Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Limelight

When I was small I used to play with a music box at my granny’s house. It was a little Swiss Chalet which played ‘Limelight’. I didn’t know what ‘Limelight’ was but I liked the name and the tune. I must have driven her mad, listening to the music over and over again. My granny died when I was 15 and I presumed that the music box was given to my cousin who was 4 at the time. A few years ago I went to see a film about Charlie Chaplin and was delighted that the theme tune running throughout the film was ‘Limelight’. I knew that he finally settled in Switzerland and presumed that was why the music box was in the form of a chalet.

At the end of the summer I was preparing a postcard of a Swiss Chalet for sale and it reminded me of that little music box so I emailed to my cousin who didn’t remember the music box at all. My aunt put a note in my birthday card a few weeks later explaining that when my step-granny’s first husband died she went to Switzerland for a holiday and bought the little chalet back as a present for my granny (they were next door neighbours). When she married my grandfather we presume that the music box went back to her.

Last night Limelight was on TV. A lovely film made in the 1950s with Charlie Chaplin and a very young Claire Bloom.

3 comments:

Donna said...

I'm Sure I've heard it...and Switzerland is so Gorgeous! We were there in '80.
Happy story sweetie!hughugs

alan said...

My dreams of traveling Europe always started in Bronte country in England, a lot of wandering through the Moors and the Lake District, Scarborough, then Cornwall, then worked their way across the channel, around France and finally after a visit at Domremy, over the mountains to that chalet you mention, then down through Italy to the Amalfi coast.

And yes, I love that movie as well!

Along with "City Lights" and "The Kid" and "The Great Dictator"...

alan

Anji said...

Donna: I didn't know you'd been to Europe. I think you'd know the tune.

Alan: They don't make films like that anymore. Hope your schedual will give you time to soak up the history in La Rochelle.