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"The Sacrifice"

February 22, 2013, 2:25 pm
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This home movie features Charlie as the King of the South Sea Islands who is smitten with Popo the Dancing Girl. It is from the Mountbatten archives (and was featured on the "extras" disc of the Warner/MK2 version of The Circus) & appears to have been shot at Pickfair.
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Still from the original ending of Pay Day (1922)

February 23, 2013, 6:43 am
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This original closing scene showed Charlie drying himself (& his clothes) next to a radiator. Chaplin deleted this ending when he reissued the film in the 1970s.  The original version can still be seen on the Image Entertainment "First National Collection" which is now out-of-print but can still be found on eBay or Amazon. I recommend it if you can find it at a reasonable price. This set is unique because the films have nearly been restored to their original release versions. The Kid and A Dog's Life are not included with this collection and are sold as a separate set. This version of The Kid includes all of the scenes that were later deleted by Chaplin in 1971. To my knowledge this is the only way to see the original 1921 version of the film.
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Charlie and Edna on the cover of Picture-Play Weekly, Aug. 1915

February 23, 2013, 9:43 am
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With Australian opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba, c. 1917

February 23, 2013, 2:18 pm
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Melba is on Charlie's left, Lady Susan FitzClarence is on his right. Source.

The following is from Melba's memoir, Melodies and Memories (1926):
I had long had a great desire to meet Charlie Chaplin, and as soon as we arrived at Los Angeles, on my long-delayed journey home, I set out for his studio in company with Lady Susan Fitzclarence (now Lady Susan Birch), my great friend.
No celebrity whom I have ever met so completely falsified my preconceived notions of them as Charlie Chaplin. He was then at the pinnacle of his fame as a comedian--a pinnacle which he still occupies in solitary state. But how little the world knew of the real man who was hidden behind the mask of humour!
I had expected, first of all, to meet an ugly, grotesque figure. Instead there advanced towards me a smiling, handsome, young man, small, but perfectly made, with flashing eyes and beautiful teeth. He was dressed quietly and well, and he spoke in a low musical voice that seemed to belong more to an English public schoolboy than to a knockabout comedian.
But it was not the superficial Charlie Chaplin that most surprised me, but the character of the man as revealed by his conversation. Instead of a brilliant clown, I found myself face to face with a philosopher, with a serious, almost melancholy attitude to life.
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Chaplin & the Oscars

February 24, 2013, 8:57 am
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Charlie won three Academy Awards in his lifetime--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.

Charlie's office at the Chaplin Studios. His 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 the award in person. He received the longest standing ovation in Oscar history.


                    

Chaplin's 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. (He shared the award with his musical collaborators Raymond Rasch & Larry Russell.)

Charlie holding his award for Limelight.

Charlie 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 two honorary Oscars. Oona is holding Charlie’s Oscar for Best Original Score (Limelight).

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Charlie meets George Bernard Shaw at a luncheon hosted by Lady Astor, Feb. 25th, 1931

February 25, 2013, 6:39 am
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L-R: Aviator Amy Johnson (standing arm in arm with Charlie), Lady Astor, George Bernard Shaw (petting a greyhound), Lord Astor, and Chaplin’s friend, Ralph Barton.

Charlie originally planned to meet Shaw during his visit to London in 1921, but when he arrived at his doorstep, he suddenly felt "self-conscious and silly," so he changed his mind.  Ten years later, Charlie admitted he was still nervous about meeting the great playwright but after a discussion on art and world economics, he decided that Shaw was "a benign gentleman who uses his intellect as a defensive mechanism to hide his sentimentality." *

Lady Astor was born in Virginia and was the first woman to sit as a member of Parliament in the British House of Commons. Charlie was very fond of her and thought she would have made a wonderful actress: "Toward the end of lunch, Lady Astor put in some comedy buck teeth that covered her own and gave an imitation of a Victorian lady speaking at an equestrian club. The teeth distorted her face with a most comical expression. She said fervently: "In our day we British women followed the hounds in proper ladylike fashion--not in the vulgar cross-legged style of those Western hussies in America. We rode sidesaddle hard and fast with dignity and womanly comeliness." **

Charlie remembered that during this post-lunch photo session a cameraman asked Shaw to "turn this side." He replied "good-naturedly": "I'll do nothing of the kind, this is the only side you'll get." *

Two days later, Shaw and Lady Astor would be Charlie's guests at the London opening of City Lights. I will have more on that later this week.

*"A Comedian Sees The World, Part One," A Woman's Home Companion, September 1933
**My Autobiography, 1964
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THE PILGRIM, released Feb. 26th, 1923

February 26, 2013, 5:28 am
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With Fannie Brice at the Trocadero, c. 1938

February 26, 2013, 5:53 am
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An early version of The Great Dictator script included a wife for Hynkel, a role intended for Brice. The following scene suggests that it may have encountered serious problems with the Breen office and other censorship groups (I think it would have been brilliant, though!):
SCENE: Mrs. Hinkle alone - boredom and sex starvation with Freudian fruit symbols. Enter Hinkle from speech. She’s mad at him—orders him about. He’s preoccupied with matters of State.
MRS: I’m a woman. I need affection, and all you think about is the State! THE STATE! What kind of state do you think I’m in?
HINKLE: You’ve made me come to myself. I’m not getting any younger. Sometimes I wonder. (good old melo)
MRS: Life is so short and these moments are so rare…Remember, Hinkle, I did everything for you. I even had an operation…on my nose. If you don’t pay more attention to me I’ll tell the whole world I’m Jewish!
HINKLE: Shhh!
FANNY: [sic] And I’m not so sure you aren’t Jewish, too. We’re having gefüllte fish for dinner.
HINKLE: Quiet! Quiet!
FANNY: Last night I dreamt about blimps.
HINKLE: Blimps?
FANNY: Yes, I dreamt we captured Paris in a big blimp and we went right through the Arc de Triomphe. And then I dreamed about a city all full of Washington monuments.
(She presses grapes in his mouth, plays with a banana)
(David Robinson, Chaplin: His Life & Art)
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London premiere of City Lights at the Dominion Theater, Feb. 27th, 1931

February 27, 2013, 10:56 am
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Charlie's guests were George Bernard Shaw and Lord & Lady Astor (Ralph Barton is facing Charlie on the left.)  When the film was over, Shaw said, "The little fellow is a genius whom none of us has properly appreciated."

Dominion Theater program
Charlie takes a bow following the premiere.  He told the audience: "It would be silly to say how much I feel all this emotion. This has been a wonderful triumph for me, coming home to my own country like this. Some day, perhaps, when I have a few more gray hairs I may sit down quietly and write it all down in a book about my life."

After the screening, Charlie held a party at the Ritz-Carlton. Winston Churchill was among the guests.  He danced with several ladies but he was most intrigued by a dancer named Sari Maritza, who, along with her friend, Vivian Gaye, had attended the premiere as guests of Charlie's press agent, Carlyle Robinson. She became his constant companion until he left for Berlin two weeks later. 


Winston Churchill at the City Lights premiere party.
City Lights party: Vivian Gaye is second from let, Sari Maritza is on the far right, Carlyle Robinson is standing behind her. 
Charlie with a chef at the Ritz-Carlton


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Upcoming Chaplin films on TCM (USA)

February 27, 2013, 1:14 pm
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March 1st: The Circus at 6:00am (EST) & Monsieur Verdoux in prime time at 8:00pm 

March 6th: Limelight at 12:00am

On April 16th, TCM will celebrate Charlie's birthday by showing several of his films between 6:00am and 8:00pm, including three of the "Chaplin Today" featurettes. Click here for the complete schedule. 

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Doug, Mary & Charlie, c. 1923

February 28, 2013, 9:18 am
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I believe these photos were taken on the set of Pickford's film, Rosita.
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With Paulette, August 1932

February 28, 2013, 2:10 pm
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Charlie with Eugenia Gilbert, winner of the Venice Bathing Girl Parade, c. 1921

March 1, 2013, 8:46 am
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Charlie & Oona with their Siamese cat, c. 1957

March 1, 2013, 2:15 pm
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I've read that Charlie had a Siamese cat named Monkey that he brought to Switzerland from Hollywood, but I'm not sure if this is the same cat.
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A FILM JOHNNIE, released March 2nd, 1914

March 2, 2013, 7:51 am
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March 1944

March 2, 2013, 12:41 pm
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35 years ago

March 2, 2013, 1:50 pm
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Charlie's second gravesite
On March 2nd, 1978, Charlie's coffin was dug up & stolen from his grave in Vevey, Switzerland. It would not be recovered for another three months. Roman Wardas and Gantscho Ganev were convicted in December 1978 of stealing the coffin and trying to extort money from the Chaplin family. 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 buried placed a marker at the gravesite with an inscription translating to: “Here slept, in peace, Charlie Chaplin." His body was reburied in a secure concrete tomb. Oona Chaplin would often visit Charlie’s second gravesite. “In some ways," she said, "it’s lovelier than the official grave."

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


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"Hat Trick" by Edward Steichen

March 3, 2013, 9:43 am
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This famous multi-panel shot, entitled "Hat Trick," was taken by Steichen in New York in February 1931, while Charlie was in the city promoting his film City Lights and just before he left for Europe on his world tour.

The photo is described in the book Steichen's Legacy: Photographs 1895-1973, edited with text by Joanna Steichen:
The point in the photographs of actors in this section is not individual portraiture but the story being told. Among Steichen's favorites were Beatrice Lillie as 'Rule Britannia' and Charlie Chaplin. Steichen claimed that Beatrice Lillie did all the work, and all he had to do was push the button. Chaplin, however, was shy when he didn't have an action to perform. So Steichen set up a scene consisting of a vertical panel and a horizontal one along which he moved a bowler hat a little closer to the actor with each shot. Armed with a cane as protection against the encroaching hat, Chaplin sprang to life.

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L-R: Tennis champion Bill Tilden, Charlie, Douglas Fairbanks & Spanish tennis player Manuel Alonso, August 1923

March 3, 2013, 1:42 pm
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Tilden was a friend of Charlie's for many years. His career ended in scandal in the 1940s after he was arrested for soliciting an underage male prostitute. Following his incarceration, Tilden was shunned by most of Hollywood but Charlie decided to help his friend by allowing him use his tennis courts to give lessons. Oona Chaplin was one of his students.
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Sir Charles Chaplin

March 4, 2013, 10:52 am
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On March 4th, 1975, Charlie was knighted in a ceremony at Buckingham palace.

The following 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 audio clip of Charlie speaking can be seen here.
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