Photo by Alistair Cooke.
Photo by Alistair Cooke.
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Andy Anderson, Charlie, & Paulette, 1933
Photo by Alistair Cooke.
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Charlie poses next to a clay sculpture (in and out of costume), Lone Star Studios, 1917
Sources: Charlie Chaplin: A Photo Diary/Comte (top) & Chaplin: Genius Of Cinema/Vance(bottom)
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Random Excerpt
From “The Real Life-Story of Charlie Chaplin” by Jim Tully, Pictorial Review, March 1927. Tully was Chaplin’s publicist during the mid-1920s:
At the Ambassador we took a table near the dancing space in the center of the room.
Wealthy sightseers stopped within a few feet of the great man's table. Three women introduced themselves. Charlie, as usual, with the manners of a duke, stood up and bowed politely. When the last lady had gone Charlie exclaimed, under his breath, "darn her!"
"Why is wealth more vulgar than poverty, Charlie?" I asked.
He looked at me earnestly as if trying to frame an answer.
"Because," he answered slowly, "wealth itself is more vulgar. There's simplicity in poverty--simplicity without ostentation."
I liked the answer.
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| Photo from Pictorial Review, 1927 |
Time and again beautiful women at neighboring tables or from the dancing-floor smiled their open admiration. He, Charlie, was oblivious of it all. I called his attention to it. His only comment was, “They know I am Charlie Chaplin. If I came in here an unknown, no one would look at me.” Then, his face lighting up, he began in a reminiscent mood:
“There’s more fun meeting someone who doesn’t know who you are. I met a pretty little girl on Broadway one day. She worked at a soda-fountain and I was in having an ice cream soda. I had no necktie on—and my shirt was open at the throat, and I hadn’t shaved in three days—I was very low and didn’t know what to do with myself so I’d strolled into the place and finished my soda just as the girl was goin’ off duty. She’d smiled nice at me before, and I jokingly said:
“Can I walk down the street with you? And she came right back, “Surely."
We walked out of the store together and finally the little girl asked, “Where do you work?”
“Over at Robinson’s in the shoe department—I’m on my vacation now," I told her.
“Gee—you got a good job, ain’t you?” She looked admiringly at me when she said it.
“You bet I have—I’m gettin’ thirty a week the first of October—I came out here from the East an’ fell right into it a year ago.”
“Gosh—you was lucky” said the girl. “My brother didn’t get work for four months after we came here—work’s hard to get here—when you don’t know no one.”
“I’ll say it is,” I told her.
We looked at some hats in a window. “That’s a peach, ” I said, “for six dollars—”
“Gee—it’s a dandy—but they ain’t no hat in the world worth that much—not when you jerk soda for a livin’—I make all my own hats.”
“That so?” I says; “the hat you got on looks nice—did you make it?”
“I sure did.”
Charlie placed a knife and fork in the form of a pyramid. It fell down. He resumed.
“I’ve never seen anyone prettier than that little girl—she had a little doll mouth and great big blue eyes that always seemed to be askin’ questions. We went over in Pershing Square and sat down, I kept my cap low over my eyes so’s no one would notice me—and the little kid talked on just as if she was hungry to tell someone her troubles. “You like it in California?” I asked her.
“Yes—we had so much trouble back in Iowa I was glad to get away.”
“Father owned a big farm there—then everything happened at once,” she shuddered, and I didn’t press matters, but changed the subject.
I made up my mind right then to be her friend. “Let’s go an’ have something to eat,” I suggested. She was willing, and we walked along Fifth Street, and when we came to Boos Brothers’ Cafeteria near Broadway she kind of sidled toward it.
I told her we weren’t going there and that I knew a better place. She says, “Where?” and I says, “The Alexandria.”
She gasped right out and says, “Gee, no—it’s too swell. It’ll cost you a week’s wages for a meal there.” I told her I wanted to celebrate and that one of the waiters roomed where I do—so’s it would be all right. “But you ain’t got no tie on,” she told me. I told her we would sit over in the corner. Finally she went in with me.
We had the finest time, as she soon forgot herself and began to talk to me some more about her life on the farm and her driving to high school every morning.
Then I told her how one time I came near buying a hog ranch in Texas and settling down to raise hogs. I intended to do that one time just before I went into pictures—and I came darn near letting the cat out of the bag—forgetting that I was just a shoe clerk to her, when she says, “It takes money to buy hog ranches—even in Texas.” Then I came down to earth.
We sat there a long time and kept getting chummier and chummier until finally Norma Talmadge came in and came running up to me yelling, “Hello, Charlie!” and the game was up. The little girl looked startled and tried to stammer something when I introduced Norma to her. She excused herself for a minute. —Charlie looked around the gay room wistfully—“and she never came back.”
There was a pause for some minutes. “She never came back to work, and I could never find any trace of her—and that was that.”
After a pause Charlie drummed the table with his fingers, then rising, he said quietly, more to himself that to me, “You never can tell.”
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World Tour Revisited: Biarritz
Sometime at the end of July 1931, Charlie's friend and assistant director, Harry d'Arrast, arrived in Juan-les-Pins. He suggested that Charlie must see Biarritz, "the fashionable seaside resort situated near the border of Spain."* Charlie and his companion, May Reeves, would motor there in Harry's car, making side trips to Paris and the Chateau Brissac. They would finally arrive in Biarritz during the first week of August and would spend the next two months there.
May recalled the journey from Juan to Biarritz as "a true road of tears." Charlie and May were already at odds before they left the Riviera. According to May, Charlie would constantly pick fights with her and accuse her of infidelity. In Paris, May suggested a trial separation. "Very well," Charlie said. "You stay at the Carlton; I'll go to Versailles and stay at the Trianon."** May felt this separation "improved our rapport." However, in the car from Paris to Biarritz, they had another disagreement. This time Charlie suggested that they stay in separate hotels, but this separation lasted less than a day. May recalled that the two months spent in Biarritz "were not pleasant. On some days Charlie became almost neurasthenic. I hardly dared to tiptoe across the apartment."** It seems clear that Charlie was already becoming bored with May and didn't know how to end their relationship. I think his jealousy revealed nothing more than a case of the age-old: "I don't want her, but I don't want anyone else to have her either" syndrome.
Coming up next week: Charlie & Harry are involved in a car accident. Charlie attends a bullfight. Stay tuned...
*"A Comedian Sees The World"1933
**May Reeves, The Intimate Charlie Chaplin
May recalled the journey from Juan to Biarritz as "a true road of tears." Charlie and May were already at odds before they left the Riviera. According to May, Charlie would constantly pick fights with her and accuse her of infidelity. In Paris, May suggested a trial separation. "Very well," Charlie said. "You stay at the Carlton; I'll go to Versailles and stay at the Trianon."** May felt this separation "improved our rapport." However, in the car from Paris to Biarritz, they had another disagreement. This time Charlie suggested that they stay in separate hotels, but this separation lasted less than a day. May recalled that the two months spent in Biarritz "were not pleasant. On some days Charlie became almost neurasthenic. I hardly dared to tiptoe across the apartment."** It seems clear that Charlie was already becoming bored with May and didn't know how to end their relationship. I think his jealousy revealed nothing more than a case of the age-old: "I don't want her, but I don't want anyone else to have her either" syndrome.
Coming up next week: Charlie & Harry are involved in a car accident. Charlie attends a bullfight. Stay tuned...
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| Charlie & May in Biarritz. Harry d'Arrast is at far left. |
*"A Comedian Sees The World"1933
**May Reeves, The Intimate Charlie Chaplin
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On the phone, Honolulu, 1936
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On the set of CITY LIGHTS
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With his sons Charlie, Jr. (left) and Sydney, 1940
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With Oona, 1954
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Photos by Apeda Studio, New York, 1925
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Hawaii, 1917
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Charlie & Paulette having tea at the Chinese Junior League in Shanghai, 1936
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Charlie (right) and Douglas Fairbanks run hurdles with Olympic gold medalist, Charles Paddock, 1923
Paddock was once called "the world's fastest human."
Charlie himself was a marathon runner as a young man & even considered competing in the 1908 Olympics:
You see, I have quite a good lung development. And then, my legs were quite well developed from dancing with the 'Eight Lancashire Lads' on the stage. I used to belong to the Kennington Harriers, and thought nothing of running fifteen miles. In fact, I considered going into the Marathon in the London Olympics, but became ill about that time.
I can still run ten miles without minding it. You never lose that stamina and lung power. People are surprised today to know that with my slight figure I can run long distances. (New York Herald, September 11, 1921)
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Set visit during the filming of THE GOLD RUSH
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Ad For The Floorwalker
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Charlie speaks at the Variety Club of Great Britain, 1952
You probably haven't noticed, but every Friday for the last couple of months, I've been posting Chaplin-related video clips. I'm going to try to make this a regular feature of the blog. Please try to contain your excitement.
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With his valet & secretary Toraichi Kono at the Chaplin Studios, 1927
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Charlie with violinist Yehudi Menuhin on the set of City Lights
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With Marion Davies, c. 1924
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With boxer Ted Lewis at the Chaplin Studios
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Charlie & Russian impresario Nikita Balieff in Hollywood, 1928
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