Two Plus Two Older Archives - Who Will Be Remembered Longer?

There are tons of people already who have never seen a Chaplin film and probably never will, or who have seen maybe one, and will probably never see another.

I used to work in a video store, and constantly saw the same sentiment that you see sometimes echoed here: "I don't like black and white movies." People who aren't film buffs or comedy "completists" of a sort just don't watch old movies, especially silent ones with people few of their friends know or care about. Chaplin will live forever in the minds of film buffs, but he's pretty damn dead now.

Not so the Beatles. They still play documentaries on them during PBS pledge drives to bring in money, their songs still get covered, musicians still talk about their influence every day, they're still huge sellers who until recently never got their albums discounted even though they broke up 30 years ago. They're still on the radio every day even now, which is pretty phenomenal for any music star.

And they permeated an era. They were truly enormous during the 60's and helped set the tone for the times in all sorts of ways that had nothing to do with music. You can't really say that about Chaplin, no matter how much you love him. He was never "bigger than Jesus" or an international cultural phenomenon, even though he was an international star. He was just a very popular, extremely gifted filmmaker and comedian. His supreme position at the start of the movies ensures he'll never be forgotten for historical reasons by film buffs and historians, but he has little to no pull on the public consciousness these days, and that's not going to be changing.

For every time even a big Chaplin fan has seen a Chaplin movie, he's probably heard thousands of Beatles songs, and will probably hear thousands more.

I wish old movies had more legs, because they're very often much better than the ones made today. But the fact is, being a film buff is a specialist's love. Most people just watch movies, that's all. And the great names of the old days are either unrecognizable or have no pull with most people now. That's not where the culture is at and it's not where the culture is headed.

But the Beatles will be influencing musicians and creating fond memories and good times with their music for a long time to come. Go to any store and you'll find Beatles albums for a long time. Go to any store and try to find a Chaplin movie...pretty darn unlikely. Ask any friend if he's seen this or that Chaplin movie or if he even knows the names of one or more Chaplin movies, and you'll come up with a lot of empty.