Sunday, May 26, 2024

Charlie Chaplin vs America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided, Scott Eyman, c. 2023.

 Charlie Chaplin vs America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided, Scott Eyman, c. 2023.

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The Book Page 

The book for the week: Charlie Chaplin vs America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided, Scott Eyman, c. 2023.

Background: The Hollywood Reporter, April 2, 2015, link here

  • b. 1889, England
  • 1947, age 58, famous and loved by many; sails to England to visit his home
    • was unaware of the storm clouds; never, never thought the US would renege on its promise of safe return
  • en route on the Queen Elizabeth learns that the US will not allow him to return to the US
    • morality issues (politics and sex)
    • happily married to Oona, with four children; he was 54 when he married her, age 18
    • he would spend the rest of his life with Oona, died in 1991, age 66
  • settles in Switzerland
  • 1972: the US allows Chaplin to return to the United States to attend the "Oscars" to accept an honorary statuette, age 83
  • d. 1977

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Prologue

Pretty much tells the whole story. Read the prologue and one has the scaffolding for the story.

Hedda Hopper, May 19, 1952.
CC leaves for Europe with return visa in hand
sets off for England / Paris with Oona
kids stay behind in Beverly Hills

Hedda Hopper close to RMN
Hopper hated CC -- personalized all her relationships

A week later, the children -- Geraldine, Michael, Josephine, and Victoria would follow Oona and CC

QE --> Cherbourg, France

Sept 19, 1951: return visa rescinded!!!

then QE --> to London.

early films -- subtle, but right wing sensed a heretic

overall tenor of his movies shifted -- Modern Times -- 1936

The Great Dictator, 1940, huge success

but almost the rest of the 40s decade a disaster


Part I

Chapter 1

Stepbrother Syd, but it sounds like he was actually is brother. Need to re-read this portion again and more closely.

Parents died at a very, very young age, 37 and 33 years, respectively or something like that.

England.

By 18 / 19 years old, doing well and starting their career in show business.

Father -- mother -- Charlie and half-brother Syd

1881: Charles Chaplin, Sr -- 18 y/o

marries Hannah Hill, June 1885

14 weeks later --> Syd, parentage a mystery

Sydney John Hill, March 16, 1885

57 Grandon Street, Lambeth

Hannah: Hannah Harriet Pedlington Hll Chaplin: stage name: Lily Harley.

1889, April: second son, April 15 -- to Mr Charles Chaplin and nee LilyHarley (stage name)


1889: elder Chaplin -- playing 4 different London music halls / night and touring the provinces

Hannah affair with Leo Dryden

3rd child: August 31, 1892 -- George Dryden Wheeler, eventually to be Wheeler Dryden. (father of Spencer Dryden -- drummer for Jefferson Airplane]
child snatched by father and disappeared; until reunited iwth Syd / C in Hollywood years later

Destitute / poverty / syphilis -- madhouse (mother)

CC -- greatly feared syphilis -- maybe that's why he favored young teenagers

Charles, Sr -- died 1901 -- 37 y/o -- alcoholism

CC -- 4th grade education at best

CC -- quick rise through the music halls with the greatest of the great: Dan Leno, Harry Lauder, Marie Lloyd 

1904 - 1906 with William Gillette, Sherlock Holmes

1906: Syd --> Fred Karno's legendary comedy troupe

Fred Karno: music hall equiv of Mack Sennett --

1908: Karno signs CC -- through Syd's help

CC -- turns 19 and on his way!!!

Stan Laural -- several years as CC's understudy in the Karno Troupe -- mass produced comedians and comedy.

1910 -- CC to America for first time; NYC of course

Marx at the time said CC -- greatest comedian he had ever seen

Marx Bros and Karno Trope -- often played same locations

Salt Lake City, 1913 -- signed with Mack Sennett's Keystone Company in Edendale, CA

last engagement with Karno: Kansas City, Nov 29, 1913

--> to the movies

Chapter 2

December 16, 1913: 24 years old; begins work at the Keystone studio.

Within three years, rich and famous, mostly for creation of the Tramp -- every movie similar themes -- from The Kid (1921)

--> Limelight (1952) -- the reason he went to London / Paris -- 1952

1914: Essanay Company at $1,250 / week

1915: Mutual Film Corporation: $10,000 / week

1916: million-dollar contract with First National plus 50% of profits

Chaplin's deals: he maintained ownership of all his movies --

CC studio: on La Brea Avenue, just south of Sunset

United Artists - January , 1919 -- CC, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith

Women in his life at this time

2) first love: Hetty Kelly -- p. 41, she 15; 1908, they met -- CC -- 19 y/o

1) actually earlier, Phoebe Field, 12 y/0; he 18; 

Hetty Kelly ended up marryig an Army officer --

CC and Hetty's brother Arthur -- on a boat train -- Spanish Flu had killed Hetty in Nov 1918!!!

CC was devastated

3) Edna Purviance -- leading lady he hired in 1915, Essanay Co.

The way to get to CC was through Edna

That's how Wheeler Dryden ended up being a general assistant to CC!!

4) first wife: Mildred Harris -- m. Sept 1918 -- 17 y/o actress; Norman Spencer Chaplin, b. July 7, 1919, lived only three days; The Kid

5) second wife -- Lita Grey -- hired in March 1924 -- leading lady in The Gold Rush shortly before she turned 16; Charles Chaplin, Jr., b. May 5, 1925; rancorous divorce; the only woman he ever hated

6) occasioanl age-appropriate woen: Pola Negri, Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Marion Davies

but remained loyal to Edna Purviance

a partner in Regent Films -- A Woman in Paris, 1923

7) Georgia Hale -- replaced Lita Grey -- leading lady, The Gold Rush

on and off companions late 1920s to early 1930s

kept drawing salary from CC through March, 1953

1918: campaigned to raise money for Third Liberty Loan where they met President Woodrow Wilson

Chapter 3

1914: beginning of socialist connections

1922: Florence Deshon committed suicide, FBI opened a file on CC

J. Edgar Hoover takes over BOI in 1924 as director -- soon renamed FBI

Hoover and FBI become synonymous

Chapter 4

1933

Chapter 5

1938

Part Two

Chapter 6 

Late 1930s -- rise of the Nazis

The Great Dictator pp Paulette Goddard in the movie


Chapter 7

FDR's third inauguration, 1941

Chapter 8

1941: meets Joan Berry, 22; he, 53

he had just split up with Paulette Goddard

Berry's real name: Mary Louise Gribble

J. Paul Getty for several months

also A.C. Blumenthal

intermediary, CC's close friend: Tim Durant

Berry: goes to Hedda Hopper, p. 144

Chapter 9

Berry -- CC paternity suit --FBI swamrs in

Chapter 10

Oona O'Neill --- b. May 1925

Eugene O'Neill and Agnes Boulton

dtd J. D. Salinger

turned 18, May 14, 1943

he, 36 years older

Hedda Hopper / FBI spring into action

paternity suit Berry continues

Berry herself -- schizophrenic; died in 2007

Chapter 11

but worse yet to come -- Senator William Langer (R-ND). See this article.

introduced a bill directing the attorney general to investigate CC for the purposes of deportation

bill didn't pass, but Langer didn't give up

[The Strange Love of Martha Ivers -- p. 195]

In the crosshairs: Walter Wanger, David Selznick, Sam Goldwyn, Warner bros, CC

Chapter 12

1947

several chapters on Monsieur Verdoux

Chaplin's sons by Lita Grey (Sydney and Charlie, Jr) -- came closer to their father

CC in INS; McCarthy

Part Three

Chapter 13

1948 -- began working on Footlights (early name) --> Limelight

Chapter 14

Hoover

Chaplin out of the country

Chapter 15

Limelight: commercial and critical success -- p. 279

Chapter 16

1952: eisenhower defeats Adlai Stevenson

CC: remained in forced exile

Chapter 17

November, 1953: Eugene O'Neill died

Chapter 18

IRS comes after CC

Chapter 19

Geraldine's memories --

1962 -- CC -- honorary degree from Oxford University

They Shoot Horse, Don't They (first mentioned, p. 272). Wiki.

Chapter 20

Syd dies, April 16, 1965; date of CC's birthday; 80 y/o

After Limelight, Chaplin off American screens for more than 10 years

Modern Times reissued, 1959, great success, $2.1 million in global sales but did not play in America

A Countess from Hong Kong: Marlon Brando, Tippi Hedren, Sophia Loren

1975: knighted; as early as 1956 -- had talked about it -- but GB afraid of upsetting America

CC died Christmas Day, 1977

Oona lived another 13 years

Six children altogether: two by Lita Grey; four with Oona

Epilogue

1940s and 1950s: devastating

1) nonconforming; another country; another time

2) refused to go along ot get along -- despited fellow actors and didn't change

3) too independent for the studio bosses; they felt they couldn't control him

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