Symphony Strikes Gold

The audience for Santa Barbara Symphony’s latest concert at the venerable Granada was certainly ore-struck!

The musicians – under Grammy-winning guest conductor Lucas Richman, music director of the Bangor Symphony, and backed by a giant movie screen – played the score from Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 film The Gold Rush, whose story was based on the 1896 Klondike event where thousands of adventurers experienced frigid temperatures and perilous terrain staking claims.

The entertaining black and white film, in which Chaplin was both star (as his Little Tramp character) and director, was released with sound in 1942, Chaplin having composed the score.

One memorable scene shows Chaplin eating leather boots like a gourmand after food had run out for the 19th century pioneers.

Sole searching indeed!

When he died at his home in Switzerland in 1977 at the age of 88, he said the film was what he wanted to be remembered for.

One can understand why….