Published On Fri Nov 06 2009

Charlie Chaplin fans were seizing on the news Friday that a lost film of the comic genius had been found on eBay for $5.68.

Morace Park, who lives in Essex, England, bought the battered olive green film canister listed as “an old film” for £3.20, and found the title Charlie Chaplin in Zepped inside.

His neighbour, John Dyer, former head of education at the British Board of Film Classification, knew the legend of the lost seven-minute film that includes a Zeppelin bomb attack. Released in 1916, it was believed to be World War I propaganda to reduce fear in Britain of German airship attacks, but the film vanished years ago.

Most recently, a Russian film academic article reported in 2006 that “the film has not survived.”

“It starts with live shots of Chaplin,” Park told The Guardian newspaper. “It then turns into a dreamscape. We see a Zeppelin bombing attack. And then we see Chaplin taking the mickey out of the Zeppelin, at the time a powerful instrument of terror.”

Michael Pogorzelski, director of the archive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, told The Guardian: “It is an extremely interesting find” believed to be put together from outtakes of earlier films and shots of Zeppelins and other material.

The fragile 35 mm nitrate film should be transferred to film quickly to preserve it, said Pogorzelski.

After their discovery, Park and Dyer set out on what’s now a month-long odyssey to Hollywood to piece together the story of Zepped, blogging and tweeting as they went. On Friday, they were in Los Angeles with filmmaker Hammad Khan, who was making a documentary about the discovery.

“We found a film. A lost film. But not just any old lost film,” they reported on lostfilmproject.wordpress.com Oct. 9. “We think we might have made THE cinematic find of the last 100 years. It’s something we feel compelled to get to the bottom of. And quick.”

Later, they speculated: “Is it really that one in a million opportunity to grab a ride on what could turn out to be something quite remarkable and memorable – and not just for ourselves? These questions will persist, no doubt. But there’s no turning back for sure. Of that I’m convinced. And that alone, is a little bit scary.”

On Nov. 1 on Twitter, http://www.twitter.com/lostfilmproject, they disclosed what they had. Slowly word trickled out, first in Variety, the entertainment trade magazine, and then in several British newspapers on Friday.

As early as three weeks ago, fans at the online Charlie Chaplin Club started buzzing about the possibility Zepped still existed.

When an enthusiast with the screen name “Copper” at the Charlie Chaplin Club agitated to see a clip once the discoverer verified the news, Park doused him with, “Have patience. It’s a little tricky getting nitrate film transferred.”

The film was produced by the Essanay film company, to which the 25-year-old Chaplin was under contract in 1915 and where he established the Little Tramp character that would make him a superstar.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/722262–lost-chaplin-film-sold-on-ebay-for-5-68

“Bush is not yet the new Hitler, as his invasion of Iraq so far cost ‘only’ over 1 million lives, and his war in Somalia ‘only’ also about a million lives, etc. While Hitler’s war cost tens of million of lives. Still, there are chilling parallels in the decline in civil liberties in the so called ‘Patriot Act’; in torture, etc. Because of torture, ex Bush suporter Andrew Sullivan is now comparing Bush to Hitler.”

Why did Andrew Sullivan compare Bush to Hitler? Because of torture. See here.

Even the pro Bush Prime Minister of the Czech Republic admits Bush has a torture policy.

As for Chechnya: do you support what Chechnyan nationalists have done to children in Beslan? And their ties to Al Qaeda?

`Democracy is dead` right now in Georgia, because Mr Sakaashvili abolished civil liberties and tried ethnic cleansing in South Ossetia.

Posted by: “Mike Hersh” mikehersh@mikehersh.com

Sun Jul 27, 2008 12:41 am (PDT)

Dan Reed (Dan Reed Network) collaborated with the Chaplin Group to mix the sound and images of the famous, poignant speech from the film “The Great Dictator” with his own vocals, music, and a montage of video clips to create a wonderful new piece of art. You can see and hear Dan in Denver with Progressive Democrats of America at Progressive Central, and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzf6xE4zdpo

The Dictator–A Music Video by Charlie Chaplin and Dan Reed
Lyrics by Charlie Chaplin and Dan Reed, Music by Dan Reed and Brad Fish
Director - Noah Shulman for Sleepless City Productions
Special Thanks to Max Wasa from Liquid Music Group

It is chilling.

I have read a great deal about that period, the Nazi era, and the
similarities are terrifying.

I used to believe a Hitler type thug could never succeed in America
because we have a free and vigorous press that would expose him in all
his evil, but I had not reckoned on the media concentration that the
Republicans have been working to achieve for decades. Almost all
newspapers, radio stations and TV entities in this country are under
the control of about seven corporations, whose top executives support
the Republican Party because the Republicans are the ones who
DE-regulated media ownership rules and allowed the media empires to
become information monopolies in their regions, where they can control
the information we get and HOW it is perceived.

When we have leggy airheads evaluating for us what is “important”
about our political candidates and what is the “important” news of the
day, we are already in mind-control territory.

Josef Goebbels would be envious of the mind-control going on in this
country thanks to the consolidation of media in so few hands.

We are even told that knowledgeable people reporting the news is “so
boring,” and “who are these oracles to tell us what we should think
about?”

We now have one or two generations who have grown up never knowing
what serious, informed newscasting looks like or sounds like. They
think news is supposed to be a balance between urgent governmental
matters and the arrests of Paris Hilton — they get equal time and
are treated with equal seriousness and urgency.

It is mind-control, and I can only say thank goodness we have the
Internet where we can keep one another informed. Without the Internet,
we would be completely under the mind-control of the media moguls.

=========================================
— In leftwing@yahoogroups.com, “G. Myrick” wrote:
>
> “…Goering shrugged. …[I]t is always a simple matter to drag the
people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a
Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”
> “There is one difference,” I pointed out. “In a democracy the people
have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and
in the United States only Congress can declare wars.”
>
> “Oh, that is all well and good [said Goering], but, voice or no
voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked
and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the
country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
>
> From Nuremberg Diary, by Gustave Gilbert