Anderson along with George K. Spoor founded the Essanay Studios ("S" & "A"). Charlie signed with the company in late 1914.
Anderson along with George K. Spoor founded the Essanay Studios ("S" & "A"). Charlie signed with the company in late 1914.
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Coney Island, c. 1915
Anderson along with George K. Spoor founded the Essanay Studios ("S" & "A"). Charlie signed with the company in late 1914.
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Charlie at Orly airport in Paris, 1971
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On the set of LIMELIGHT
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Charlie & Edna in Hawaii, 1917
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Autographed photo from Charlie to Toraichi Kono, 1916
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David Raksin visits Charlie on his last day in Hollywood, 1952
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| Source: "David Raksin: A Composer In Hollywood" by Jon Newsom, Quarterly Journal Of The Library of Congress, 1978 |
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Douglas Fairbanks takes gag photos of Mary Pickford & Charlie, c. 1918
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A portion of the original dialogue script for MODERN TIMES
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Cover of Spanish magazine Popular Film (Sept. 9th, 1926)
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Charlie & Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. play as partners in badminton, 1923
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Clip from HOLLYWOOD ON PARADE (1933)
Frankie Darro asks Charlie for an autograph while lovely Paulette chats him up. Charlie can be heard saying something toward the end as well (listen closely).
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Charlie & Mack Swain in HIS MUSICAL CAREER (1914)
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| Moving Picture World, October 24th, 1914 |
1My Autobiography, pg. 220: "I loathe working outside on location because of its distraction. One's concentration and inspiration blow away with the wind." Charlie was describing the location shoot for Shoulder Arms which was filmed during a "sizzling heat wave" and added that "working inside a camouflaged tree was anything but comfortable."
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Happy birthday, Chester Conklin (January 11, 1886 - October 11, 1971)
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| Mabel Normand, Chester & Phyllis Allen in Gentlemen Of Nerve (1914). I love to watch Phyllis & Chester flirting in this scene. |
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Charlie & his sons, Charlie, Jr (left) and Sydney, pose with circus performers, 1934
See another photo from this day here.
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A peek into Charlie's "strictly masculine household"
The following photos & captions are from "How They Manage Their Homes" by Alma Whitaker, Photoplay, June 1929.
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This photo, taken c. 1933, is not part of the Photoplay article but shows another view of the interior. This hallway, with black & white checkered carpet and wrought iron gate, runs down the center of the house. Adjacent to this hallway was Charlie's treasured pipe organ which can be seen in the photos below.
Additional sources:
Charles Chaplin, Jr., My Father, Charlie Chaplin
Lita Grey Chaplin, My Life With Chaplin
Jim Tully, "The Real Life Story Of Charlie Chaplin, Part Two," Pictorial Review, February 1927
David Raksin interview, Unknown Chaplin documentary
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| Charlie, Jr. remembered his father once saying: "I love this house. I'd never live anywhere else but right here." |
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| The article says: "Here dinner is served at 8 p.m., the fashionable hour." |
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| Photos of Charlie, from a 1952 issue of Illustrated magazine, sitting on the steps and standing behind the gong can be seen here and here. |
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| According to the article, on the mantle, facing Charlie's bed, are "four smiling photographs" of Georgia Hale, his constant companion at the time. "One of those new electric belt exercisers" stands near one of the windows. I see a phone on the table next to his bed. He also kept a dictaphone nearby to record ideas that came to him during the night. Ms. Whitaker observes only one bed, but Charlie, Jr. noted that there were two three-quarter beds in his father's bedroom. |
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| Charlie's son said that his father not only liked to look at the stars with the telescope, but also his neighbors. A few more interesting notes from the article about Charlie: he wore pale green silk pajamas, as well as B.V.D.s (a brand of men's underwear). He also hates to rise before noon. "People are so uninteresting before lunch," says Charlie. |
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| Lita Grey Chaplin remembered that Charlie's jade collection, "most of them nude figurines," were scattered throughout the living room. His son recalled that the living room also contained an indiscriminate assortment of furniture, including pieces his father bought for his apartments when he first moved to Los Angeles. "After he built his own place he just moved everything he possessed into it. He could never bring himself to part with anything he owned". Charlie's press agent, Jim Tully, once observed that the colors in Charlie's living room represent his "Gipsy taste." The color scheme boasts "a mixture of reds, green, blues, and yellows, regardless of all conventional opinions on color-harmony." |
This photo, taken c. 1933, is not part of the Photoplay article but shows another view of the interior. This hallway, with black & white checkered carpet and wrought iron gate, runs down the center of the house. Adjacent to this hallway was Charlie's treasured pipe organ which can be seen in the photos below.
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| Charlie playing the organ, unknown date, probably late 1920s. Charlie once played the organ for David Raksin, musical arranger for Modern Times. "Had I not been a musician, he might have been less intimidated, but he did play a little just to let me know that he had a real no-kidding organ in his house and it was sort of fun." |
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| Lita Grey Chaplin at the organ, c. 1927 |
Charles Chaplin, Jr., My Father, Charlie Chaplin
Lita Grey Chaplin, My Life With Chaplin
Jim Tully, "The Real Life Story Of Charlie Chaplin, Part Two," Pictorial Review, February 1927
David Raksin interview, Unknown Chaplin documentary
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Edna Purviance (October 21, 1895 - January 13, 1958)
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| Photoplay, August 1916 |
Edna passed away 55 years ago today after a long battle with cancer. The following is Edna’s last letter to Charlie, dated November 13th, 1956 (at the beginning she thanks him for still being on his payroll):
Dear Charlie,
Here I am again with a heart full of thanks, and back in the hospital (Cedars of Lebanon), taking cobalt X-ray treatment on my neck. There cannot be a hell hereafter! … Am thankful my innards are O.K., this is purely and simply local, so they say. All of which reminds me of the fellow standing on the corner of Seventh and Broadway tearing up little bits of paper and throwing them to the four winds. A cop comes along and asks him what was the big idea. He answers, “Just keeping the elephants away.” The cop says, “There aren’t any elephants in this district.” The fellow answers: “Well, it works, doesn’t it?” This is my silly for the day, so forgive me. Hope you and the family are well and enjoying everything you have worked for.
Love always, Edna
In his autobiography, Charlie wrote: “Shortly after I received this letter she died. And so the world grows young. And youth takes over. And we who have lived a little longer become a little more estranged as we journey on our way.”
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Still of Edna Purviance from The Sea Gull (1926)
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| Source: The Sea Gull by Linda Wada |
The following link contains a video that features original stills from the film, acquired by Edna Purviance historian, Linda Wada, when she visited Edna’s grand niece in 2005. The intertiles are from the original 1926 title list created by Josef von Sternberg (from the Chaplin Archives). I would have embedded the video here but the video's creator disabled that function.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ak3Zn0bqa1k
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Charlie poses for reporters in his suite at the Ritz Hotel in London, 1921
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Autographed photo, dated 1917
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Ad announcing Charlie's move to Essanay, January 1915
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