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Two of
Charlie's children, Annette and Christopher, pictured in Febuary
1985 with the Madame Tussaud's waxwork model of their father. |
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The singer
and comedian Tommy Steele who himself was born only a short
distance away from Charlie's birthplace, with his unique statue
of the great man. |
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In London, where he was born, a six-foot
high bronze statue of the little tramp made by the leading sculptor,
John Doubleday, stands in the heart of the city's cinemaland,
Leicester Square. It was erected to mark the 92nd anniversary
of his birth
The statue was
first proposed by the Greater London Council member Illtydd Harrington
shortly after the star's death in 1977.
John Doubly, a life-long admirer of
Chaplin, who lives and works in Essex, based the statue Chaplin
at the peak of his popularity. He is depicted leaning on his cane,
a rose pressed to his heart an according to John, his eyes clouded
with wistfulness for 'one of the girls who got away'.
John has explained
that while he was working out the exact measurements for the statue
he realized that Chaplin had retained all his life the undeveloped
thorax of an underfed child.
On January 13, a statue of Chaplin turned
up quite unannounced in Leicester Square.
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John
Doubleday's statue of Charlie which stands in Leicester Square,
London - appropriately facing the Swiss Centre! An identical
version also stands in Corsier sur Vevey, Switzerland, where
Charlie lived during the closing years of his life. |
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The
'Chaplin Craze' brought with it the inevitable impersonators,
toys, dolls, statuettes, costumes, cut-outs and even animated
cartoons. Although the frenxy for Chaplin goods had abated
some what by the 1920s , there were still novelties to be
had, something which remains true even today. |
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