With Paulette, September 1932

Note Paulette's blonde hair.

Doug, Mary & Charlie, c. 1923

I believe these photos were taken on the set of Pickford's film, Rosita.

Upcoming Chaplin films on TCM (USA)

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. 

World Tour (1931-32) Revisited: London premiere of City Lights at the Dominion Theater, Feb. 27th, 1931

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

World Tour Revisited: I follow Chaplin on his 1931-32 tour of the world. 

THE PILGRIM, released Feb. 26th, 1923

Photo by James Abbe

World Tour (1931-32) Revisited: Charlie meets George Bernard Shaw at a luncheon hosted by Lady Astor, Feb. 25th, 1931

L-R: Aviator Amy Johnson (standing arm in arm with Charlie), Lady Astor, George Bernard Shaw
 (petting a greyhound), Lord Astor, and Ralph Barton (far right).

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," he remembered, "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

Charlie and Edna on the cover of Picture-Play Weekly, Aug. 1915

Still from the original ending of Pay Day (1922)

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.

"The Sacrifice"

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.

THE CIRCUS (1928)

Real Photo Postcard, c. 1916

The photo shows Chaplin and a visitor on the set of his 1916 film, The Vagabond.

World Tour (1931-32) Revisited: Charlie spends "a most delightful day" with British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, Feb. 21st, 1931

Charlie found the Prime Minister to be "so human, so charming...we chatted about all sorts of things."*

Villagers who had gathered outside the gate at Chequers (MacDonald's country home), talked of how they saw Charlie make the Prime Minister laugh by demonstrating his famous walk.

Charlie later told a reporter from The Observer that MacDonald played a little joke on him during his visit: "I happened to remark that I was very fond of book bindings. The Prime Minister pointed to a special shelf, and, with a twinkle in his eye, said, 'There are some very beautiful bindings there, have a look at them.' I went to the shelf and found they were imitation bindings masking the panel of a door. And thus the Prime Minister played on me a capital little joke."

Despite this seemingly pleasant day, Charlie grew to dislike the Prime Minister because of his political views, and a month later refused an invitation to a dinner MacDonald had arranged in his honor at the House of Commons.

*The Observer, Feb. 22nd, 1931

World Tour (1931-32) Revisited: London, Feb. 19th, 1931

Charlie arrived in London by train and was greeted by thousands of well-wishers who were anxious to catch a glimpse of their native son.

"Why is it that London always wrings my heart? Is it the love of my people? They are my people, these Cockneys. I am one of them. As I look into their faces I see that spiritual hunger, that inner craving. Their emotions have made them inarticulate. They are only expressed by the eager clutching of my sleeve. How little must come into their lives! How appreciative they are for the trivial thing that I've done." ("A Comedian Sees The World, Part I," A Woman's Home Companion, September 1933)

World Tour (1931-32) Revisited: Charlie arrives in Plymouth, England, Feb. 19th, 1931

Click here to see a short clip of Charlie clowning for the newsreel cameras.

More photos of Charlie & Bill

More photos of Charlie & Bill. 

With a visitor on the set of THE ADVENTURER, 1917

Charlie poses in costume at the Chaplin Studios, c. 1918

Pregnant Lita Grey Chaplin at Summit Drive, c. January 1925

  

Rumors were swirling at this time that Charlie and Lita were already having marital problems. Since their shotgun wedding the previous November, the couple had not yet been seen together in public. Hollywood gossips believed that Charlie had moved back into the Los Angeles Athletic Club while Lita and her mother occupied his home.

Although Charlie had not actually moved out, he was not spending much time at home either. After long days at the studio, he was often seen eating dinner at a restaurant with one or two of his associates. But Lita didn't just sit at home crocheting baby booties, one evening she was spotted dancing the night away with a "good looking youth" at a nightclub ("mommer" chaperoning, of course.)*

In keeping with his M.O., Charlie avoided interviews about his private life. Lita's only comment was that she rarely saw her husband because he worked late & that it would be lonely in the house if it weren't for her mother. She also said that she and Charlie hoped the baby was a girl, but if it were a boy, he would be named Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr.

*Chicago Tribune, Jan. 18th, 1925

"A Charlie Chaplin the world has yet to know"

                                                                                                                                        Outtake from The Cure (Unknown Chaplin)

In 1919, Chaplin’s British publicist, Elsie Codd, wrote the following impression of him after a dinner at his home:

He and his wife [Mildred Harris] had entertained a few friends, and after dinner we adjourned to the music-room, with its quiet, intimate atmosphere of shaded lights.

In one corner stood a magnificent concert grand. Charlie loves music. It seems to be the natural outlet for his restless, eager spirit, and whenever I have seen him in that room, sooner or later he invariably responds to the lure of the instrument.

 On this particular evening he sat there for nearly an hour, playing snatches from “Butterfly,” “Carmen” and the “ Valse Triste,” improvising sad, wistful little melodies of his own, and trying some new records on the pianola.

“And this is my favourite,” he said, having after a long search at last discovered one he particularly wanted to try.

I glanced at the title. It was the celebrated theme with variations from one of Haydn’s string quartettes, the melody to which we English have learnt to sing the hymn, “Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore Him.”

“I remember I used to think it the most beautiful thing on earth when I sang it as a little boy at Sunday school,” Charlie said. “But now it seems wonderful things to me. I seem to see a whole Russian army on a great wide plain, thousands and thousands of them as far as the eye can reach. They are all kneeling in prayer, and the priest passes slowly down their ranks and blesses them with the sacred icon in his hands.”

And as I watched him lose himself and all sense of his surroundings in the beauty of that music, I realised that this was a Charlie Chaplin the world has yet to know. (Pictures & Picturegoer, Oct. 1919)

c. 1940

Charlie dressed as Napoleon at a costume party given by William Randolph Hearst, 1925

"Charlie Chaplin Minus the Make-up"

Film Fun, January 1919

Happy Birthday, Claire Bloom

Below, Claire talks about working with Charlie at a 60th anniversary screening of Limelight in Oct. 2012 (Norman Lloyd was also present at this event. A link should come up for his talk about halfway through Claire's. If not, click here to watch. It is not to be missed.)

A NIGHT OUT, released February 15th, 1915

This was the first of five films Chaplin shot at the Essanay studio in Niles, CA. It was also the first film to feature the lovely Edna Purviance.

"Chawley" sends Valentine greetings to you all!

Motion Picture, March 1917

Charlie poses for sculptress Katherine Stubergh during the filming of Modern Times, 1935

Photo by Max Munn Autrey

Stubergh & "Charlie." From  alvarezwax.com

To make the figure, Stubergh first made a wax impression (casting mold) of Charlie's face and then he sat for her while she sculpted the fine facial details. Two casts were made, one of which was sold in an auction just last year for $25,000.

Charlie, Doug, & boxer Jack Dempsey, c. 1919

Essanay Red Letter Postcard, 1915

This is a card from By The Sea. Margie Reiger is next to Charlie. 

World Tour Revisited: Charlie leaves New York for England aboard the Mauretania, February 1931

Charlie's immediate plan for this trip was to attend the London premiere of City Lights, and thereafter take a brief European vacation, perhaps of the duration of his month-long 1921 trip. No one would have guessed that it would be almost a year and a half before he returned. In his 1933 travel memoir, A Comedian Sees The World, Charlie explained:

"The disillusion of love, fame and fortune left me somewhat apathetic. There seemed nothing to turn to outside of my work, and that, after twenty years, was becoming irksome. I needed emotional stimulus.

I am tired of love and people and like all egocentrics I turn to myself. I want to live in my youth again, to capture the moods and sensations of childhood, so remote from me now - so unreal - almost like a dream. I need to turn back time, to venture into the blurred past and bring it into focus.

Thrilled with this adventure I buy maps of London and here in my California home I retrace road lines, bringing back memories of places that affected me as a boy."

Over the next weeks/months, I am going to try to post chronologically (as much as possible) about Charlie's 1931-32 world tour. I will post about other things as well, but I have a lot of material relating to this time of his life that I'd like to share.

With writer, Elmer Ellsworth, c. 1921

Clockwise from top: Albert Austin, Chuck Riesner (in costume for The Kid), Charlie, & Ellsworth.

Chaplin was introduced to his "sarcastic friend" Ellsworth by Ford Sterling during his early days at Keystone. In My Autobiography, he admitted that he disliked him at first and thought him to be "crass." He would taunt Charlie and ask him, "Well, are you funny?' After one such comment, Charlie replied, "Well, if I'm half as funny as you look, I'll do all right."
Weeks later Charlie ran into Elmer on the street. "'Say, listen,' said he, 'I've been seeing your pictures lately, and, by God, you're good! You have a quality entirely different from all the rest. And I'm not kidding. You're funny! Why the hell didn't you say so in the first place?' Of course, we became good friends after that."

Ellsworth worked for Chaplin for a brief time but their friendship came to an abrupt end when Charlie gave Ellsworth $300,000 to hold until his divorce from Mildred Harris was final. He immediately regretted the decision and worried that Ellsworth would not return the money. But instead of confronting him (direct confrontations were not Charlie's strong suit), he snubbed him instead. The story goes that when the time came for Ellsworth to give the money back, he produced a check for $290,000 claiming Charlie had promised him a bonus of $10,000 if he carried out the mission. This so infuriated Charlie that he fired Ellsworth and didn't speak to him for two years.

Aboard the Panacea with Paulette and Charlie, Jr., 1940

Photo of Charlie by Frank Fischbeck, 1967

By coincidence, the photographer was in the same departure lounge as Charlie at Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong. "Recognizing him, I approached and asked if I might photograph him. He was courteous and gracious and even stood up to greet me with no objection to a few unobtrusive images of him before his flight departed."

Trick film sequence with Sir Albert & Lady Naylor-Leyland, Chaplin Studios, 1923

(from the documentary The Gentleman Tramp)

Color photo, 1959

EASY STREET (1917)

This was Chaplin's ninth film for Mutual and is another of my personal favorites.

The T-shaped set for Easy Street is a throwback to the streets of Chaplin’s childhood, as well as the run-down buildings with the small doorways.  You will see the T-shaped street and small doorways again in The Kid.  The title Easy Street also suggests “East Street” the street of Chaplin’s birthplace.

The film includes plenty of social commentary:  poverty, drugs, starvation and urban violence—all themes that will pop up again in later films.

One of the few times Charlie ever injured himself while making a movie was during the filming of Easy Street. When he pulled the lamp post down on the bully (Eric Campbell) the lamp’s sharp metal edge cut him across the bridge of his nose requiring stitches. This injury contributed to a delay in the release of the film.

In a 1917 issue of Reel Life, Charlie published his reflections on the film:

If there is one human type more than any other that the whole wide world has it in for, it is the policeman type. Of course, the policeman isn’t really to blame for the public prejudice against his uniform--it’s just the natural human revulsion against any sort of authority--but just the same everybody loves to see the 'copper' get it where the chicken got the axe.

So, to begin with, I make myself solid by letting my friends understand that I am not a real policeman except in the sense that I've been put on for a special job--that of manhandling a big bully. Of course I have my work cut out tackling a contract like that and the sympathy of the audience is with me, but I have also the element of suspense which is invaluable in a motion picture plot. The natural supposition is that the policeman is going to get the worst of it and there is an intense interest in how I am to come out of my apparently unequal combat with 'Bully' Campbell. 

There is further contrast between my comedy walk and general funny business and the popular conception of dignity that is supposed to hedge a uniformed police officer."

Charlie arrives at the New York City premiere of CITY LIGHTS, Feb. 6th, 1931

Charlie is accompanied by Ralph Barton and Constance Collier (although the original caption said Millicent Hearst, it definitely looks more like Constance. Thanks to "Chaplinophile" for pointing that out!)
Due to the large crowd awaiting his arrival, Charlie & his guests had to be escorted into the theater by the police.