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News story from Waterville, where the 'Charlie Chaplin Festival' is happening this weekend
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From "Charlie Chaplin Intime," Voila magazine, May 12th, 1934
Charlie Chaplin Intime was May Reeves' memoir of her year-long love affair with Chaplin during his 1931-32 world tour. It was serialized in seven installments in the French magazine Voila in 1934 & published in book form in 1935 (the translated version, The Intimate Charlie Chaplin, was not published until 2001.)
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With "Dinky" Dean Riesner, c. 1922
Riesner played the bratty child in Chaplin’s underrated gem The Pilgrim. His father was Chaplin's friend and assistant director, Chuck Riesner.
In a 1997 interview, Riesner describes how he came up with his own gag in the The Pilgrim and his favorite thing about this photo shoot:
I remember my dad being on the set during the shooting of my scene. And they used real fly-paper, I'll never forget that, REAL fly-paper. I still feel it on my skin, it was awful! And I remember the fish bowl I said, "I'll throw water and you stretch your hand out to think it's raining"--that was my gag!
But the best part about making the film was when we went down to Hollywood Boulevard and bought me this overall suit. You know how they're crinkly when you get into them for the first time and the legs are stuck together? And Charlie lived in a house on a hill, and there was a long sweeping lawn and then there was the pool. But between the lawn and the pool was sand, and we went down into the sand and had a photo shoot, though for what I don't know. But I was delighted to get those new overalls! (Limelight, Winter 1997)
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The 2013 Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival kicks off today in Waterville
Best wishes for the festival. I hope Meg, or someone, will give me the lowdown when it's all over.
http://chaplinfilmfestival.com/
http://chaplinfilmfestival.com/
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| Charlie in Waterville, 1960s. vacationkillarney.com |
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c. late 1940s
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Charlie arriving at the funeral of Rudolph Valentino, who died 87 years ago today
Valentino died in New York City from peritonitis on August 23rd, 1926, only a few weeks after the premiere of his final film The Son Of The Shiek. Almost two weeks later, and following an initial service in New York, his body was transported to Los Angeles by train and another service was held for him in Hollywood on September 7th. Charlie suspended production of his film, The Circus, so he could attend the funeral.
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| Memorial service for Valentino, Charlie is third from left. |
Charlie released the following statement about the death of his friend:
The death of Rudolph Valentino is one of the greatest tragedies that has occurred in the history of the motion-picture industry. As an actor he achieved fame & distinction; as a friend he commanded love and admiration.
We of the film industry, through his death, lose a very dear friend, a man of great charm and kindliness.
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Photos by James Abbe, in and out of costume, 1922
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Charlie & Max Linder visit Douglas Fairbanks on the set of Robin Hood, c.1922
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Charlie & Lita Grey (right) during the filming of The Gold Rush, c. 1924
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The Chaplin Archive website identifies the woman on the left as Lita's mother, Lillian, but it doesn't look like her to me (plus I doubt she would have her arm around Charlie) |
On this day in 1928, Charlie's divorce from Lita became final. An interlocutory decree for divorce was actually granted on August 22nd, 1927, but the divorce did not become final for another year. Charlie finally agreed to a settlement when Lita's lawyers threatened to reveal the names of the "five prominent moving picture women," she alleged Charlie had slept with during their marriage. Lita had already visited Marion Davies, whose name was at the top of the list. Not wanting to involve the women in a scandal, Charlie conceded to a settlement: $825,000 (about 11 million in today's dollars) which included $100,000 trust funds for each of their sons.
Years later, Lita revealed the names of the other "prominent" women (besides Marion) mentioned in her divorce complaint: Edna Purviance, Claire Windsor, Pola Negri, and Peggy Hopkins Joyce. The problem with this list is that Charlie's relationship with these women had been long over by the time he married Lita. I believe this list was driven more by Lita's jealousy of Charlie's past relationships (with more mature and sophisticated women) than anything else. However, she had good reason to name Marion, whom Charlie evidently boinked in the servants' quarters of the Summit Drive house (he paid one of the cooks $5 to use their room) while Lita was upstairs giving birth to Sydney.*
*Lita Grey Chaplin, Wife Of The Life Of The Party, 1998
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Paulette Goddard by Alfred Cheney Johnston
Johnston was a photographer for the Ziegfeld Follies. These photos of Paulette were most likely taken around 1926-1927. You can see more photos from this sitting here:
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/10561120
Paulette looks so young--and she was young, probably only 16 or 17 years old. Of course, these nudes are so beautifully done, nothing like the graphic shots you see of women today where nothing is left to the imagination & the women have botox and implants from head to toe.
While I'm on the topic of nude photos of Paulette. Below is a topless shot taken by her (future) husband Erich Remarque, c. 1951
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| source: Opposite Attraction by Julie Gilbert |
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Charlie & Edna (in costume) with visitors on the set of The Idle Class, 1921
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Charlie's blindfold cigarette test
This photo shoot was used to advertise Old Gold cigarettes in Judge magazine in 1928.
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In the background of the above photos (L-R): Carlyle Robinson (Chaplin's press agent), Harry Crocker, and Henry Bergman.
According to the ad below:"Chaplin was asked to smoke each of the four leading brands, clearing his taste with coffee between smokes. Only one question was asked: 'Which one do you like best?' He chose Old Gold." Sez Charlie: "It was like shooting a scene successfully after a whole series of failures. It just 'clicked' and I named it as my choice. It was Old Gold...It seems Strongheart and Rin-tin-tin are the only motion picture actor stars who don’t smoke them.”
In the background of the above photos (L-R): Carlyle Robinson (Chaplin's press agent), Harry Crocker, and Henry Bergman.
According to the ad below:"Chaplin was asked to smoke each of the four leading brands, clearing his taste with coffee between smokes. Only one question was asked: 'Which one do you like best?' He chose Old Gold." Sez Charlie: "It was like shooting a scene successfully after a whole series of failures. It just 'clicked' and I named it as my choice. It was Old Gold...It seems Strongheart and Rin-tin-tin are the only motion picture actor stars who don’t smoke them.”
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| "Not a cough in a carload" |
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Charlie directs the ballet sequence for Limelight
Photo by W. Eugene Smith
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Random Excerpt
From Moments With Chaplin by Lillian Ross, 1978*
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*This is one of my favorite books about Chaplin, and one of the few where I was disappointed when I reached the end because I wished it would keep going and going. It's a short book (only 62 pages) but highly entertaining and enlightening. I will also point out that Ms. Ross, a longtime writer for New Yorker magazine & who interviewed Charlie while he was still living in America, is still alive and in 2008 interviewed Charlie's grandson, James Thiérrée.
Some of the moments I remember from Vevey had the atmosphere of something staged, real though they were.
Charlie Chaplin heading for the tennis court, wearing white flannel trousers and a tennis shirt with a collar--a white cable knit sweater dashingly slung over his back, the sleeves tied in front.
Charlie Chaplin playing tennis, racquet in his left hand, running for every ball, not liking to lose, and showing his dissatisfaction every time he lost a point, giving his all to the game, in total concentration, and never, never losing track of the score....
Charlie Chaplin sharing a bowl of peanuts with three-year-old Annette. Chaplin's face would be down over the bowl, and he would be glaring in top performance, leaving no doubt as to who would get the last peanut.
Charlie Chaplin in a long terry-cloth robe, his pure-white hair disheveled, leading a visitor at eight o'clock on a late-summer morning down his lawn to his swimming pool, all the white looking whiter in contrast to the shadows cast by the trees on the smooth green lawn.
Charlie Chaplin at the pool, saying, "I go up and down the pool once then out. I keep the water warm. It's not easy to go from a warm bed into a cold pool. I like it as long as it's warm."
Charlie Chaplin sitting in front of a big fire in the fireplace of his living room for a quick drink before dinner. Gin-and-tonic usually. "I look forward to that one drink at night," he would say....
Charlie Chaplin comforting Victoria, at the age of eleven, after she had seen "Limelight" for the first time. ("I couldn't help crying at the end, when you died," Victoria said to her father. "Oh, my dear," Chaplin said, on the verge of tears himself. "Oh, my dear. That's sweet. So sweet.")
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| Lillian Ross with Jerry Epstein and Charlie. |
Charlie Chaplin at the piano in his living room, playing music he had composed for his pictures, humming along with his own playing, while his face expressed every emotion experienced by everybody in each picture, and simultaneously talking: "I can't play anybody's music but my own. I never took a lesson. I never even saw a piano up close until I was twenty-one. As soon as I touched the piano, I could play. The same with the violin."
Charlie Chaplin, at five o'clock in the morning, heading quietly for his study, to work alone on his autobiography, as he did every morning (In 1962, on an afternoon in early September, I sat with him on his terrace as he read parts of his book manuscript to me, the tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses a bit down on his nose, his reading dramatic to the point of melodrama, his devotion to his subject unself-conscious and complete. "I use Fowler's 'The King's English' as my guide," he told me during a breather. "I do all my own editing. I'm very particular. I like to see a clean page, with no erasures. I'm entirely self-taught.")
*This is one of my favorite books about Chaplin, and one of the few where I was disappointed when I reached the end because I wished it would keep going and going. It's a short book (only 62 pages) but highly entertaining and enlightening. I will also point out that Ms. Ross, a longtime writer for New Yorker magazine & who interviewed Charlie while he was still living in America, is still alive and in 2008 interviewed Charlie's grandson, James Thiérrée.
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Charlie & Syd break ground at the future site of the Chaplin Studios, 1917
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With Sophia Loren on the set of A Countess From Hong Kong
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THE MASQUERADER, released August 27th, 1914
This film is noted for Charlie's female impersonation (which is flawless), but to me, one of the best things about it is the business at the beginning with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. They will do a full-fledged pairing up two films later in The Rounders (Chaplin & Arbuckle would appear together in seven Keystones).
screenshots from Chaplin At Keystone (Flicker Alley)
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Original press photo, 1927
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| click to enlarge |
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Charlie (right) with Marion Davies & Lawrence Tibbett, c. 1930
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"I am back foremost"
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| With Jascha Heifetz, c. 1920 |
Chaplin smiled, took his fiddle from Heifetz's hands and played a bit of Bach with his left hand. All the strings were on backward.
'You see,' said Chaplin, 'I am being made inside out and upside-down. When I turn my back on you in the screen you are looking at something as expressive as a face. I am back foremost.'"*
*Ben De Casseres, "The Hamlet-Like Nature Of Charlie Chaplin," New York Times Book Review, Dec. 12th, 1920
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