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Chaplin & the Oscars

February 22, 2015, 9:35 am
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Charlie won three Academy Awards--two honorary and one competitive.

At the first Academy Awards presentations ceremony in 1929, he was given a special award was for “Versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing” his 1928 film, The Circus.


Charlie's Academy Award for The Circus.

Sydney Chaplin jokingly claimed that his father used the Oscar as a doorstop for years, but the pictures below tell a different story.


Chaplin's office at his studio, unknown date. His special Oscar for The Circus is on display on the mantle (in the center). (Photo from Silent Traces by John Bengston)

Charlie at his Beverly Hills home, c. 1945.
 His Oscar is on the bookshelf behind him on the far left.

Chaplin was presented with an Honorary Oscar in 1972 & returned to America after a 20 year absence to accept it in person. He received the longest standing ovation in Oscar history.
His 1952 film Limelight won for Best Original Score in 1973, twenty years after its initial release because the film had not been shown in Los Angeles until that time.


                    
Charlie in Los Angeles holding his Honorary Oscar.

Chaplin was nominated for Academy Awards for The Great Dictator (1940) and Monsieur Verdoux (1947) but he was against awards in general. When the New York Film Critics voted him Best Actor for The Great Dictator, he declined the award stating that he did not believe actors should compete against one another and questioned the “process of electioneering” that is “far afield from sound critical appraisal." He was also allegedly hurt that only his work as an actor had been deemed memorable. According to his son Sydney, he sent back one award he had won with a note that said, “I don’t think you are qualified to judge my work."

Michael Jackson visits Oona Chaplin at the Manoir de Ban, June 1988. Michael is holding Charlie’s honorary Oscar and his award for Best Original Score. Oona is holding his award for The Circus. Family friend Rolf Knie is holding Chaplin's BAFTA Fellowship Award which he received in 1976.

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Outtake from THE IDLE CLASS (1921)

February 23, 2015, 9:13 am
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This footage was taken from a 1960s TV series called Hollywood & The Stars. The documentary has some other rare footage including a portion of a 1918 screen test with little Dorothy Rosher (later Joan Marsh) for The Bond, as well as clips of Charlie with visitors and rehearsing for City Lights.

See another deleted bowling alley scene from The Idle Classhere.
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"Hollywood's Malibu Beach" by Miguel Covarrubias

February 24, 2015, 11:02 am
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This drawing initially appeared in Vanity Fair, August 1933

Chaplin is hard to miss, just look for gray hair and teeth. He's also one of the few in a suit (of course).

For a key to the drawing, click here.


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Front and back of La Petite Illustration, May 21, 1927

February 24, 2015, 1:14 pm
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Portrait of "scared rabbit" Charlie Chaplin by Edward Steichen, New York, 1931

February 25, 2015, 7:07 am
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Steichen remembered Chaplin as "one of the most difficult subjects I have encountered in years of photography. He sat waiting like a scared rabbit. His ears were back as though ready to scamper for cover. He was more tense than a tyro model. Timid isn't the word! The only explanation I have is that Chaplin is accustomed to being alert and on the move in his pictures. He loses himself when he gets into a role, and then seemingly gets self-conscious when he realizes he is going to pose as himself. Many actors and movie people get camera shy." (Hamilton Daily News, September 19, 1931)

Read more about their sessions here and here.


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THE PILGRIM, released February 26th, 1923

February 26, 2015, 4:49 am
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This was Chaplin's final film for First National and as usual it has an "escape-from-prison" theme (see The Adventurer, his last film for Mutual, and Police, his last film for Essanay.)

"May be disguised. 30 to 35 years of age. About five feet four inches in height.1 Weight about 125 pounds. Pale face. Black bushy hair sometimes parted in the middle. Small black mustache. Blue eyes. Small hands, large feet. Extremely nervous. Walks with feet turned out."

Charlie (aka "Lefty Lombard" aka "Slippery Elm") grabs the bars at the train station as if they were a cell.  There is a similar joke in The Adventurer where convict Charlie wakes up in a strange bed with bars on the headboard and wearing someone else's striped pajamas.

Syd Chaplin plays two roles in the film: one of the elopers (above) & the brat's father.

"Convict Makes Daring Escape"


After Charlie passes around the collection boxes, he gives a thankful look to one side of the room and an accusatory look to the other side who apparently didn’t give as much.

"The sermon--the sermon!"

Pass the Dutchie on the left hand side.

The brat ("Dinky" Dean Reisner) shoves a piece of flypaper into his father's face.
Reisner said in an interview years later that the fly paper was real.
"I still feel it on my skin. It was awful!" he said.

Syd describes his missing hat to Charlie.


That moment when you realize your missing hat is part of the pudding.

 Charlie transforms himself into a riverboat gambler right in front of the camera.

"Mexico--a new life--peace at last"
 (Nitpicky note: there is no Rio Grande River separating the U.S. and Mexico)
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1In real life, Chaplin was closer to 5' 6 1/2."
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Chaplin arriving at Croydon Airport in London from Paris, 1921

February 27, 2015, 9:52 am
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Sporting a beret in Biarritz, 1931

February 27, 2015, 10:06 am
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Editing A KING IN NEW YORK, 1956

February 28, 2015, 8:18 am
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Jackie Coogan on working with Chaplin

March 1, 2015, 7:21 am
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From the A&E documentary A Tramp's Life (1998) which is impossible to find in any form in English but an Italian version is on youtube (almost all of the interviews are dubbed over unfortunately).

RIP Jackie (March 1, 1984)


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37 years ago today

March 2, 2015, 8:51 am
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Charlie's empty grave

In the early morning hours of March 2nd, 1978, Charlie's coffin was dug up & stolen from his grave in Vevey, Switzerland. The oak coffin, which weighed over 300 pounds and would have required 3-4 strong men to lift it, was dragged a short distance before it was loaded into a car and driven away.

A little over two months later, on May 17th, the coffin was found in a field near Villeneuve. Roman Wardas and Gantscho Ganev were convicted in December 1978 of stealing the coffin and trying to extort money from the Chaplin family (Wardas, the mastermind, served 4 years; Ganev only 18 mos.). In his lifetime, Charlie had said that if he were ever kidnapped under no circumstances was ransom money to be paid by any member of his family. Oona kept her promise and refused to pay saying: “A body is simply a body. My husband is in heaven and in my heart." However Oona and Geraldine pretended to negotiate with the graverobbers over the phone, which made it easier to apprehend them. At one point the graverobbers even threatened to break young Christopher Chaplin’s legs if the family didn’t meet their demands. The farmer in whose cornfield Charlie was found placed a marker at the gravesite with an inscription translating to: “Here slept, in peace, Charlie Chaplin." His body was eventually reburied in Vevey under a theft-proof concrete slab. Oona Chaplin would often visit Charlie’s second gravesite. “In some ways," she said, "it’s lovelier than the official grave."


Plaque at Charlie's second gravesite. See more images here.

Below Oona talks about the return of Charlie's coffin in May 1978.


In 2014, French director Xavier Beauvois made a film about the grave robbery called The Price Of Fame. It was made with the approval of the Chaplin family. In fact, Chaplin's son, Eugene, and granddaughter, Dolores, have small parts in it. Here Eugene talks about the grave robbery and the film. Below is the trailer.


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Sir Charles Chaplin

March 4, 2015, 7:19 am
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After twenty years of being denied knighthood because of his political views and scandalous sex life, Chaplin was finally given the honor in an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on March 4th, 1975.

Sir Charles, wearing the insignia of the K.B.E., surrounded by his family in his suite at the Savoy Hotel
 following the ceremony.  L-R: son-in-law Nicholas Sistovaris (Josephine's husband), Annette, Josephine,
 CC, Oona, Christopher, Geraldine, and Jane. 

The following description of the investiture is from The Washington Post, March 5th, 1975:
The 85-year-old maestro of films had been anxious to kneel before Queen Elizabeth II for his investiture and to follow her command afterward to "arise, Sir Charles Chaplin." He was not physically able to do either. He sat in a wheelchair in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace and merely bowed his head in acknowledgement of the taps of her ceremonial sword.
It was the queen who made the comedian smile. She complimented him and squeezed his hand, but Sir Charles, as he told reporters later, was "too dumbfoundcd to talk" to her. He said she had thanked him for his work and told him that she had seen many of his films.
After the tension of the ceremony, at which 172 people received royal honors, Sir Charles was able to stand up again and even to wave his cane in triumph at the gathered crowds outside. He also gave Lady Chaplin, the former Oona O'Neill, hearty kisses on both cheeks.
Then he was asked what he had planned for the rest of the memorable day. “Getting drunk,” said Sir Charles.
The hardships he had encountered as a London slum child, and the hatreds he had inspired as a Hollywood star for his sex life and his politics, seemed to have been formally stilled by the tap of the sword.
But Sir Charles bristled when it was suggested that his knighthood was the culmination of his long career. “l’ve got one more film to do," he declared. "lt will be entitled 'The Freak,' he said.
Click here to see (silent) footage of Charlie outside Buckingham Palace following the investiture. A brief video clip of Charlie being interviewed be seen here.


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With Douglas Fairbanks & other visitors on the set of SHOULDER ARMS, 1918

March 7, 2015, 8:29 am
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Oona, Victoria, and Charlie, French Riviera, 1956

March 7, 2015, 12:38 pm
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Charlie and Paulette, c.1940

March 8, 2015, 11:54 am
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Another pose with the dog here and some without the dog here. I believe some famous portraits of Chaplin by himself were also taken during this same photo shoot (click here). These are thought to have been done by Alexander Paal so one wonders if he took the photos with Paulette as well. Also taken at the same time is a photo of Chaplin with Louella Parsons who is sitting on a horse (click here). Perhaps these were taken at her home?  I believe she lived on a farm with horses.
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Chaplin, violin in hand, with Alf Reeves, c. 1918

March 8, 2015, 1:17 pm
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In this photo from My Life In Pictures, Chaplin states that he brought his violin to California on the Karno tour. I think this caption causes some confusion as to the date of the photo. This was not taken during the Fred Karno tour but at the Chaplin Studios, probably c. 1918.


Actually, judging from Chaplin's clothing, it may have been taken at the same time as actress Ina Claire's visit to the Shoulder Arms set.


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THE CHAMPION, released March 11, 1915

March 11, 2015, 6:16 am
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Written and directed by Charles Chaplin.

Filmed in Niles, CA, this was his third film for Essanay.

Basic plot: Charlie takes a job as a sparring partner and ends up fighting the world champion.

Chaplin was a longtime fan of boxing. When he moved to California, one of his favorite hobbies was to attend the fights in Vernon each week. If there was a fight, he was there. And according to the other attendees, it was often more fun watching him than the fight: "Charlie goes through the whole fight with the fighters. He gets so excited that he ducks and dodges and punches with the prize-fighters. He scowls and cringes and sinks down in his seat. They say it is a strenuous experience to sit next to him. He fairly lacerates your ribs with his pantomime. Every time one of the fighters strikes out, Charlie strikes in sympathy." (Literary Digest, November 10, 1917)

Incidentally one of the last movies Chaplin ever saw, and thoroughly enjoyed, was Sylvester Stallone's Rocky.

Charlie's "persnickety pooch" who won't eat his half of the hot dog unless it's salted.
Charlie's training accoutrements: a very lightweight barbell & beer--lots of beer.
Edna, the trainer's daughter.
Charlie's pet bulldog doesn't like the way the fight is going.
On a sad note: Spike the dog was hit by a car and killed in Niles, CA, only a few weeks after
production was completed. 
"To the victor belong the spoils"
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"Without the Cane & Derby"

March 12, 2015, 7:39 am
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In 1921, Carl Sandburg1 wrote a profile of Chaplin for the Chicago Daily News called "A Visit With Chaplin." Within the piece he describes a pantomime Chaplin put on for his friends during an after-dinner game of charades:

Charades is a favorite game when there is company in the house. After the Japanese cook and waiters have served "everything there is," the guests go in for pantomimes, sketches, travesties, what they will.
Charlie was paired with a young woman who has done remarkable work in art photography "stills."2 All lights went out, both in the drawing room where the spectators sat and in the dining room, which was the improvised stage. 
A door opened. Here was Charlie in a gray shirt, candle in his right hand, lighting his face and throwing shadows about the room. He stepped to a table with a white sheet over it. He drew back the sheet. A woman's head of hair, then a woman's face appeared. He slipped his hand down under the sheet and drew out his fingers full of pearls of a necklace into his pocket, covered the face and head, picked up the candle and started for the door. 
Then came a knocking, louder, lower, a knocking in about the timebeat of the human heartbeat. The man in the gray shirt set down the candle, leaped toward the white sheet, put his fingers at the throat and executed three slow, fierce motions of strangling. Then he started for the door, listening. He stepped out. The door closed. All was dark. 
The guests were glad the lights were thrown on, glad to give their applause to the mocking, smiling, friendly host. 
At the dinner Charlie mentioned how he was once riding with Douglas Fairbanks in a cab past some crowded street corner. And one of them said in a voice the passing crowds could not hear: "Ah, you do know who is passing: it is the marvelous urchin, the little genius of the screen."
The ineffable mockery that Charlie Chaplin can throw into this little sentence is worth hearing. He holds the clues to the wisdom and humility of his way. 
Every once in a while, at some proper moment, he would ejaculate, "The marvelous urchin, the little genius of the screen." with an up-and-down slide of the voice on the words, "little genius" and "marvelous urchin."
Fame and pride play tricks with men. Charlie Chaplin is one not caught in the webs of miasma.3 
A year later, in 1922, Sandburg reworked this article into a poem called "Without the Cane and Derby" which was published in his book Slabs of the Sunburnt West" and dedicated it "For C.C." It was also published in Vanity Fair. Here is the poem:

Vanity Fair, May 1922 (click to enlarge)
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1Incidentally, Sandburg was the brother-in-law of Edward Steichen who took the famous portrait of Chaplin as himself with the Tramp in shadow behind him.

2 The artist was probably Margrethe Mather a friend of Florence Deshon's. Chaplin had been introduced to her through Deshon and her companion, Max Eastman, in 1919. Eastman wrote in his book, Love & Revolution, that it was a "nightly habit" during this time for the foursome (Eastman, Deshon, Mather, and Chaplin) along with other friends from the movie colony to come together for a game of charades.

3The Movies Are: Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays, 1920-1928, Lake Claremont Press, 2000
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Roscoe Arbuckle visits the Lone Star Studio, 1916

March 13, 2015, 5:49 am
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Judging from the costumes, Chaplin was filming Behind The Screen. Henry Bergman is between Chaplin and Arbuckle. Eric Campbell is at left. Everyone appears to be checking out Arbuckle's fancy car.

Photo from Chaplin's Schatten by Fritz Hirzel (1982), credited to MOMA, NYC.
 Courtesy of Dominique Dugros.
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Chaplin with Spanish screenwriter/director Edgar Neville on the set of City Lights, 1929

March 14, 2015, 9:35 am
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When Neville came to Hollywood from Madrid in 1929, he quickly became part of Chaplin's inner circle and spent a great deal of time on the set of City Lights. He even had a small part in the film as a policeman which was later cut.


Photos © Roy Export SAS.
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