“When I was young, the idea of an orgy was tremendously exciting. Charlie Chaplin once organized one in Hollywood for me and two Spanish friends, but when the three ravishing young women arrived from Pasadena, they immediately got into a tremendous argument over which one was going to get Chaplin, and in the end all three left in a huff.”
— Luis Buñuel, My Last Breath, 1983. The bungled orgy took place during the summer of 1930 while Buñuel was visiting Chaplin.
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| L-R: Eduardo Ugarte, Luis Buñuel, Jose Lopez Rubio, Eleanor & Antonio de Lara by the pool at Chaplin's Hollywood home, 1930. source |
Goodness, between this story and the "thumbing it in" reference below...sometimes I feel we know too much!
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't. LOL
ReplyDeleteMy immediate reaction to that statement about the women all leaving in a huff was...why didn't Chaplin just take them all on?
ReplyDeleteNow THERE'S an aspect of Chapliniana that you don't hear about every day. The little tramp...
ReplyDeleteMaybe he didn't want to seem greedy. Given the ratio of women to men (3 girls and 4 guys) it seems the girls were only there to "entertain" Bunuel and his friends, not Charlie. I don't blame them. Charlie would have been my first choice as well.
ReplyDeleteYeah, if I am invited to Chaplin's house for a "party", and then told that I can't have him...I might leave, too. Unless Gary Cooper was there.
ReplyDeleteI thought the purpose of an orgy was to have sex with everyone. So wouldn't they have each gotten their turn with that dashing Chaplin, who I so happened to hear, was very well endowed!!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I think too, RoseNicole. There was no need of a fight at all. lol
DeleteAbout the endowed thing, do you know where this rumor started? It's probably true, though.
It may go all the way back to the 1920s because evidently the first thing Peggy Hopkins Joyce said to Charlie when she met him was "is it true what all the girls say, that you're hung like a horse?" (this was in Lita's first book and as per a very drunk John Barrymore). On the other hand, Orson Welles claimed that, after taking a steam bath with Charlie, his member was the size of "a little peanut." My only comment on that is that, from what I understand, the smaller it is soft, the bigger it gets, well, you know the rest...
DeleteI first heard about his member from the book " Charlie Chaplin and his women"... Then Jess posted a pic a while back of Chas dressed as Napoleon, I believe he's at a party at William Randolph Hurst home. Charlie is looking devastatingly handsome wearing tight white pants. And you can see the " outline " if you catch my drift :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe Jess will repost it, or I'm sure I can go back and find it :)
Here's the photo of Charlie dressed as Napoleon with his tight pants and, ahem, "outline."
Deletehttp://discoveringchaplin.blogspot.com/2013/02/charlie-dressed-as-napoleon-at-costume_16.html
One more thing. If I remember correctly, none of the women Charlie slept with, and who wrote about their time with him, ever mentioned his size. Both Lita Grey and Louise Brooks do refer to "it." Lita said that he was uncircumcised. Louise recalled that he covered his penis with iodine before sex ("Charlie came running at me with his little red sword")
Ok, I know this is a very classy blog, and I really don't mean to spoil it. But since we're talking about these things...
ReplyDeleteI'm also familiar with the size thing, but I never heard of any story if he was good at it.
I read once someone saying he was a sophisticated lover, but I think it's a weird definition for this type of thing. lol
And I promise to stop "talking" now.
It was Louise Brooks who called him a "sophisticated" lover. But Louise contradicts herself later and says his technique was "only suitable for young girls." She also said that Buster Keaton was better in the sack. Lita Grey said that sex with Charlie "wasn't good but often." Although judging from her descriptions of sex with him in her first book she seemed to enjoy herself (I've often felt that Lita's negative comments about Charlie's sexual ability was another way of getting back at him for the way he treated her.) Oona supposedly told someone that her sex life with Charlie wasn't all that great. But later, after she has sex with someone else (after Charlie died), she said that "it was better with Charlie."
DeleteSo much for my classy blog! ;)
It's still classy Jess! We are all adults here, LOL! This is what I think.. Charlie married Oona on his fifties and they had 8 kids! He must have been doing something right!!
DeleteMy personal feeling is that it's easy for a woman to say a man is terrible in bed, but if she just lies there counting ceiling tiles expecting something magical to happen & it doesn't, is that really the man's fault? To me, Charlie seemed to be (pardon the expression) up for anything in the sex department. Lita herself said he was a "willing partner." So it seems to me, if the woman wasn't being satisfied and she asked him to do something, he probably would have been game. Then again, Charlie was someone who liked to have sex a lot (and then would wonder why women got pregnant), so if he wanted it every night, how good could it be?
DeleteNot too long ago, my status as a Chaplin fan came into question after a discussion about Charlie's sex life in the comments section of another post on this blog. The anonymous commenters said I was more interested in slandering Charlie's good name than commenting on his work and legacy. "A TRUE Chaplin fan would focus only on his art & not salacious gossip," they said. I imagine these poor souls, if they have read any of the above comments, are currently clutching their pearls and falling on their fainting couches.
In my opinion, Charlie's persona is as intriguing and interesting as Charlie the artist. The combination of every side of his complex personality (anger, loneliness, sex, perfectionism, childhood issues, and everything else), gave us the Tramp and the unique view of life we see in his movies. So, I'm fascinated about his private issues. I think they explain a lot of things we see on the screen.
DeleteAnd I can't imagine someone saying anything bad about your work here. I believe your blog gives us and amazing portrait not only about Charlie, but about a totally different era. I'm a fan. =)
But, as promised, no naughty questions anymore. lol
Thanks, Thais. Ask a naughty question any time you like!
Deletethe saucy bits of chaplin's life are part of the package (no pun intended). if you are surprised by the naughty bits (pun intended), then you clearly haven't watched his films very attentively...
Deleteso: let's all lower the tone every once and a while and remember that chaplin wasn't a god, but a mere mortal with lots of failings as the next man. (which is what actually makes him such an interesting character!)
ps. don't get me started on the napoleon trousers. or else this comment board has to be shut down.
pps. everything looks bigger on a small man.
Thanks, Rita. I am in complete agreement with you on everything (even the last sentence!)
DeleteClutching pearls, indeed! LOL! Someone above mentioned that weird book "Charlie Chaplin and his Women" - I read that thing - it was strange - the author imagined conversations between Charlie and his many wives and it read very strangely. Not that that stopped me from reading it. That book does mention that Lita said he told her "he was a stallion and she better resign herself to that" or something to that effect.
ReplyDeleteI've heard it's a strange book. I've never read it mainly because it's supposed to be a novelization of stuff that's in various bios. I'm not a big fan of Chaplin books that mix fact with fiction.
DeleteI've only read a few excerpts from the above mentioned book online, to me it reminded me of fan fiction written by a fifteen-year old girl and that was really off-putting. Funny thing is I believe it was written by a man? Has anyone read or even heard of Hollywood's Silent Closet? It's supposed to be based on actual fact and it has a few stories about Charlie having sex with men- now that's strange. Not that I have anything against anyone who is gay or lesbian, but I just don't think Charlie would do something like that and if he did maybe it was only once. He doesn't seem like the type who would get off on that kind of thing. Again, that book claims he was well endowed, but then again it's all supposed to he based on rumors that had some truth and the well endowed rumor has been circulating for years.
ReplyDeleteI have read "Hollywood Silent Closet." If we are to believe that book, not only did Charlie sleep with (and marry) a man, he also brutally raped a young Dolores Del Rio (I dont believe that story for a second) and was involved in a murder coverup! All of that sounds pretty far-fetched to me. As far as whether or not he slept with men. It wouldn't surprise me if he did so as a young man, but I don't think he would have risked his career later. In those days (and for some people, even now), being gay was a far worse crime than being with young girls.
ReplyDeleteFor those who are interested in reading "Hollywood Silent Closet" (by Darwin Porter) be forewarned. It is not for the weak of heart!
i've read what's available via the preview on google books. i am not faint of heart, far from it, actually. but that book even made my monitor blush crimson!!!
DeleteWell I think this picture of Charlie with Thelma Todd says it all http://www.discoveringchaplin.com/2013/08/charlie-with-thelma-todd-on-set-of.html
ReplyDelete