The following quotes plus the first two photos are from "Round The Lot With Charlie,"Picture Show, September 20th, 1919 (the author's name is not given). The man in the photos with Charlie is boxer "Snowy" Baker (thanks to Dominique for the I.D.):
I was told before I met him that I should find him shy. He's nothing of the sort though possibly, not being an awe-inspiring sort of person, I didn't impress him that way. I only know him as a man of charming manners and very rare mentality who possesses a fund of interesting conversation and a social ease which would place him on an equal footing with any man on earth.
I told him of his reputation for shyness, and he smiled.
"No, I'm not shy," he said, "only timid; a big difference, you know."
The reporter went on to describe Charlie as
...a little chap, slender and beautifully proportioned, with small feet and exquisite, expressive little hands. His most striking feature are a pair of clear, deep-blue eyes, fringed with long, dark eyelashes — eyes that reflect every passing thought and emotion, that alternately dream and twinkle, eyes that have the candor and sincerity of a child, but also the fire of a real man's enthusiasm for real big things.
It is very grateful to English ears to listen to Chaplin's well-bred English voice and clear-cut speech in the midst of every variety of American accent. Beyond the use of an occasional transatlantic idiom, he talks like the average cultured Englishman who has just landed in the States.
Although Charlie was in the process of filming Shoulder Arms, the Sunnyside set, including the church from the opening shot, was still standing. [Correction: Charlie was not in the process of filming Shoulder Arms because SA was filmed after Sunnyside. This is my own error. However it appears from the photographs and the content of the article that parts of both sets were still standing.]
"We're keeping it up as long as we can, he explained. "It's so pretty that I hate to pull it down but I'm afraid that it will soon have to go to make room for another set."
"We're keeping it up as long as we can, he explained. "It's so pretty that I hate to pull it down but I'm afraid that it will soon have to go to make room for another set."
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| Charlie with the same man in a photo from the Chaplin Archive Image Bank. |