If you’ve ever wondered where your dreams come from, you look around… this is where they’re made.
It’s all gone now. Everything I ever made. Nothing but ashes and fading strips of celluloid. My life has taught me one lesson, Hugo, and not the one I thought it would. Happy endings only happen in the movies.
My friends, I address you all tonight as you truly are; wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, magicians… Come and dream with me.
I would recognize the sound of a movie projector anywhere.
Magic tricks and illusion became my speciality. The world of imagination. My beautiful wife was my muse, my star, and we couldn’t have been happier. We thought it would never end. How could it?
But then the war came. And youth and hope were at an end. The world had no time for magic tricks and movie shows. The returning soldiers, having seen so much of reality, were bored by my films. Tastes had changed, but I had not changed with them. No one wanted my movies anymore. Eventually I… I couldn’t pay the actors… or keep the business running, and… and so my enchanted castle fell to ruin. Everything was lost.
One night, in bitter despair, I… I burned all my old sets and costumes. I was forced to sell my movies to a company that melted them down into chemicals. These chemicals were used to make shoe heels. With the little money I had from selling my films, I bought the toy booth… and there I have remained. The only thing I couldn’t bring myself to destroy was my beloved automaton. So I gave him to a museum, hoping he would find a home. But they never put him on display. And then the museum burned. It’s all gone now. Everything I ever made. Nothing but ashes and fading strips of celluloid. My life has taught me one lesson, Hugo, and not the one I thought it would. Happy endings only happen in the movies.
