My theory is that Mrs. Chan was fine and still looking after her kids. I believe it was Iris (or maybe Frances) who was in a grave accident. Mrs. Chan went to stay with her and help care for her growing family. Charlie, suspecting that the "accident" was more then that decided to keep their whereabouts a secret and not discuss them nor even mention their names fearing their lives where in danger as he investigated the affair covertly.

Yes, those things can happen with your family, when you work with the "Secret Service".

Thanks for clueing us in Russell.

First off, thanks Rush for the info about Mrs Chan and the Jimmy/Tommy mysteries. I did read a bit about the Jimmy/Tommy mystery on your site a while back.

I like Russell's concept or at least it's less depressing than believing that both Mrs Chan and Tommy both died. It does make sense that if Charlie was working for the Secret Service, he would want to protect his family and maybe that's why he lived elsewhere but that's pretty sad that he couldn't be with them.

Since I never watched the later CC movies and the tv series, I can't be sure what to think. It's a mystery to what the writers and those behind those last few movies and the tv series was thinking. In the Charlie Chan World it brings up a lot of questions.

But speaking of questions: why didn't anyone question the producers, or directors, or even the actors in those later movies/series as to why those changes took place? Or if they were questioned, does that mean somewhere out there, the answers are documented?

Maybe after Toler died, Monogram wanted to change the CC movies/series a bit so that it didn't directly compare with the earlier Toler films. Still doesn't make much sense though. So I guess we're left to our imagination to fill in the gaps within the Charlie Chan World that they created.

But, then, wouldn't we need an explanation for how in the New Adventures of Charlie Chan, Charlie's #1 son is named Barry?

Well, we used to question "what were they thinking?", then we decided that there was NO WAY that those movie makers, back in the '30s and '40s, would ever DREAM that we would have VCRs and tapes and/or DVDs, and be scrutinizing their movies to pieces, from the late 1970s on.

We started taping the Charlie Chan movies when they showed up on independent channels in the late '70s, and kept on going, trying for better copies and ALL the movies. We never got them all, but nearly. (I remember setting my tape deck recording before going to work on the graveyard shift once. Got "Feathered Serpent", but finally decided to "scratch" the tape, as the sound had gone out in the broadcast, about 15 minutes in. That was bout 1985, still haven't seen that movie all the way through.)

All of this reminds me of the world of Sherlock Holmes, that his fans still look for.

Diana

I realize there were no vcrs or dvds back in those days but there had to be a lot of CC fans who went to see the movies at the theaters. Some had to realize, for example, the Tommy/Jimmy situation. So I was just wondering why no one ever questioned them on that or if they maybe did.

I guess maybe back then, the movie makers didn't think people would care or even realize any changes they made. Maybe it was just common back then to make changes like that so no one really questioned it? I don't know. However, changes like that do occur from time to time in series even nowadays (especially in soap operas heh).