Chaplin and Hearst Castle

I've just come back from a visit to W. R. Hearst's San Simeon ranch (better known as Hearst Castle). I'd heard that there were interesting Chaplin photos and stuff on display, but such isn't the case now.

There's a theater showing a National Geographic production called 'Building the Dream,' and that documentary shows a couple of fast clips of Chaplin and Marion Davies clowning around, but that's the extent of it. There's also a big exhibit hall packed with photos and artifacts, but while one photo shows Harold Lloyd, and another shows Buster Keaton (both attending Hearst gatherings), there's no mention of Chaplin anywhere.

Two or three of the tours bring you to Hearst's tennis court, and you can picture Chaplin there in your mind's eye... but that's about

I visited San Simeon several years ago, and it is definitely a spectacular place. Since there are several tours offered, most covering different areas of the main house and grounds, we didn't get to see the tennis court, but the refectory and the screening room conjured mental images of the star-studded gatherings that must have taken place in those rooms. The entire area is pretty isolated even now; you can just imagine how remote it must have seemed in its heyday.

The 'Building the Dream' documentary is available on DVD from Slingshot, who have a website at http://www.slingshotent.com/index_html.htm - regrettably, we didn't have time during our visit to catch it in the IMAX theater, but I later got the DVD, and felt that the film probably played better on the huge IMAX screen than on a TV set.