Chauncey Gardiner and Errors of Attribution
Cover of Being There (Deluxe Edition)
In the 1979 film, “Being There,” Chance (Peter Sellers) goes from an illiterate, TV-watching, not-too-swift gardener for a wealthy Washington, D.C. family to the confidant of a dying financial titan Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas) who is on a first name basis with the President of the United States (Jack Warden).
This turnabout occurs after Chance’s wealthy employer dies and lawyers for the heirs eject Chance without a penny from the only home he has known. Well tailored–he took the custom-tailored suits of his employer–courteous and with a certain presence but completely unaware of life, he wanders into downtown D.C. where the chauffered Cadillac of Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), the wife of the financial titan, accidentally knocks Chance down. To