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It's Melbourne Cup Night, with "Charlie Chan at the Race Track"

FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Long road sometime shortest way to end of journey.”

It’s Melbourne Cup Night, again!

Please plan on joining us for our Monday Evening Chat and Film Viewing as we gather to watch and discuss “Charlie Chan at the Race Track,” starring Warner Oland. On this evening we will be celebrating the running of the famous Melbourne Cup race as is depicted in our featured film. This is an annual event, during which numbers for each horse in the race are handed out randomly. The one holding the lucky number of the actual winner of the race later that evening, will win a vintage Chan-era silver 1935 fifty-cent piece in honor of Mr. Chan’s bet of that same amount as seen in our movie. Besides the race, we have a great movie that we will be sharing, which pits Charlie Chan and Number One Son, Lee, against an international gambling ring!

Also, as our weekly “extra,” we will be sharing another of the cartoons from the 16-episode cartoon series from 1972 which featured KEYE LUKE as the voice of Charlie Chan, “The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan.” The episode we will be sharing is “The Bronze Idol,” which can be found online at: http://watchcartoonsonline.eu/watch/the-amazing-chan-and-the-chan-clan-episode-8-bronze-idol/

OUR PRESENTATIONS: “Charlie Chan at the Race Track” (1936; 70 minutes) …AND “The Bronze Idol” (1972; 20 minutes).

FILM SUMMARY: Following the suspicious disqualification of his horse, Avalanche, in the Melbourne Cup, Major Kent, a friend of Charlie Chan, returning to the United States with the thoroughbred via steamship, is found kicked to death in the horse's stall. Chan investigates when the liner stops off in Honolulu. He discovers evidence of foul play, and when the detective uncovers fraud involving another race in Los Angeles, he, along with Number One Son, Lee, seeks to expose an international gambling ring as well as the murderer.

FILM NOTES: The Roxy Theatre in New York billed this film as “At The Race Track with Charlie Chan.” ‘Variety’ reviewed the movie as “Chan at the Race Track.” According to ‘Motion Picture Herald’ and ‘Liberty,’ some scenes in the film were shot at Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, California, and the film contained footage of "some of the most spectacular events of the recent racing season." ‘Motion Picture Herald’ also notes that the film "has a semi-topical significance in as much as a great antipodean horse, Pharlap, brought to this country a few years ago [from Australia], died under circumstances that have never been fully explained." Liberty notes that Technical Director Monroe Liebergold had been a jockey for the well-known horse breeder H. P. Whitney. Although ‘Hollywood Reporter’ production charts list Neil Fitzgerald and John Mooney as additional actors, and only Neil Fitzgerald's participation in the final film has been confirmed.

Horses are, by their nature, not loners. It has long been a common practice for thoroughbred racehorses to be paired with a horse known as a companion pony which provides both a source of friendship and support. However, as we see in the case in “Charlie Chan at the Race Track” of Streamline’s pet monkey, Lollipop, these companion animals are not limited to horses. Other animals, such as dogs, goats, sheep, and, yes, monkeys, have been known to provide companionship to racehorses. In her article What is a Companion Pony? Jill Pellettieri notes that the famous horse Seabiscuit had a number of different companion animals and a horse named Pumpkin enjoyed the company of a dog named Pocatell and a spider monkey named Jo-Jo

TIME: We begin with arrivals and greetings at 7:30 EASTERN TIME. Then, we share our special short “extra” which will be followed at exactly 8:15 when we roll our feature for this Monday evening, “Charlie Chan at the Race Track.”

LOCATION: Our Charlie Chan Family Chat Room, which is accessed at http://www.charliechan.info/id17.html.

IF YOU LACK A COPY OF OUR FILM: Often our features can be found available online. Good fortune smiles, as our featured film is available online as this address (Unfortunately, there is a lengthy trailer for another film at the beginning, which can be skipped through.):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn4cSRKLlu4

And, again, for our Chan cartoon: http://watchcartoonsonline.eu/watch/the-amazing-chan-and-the-chan-clan-episode-8-bronze-idol/

OUR MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your vote in our November 2017 Poll, located at our Entrance Page (www.charliechan.info)!

NEXT WEEK: Join us as we share “Docks of New Orleans,” starring Roland Winters.

SO, please join in on the fun as we mark the running of the Melbourne Cup with Charlie Chan and Number One Son, Lee, in “Charlie Chan at the Race Track.”

Sincerely,

Rush Glick

Re: It's Melbourne Cup Night, with "Charlie Chan at the Race Track"

Best wishes to all the Charlie Chan at the Racetrack participants in the Chat room for the yearly event . I used to live in Melbourne but after retirement 5 years , I moved full time to China , where I live as the only foreigner in a village north of Beijing . A wonderful happy place to live , full of gentle , smiling people .
Due to a huge time difference between the US and here , I can't say Hi live , but have fun and I hope you pick a winner and get the traditional 50 cents :-)
Best Wishes , STEVE