Charlie Chaplins Own Story by Charlie Chaplin

Author:Charlie Chaplin [Chaplin, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2011-02-27T07:00:00+00:00

The tension of my nerves broke. William

Gillette, in an effort to save the dramatic

moment of the scene, repeated, "Billy, I want

you to watch the thieves." And, while the house

gazed at me, I turned my head and looked full

at the royal box.

The audience was stunned. It sat dumb, in

frozen horror. There was an awful silence,

while I stood helpless, gazing at the King of

Greece, and he stared back at me with slowly

widening eyes. Then his face broke into little

lines; they ran down from his eyes to his

mouth; it widened into a smile. A sudden

chuckle from King Edward broke the terrible

stillness. Again we heard the voice of the

King of Greece:

"By Jove! Ha! Ha!"

I tore my eyes away and continued the scene

through a haze. We finished it before a silent

house. The curtain fell. Then, led by the

royal box, a storm of applause arose. We took

our curtain call — I was on the stage of a great

West End theater, bowing before applauding

crowds, in the company of one of the greatest

actors in London. The voice of royalty itself

had been heard speaking of my acting. I was

dizzy with exultation.

The curtain fell for the last time and I

strutted proudly from the stage, looking from

one to another of the company, eager to meet

their envious looks. They hurried to their

dressing-rooms without a glance at me. No

one spoke. There was a strained chill feeling

in the atmosphere. I passed Mr. Postham and

he hurried by me as if I were not there.

136

A feeling of trouble and loneliness grew

upon me while I touched up my make-up for

the second scene, though I told myself as

confidently as possible that my looking at

the royal box could not have been so bad,

since the King of Greece had smiled and

Mr. Postham had said nothing. Yet I would

have been more at ease if he had sworn at me.

...

I threw myself into the work of the remaining

scenes with all the skill I had learned, and

I felt that I was doing them well, but the cold

feeling of uncertainty and doubt grew upon me.

At last the final curtain fell. Then for the

first time that evening the eyes of the whole

company turned on me. They lingered on the

stage, waiting. Mr. Postham walked slowly

out and looked at me quietly.

"Well, it went well, didn't it?" I said cockily

to him, saying savagely to myself that I had

been the hit of the evening. My words fell

on a dead silence, while Mr. Postham contin-

ued to look at me, and little by little I felt

myself growing very small and would have

liked to go away, but could not.

"I suppose you realize what you did," Mr.

Postham said, after a long time, and paused.

I opened my mouth, but could not say a word.

...

"It is fortunate — very fortunate — that His

Majesty — was pleased — to overlook it," Mr.

Postham continued slowly. He paused again.

"Fined three pounds," he said briskly, then,

and walked away. So I went meekly from

the scene of my first appearance in a good

theater under the scornful and surprised

glances of the other actors, who had expected

to see the part taken from me,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.