Charlie, Don't Cry

Whether you’ve seen any of his work or not, you know who Sir Charles Spencer ‘Charlie’ Chaplin is just on sight.  He was the most iconic creative and influential personality in the silent film era, most famous for his unforgettable mime, slapstick and visual comedy routines.

A few months ago I read an online story about his death and how he’d been stolen from his place of rest and held for ransom by his grave-robbers.   I was mortified by the story and of course ended up writing a poem about it:

Charlie, Don’t Cry

famed Tramp

sweet pint-sized chap

with the bowler hat

moustache and cane

your strong affinity for

cinematic

sentimentality and pathos

died on Christmas day, 1977

then in a beat

like a scene from a silent film

two dodgy mechanics

one Polish (Roman Wardas)

one Bulgarian (Gantcho Ganev)

padded into Corsier Sur Vevey

filched your resting bones

from the beneath the earth

and

re-buried you in an rogue field

£400,000 was your ransom

handsomely snubbed by your

Lady Love who knew you would

have thought it preposterous

Charlie Chaplin

stolen from heaven

for extortion

11 weeks missing

and so, yielded back to your crypt

from a nearby Noville field to safety

under six feet of strong concrete

you don’t have to cry any-more

***

Crazy, eh?  I had no idea until I stumbled over it in an article.

Charlie’s widow, Oona Chaplin refused to pay the ransom and as a result the youngest Chaplin children were threatened with violence.   The two grave-robbers were involved in a large police round up in May 1978 and in December, Wardas was sentenced to four years in prison and Gantcho a suspended sentence for disturbing the peace of the dead and attempted extortion.

The world has always been a depraved place.  Fortunately we have characters like Chaplin to keep us light and laughing in the face of it all.

Charlie Chaplin died in his sleep on December 25^th, 1977 (I’d have been a mere four years old then).  Complications from a stroke he’d suffered.  He left behind a legacy that still to this day is imitated and celebrated.

Chaplin said, ‘A day without laughter is a day wasted.’  Laugh today.  Laugh everyday.

Happy humid Thursday!

In propinquity,

Nic