Louise Brooks

 

Louise Brooks by Edward Thayer Monroe, c.1925

Charlie Chaplin by Edward Steichen, 1925

  
Charlie had a 2-month long affair with Louise Brooks during the summer of 1925 while he was in New York for the premiere of The Gold Rush.  Louise later spoke very openly about their relationship, including a story about an all-nude weekend at the penthouse of A.C. Blumenthal which included Louise, her friend Peggy Fears, A.C. & Charlie. At one point during the weekend, Charlie, who evidently coated his private parts with iodine to protect himself from venereal disease, burst from the bathroom and chased Louise around the room with “his little red sword." Louise said Charlie was a “sophisticated lover” who lived “totally without fear."  “His physical presence," she recalled, “revealed an exquisiteness the screen could not reflect. Small, perfectly made, meticulously dressed, with his fine grey hair and ivory skin and white teeth, he was as clean as a pearl and glowed all over." But, Louise’s recollections about Chaplin would not always be so kind.  She was quoted as saying that his sexual technique “was suitable only for little girls." She also wrote some scathing letters about him after she read his autobiography, which made her “ill."   Chaplin never publicly acknowledged their affair. However, late in his life he was quoted as saying that she had small breasts, “like pears."

For more tidbits about Charlie and Louise's affair, click here.

Louise died 27 years ago today.