In a strange series of coincidences, Barton was married from 1923-1926 to Carlotta Monterey, who in 1929 married Eugene O'Neill, who in 1943 became Chaplin's father-in-law.
Nickolas Muray was a close friend of Barton's and often attended what he described as "very lavish parties" at Barton's New York City apartment. Among the guests at one such gathering was Chaplin, recalled Muray:
"And at one party Charlie Chaplin, who was an intimate friend of Ralph’s...arrived and took over. He did double-talk in half a dozen languages....He played a number of instruments—violin, trombone, clarinet, piano, among others." (New Yorker, Feb. 20th 1989)