then.

Perhaps others in the forum could add more to this ... but in reality the big guns of Lloyd, Keaton, Chaplin, and Arbuckle fell him into obscurity and that hurts him big time. Being in the Pacific Northwest, I have seen many of his shorts in various College Campuses back in the late 70's and early 80's while I was in College.

Re: Charley Chase

Posted: May 1st, 2011, 9:09 am
by Rita Hayworth
More on Charley Chase ...

I went into my notes regarding my Great-Grandfather ... he and my future Great-Grandmother went on a date to see Harold Lloyd ... "For Heaven Sakes" (a 1926 film) ... according to IMDb he played The Uptown Boy. When this Lloyd film was finished showing ... the theater showed both "Mama Behave" and "Charley My Boy" ... (both came out in 1926) and about the third of the moviegoers walked out because they did not want to see Charley Chase.

My Great-Grandparents love to tell stories and I remember them saying that they had a ball watching all these three movies for one nickel per person that includes popcorn and lemonade. I asked one of my older brothers - some additional clarifications and what I shared with you is accurate.

My Great-Grandparents were great fans of Charley Chase ... and looking back at my notes they shared with me ... they had a high regards to his works ... and I can see why when I saw a flock of his (I agree with them) shorts back in my College Days. So, in conclusion ... Charley Chase did not get the respect back in those days ... but when people did see him ... like my Great-Grandparents (and, their friends say so) they love his work as a Silent Screen Star back in the 1920's and beyond.

Re: Charley Chase

Posted: May 2nd, 2011, 9:53 pm
by Papermoon
Great article...I've enjoyed Charley Chase since I discovered him a few years ago, it is a shame that he isn't more well-known like Lloyd & Chaplin.