The great god Pan; a biography of the tramp played by Charles Chaplin (1952)

Page scan 00048 from The great god Pan; a biography of the tramp played by Charles Chaplin

Record Details:

Title:
The great god Pan; a biography of the tramp played by Charles Chaplin
Date:
1952
Publisher:
New York : Hermitage House
Volume:
The great god Pan : a biography of the tramp played by Charles Chaplin
Leaf #:
00048
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Motion pictures--Biography
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Date Added:
May 02, 2025
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$0 THE GREAT GOD PAN liars, or automatons, or worse. The radio audience laughs for the same reason that the mouth of Pavlov's dog watered. No institutions are mocked; all must be praised; the wisecracks jump on one another's heels; the harsh voice is a machine working with mechanical precision. More terrible than the wars is the end of laughter. The art of pantomime is dying, and when Chaplin dies it may be altogether dead. There was a time not very long ago when great gusts of earthy laughter smacked against the vaudeville stage; in those days there was froth on the beer, not pretty little bubbles. So it was with the Keystone comedies. There was nothing smart, nervous or jaded in them; no one was trying feverishly to be funny; the fun lay all around them, and they had only to pick it up. In those days the humor was rich and gay and mocking and atrociously impudent, and it was all these things because there was a human need for them, because a man cannot live without the grace of laughter, because he dies in the flesh if his flesh does not laugh with mockery and delight in the world around him. We used to wonder why Fields and Chaplin held such power over us. We need not have wondered. They were, and are, a part of our need.