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Sir Charles Spencer
"Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English
comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during
the silent film era.[2] He became the most famous film star in the world
before the end of World War I. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other
visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies,
though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His
most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the
Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914.[3] From the April 1914
one-reeler Twenty Minutes of Love onwards he was writing and directing
most of his films, by 1916 he was also producing them, and from 1918 he
was even composing the music for them. With Mary Pickford, Douglas
Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he co-founded United Artists in 1919.[4]
Chaplin was one of the most
creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. He was
influenced by his predecessor, the French silent film comedian Max
Linder, to whom he dedicated one of his films.[5] His working life in
entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the
music hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to
his death at the age of 88. His high-profile public and private life
encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin's identification
with the left ultimately forced him to resettle in Europe during the
McCarthy era in the early 1950s.
In 1999, the American Film
Institute ranked Chaplin the 10th greatest male screen legend of all
time.[6] In 2008, Martin Sieff, in a review of the book Chaplin: A Life,
wrote: "Chaplin was not just 'big', he was gigantic. In 1915, he burst
onto a war-torn world bringing it the gift of comedy, laughter and
relief while it was tearing itself apart through World War I. Over the
next 25 years, through the Great Depression and the rise of Adolf
Hitler, he stayed on the job. ... It is doubtful any individual has ever
given more entertainment, pleasure and relief to so many human beings
when they needed it the most".[7] George Bernard Shaw called Chaplin
"the only genius to come out of the movie industry".[8]
****
Background Information
Birth name Charles Spencer
Chaplin
Born 16 April
1889(1889-04-16)
Walworth, London, England
Died 25 December
1977(1977-12-25) (aged 88)
Vevey, Switzerland
Medium Film, music, mimicry
Nationality British
Years active 1895–1976[1]
Genres Slapstick, mime,
visual comedy
Influenced Benny Hill
Marcel Marceau
The Three Stooges
Federico Fellini
Milton Berle
Peter Sellers
Rowan Atkinson
Johnny Depp
Jacques Tati
Spouse Mildred Harris (m.
1918–1921) «start: (1918)–end+1: (1922)»"Marriage: Mildred Harris to
Charlie Chaplin" Location:
(linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin)
1 child
Lita Grey (m. 1924–1927)
«start: (1924)–end+1: (1928)»"Marriage: Lita Grey to Charlie Chaplin"
Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin)
2 children
Paulette Goddard (m.
1936–1942) «start: (1936)–end+1: (1943)»"Marriage: Paulette Goddard to
Charlie Chaplin" Location:
(linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin)
Oona O'Neill (m. 1943–1977)
«start: (1943)–end+1: (1978)»"Marriage: Oona O'Neill to Charlie Chaplin"
Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin)
8 children
****
Biography
Early life in London (1889–1909)
Charles Spencer Chaplin was
born on 16 April 1889, supposedly in East Street, Walworth, London,
England.[9] (In 2011, a letter, written to him in the 1970s, came to
light, claiming that he had been born in a Gypsy caravan at Black Patch
Park in Smethwick, Staffordshire.[10]) His parents were entertainers in
the music hall tradition; his father, Charles Spencer Chaplin Sr, was a
vocalist and an actor while his mother, Hannah Chaplin, was a singer and
an actress who went by the stage name Lilly Harley.[11] They separated
before Charlie was three. He learned singing from his parents. The 1891
census shows that his mother lived with Charlie and his older
half-brother Sydney in Barlow Street, Walworth.
As a child, Chaplin also
lived with his mother at various addresses in and around Kennington Road
in Lambeth, including 3 Pownall Terrace, Chester Street and 39 Methley
Street. His paternal grandmother's mother was from the Smith family of
Romanichals,[12] a fact of which he was extremely proud,[13] though he
described it in his autobiography as "the skeleton in our family
cupboard".[14] Charles Chaplin Sr. was an alcoholic and had little
contact with his son, though Chaplin and his half-brother briefly lived
with him and his mistress, Louise, at 287 Kennington Road.[15][16] The
half-brothers lived there while their mentally ill mother lived at Cane
Hill Asylum at Coulsdon. Chaplin's father's mistress sent the boy to
Archbishop Temple's Boys School. His father died of cirrhosis when
Charlie was twelve in 1901.[17] As of the 1901 Census, Chaplin resided
at 94 Ferndale Road, Lambeth, as part of a troupe of young male dancers,
The Eight Lancashire Lads,[18] managed by William Jackson.[19]
A larynx condition ended
the singing career of Hannah Chaplin.[20] After her re-admission to the
Cane Hill Asylum, her son was left in the workhouse at Lambeth in south
London, moving several weeks later to the Central London District School
for paupers in Hanwell where he stayed from June 1896 until January
1898.
In 1903 Chaplin secured the
role of Billy the pageboy in Sherlock Holmes, written by William
Gillette and starring English actor H. A. Saintsbury. Saintsbury took
Chaplin under his wing and taught him to marshal his talents. In 1905
Gillette came to England with Marie Doro to debut his new play, Clarice,
but the play did not go well. When Gillette staged his one-act
curtain-raiser, The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes as a joke on
the British press, Chaplin was brought in from the provinces to play
Billy. When Sherlock Holmes was substituted for Clarice, Chaplin
remained as Billy until the production ended on 2 December. During the
run, Gillette coached Chaplin in his restrained acting style. Acting in
Sherlock Holmes entitled Chaplin to a West End actor's pass for the
funeral of Britain's most respected Shakespearean actor, Sir Henry
Irving, which he attended, sitting next to the actor Lewis Waller.[21]
It was during this engagement that the teenage Chaplin fell hopelessly
in love with Doro, but his love went unrequited and Doro returned to
America with Gillette when the production closed.[22]
They met again in Hollywood
eleven years later. She had forgotten his name but, when introduced to
her, Chaplin told her of being silently in love with her and how she had
broken his young heart. Over dinner, he laid it on thick about his
unrequited love. Nothing came of it until two years later, when they
were both in New York and she invited him to dinner and a drive.
Instead, Chaplin noted, they simply “dined quietly in Marie’s apartment
alone.” However, as Kenneth Lynn pointed out, “Chaplin would not have
been Chaplin if he had simply dined quietly with Marie.”[23]
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First years in the United States
(1910–1913)
Chaplin first toured the
United States with the Fred Karno troupe from 1910 to 1912. After five
months in England, he returned to the U.S. for a second tour, arriving
with the Karno Troupe on 2 October 1912. In the Karno Company was Arthur
Stanley Jefferson, who later became known as Stan Laurel. Chaplin and
Laurel shared a room in a boarding house. Laurel returned to England but
Chaplin remained in the United States. In late 1913, Chaplin's act with
the Karno Troupe was seen by Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand, Minta Durfee,
and "Fatty" Arbuckle. Sennett hired him for his studio, the Keystone
Film Company as a replacement for Ford Sterling.[24] Chaplin had
considerable difficulty adjusting to the demands of film acting and his
performance suffered for it. After Chaplin's first film appearance,
Making a Living was filmed, Sennett felt he had made a costly
mistake.[25] Most historians agree it was Normand who persuaded him to
give Chaplin another chance.[26]
Sennett did not warm to
Chaplin right away, and Chaplin believed Sennett intended to fire him
following a disagreement with Normand.[27] However, Chaplin's pictures
were soon a success, and he became one of the biggest stars at
Keystone.[27][28]
Chaplin was given over to
Normand, who directed and wrote a handful of his earliest films.[27]
Chaplin did not enjoy being directed by a woman, and they often
disagreed.[27] Eventually, the two worked out their differences and
remained friends long after Chaplin left Keystone.
The Tramp (1914–1915)
The Tramp debuted during
the silent film era in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice
(released on 7 February 1914). However, Chaplin had devised the tramp
costume for a film produced a few days earlier but released later (9
February 1914), Mabel's Strange Predicament. Mack Sennett had requested
that Chaplin "get into a comedy make-up".[29] As Chaplin recalled in his
autobiography:
I had no idea what makeup
to put on. I did not like my get-up as the press reporter [in Making a
Living]. However on the way to the wardrobe I thought I would dress in
baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat. I wanted everything to
be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and
the shoes large. I was undecided whether to look old or young, but
remembering Sennett had expected me to be a much older man, I added a
small moustache, which I reasoned, would add age without hiding my
expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was
dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I
began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully
born.[30]
"The Tramp" is a vagrant
with the refined manners, clothes, and dignity of a gentleman. Arbuckle
contributed his father-in-law's bowler hat ('derby') and his own pants
(of generous proportions). Chester Conklin provided the little cutaway
tailcoat, and Ford Sterling the size-14 shoes, which were so big,
Chaplin had to wear each on the wrong foot to keep them on. He devised
the moustache from a bit of crepe hair belonging to Mack Swain. The only
thing Chaplin himself owned was the whangee cane.[29]
Chaplin, with his Little
Tramp character, quickly became the most popular star in Sennett's
company of players. He immediately gained enormous popularity among
cinema audiences. "The Tramp", Chaplin's principal character, was known
as "Charlot" in the French-speaking world, Italy, Spain, Andorra,
Portugal, Greece, Romania and Turkey, "Carlitos" in Brazil and
Argentina, and "Der Vagabund" in Germany.
Chaplin continued to play
the Tramp through dozens of short films and, later, feature-length
productions (in only a handful of other productions did he play
characters other than the Tramp). He portrayed a Keystone Kop in A Thief
Catcher filmed 5–26 Jan 1914.[31]
The Tramp was closely
identified with the silent era, and was considered an international
character; when the sound era began in the late 1920s, Chaplin refused
to make a talkie featuring the character. The 1931 production City
Lights featured no dialogue. Chaplin officially retired the character in
the film Modern Times (released 5 February 1936), which appropriately
ended with the Tramp walking down an endless highway toward the horizon.
The film was only a partial talkie and is often called the last silent
film. The Tramp remains silent until near the end of the film when, for
the first time, his voice is finally heard, albeit only as part of a
French/Italian-derived gibberish song.
Chaplin's early Keystones
use the standard Mack Sennett formula of extreme physical comedy and
exaggerated gestures. Chaplin's pantomime was subtler, more suitable to
romantic and domestic farces than to the usual Keystone chases and mob
scenes. The visual gags were pure Keystone, however; the tramp character
would aggressively assault his enemies with kicks and bricks. Moviegoers
loved this cheerfully earthy new comedian, even though critics warned
that his antics bordered on vulgarity. Chaplin was soon entrusted with
directing and editing his own films. He made 34 shorts for Sennett
during his first year in pictures, as well as the landmark comedy
feature Tillie's Punctured Romance.
The Tramp was featured in
the first film trailer to be exhibited in a U.S. cinema, a slide
promotion developed by Nils Granlund, advertising manager for the Marcus
Loew theatre chain, and shown at the Loew's Seventh Avenue Theatre in
Harlem in 1914.[32] In 1915, Chaplin signed a much more favourable
contract with Essanay Studios, and further developed his cinematic
skills, adding new levels of depth and pathos to the Keystone-style
slapstick. Most of the Essanay films were more ambitious, running twice
as long as the average Keystone comedy. Chaplin also developed his own
stock company, including ingénue Edna Purviance and comic villains Leo
White and Bud Jamison.
Chaplin's popularity
continued to soar in the early years following the start of WW1. He
started to become noticed by stars of the legitimate theatre. Minnie
Maddern Fiske, one of the legends of the stage endorsed Chaplin's
artistry in an article in Harper's Weekly(6 May 1915). At the start of
her article Mrs. Fiske spoke, "...To the writer Charles Chaplin appears
as a great comic artist, possessing inspirational powers and a technique
as unfaltering as Rejane's. If it be treason to Art to say this, then
let those exalted persons who allow culture to be defined only upon
their own terms make the most of it..."[33] In the following years
Chaplin would make many friends from the world of the Broadway stage.
Chaplin was emerging as the
supreme exponent of silent films, an emigrant himself from London.
Chaplin's Tramp enacted the difficulties and humiliations of the
immigrant underdog, the constant struggle at the bottom of the American
heap and yet he triumphed over adversity without ever rising to the top,
and thereby stayed in touch with his audience. Chaplin's films were also
deliciously subversive. The bumbling officials enabled the immigrants to
laugh at those they feared.[34]
Pioneering film artist and global celebrity
(1916–1918)
In 1916, the Mutual Film
Corporation paid Chaplin US$670,000 to produce a dozen two-reel
comedies. He was given near complete artistic control, and produced
twelve films over an eighteen-month period that rank among the most
influential comedy films in all cinema. Of his Mutual comedies, the best
known include: Easy Street, One A.M., The Pawnshop, and The Adventurer.
Edna Purviance remained the leading lady, and Chaplin added Eric
Campbell, Henry Bergman, and Albert Austin to his stock company;
Campbell, a Gilbert and Sullivan veteran, provided superb villainy, and
second bananas Bergman and Austin would remain with Chaplin for decades.
Chaplin regarded the Mutual period as the happiest of his career,
although he also had concerns that the films during that time were
becoming formulaic owing to the stringent production schedule his
contract required. Upon the U.S. entering World War I, Chaplin became a
spokesman for Liberty Bonds with his close friend Douglas Fairbanks and
Mary Pickford.[28]
Most of the Chaplin films
in circulation date from his Keystone, Essanay, and Mutual periods.
After Chaplin assumed control of his productions in 1918 (and kept
exhibitors and audiences waiting for them), entrepreneurs serviced the
demand for Chaplin by bringing back his older comedies. The films were
recut, retitled, and reissued again and again, first for theatres, then
for the home-film market, and in recent years, for home video. Even
Essanay was guilty of this practice, fashioning "new" Chaplin comedies
from old film clips and out-takes. The twelve Mutual comedies were
revamped as sound films in 1933, when producer Amadee J. Van Beuren
added new orchestral scores and sound effects.
At the conclusion of the
Mutual contract in 1917, Chaplin signed a contract with First National
to produce eight two-reel films. First National financed and distributed
these pictures (1918–23) but otherwise gave him complete creative
control over production. Chaplin now had his own studio, and he could
work at a more relaxed pace that allowed him to focus on quality.
Although First National expected Chaplin to deliver short comedies like
the celebrated Mutuals, Chaplin ambitiously expanded most of his
personal projects into longer, feature-length films, including Shoulder
Arms (1918), The Pilgrim (1923) and the feature-length classic The Kid
(1921).
United Artists (1919–1939)
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded
the United Artists film distribution company with Mary Pickford, Douglas
Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, all of whom were seeking to escape the
growing power consolidation of film distributors and financiers in the
developing Hollywood studio system. This move, along with complete
control of his film production through his studio, assured Chaplin's
independence as a film-maker. He served on the board of UA until the
early 1950s.
All Chaplin's United
Artists pictures were of feature length, beginning with the atypical
drama in which Chaplin had only a brief cameo role, A Woman of Paris
(1923). This was followed by the classic comedies The Gold Rush (1925)
and The Circus (1928).
After the arrival of sound
films, Chaplin continued to focus on silent films with a synchronised
recorded score, which included sound effects and music with melodies
based in popular songs or composed by him;[35] The Circus (1928), City
Lights (1931), and Modern Times (1936) were essentially silent films.
City Lights has been praised for its mixture of comedy and
sentimentality. Critic James Agee, for example, wrote in Life magazine
in 1949 that the final scene in City Lights was the "greatest single
piece of acting ever committed to celluloid".
While Modern Times (1936)
is a non-talkie, it does contain talk—usually coming from inanimate
objects such as a radio or a TV monitor. This was done to help 1930s
audiences, who were out of the habit of watching silent films, adjust to
not hearing dialogue. Modern Times was the first film where Chaplin's
voice is heard (in the nonsense song at the end, which Chaplin both
performed and wrote the nonsense lyrics to). However, for most viewers
it is still considered a silent film.
Although "talkies" became
the dominant mode of film making soon after they were introduced in
1927, Chaplin resisted making such a film all through the 1930s. He
considered cinema essentially a pantomimic art. He said: "Action is more
generally understood than words. Like Chinese symbolism, it will mean
different things according to its scenic connotation. Listen to a
description of some unfamiliar object—an African warthog, for example;
then look at a picture of the animal and see how surprised you are".[36]
It is a tribute to
Chaplin's versatility that he also has one film credit for choreography
for the 1952 film Limelight, and another as a singer for the title music
of The Circus (1928). The best known of several songs he composed are
"Smile", composed for the film Modern Times (1936) and given lyrics to
help promote a 1950s revival of the film, famously covered by Nat King
Cole. "This Is My Song" from Chaplin's last film, A Countess from Hong
Kong, was a number one hit in several different languages in the late
1960s (most notably the version by Petula Clark and discovery of an
unreleased version in the 1990s recorded in 1967 by Judith Durham of The
Seekers), and Chaplin's theme from Limelight was a hit in the 1950s
under the title "Eternally." Chaplin's score to Limelight won an Academy
Award in 1972; a delay in the film premiering in Los Angeles made it
eligible decades after it was filmed. Chaplin also wrote scores for his
earlier silent films when they were re-released in the sound era,
notably The Kid for its 1971 re-release.
The Great Dictator (1940)
Chaplin's first talking
picture, The Great Dictator (1940), was an act of defiance against
Nazism. It was filmed and released in the United States one year before
the U.S. entry into World War II. Chaplin played the role of "Adenoid
Hynkel",[37] Dictator of Tomainia, modelled on German dictator Adolf
Hitler, who was only four days his junior and sported a similar
moustache. The film also showcased comedian Jack Oakie as "Benzino
Napaloni", dictator of Bacteria, a jab at Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini.[37]
Paulette Goddard filmed
with Chaplin again, depicting a woman in the ghetto. The film was seen
as an act of courage in the political environment of the time, both for
its ridicule of Nazism, for the portrayal of overt Jewish characters,
and the depiction of their persecution. In addition to Hynkel, Chaplin
also played a look-alike Jewish barber persecuted by the regime. The
barber physically resembled the Tramp character.[37]
At the conclusion, the two
characters Chaplin portrayed swapped positions through a complex plot,
and he dropped out of his comic character to address the audience
directly in a speech[38] denouncing dictatorship, greed, hate, and
intolerance, in favour of liberty and human brotherhood.
The film was nominated for
Academy awards for Best Picture (producer), Best Original Screenplay
(writer) and Best Actor.[39]
McCarthy era
During the era of
McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of "un-American activities" as a
suspected communist. J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the FBI to keep
extensive secret files on him, tried to end his United States residency.
FBI pressure on Chaplin grew after his 1942 campaign for a second
European front in the war and reached a critical level in the late
1940s, when Congressional figures threatened to call him as a witness in
hearings. This was never done, probably from fear of Chaplin's ability
to lampoon the investigators.[40]
In 1952, Chaplin left the
US for what was intended as a brief trip home to the United Kingdom for
the London premiere of Limelight. Hoover learned of the trip and
negotiated with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to revoke
Chaplin's re-entry permit, exiling Chaplin so he could not return for
his alleged political leanings. Chaplin decided not to re-enter the
United States, writing: "Since the end of the last world war, I have
been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups
who, by their influence and by the aid of America's yellow press, have
created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can
be singled out and persecuted. Under these conditions I find it
virtually impossible to continue my motion-picture work, and I have
therefore given up my residence in the United States."[41]
That Chaplin was unprepared
to remain abroad, or that the revocation of his right to re-enter the
United States by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was a surprise to him, may
be apocryphal: An anecdote in some contradiction is recorded during a
broad interview with Richard Avedon, celebrated New York
portraitist.[42]
Avedon is credited with the
last portrait of the entertainer to be taken before his departure to
Europe and therefore the last photograph of him as a singularly
“American icon.” According to Avedon, Chaplin telephoned him at his
studio in New York while on a layover before the final leg of his travel
to England. The photographer considered the impromptu self-introduction
a prank and angrily answered his caller with the riposte, “If you’re
Charlie Chaplin, I’m Franklin Roosevelt!” To mollify Avedon, Chaplin
assured the photographer of his authenticity and added the comment, “If
you want to take my picture, you'd better do it now. They are coming
after me and I won’t be back. I leave ... (imminently).” Avedon
interrupted his production commitments to take Chaplin’s portrait the
next day, and never saw him again.
Chaplin then made his home
in Vevey, Switzerland. He briefly and triumphantly returned to the
United States in April 1972, with his wife, to receive an Honorary
Oscar, and also to discuss how his films would be re-released and
marketed.
Final works (1957–1976)
Chaplin's final two films
were made in London: A King in New York (1957) in which he starred,
wrote, directed and produced; and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967),
which he directed, produced, and wrote. The latter film stars Sophia
Loren and Marlon Brando, and Chaplin made his final on-screen appearance
in a brief cameo role as a seasick steward. He also composed the music
for both films with the theme song from A Countess From Hong Kong, "This
is My Song", reaching number one in the UK as sung by Petula Clark.
Chaplin also compiled a film The Chaplin Revue from three First National
films A Dog's Life (1918), Shoulder Arms (1918) and The Pilgrim (1923)
for which he composed the music and recorded an introductory narration.
As well as directing these final films, Chaplin also wrote My
Autobiography, between 1959 and 1963, which was published in 1964.
In his pictorial
autobiography My Life In Pictures, published in 1974, Chaplin indicated
that he had written a screenplay for his daughter, Victoria; entitled
The Freak, the film would have cast her as an angel. According to
Chaplin, a script was completed and pre-production rehearsals had begun
on the film (the book includes a photograph of Victoria in costume), but
were halted when Victoria married. "I mean to make it some day," Chaplin
wrote. However, his health declined steadily in the 1970s which hampered
all hopes of the film ever being produced.
From 1969 until 1976,
Chaplin wrote original music compositions and scores for his silent
pictures and re-released them. He composed the scores of all his First
National shorts: The Idle Class in 1971 (paired with The Kid for
re-release in 1972), A Day's Pleasure in 1973, Pay Day in 1972,
Sunnyside in 1974, and of his feature length films firstly The Circus in
1969 and The Kid in 1971. Chaplin worked with music associate Eric James
whilst composing all his scores.
He received a knighthood on
4 March 1975, at the age of 85.[43] Chaplin's last completed work was
the score for his 1923 film A Woman of Paris, which was completed in
1976, by which time Chaplin was extremely frail, even finding
communication difficult.
Death (1977)
Chaplin's robust health
began to slowly fail in the late 1960s, after the completion of his
final film A Countess from Hong Kong, and more rapidly after he received
his Academy Award in 1972. By 1977, he had difficulty communicating, and
was using a wheelchair. Chaplin died in his sleep in Vevey, Switzerland
on 25 December 1977.[44]
Chaplin was interred in
Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery, Switzerland.[45] On 1 March 1978, his corpse
was stolen by a small group of Swiss mechanics in an attempt to extort
money from his family.[46] The plot failed; the robbers were captured,
and the corpse was recovered eleven weeks later near Lake Geneva. His
body was reburied under 6 feet (1.8 m) of concrete to prevent further
attempts.
Filmmaking techniques
Chaplin never spoke more
than cursorily about his filmmaking methods, claiming such a thing would
be tantamount to a magician spoiling his own illusion. In fact, until he
began making spoken dialogue films with The Great Dictator in 1940,
Chaplin never shot from a completed script. The method he developed,
once his Essanay contract gave him the freedom to write for and direct
himself, was to start from a vague premise—for example "Charlie enters a
health spa" or "Charlie works in a pawn shop." Chaplin then had sets
constructed and worked with his stock company to improvise gags and
"business" around them, almost always working the ideas out on film. As
ideas were accepted and discarded, a narrative structure would emerge,
frequently requiring Chaplin to reshoot an already-completed scene that
might have otherwise contradicted the story.[47] Chaplin's unique
filmmaking techniques became known only after his death, when his rare
surviving outtakes and cut sequences were carefully examined in the 1983
British documentary Unknown Chaplin.
This is one reason why
Chaplin took so much longer to complete his films than his rivals did.
In addition, Chaplin was an incredibly exacting director, showing his
actors exactly how he wanted them to perform and shooting scores of
takes until he had the shot he wanted. Animator Chuck Jones, who lived
near Charlie Chaplin's Lone Star studio as a boy, remembered his father
saying he watched Chaplin shoot a scene more than a hundred times until
he was satisfied with it.[48] This combination of story improvisation
and relentless perfectionism—which resulted in days of effort and
thousands of feet of film being wasted, all at enormous expense—often
proved very taxing for Chaplin, who in frustration would often lash out
at his actors and crew, keep them waiting idly for hours or, in extreme
cases, shutting down production altogether.[47]
Comparison with other silent comics
Since the 1960s, Chaplin's
films have been compared to those of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd (the
other two great silent film comedians of the time), especially among the
loyal fans of each comic.
The three had different
styles: Chaplin had a strong affinity for sentimentality and pathos
(which was popular in the 1920s), Lloyd was renowned for his everyman
persona and 1920s optimism, and Keaton adhered to onscreen stoicism with
a cynical tone more suited to modern audiences.
Commercially, Chaplin made
some of the highest-grossing films in the silent era; The Gold Rush is
the fifth with US$4.25 million and The Circus is the seventh with US$3.8
million. However, Chaplin's films combined made about US$10.5 million
while Harold Lloyd's grossed US$15.7 million. Lloyd was far more
prolific, releasing twelve feature films in the 1920s while Chaplin
released just three. Buster Keaton's films were not nearly as
commercially successful as Chaplin's or Lloyd's even at the height of
his popularity, and only received belated critical acclaim in the late
1950s and 1960s.
There is evidence that
Chaplin and Keaton, who both got their start in vaudeville, thought
highly of one another: Keaton stated in his autobiography that Chaplin
was the greatest comedian that ever lived, and the greatest comedy
director, whereas Chaplin welcomed Keaton to United Artists in 1925,
advised him against his disastrous move to MGM in 1928, and for his last
American film, Limelight, wrote a part specifically for Keaton as his
first on-screen comedy partner since 1915.
Composer and songwriter
Chaplin wrote or co-wrote
the scores and songs for many of his films. "Smile", which he composed
for his film, Modern Times, hit number 2 on the UK charts when sung by
Nat King Cole in the 1950s.[49] It was also Michael Jackson's favourite
song.[50] "This Is My Song", written and composed by Chaplin for his
film, A Countess from Hong Kong, hit number 1 on the UK charts when sung
by Petula Clark in the 1960s.[51] In 1973, Chaplin won the Oscar for
Best Film Score for his film, Limelight.[52] Chaplin was not the only
member of his family with musical talent; his nephew, Spencer Dryden was
the drummer for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted band, Jefferson
Airplane.[53]
Politics
Chaplin's political
sympathies always lay with the left.[citation needed] His silent films
made prior to the Great Depression typically did not contain overt
political themes or messages, apart from the Tramp's plight in poverty
and his run-ins with the law, but his 1930s films were more openly
political. Modern Times depicts workers and poor people in dismal
conditions. The final dramatic speech in The Great Dictator, which was
critical of following patriotic nationalism without question, and his
vocal public support for the opening of a second European front in 1942
to assist the Soviet Union in World War II were controversial.
Chaplin declined to support
the war effort[citation needed] as he had done for World War I which led
to public anger, although his two sons saw service in the Army in
Europe. For most of World War II he was fighting serious criminal and
civil charges related to his involvement with actress Joan Barry (see
below). After the war, his 1947 black comedy, Monsieur Verdoux showed a
critical view of capitalism. Chaplin's final American film, Limelight,
was less political and more autobiographical in nature. His following
European-made film, A King in New York (1957), satirised the political
persecution and paranoia that had forced him to leave the U.S. five
years earlier.
On religion, Chaplin wrote
in his autobiography, “In Philadelphia, I inadvertently came upon an
edition of Robert Ingersoll's Essays and Lectures. This was an exciting
discovery; his atheism confirmed my own belief that the horrific cruelty
of the Old Testament was degrading to the human spirit.”
Other controversies
During World War I, Chaplin
was criticised in the British press for not joining the Army. He had in
fact presented himself for service, but was denied for being too small
at 5'5" and underweight. Chaplin raised substantial funds for the war
effort during war bond drives not only with public speaking at rallies
but also by making, at his own expense, The Bond, a comedic propaganda
film used in 1918. The lingering controversy may have prevented Chaplin
from receiving a knighthood in the 1930s. A 1916 propaganda short film
Zepped with Chaplin was discovered in 2009.[54]
For Chaplin's entire
career, some level of controversy existed over claims of Jewish
ancestry. Nazi propaganda in the 1930s and 1940s prominently portrayed
him as Jewish (named Karl Tonstein) relying on articles published in the
U.S. press before,[55] and FBI investigations of Chaplin in the late
1940s also focused on Chaplin's ethnic origins. There is no documentary
evidence of Jewish ancestry for Chaplin himself. For his entire public
life, he fiercely refused to challenge or refute claims that he was
Jewish, saying that to do so would always "play directly into the hands
of anti-Semites."[56] Although baptised in the Church of England,
Chaplin was thought to be an agnostic for most of his life.[57]
Chaplin's lifelong
attraction to younger women remains another enduring source of interest
to some. His biographers have attributed this to a teenage infatuation
with Hetty Kelly, whom he met in Britain while performing in the music
hall, and which possibly defined his feminine ideal. Chaplin clearly
relished the role of discovering and closely guiding young female stars;
with the exception of Mildred Harris, all of his marriages and most of
his major relationships began in this manner.
Personal life and family
Chaplin's mother died in
1928 in Glendale, California,[58] seven years after she was brought to
the U.S. by her sons. Unknown to Charlie and Sydney until years later,
they had a half-brother through their mother. The boy, Wheeler Dryden
(1892–1957), was raised abroad by his father but later connected with
the rest of the family and went to work for Chaplin at his Hollywood
studio.[59] In 1928, Chaplin built the Montecito Inn in Montecito near
Santa Barbara as an escape from showbiz with his closest friends.[60]
The South African duo
Locnville, Andrew and Brian Chaplin, are related to Chaplin (their
grandfather was Chaplin's first cousin).
Relationships
Hetty Kelly was Chaplin's
first love, a dancer with whom he fell in love when she was fifteen and
almost married when he was nineteen, in 1908.[61] It is said Chaplin
fell madly in love with her and asked her to marry him. When she
refused, Chaplin suggested it would be best if they did not see each
other again; he was reportedly crushed when she agreed. Years later, her
memory would remain an obsession with Chaplin. He was devastated in 1921
when he learned that she had died of influenza during the 1918 flu
pandemic.[62]
Edna Purviance was
Chaplin's first major leading lady after Mabel Normand. Purviance and
Chaplin were involved in a close romantic relationship during the
production of his Essanay and Mutual films in 1916–1917. The romance
seems to have ended by 1918, and Chaplin's marriage to Mildred Harris in
late 1918 ended any possibility of reconciliation. Purviance would
continue as leading lady in Chaplin's films until 1923, and would remain
on Chaplin's payroll until her death in 1958. She and Chaplin spoke
warmly of one another for the rest of their lives.
Mildred Harris: On 23
October 1918, Chaplin, age 29, married the popular child actress,
Harris, who was 16 at the time. They had one son, Norman Spencer "The
Little Mouse" Chaplin, born on 7 July 1919, who died three days later
and is interred under the name The Little Mouse at Inglewood Park
Cemetery, Inglewood California. Chaplin separated from Harris by late
1919, moving back into the Los Angeles Athletic Club.[63] The couple
divorced in November 1920, with Harris getting some of their community
property and a US$100,000 settlement.[63] Chaplin admitted that he "was
not in love, now that [he] was married [he] wanted to be and wanted the
marriage to be a success." During the divorce, Chaplin claimed Harris
had an affair with noted actress of the time Alla Nazimova, rumoured to
be fond of seducing young actresses.[64]
Pola Negri: Chaplin was
involved in a very public relationship and engagement with the Polish
actress, Negri, in 1922–23, after she arrived in Hollywood to star in
films. The stormy on-off engagement was halted after about nine months,
but in many ways it foreshadowed the modern stereotypes of Hollywood
star relationships. Chaplin's public involvement with Negri was unique
in his public life. By comparison he strove to keep his other romances
during this period very discreet and private (usually without success).
Many biographers have concluded the affair with Negri was largely for
publicity purposes.
Marion Davies: In 1924,
during the time he was involved with the underage Lita Grey, Chaplin was
rumoured to have had a fling with actress Davies, companion of William
Randolph Hearst. Davies and Chaplin were both present on Hearst's yacht
the weekend preceding the mysterious death of Thomas Harper Ince.
Charlie allegedly tried to persuade her to leave Hearst and remain with
him, but she refused and stayed by Hearst's side until his death in
1951. Chaplin made a rare cameo appearance in Davies' 1928 film Show
People, and by some accounts supposedly continued an affair with her
until 1931.
Lita Grey: Chaplin first
met Grey during the filming of The Kid. Three years later, at age 35, he
became involved with the then 16-year-old Grey during preparations for
The Gold Rush in which she was to star as the female lead. They married
on 26 November 1924, after she became pregnant (a development that
resulted in her being removed from the cast of the film). They had two
sons, the actors Charles Chaplin, Jr. (1925–1968) and Sydney Chaplin
(1926–2009). The marriage was a disaster, with the couple hopelessly
mismatched. The couple divorced on 22 August 1927.[65] Their
extraordinarily bitter divorce had Chaplin paying Grey a
then-record-breaking US$825,000 settlement, on top of almost one million
dollars in legal costs. The stress of the sensational divorce,
compounded by a federal tax dispute, allegedly turned his hair white.
The Chaplin biographer Joyce Milton asserted in Tramp: The Life of
Charlie Chaplin that the Grey-Chaplin marriage was the inspiration for
Vladimir Nabokov's 1950s novel Lolita.
Merna Kennedy: Lita Grey's
friend, Kennedy was a dancer who Chaplin hired as the lead actress in
The Circus (1928). It is rumoured that the two had an affair during
shooting. Grey used the rumoured infidelity in her divorce proceedings.
Georgia Hale was Lita
Grey's replacement on The Gold Rush. In the documentary series, Unknown
Chaplin, (directed and written by film historians Kevin Brownlow and
David Gill), Hale, in a 1980s interview states that she had idolised
Chaplin since childhood and that the then-19-year-old actress and
Chaplin began an affair that continued for several years, which she
details in her memoir, Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-Ups. During
production of Chaplin's film City Lights in 1929–30, Hale, who by then
was Chaplin's closest companion, was called in to replace Virginia
Cherrill as the flower girl. Seven minutes of test footage survives from
this recasting, and is included on the 2003 DVD release of the film, but
economics forced Chaplin to rehire Cherrill. In discussing the situation
in Unknown Chaplin, Hale states that her relationship with Chaplin was
as strong as ever during filming. Their romance apparently ended
sometime after Chaplin's return from his world tour in 1933.
Louise Brooks was a chorine
in the Ziegfeld Follies when she met Chaplin. He had gone to New York
for the opening there of The Gold Rush. For two months in the summer of
1925, the two cavorted together at the Ritz, and with film financier
A.C. Blumenthal and Brooks' fellow Ziegfeld girl Peggy Fears in
Blumenthal's penthouse suite at the Ambassador Hotel. Brooks was with
Chaplin when he spent four hours watching a musician torture a violin in
a Lower East Side restaurant, an act he would recreate in Limelight.
May Reeves was originally
hired to be Chaplin's secretary on his 1931–1932 extended trip to
Europe, dealing mostly with reading his personal correspondence. She
worked only one morning, and then was introduced to Chaplin, who was
instantly infatuated with her. May became his constant companion and
lover on the trip, much to the disgust of Chaplin's brother, Syd. After
Reeves also became involved with Syd, Chaplin ended the relationship and
she left his entourage. Reeves chronicled her short time with Chaplin in
her book, "The Intimate Charlie Chaplin".
Paulette Goddard: Chaplin
and actress Goddard were involved in a romantic and professional
relationship between 1932 and 1940, with Goddard living with Chaplin in
his Beverly Hills home for most of this time. Chaplin gave her starring
roles in Modern Times and The Great Dictator. Refusal to clarify their
marital status is often claimed to have eliminated Goddard from final
consideration for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.
After the relationship ended in 1940, Chaplin and Goddard made public
statements that they had been secretly married in 1936; but these claims
were likely a mutual effort to prevent any lasting damage to Goddard's
career. In any case, their relationship ended amicably in 1942, with
Goddard being granted a settlement. Goddard went on to a major career in
films at Paramount in the 1940s, working several times with Cecil B.
DeMille. Like Chaplin, she lived her later life in Switzerland, dying in
1990.
Joan Barry (1920–??): In
1942, Chaplin had a brief affair with Barry, whom he was considering for
a starring role in a proposed film, but the relationship ended when she
began harassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness (not
unlike his mother). Chaplin's brief involvement with Barry proved to be
a nightmare for him. After having a child, she filed a paternity suit
against him in 1943. Although blood tests proved Chaplin was not the
father of Barry's child, Barry's attorney, Joseph Scott, convinced the
court that the tests were inadmissible as evidence, and Chaplin was
ordered to support the child. The injustice of the ruling later led to a
change in California law to allow blood tests as evidence. Federal
prosecutors also brought Mann Act charges against Chaplin related to
Barry in 1944, of which he was acquitted.[66] Chaplin's public image in
America was gravely damaged by these sensational trials.[40] Barry was
institutionalised in 1953 after she was found walking the streets
barefoot, carrying a pair of baby sandals and a child's ring, and
murmuring: "This is magic".[67] Chaplin's second wife, Lita Grey, later
asserted that Chaplin had paid corrupt government officials to tamper
with the blood test results. She further stated that "there is no doubt
that she [Carol Ann] was his child."[68]
Oona O'Neill: During
Chaplin's legal trouble over the Barry affair, he met O'Neill, daughter
of Eugene O'Neill, and married her on 16 June 1943. He was fifty-four;
she had just turned eighteen. The marriage produced eight children;
their last child, Christopher, was born when Chaplin was 73 years old.
Oona survived Chaplin by fourteen years, and died from pancreatic cancer
in 1991.[69]
Children
|
Child |
Birth |
Death |
Chaplin's age
at time of birth |
Mother |
Grandchildren |
|
Norman
Spencer Chaplin |
7 July
1919 |
10 July
1919 |
30 |
Mildred
Harris |
|
|
Charles
Spencer Chaplin, Jr.[70] |
5 May
1925 |
20 March
1968 |
36 |
Lita
Grey |
Susan
Maree Chaplin (b 1959) |
|
Sydney
Earle Chaplin |
31 March
1926 |
3 March
2009 |
36 |
Stephan
Chaplin (b 19xx) |
|
Carol
Ann Barry Chaplin (Disputed)[71] |
2
October 1943 |
|
54 |
Joan
Barry |
Unknown |
|
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin |
31 July
1944 |
|
55 |
Oona
O'Neill |
Shane
Saura Chaplin (b 1974)
Oona Castilla Chaplin (b 1986) |
|
Michael
John Chaplin |
7 March
1946 |
|
56 |
Kathleen
Chaplin (b. 1975)
Dolores Chaplin
(b. 1979)
Carmen Chaplin (b 19xx)
George Chaplin (b 19xx) |
|
Josephine Hannah Chaplin |
28 March
1949 |
|
59 |
Julien
Ronet (b. 1980) |
|
Victoria
Chaplin |
19 May
1951 |
|
62 |
Aurélia
Thiérrée (b. 1971)
James Thiérrée (b. 1974) |
|
Eugene
Anthony Chaplin |
23
August 1953 |
|
64 |
Kiera
Chaplin (b. 1982) |
|
Jane
Cecil Chaplin |
23 May
1957 |
|
68 |
Orson
Salkind (b. 1986)
Osceola Salkind (b. 1994) |
|
Annette
Emily Chaplin |
3
December 1959 |
|
70 |
|
|
Christopher James Chaplin |
6 July
1962 |
|
73 |
|
Awards and recognition
Chaplin was knighted in
1975 at the age of 85 as a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE)
by Queen Elizabeth II.[72][73] The honour had been first proposed in
1931. Knighthood was suggested again in 1956, but was vetoed after a
Foreign Office report raised concerns over Chaplin's purported
"communist" views and his moral behaviour in marrying two 16-year-old
girls; it was felt that honouring him would damage both the reputation
of the British honours system and relations with the United States.[74]
Among other recognitions,
Chaplin was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1970; that he
had not been among those originally honoured in 1961 caused some
controversy.[75] Chaplin's Swiss mansion is to be opened as a museum
tracing his life from the music halls in London to Hollywood
fame.[76][77]
A statue of Charlie Chaplin
was made by John Doubleday, to stand in Leicester Square in London. It
was unveiled by Sir Ralph Richardson in 1981.[78] A bronze statue of him
is at Waterville, County Kerry, as he and his family spent long holidays
in The Butler Arms Hotel during the 1960s.[79]
Academy Awards
Chaplin received three
Academy Awards in his lifetime: one for Best Original Score, and two
Honorary Awards. However, during his active years as a filmmaker,
Chaplin expressed disdain for the Academy Awards; his son Charles Jr
wrote that Chaplin invoked the ire of the Academy in the 1930s by
jokingly using his 1929 Oscar as a doorstop.[80] This may help explain
why City Lights and Modern Times, considered by several polls to be two
of the greatest of all motion pictures,[81][82] were not nominated for a
single Academy Award.
The 1st Academy Awards
ceremony: When the first Oscars were awarded on 16 May 1929, the voting
audit procedures that now exists had not yet been put into place, and
the categories were still very fluid. Chaplin's The Circus was set to be
heavily recognised, as Chaplin had originally been nominated for Best
Production, Best Director in a Comedy Picture, Best Actor and Best
Writing (Original Story). However, the Academy decided to withdraw his
name from all the competitive categories and instead give him a Special
Award "for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and
producing The Circus". The only other film to receive a Special Award
that year was The Jazz Singer.[83]
The 13th Academy Awards
ceremony: In 1941, The Great Dictator was nominated for five awards,
including two for Chaplin: Best Writing and Best Actor. Chaplin lost out
on both counts. For writing, he lost to Preston Sturges for The Great
McGinty, and for acting to James Stewart for The Philadelphia Story.
The 20th Academy Awards
ceremony: In 1948, Chaplin's screenplay for Monsieur Verdoux was
nominated, but the award went instead to Sidney Sheldon for The Bachelor
and the Bobby-Soxer.
The 44th Academy Awards
ceremony: Chaplin's second Oscar was awarded forty-three years after his
first, in 1972. Chaplin came out of exile to accept the Honorary Award
for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the
art form of this century". Stepping onto the stage of the Dorothy
Chandler Pavilion, Chaplin received the longest standing ovation in
Academy Award history, lasting a full twelve minutes.[84]
The 45th Academy Awards
ceremony: In 1973, Chaplin's film Limelight was honoured with an Oscar
for Best Original Score. Though the film had originally been released in
1952, due to Chaplin's political difficulties at the time, the film did
not play for one week in Los Angeles, and thus did not meet the
criterion for nomination until it was re-released in 1972.
Chaplin's American business
partner, who helped promote and release his films in the U.S., was Mo
Rothman (1919–2011). Rothman is also credited with urging Chaplin to end
his self-imposed exile and visit the U.S. to appear and be honored both
by the Lincoln Center Film Society in New York and then at Hollywood's
Academy Awards in 1972.[85]
Legacy
Chaplin's "tramp" character
is possibly the most imitated on all levels of entertainment. Chaplin
once entered a "Chaplin look-alike" competition and did not make the
final round.[86][87] The influence of his 'Tramp' character could be
seen on other artists and media providers. Beginning early on there were
many tributes, and parodies made. E. C. Segar's 1916 comic strip
"Charlie Chaplin's Comedy Capers" is an early example.[88] Segar's
'Chaplin' comics would later be collected in 1917 into five books,
precursors of the later comic book format.[89] Two different animated
cartoon series also starred 'Charlie' a tramp character, the first a
series of nine shorts from 1916 by Movca Film Service.[90] And later ten
films[91] by the Pat Sullivan Studio from 1918–1919, which would later
use the 'Charlie/Charley' gestures to create Felix the Cat, the
character made one later appearance in one of Felix's 1923 cartoons
"Felix in Hollywood".[92]
From 1917 to 1918, silent
film actor Billy West made more than 20 films as a comedian precisely
imitating Chaplin's tramp character, makeup and costume.[93]
The third of composer Karl
Amadeus Hartmann's 1929–30 composition Wachsfigurenkabinett: Fünf kleine
Opern (Waxworks: Five Little Operas) is entitled 'Chaplin-Ford-Trot',
and features the character of Charlie Chaplin (in a speaking rather than
operatic role).
Shree 420 and Awaara main
characters are heavily influenced by The Tramp.
Kamal Haasan moulded his
character "Chaplin Chellappa" on Chaplin in the Tamil film Punnagai
Mannan[94]
In 1985, Chaplin was
honoured with his image on a postage stamp of the United Kingdom, and in
1994 he appeared on a United States postage stamp designed by
caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
John Woo directed a parody
film of Chaplin's "The Kid" called Hua ji shi dai (1981), also known as
"Laughing Times."
A minor planet, 3623
Chaplin, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina in 1981, is
named after Chaplin.[95]
In 1992, a film was made
about Chaplin's life entitled Chaplin, directed by Oscar-winner Richard
Attenborough, and starring Robert Downey, Jr., in an Oscar-nominated
performance, and Geraldine Chaplin playing the part of Charlie Chaplin's
mother, her own grandmother.
In 2001, British comedian
Eddie Izzard played Chaplin in Peter Bogdanovich's film, The Cat's Meow,
which speculated about the still-unsolved death of producer Thomas H.
Ince during a yachting party thrown by William Randolph Hearst, of which
Chaplin was a guest.
In 2010 the New York Guitar
Festival commissioned a number of contemporary artists to compose new
scores for some of Chaplin's silent films. The artists included Justin
Vernon of Bon Iver, Marc Ribot, David Bromberg, Alex de Grassi and
Chicha Libre.[96]
On 15 April 2011, a day
before his 122nd birthday anniversary, Google celebrated this with a
special Google Doodle video on its global and other country-wide
homepages.[97]
Filmography and current rights issues
Chaplin wrote, directed,
and starred in dozens of feature films and short subjects. Highlights
include The Immigrant (1917), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931),
Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940), all of which have
been selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry. Three of
these films made the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies and AFI's 100
Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) lists: The Gold Rush, City
Lights, and Modern Times.
A listing of the dozens of
Chaplin films and alternate versions can be found in the Ted Okuda-David
Maska book Charlie Chaplin at Keystone and Essanay: Dawn of the Tramp.
Thanks to The Chaplin Keystone Project, efforts to produce definitive
versions of Chaplin's pre-1918 short films have come to a successful
end: after ten years of research and clinical international cooperation
work, 34 Keystone films have been fully restored and published in
October 2010 on a 4-DVD box set. All twelve Mutual films were restored
in 1975 by archivist David Shepard and Blackhawk Films, and new
restorations with even more footage were released on DVD in 2006.
Today, nearly all of
Chaplin's output is owned by Roy Export S.A.S. in Paris, which enforces
the library's copyrights and decides how and when this material can be
released. French company MK2 acts as worldwide distribution agent for
the Export company. In the U.S. as of 2010, distribution is handled
under license by Janus Films, with home video releases from Criterion
Collection, affiliated with Janus.
See also
List of people on the cover
of Time magazine (1920s)
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theatrical career, became a Chaplin protegee in the summer of 1941. She
fitted into a familiar pattern. Chaplin signed her to a $75-a-week
contract, began training her for a part in a projected picture. Two
weeks after the contract was signed she became his mistress. Throughout
the summer and autumn, Miss Barry testified last week, she visited the
ardent actor five or six times a week. By midwinter her visits were down
to "maybe three times a week". By late summer of 1942, Chaplin had
decided that she was unsuited for his movie. Her contract ended."
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Barry, who won a 1946 paternity suit against the comedian, was admitted
to Patton State Hospital (for the mentally ill) after she was found
walking the streets barefoot, carrying a pair of baby sandals and a
child's ring, and murmuring: "This is magic, my god"."
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Further reading
Charles Chaplin: My
Autobiography. Simon & Schuster, 1964.
Charles Chaplin: Die
Geschichte meines Lebens. Fischer-Verlag, 1964. (germ.)
Charlie Chaplin Die Wurzeln
meiner Komik in: Jüdische Allgemeine Wochenzeitung, 3 March 1967,
gekürzt: wieder ebd. 12.4. 2006, S. 54 (germ.)
Chaplin: A Life by Stephen
Weissman Arcade Publishing 2008.
Charles Chaplin: My Life in
Pictures. Bodley Head, 1974.
Alistair Cooke: Six Men.
Harmondsworth, 1978.
S. Frind: Die Sprache als
Propagandainstrument des Nationalsozialismus, in: Muttersprache, 76.
Jg., 1966, S. 129–135. (germ.)
Georgia Hale, Charlie
Chaplin: Intimate Close-Ups, edited by Heather Kiernan. Lanham:
Scarecrow Press, 1995 and 1999. ISBN 978-1-57886-004-3 (1999 edition).
Victor Klemperer: LTI –
Notizbuch eines Philologen. Leipzig: Reclam, 1990. ISBN
978-3-379-00125-0; Frankfurt am Main (19. A.) 2004 (germ.)
Charlie Chaplin at Keystone
and Essanay: Dawn of the Tramp, Ted Okuda & David Maska. iUniverse, New
York, 2005.
Chaplin: His Life and Art,
David Robinson. McGraw-Hill, second edition 2001.
Chaplin: Genius of the
Cinema, Jeffrey Vance. Abrams, New York, 2003. ISBN 978-0-8109-4532-6
Charlie Chaplin: A Photo
Diary, Michel Comte & Sam Stourdze. Steidl, first edition, hardcover,
359pp, ISBN 978-3-88243-792-8, 2002.
Chaplin in Pictures, Sam
Stourdze (ed.), texts by Patrice Blouin, Christian Delage and Sam
Stourdze, NBC Editions, ISBN 978-2-913986-03-9, 2005.
Double Exposure: Charlie
Chaplin as Author and Celebrity, Jonathan Goldman. M/C Journal 7.5.
Charlie Chaplin's World of
Comedy, Wes D. Gehring, 1980.
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