Which celebrity lost her own look alike contests

Dolly Parton has a very recognizable face and features. Even her hair helps her stand out with a defined look of her own. Naturally, she could pull off the Dolly Parton look best and win any look-alike contest, right?

Well, maybe not. People love stories with a twist, and one popular myth claims Dolly Parton lost a look-alike contest searching for someone who most resembled the legendary country singer. Did this happen, or is this humanity’s fondness for absurdity?

Did Dolly parton lose the Dolly Parton look-alike contest?

According to the country music icon herself, she did indeed lose a look-alike contest. Years ago, Los Angeles hosted a drag queen celebrity impersonation contest. At the time, she kept her participation a strict secret. She explained to ABC, “They had a bunch of Chers and Dollys that year, so I just over-exaggerated — made my beauty mark bigger, the eyes bigger, the hair bigger, everything.”

RELATED: This Is Why Dolly Parton Didn’t Allow Elvis To Cover “I Will Always Love You”

The story gets more incredible. Parton went on, “All these beautiful drag queens had worked for weeks and months getting their clothes. So I just got in the line and I just walked across… but I got the least applause.”

Accidentally forging memories

“Me and a bunch of friends decided to go down {to a local gay bar] because we were all dressed up, and me being Dolly,” Parton explained, revisiting how this shocking turn of events happened. “They had these big drag queens—I mean they looked great too, they were prettier than I could ever dream of being—but anyway when they walked across the stage, if they applauded, you won the contest by the amount of applause.”

“All these beautiful guys were walking across, these Dolly Parton’s, and here I come walking across the stage and I got the least applause of anybody. I’ve always said it’s terrible when you lose a Dolly Parton look-alike contest,” she concluded. Turns out, a well-dressed guy nailed the Dolly Parton look better than Parton herself and won the look-alike contest over her.

Charlie Chaplin started appearing in his first films in 1914---40 films, to be precise---and, by 1915, the United States had a major case of "Chaplinitis." Chaplin mustaches were suddenly popping up everywhere--as were Chaplin imitators and Chaplin look-alike contests. A young Bob Hope apparently won one such contest in Cleveland. Chaplin Fever continued burning hot through 1921, the year when the Chaplin look-alike contest, shown above, was held outside the Liberty Theatre in Bellingham, Washington.

According to legend, somewhere between 1915 and 1921, Chaplin decided to enter a Chaplin look-alike contest, and lost, badly.

A short article called "How Charlie Chaplin Failed," appearing in The Straits Times of Singapore in August of 1920, read like this:

Lord Desborough, presiding at a dinner of the Anglo-Saxon club told a story which will have an enduring life. It comes from Miss Mary Pickford who told it to Lady Desborough, “Charlie Chaplin was one day at a fair in the United States, where a principal attraction was a competition as to who could best imitate the Charlie Chaplin walk. The real Charlie Chaplin thought there might be a chance for him so he entered for the performance, minus his celebrated moustache and his boots. He was a frightful failure and came in twentieth.

A variation on the same story appeared in a New Zealand newspaper, the Poverty Bay Herald, again in 1920. As did another story in the Australian newspaper, the Albany Advertiser, in March, 1921.

A competition in Charlie Chaplin impersonations was held in California recently. There was something like 40 competitors, and Charlie Chaplin, as a joke, entered the contest under an assumed name. He impersonated his well known film self. But he did not win; he was 27th in the competition.

Did Chaplin come in 20th place? 27th place? Did he enter a contest at all? It's fun to imagine that he did. But, a century later, many consider the story the stuff of urban legend. When one researcher asked the Association Chaplin to weigh in, they apparently had this to say: "This anecdote told by Lord Desborough, whoever he may have been, was quite widely reported in the British press at the time. There are no other references to such a competition in any other press clipping albums that I have seen so I can only assume that this is the source of that rumour, urban myth, whatever it is. However, it may be true."

I'd like to believe it is.

via France Culture/Stack Exchange

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