{"id":81339,"date":"2019-04-01T05:35:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T09:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=81339"},"modified":"2019-03-30T15:10:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T19:10:32","slug":"happy-birthday-lon-chaney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=81339","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, Lon Chaney"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nLike so many great clowns, Lon Chaney had a huge and tragic soul, at the heart of his persona was an abyss of sadness. He plays a clown, but he gives deeply tragic performances of towering stature. He’s overwhelming to watch, to this day (especially at public screenings). <\/p>\n

I had the great good fortune to be there at Ebertfest when his 1924 film He Who Gets Slapped<\/i> was screened, with accompaniment by the brilliant Alloy Orchestra (who wrote and performed the score themselves). Seeing that movie in that movie palace, packed to the gills, was an experience I will never ever forget. Here’s the piece I wrote about it for Rogerebert.com.<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are some screen grabs from his beautiful and disturbing performance as the clown Tito, in love with tightrope-walker Simonetta (Loretta Young) in 1928’s Laugh, Clown Laugh<\/i>. The film – and his performance – is an unforgettable evocation of love, loneliness, and hope, showing how true madness comes on the heels of heartbreak. His performance is both hilarious and tragic, sometimes in the same moment. He was a true genius.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like so many great clowns, Lon Chaney had a huge and tragic soul, at the heart of his persona was an abyss of sadness. He plays a clown, but he gives deeply tragic performances of towering stature. He’s overwhelming to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,39],"tags":[2270],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81339"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127783,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81339\/revisions\/127783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}