# I think Willy Wonka was Wrong to Pick Charlie to Run the Chocolate Factory **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 28, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274 "2006-03-28T18:39:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/21 "2006-03-28T23:37:07Z")
Well, I think the OP is right, considering that Charlie allied with Willy’s brother Glenn, and started imposing cold-hearted business moves like switching to cheap Mexican chocolate… ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/22 "2006-03-29T00:17:14Z")
> [@mack](#): > > The first chocolate bar was a present from his family, and the one with the ticket was bought with found money, IIRC, so it’s not _entirely_ irresponsible. I think we ought to give him a pass on this. He does deserve a pass because once he found the golden ticket, he offered to sell it and give the money to his family. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/23 "2006-03-29T01:36:45Z")
I think it’s pretty clear that Charlie would be just a figurehead CEO, with Grandpa Joe (and possibly Willy himself) as silent partners, and it’s the Oompa Loompas who really run things. I mean, for cripes sake…he’s what, twelve? What really gets me is this. In the Burton film at least, Charlie’s house appears to be located on an EXTREMELY valuable plot of land. Right in the heart of downtown, taking up an entire block!! (No wonder they were so poor, the property taxes must have been killer.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/24 "2006-03-29T02:45:01Z")
I haven’t seen the Burton movie but I was suspect of the Gene Wilder version. Wonka picked Charlie because is a plain vanilla version of someone who will continue to do thing as they are. Charlie has no accumin to run the factory. He will be a molded little clone of Wonka himself. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/25 "2006-03-29T03:16:06Z")
> [@Mr. Goob](#): > > Charlie has no accumin to run the factory. He will be a molded little clone of Wonka himself. Accumen. (Sorry. Grammar Nazi moment.) That’s what I thought, too. Sure, the other kids were pretty terrible and Charlie is a decent, honest kid, but realistically? Charlie will shut up and do as he’s told, because he’s the one who idolizes Wonka’s vision the most–he won’t dare tamper with a single detail. The problem with Roald Dahl is that the other kids are just so nasty you absolutely _can’t_ find any redeeming traits about them, or want them to run the factory instead. He’s a great writer, just really… black and white. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/26 "2006-03-29T03:17:23Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > Accumen. (Sorry. Grammar Nazi moment.) And my spellchecker says ‘acumen’, so I humbly shut up and bugger off now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/27 "2006-03-29T03:25:12Z")
> [@Scupper](#): > > True, he does have Wonka-Vite to stave off old age, but after the fiasco with Grandma Georgina, Grandpa George, and Grandma Josephine, he’s probably a bit leery of trying it out on himself. > > However, it’s also made clear that he’s the only human being who understands the threat of the vermicious knids, and it is quite possible that he is handing off the chocolate factory to Charlie so that he can develop better defensive technologies for the earth to ward them off. What fiasco with the grandparents? It’s been more than twenty years since I read the book (and the Great Glass Elevator) but I don’t remember this bit. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/28 "2006-03-29T04:08:03Z")
Y’know, with all this talk of Veruca Salt, I went to IMDb to see if I could find a picture of her. Well, her [profile page](http://imdb.com/name/nm0170628/) doesn’t have one (though there might be one of her on the movie’s page… Was she the redhead?), but it does have an… interesting… piece of information. In addition to _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_ in 1971, and several other works afterwards, she also apparently hosted a TV show in 1955. Talk about not looking your age… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/29 "2006-03-29T04:13:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In addition to _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_ in 1971, and several other works afterwards, she also apparently hosted a TV show in 1955. Talk about not looking your age… Neat feat since her birthday is listed as 1957. The show lasted until 1984. She presumably hosted it in the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/30 "2006-03-29T04:17:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Y’know, with all this talk of Veruca Salt, I went to IMDb to see if I could find a picture of her. Well, her [profile page](http://imdb.com/name/nm0170628/) doesn’t have one (though there might be one of her on the movie’s page… Was she the redhead?), but it does have an… interesting… piece of information. In addition to _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_ in 1971, and several other works afterwards, she also apparently hosted a TV show in 1955. Talk about not looking your age… Probably a whoosh on my part, but imdb lists TV shows by the year they started. Crackerjack ran well into the 1980’s, but it first went on the air in 1955, so that’s the date that it gets listed as for everybody who was ever in it. Granted most other cast members have a note by their name mentioning exactly what years they were on, but Julie Dawn Cole doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/31 "2006-03-29T04:43:08Z")
Here’s how I see things shaking out. Never mind the contest. That was only to identify the personality traits in each child. Veruca is you COO. She’s running things. Charlie is the CEO, but like above, he’s just a figurehead. Augustus is Outside Sales Manager. Keep him as far away from the Chocolate River as possible. Mike is the Comm & Mktg Director. Violet can handle Inside Sales. You give Grandpa a seat on the Board, along with a token Oompa-Loompa. Make sure he’s in Veruca’s pocket, though, to keep Grandpa, Charlie and Willie from causing any kind of mischief. The other kids obviously are going to despise Charlie, so they shouldn’t get much traction on the Board. I’m also taking the Saturday Night Live sketch as canonical, so the CFO is Willie’s brother, played by Alec Baldwin. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/32 "2006-03-29T05:10:16Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > I’m also taking the Saturday Night Live sketch as canonical, so the CFO is Willie’s brother, played by Alec Baldwin. Al Gore “The toilets on the third floor are made of Graham crackers! Explain that!” ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/33 "2006-03-29T05:10:25Z")
Corporate facists, the lot of them. The Oompa-Loompas should have staged a strike, demanding that the chocolate factory be turned into a worker-owned and -managed collective, allowing only fair-trade organic cocoa to be used in the production of candy, the profits of which would have been used to provide housing and education for the young Loompas, ensuring them a better life outside the world of candy-making. Power to the people … er, Loompas. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/34 "2006-03-29T05:11:39Z")
And we keep Willy around as head of R&D? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/35 "2006-03-29T05:19:38Z")
If there’s a whoosh there, it’s on me. I didn’t realize (though I probably should have) that TV shows were listed by first air date, and that a person’s appearance on the show might be years later. I figured it was just a mistake, possibly from some other older actress with a similar name. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/36 "2006-03-29T05:24:01Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > Accumen. (Sorry. Grammar Nazi moment.) Shouldn’t that be Spelling Nazi? And why weren’t the Oompa Loompas wearing hairnets? I don’t want to bite into a Wonka bar and get a mouthful of green hair. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/37 "2006-03-29T05:32:06Z")
> [@](#): > > It seems odd that Willy Wonka wanted to “retire” anyway. What else was he going to do? Even Gene Wilder’s version seemed like a fey fellow to me. Perhaps it’s more a matter of finding a life partner and seeing the world? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/38 "2006-03-29T09:28:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Y’know, with all this talk of Veruca Salt, I went to IMDb to see if I could find a picture of her. Julie Dawn Cole was in a drama/soap about nurses, called Angels. That’s what I remember her from most of all, because my Mother used to love watching that show. [Pics](http://home-1.worldonline.nl/~hcdeboer/julie_judy.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/39 "2006-03-29T10:23:01Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Willy Wonka was not looking for a high-powered and highly competent manager. He was looking for someone nice, who he could trust to look afte the Oompa Loompas. Veruca would have sacked half of them, and made the rest work twice as hard for half the money. That’s the business world for you, and Willy Wonka wanted no part of that. Oh great, sure. But when Charlie runs the company into the ground, _all_ of the Oompa Loompas will be out of work refugees from a 4th world country. Then the UN’ll get involved, and before you know it, they’re resettling Loompas by the busload outside of Chico. Restless and disaffected Loomp youth will join gangs, be recruited by radical terrorist groups, there’ll be rashes of anti-Snozzwanger hate crimes, increased domestic pressure by Loompalanists to reestablish a “Oompa Homeland” in the former Loompaland territory—once the native Whangdoodle population has been “resettled”… A total quagmire all around. Better to let Slugworth have his way with Wonka’s company. Our economy depends on it. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274/40 "2006-03-29T12:53:13Z")
Another thing: the Oompa-Loompas are illegal immigrants. I haven’t seem the Burton film, but the book explicitly states that Wonka smuggled the Oompa-Loompas into the country. Also, I don’t remember the book mentioning anything about Slugworth stealing Wonka’s secrets. As I remember it (it’s been a while) the company just went out of business, and then some time later it mysteriously started up again, but no one knew who was working there. It’s hard to come to any conclusion other than that the Oompa-Loompas are slaves. They probably don’t get any pay other than room and board, and they obviously aren’t allowed out of the factory, since no one in the city has any clue that they’re there. Willy Wonka is an evil, evil man. Maybe it would be for the best if Slugworth took over the company. He’d probably use a legal labor force, who presumably would get paid and would be at liberty to go home at the end of the day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-willy-wonka-was-wrong-to-pick-charlie-to-run-the-chocolate-factory/350274.md?page=3)