[...] Einstein is a twentieth-century icon. He was once asked to stage his own three-week show at the London Palladium. Women fainted in his presence. Young girls mobbed him in Geneva. Today this sort of adulation is reserved for pop singers and movie stars. But in the aftermath of the First World War, Einstein became the first superstar of science when in 1919 the bending of light predicted by his theory of general relativity was confirmed. Little had changed when in January 1931, during a lecture tour of America, Einstein attended the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's movie City Limits in Los Angeles. A large crowd cheered wildly when they saw Chaplin and Einstein. 'They cheer me because they all understand me,' Chaplin told Einstein, 'and they cheer you because no one understands you.