Charley Chase’s Daughter
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Charley Chase is an unjustly forgotten comedy star from the 1930’s who worked at the Hal Roach Studios at the same time that Laurel and Hardy and the Our Gang did. In fact, in their day, they might be considered the ‘big three’ comedy short subject stars. Although it is difficult to find Chase comedies in the mainstream world, videos of his films along with ‘real’ 16mm and Super 8 film have long circulated in the collector world. Chase’s films are among some of my favorites. Sadly, Charley Chase himself died quite young in 1940, but I was especially happy to find that my friend Bob had an address for Mrs. June Hargis, Charley’s second and youngest daughter.
If it is true that Sherwood Schwartz was only responsible for making crap on telelvision, then it was crap that has made a huge group of people very happy for a huge number of years. One of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid was Gilligan’s Island, Schwartz’ first successful creation. I have since outgrown this show and now recognize the crap-factor, but it hasn’t stopped me from owning every single solitary episode on DVD. 
The title of this posting may sound like a nightmarishly tacky variety show, but I am really referring to my initiative in both Summer of 1992 and 1997 to collect autographs from celebrities who worked in friends with Robert DeNiro. Since 1991 when I first saw Goodfellas and followed it up with Cape Fear – and then began collecting DeNiro films one by one, I have been enamored with his film career. In the early 1990’s my goal was to acquire all of his movies on Laserdisc, which at the time was costing $30 (for the cheap ones) and upward. Since then, I have shifted to DVD’s and am close to completing the entire catalog. 
Two of Hume Cronyn’s earliest roles were in Alfred Hitchcock films, Shadow of Doubt in 1943 (in which he nearly stole every scene in which he appeared) and Lifeboat in 1944. He went on to work of the screenplay adapatations for two additional films with the Master of Suspense, Rope and Under Capricorn. His celebrated career went on for nearly sixty years, culminating in the magnificent Marvin’s Room (with my buddy Robert DeNiro), in which he again stole the show – without uttering a single word.