"....surely I am one of the few intellectuals to whom this
happened and to be able to account for it when it happened."
From
The Yale Journal of Criticism 9.1 (1996) 57-61
Chaplin Times Two
Theodor W. Adorno Translated by John MacKay
"Perhaps I may justify my speaking about him by recounting a certain
privilege which I was granted, entirely without having earned
it. He once
imitated me, and surely I am one of the few intellectuals to whom this
happened and to be able to account for it when it happened. Together
with
many others we were invited to a villa in Malibu, on the coast
outside of Los
Angeles. While Chaplin stood next to me, one of the guests was taking
his leave
early. Unlike Chaplin, I extended my hand to him a bit
absent-mindedly, and,
almost instantly, started violently back. The man was one of the
lead actors* from
The Best Years of Our Lives, a film famous shortly after the
war; he lost a hand
during the war, and in its place bore practicable claws made of
iron. When I
shook his right hand and felt it return the pressure, I was extremely
startled, but
sensed immediately that I could not reveal my shock to the injured
man at any
price. In a split second I transformed my frightened expression into
an obliging
grimace that must have been far ghastlier. The actor had hardly
moved away
when Chaplin was already playing the scene back. All the laughter
he brings
about is so near to cruelty; solely in such proximity to cruelty
does it find its
legitimation and its element of the salvational. Let my remembrance
of this
event and my thanks be my congratulations to him on his 75th birthday."
*The actor described here was Harold Russell (b.1914 in Nova Scotia), who in fact lost both his hands as a soldier during World War II. Acclaimed for his performance as one of the three returning veterans in William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Russell became the only actor ever to win two Oscars for the same role: one for Best Supporting Actor, the other a special Oscar given "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." Russell made history again in 1992, as he became the first Oscar recipient to sell one of his awards, which he did in order to raise money to help cover his wife's medical expenses.
