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Article 4
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Syd Chaplin Airfield, c. 1919
This may have been taken at the time Charlie took his first airplane ride. It was a harrowing experience involving a "loop-the-loop" which he did not care to repeat. He didn't fly again until his trip to Europe in 1921 when he nervously flew across the English Channel.
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Charlie boxes Eric Campbell during a benefit to raise money for the war effort, 1917
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Charlie, Sam Goldwyn & Danny Kaye, c. 1940s
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"Charlot At A Bullfight"
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| Illustration from Charlie's memoir "A Comedian Sees The World," A Woman's Home Companion, December 1933 |
During his world tour in 1931, Charlie attended a bullfight in San Sebastian, Spain. He had always wanted to see one and now he had the chance. “Several days before the corrida he practiced with me.” recalled May Reeves, Charlie's lover & companion during the trip. “He had learned all the passes and all the finesses from bullfighters passing through Hollywood. I was the bull, and, using my two index fingers for horns, I rushed at Charlie while he waved a red handcape, which was only a tablecloth, around his body. I admired his dancer’s svelteness, his feminine grace.”
But once the day of the bullfight arrived and he entered the arena, Charlie became agitated, according to May. “The first bullfighter bowed to him, made a fiery speech, and tossed him his hat and his mantle, which we displayed on the balustrade. Since the crowd was almost more interested in Chaplin than in the bullfight, he began to act in a film, ‘Charlot At A Bullfight’. Gradually the playacting became serious, however, for he can scarcely bear to see an animal suffer.”
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| A matador tosses his hat to Charlie. |
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| Charlie waves to the crowd. |
May remembers Charlie’s reaction to this brutality, “As the picadors plunged their lances into the bull and tore out scraps of bleeding flesh, Charlie lost his composure and covered his eyes in horror. When the bull, attracted by the cape, lunged at his adversary, he cried, ‘Help, Help!’ Then he turned his face away and asked me, ‘Is he gored?’. When two banderillas were lodged into the neck of the bull, Charlie cried, ‘Help, I’m going to faint!’"
“Finally the bullfighter exchanged his red cape for the muleta which concealed the sword of death. During some difficult passes, Charlie turned to me and asked in a pleading tone, ‘Is the bull finally dead? Is he still alive? May, why don’t they kill him?’”
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| Charlie observes the bulls before the fight |
In the silence of the arena one heard a wagon passing outside. As the sound died away the beast crumpled to the ground and thirty thousand people broke spontaneously into wild enthusiasm and applause.”
Charlie saw eight bulls killed during the fight. Afterward he presented the matadors with a silver cigarette case.
When a reporter asked Charlie whether he had enjoyed the bullfight, he replied courteously, “I would rather say nothing.”
“All that night, [Charlie] couldn’t sleep peacefully," wrote May. "In his dreams he cried, ‘Help! Help!’”*
*May Reeves, The Intimate Charlie Chaplin, McFarland, 2001
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Roscoe Arbuckle & Charlie in the final scene of The Rounders (1914)
According to Minta Durfee, Arbuckle's first wife (& also his wife in the film), the boat filling with water was Arbuckle's idea and was intended to be a practical joke on Charlie because of his aversion to it. In Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By, Minta is quoted as saying: "Charlie hated water...And later on, he and my husband did one of the most difficult things an actor can do: in the last scene they lay in a boat, pretending to be dead drunk, while it slowly sank in the middle of Echo Park Lake. For a man who hates water, that was pretty good.”
Charlie must have been a good sport because he appears to be unable to keep a straight face as they disappear beneath the surface.
However I find the notion that Charlie was afraid of water interesting because he enjoyed swimming most of his life and gets wet in several other films including A Film Johnnie, The Masquerader (which was released only a couple of weeks before this film), Shanghaied, A Night In The Show, The Cure, The Adventurer, City Lights, Modern Times, etc. Perhaps he didn't like to be surprised by water, which is understandable.
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Charlie With The Ladies
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| Evening Public Ledger, Philadelphia, PA, November 23rd, 1920 |
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Charlie & Marion Davies at San Simeon, 1933
Today also happens to be Marion's birthday. Happy Birthday, Marion!
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Charlie & Pola Negri at a press conference announcing their engagement, January 28th, 1923
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Betty Morrissey (left) & Merna Kennedy at the Chaplin Studios during production of The Circus
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Photos by Alfred Eisenstadt, St. Moritz, Switzerland, c. 1931-32
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| Charlie with his brother, Sydney. I believe the woman is May Reeves. |
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THE PILGRIM on TCM next Sunday
Charlie's 1923 film The Pilgrim will be shown on TCM (USA) at 1:00 AM EST on January 13th. Coincidentally, this is also the day Edna Purviance passed away in 1958, so watching this film (her last as Charlie's co-star) would be a nice way to remember Edna.
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Charlie & Oona at the cabaret "Fountain Of The Four Seasons" in Paris, c. 1953
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Charlie, Doug, & boxer Joe Benjamin, c. 1918
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Charlie dances with Betsey Cushing at the El Morocco nightclub, October 1940
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Charlie posing coyly in his bathing suit
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The Circus, released January 6th, 1928
Charlie was originally nominated for Best Actor and Best Comedy Director for The Circus at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929 (the latter category was never again used). He was later removed from these categories and given a special Honorary Award instead for “Versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing".
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"Swing Little Girl" sung by Charlie Chaplin
In 1968, Charlie created a new score for The Circus. He also wrote lyrics to a theme song called "Swing Little Girl" which was to be played over the opening credits while Merna Kennedy swings on a trapeze. Three male vocalists made a demo of the song and Charlie chose the rendition he liked best. This recording, made by a British singer named Ken Barrie, still exists in the Chaplin archives. But according to arranger Eric James, the interpretation, though good, was not quite what they were looking for. Since Charlie privately enjoyed singing the song, James suggested that they record him, just so that he and his family could have it to listen to with orchestral accompaniment. Charlie happily complied and his rendition was the one that was chosen for the film. He was 79 years old.
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| Cover of the soundtrack LP for The Circus, released in Germany in 1970 |
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Advertisement for The Circus, 1928
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Robert Florey interviews Charlie for Cinemagazine, 1921
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