2015 In Review

Well, another year has come and gone so it's time to look back at the year that was and share my plans for 2016.

Top Five Posts:
(I am only counting new posts for 2015)

Before I begin, I'd like to express my deepest gratitude to Kate Guyonvarch and Arnold Lozano from the Chaplin Office in Paris for their support of my blog. The following posts would not have been as popular had the majority of them not been shared on the Chaplin Official Facebook page and/or their Twitter page. So many thanks to them.

• "Little Pitchers Have Big Ears"

I'm thrilled that Francesca Santoro's fascinating remembrances of The Great Dictator was the most popular post of the year. 

• The 100th anniversary of the release of A Woman

Charlie dressed in drag is always a crowd-pleaser. 

• Tribute to Edna Purviance

Chaplin fans love their Edna. 

• Color Home Movie Footage from San Simeon 

Who doesn't like to see Charlie in color?

• Working With Charlie Chaplin, Vol. 1

I was happy to see this make the top 5. I'll be doing more with series this in 2016.

Top Five Most-Commented Posts:

Again, these are 2015 posts only. Interestingly, the posts that received the most comments were not necessarily the most popular. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to comment. We had some great discussions.

• Little Pitchers Have Big Ears
• A Night Out
• Charlie in London, 1921
• Charlie & Paulette, c.1939
• 37 Years Ago

Top Five Labels:

The labels on my site get just as many hits as my posts. Your favorites (in order) are:

• Lita Grey Chaplin (This is a good place to point out that queries about Lita bring more people to my site than any other keyword--this was also the case last year. I'll keep this in mind as the blog goes forward in 2016).
• Mildred Harris
• Mann Act Trial (As It Happened)
• Women (posts about Charlie and his amours)
• (tie) Random Excerpt & World Tour Revisited

So what's in store for 2016?
I have some ideas up my sleeve. It's difficult to keep a blog like this fresh. Posting the same hackneyed photos and stories does not appeal to me, although at times it's hard to keep from it. I had an idea to do a "Day By Day" series where I follow Chaplin around for one year of his life. It would have to be a year where he wasn't making a movie because, sadly, I don't have access to archival materials such as production reports, etc. The years I am considering are either 1927 or 1936 since those were years where he was in the news quite a bit. I might still do it but once I start, there's no going back and it could be quite an undertaking! Plus he wasn't in the news every day so weeks could go by with no update. If I'm going to start the series next month I suppose I better make a decision fast! Next year is also the 100th anniversary of the Mutuals so I plan to have some fun with that. I'd like to take a closer look at some of Chaplin's co-stars from that period--Eric, Henry, Albert, etc. I hope you'll join me.

See you next year!

Much love,
Jess