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86 CELLULOID
Chaplin would employ the spoken word or remain silent. By some it was rumoured that his voice did not record well — an assertion that has long since been disproved — by others that he feared to lose his worldwide reputation if he spoke; whilst in truth Chaplin merely stood fast by that marvellous natural instinct for the cinema which he has always possessed since the Keystone beginnings, and which is shared by other eminent film personalities who know enough of their medium to realize that speech is fundamentally foreign to the cinema.
The importance attached by most of the American film producers to Chaplin's decision with regard to dialogue cannot be over-estimated. Not that it was prompted by any real desire to see the cinema continue along its right curve of development, but because Chaplin, it must always be remembered, has a very wide appeal throughout the world, wider probably than that of any other film actor, and the bookings on his pictures represent considerable financial profits. Quite apart from Chaplin's status in the art of the cinema, producers cannot afford to ignore his boxoffice attraction, and it is not unreasonable to suggest that practically the whole of Hollywood hung in suspense with bated breath and quivering bank balances to watch the public's reception of a film without speech.
In order to realize the significance which the showing of City Lights was to have, it will perhaps suffice to mention that during 1930 an average of one hundred and twenty telephone calls per week were made to the New York office of the United Artists