Listen to Chaplin, Nigel Bruce, and others in a political roundtable discussion on KFWB, December 1942

Admin_ · Robert Arden - America Looks Abroad - Dec. 16, 1942

"On Wednesday, December 16, 1942, Charlie Chaplin  made one of the most unusual radio broadcasts of his career. His friend Robert Arden asked him to appear on America Looks Abroad, a 45-minute political roundtable talk show not unlike the ones heard on countless cable news networks today. The program aired on KFWB in Los Angeles, owned and operated by Warner Brothers Pictures. Then, as now, KFWB was a major station with a wide broadcast range, but it was unlikely that the  program was heard beyond Southern California."¹

Besides Chaplin, the other panelists included Nigel Bruce (who was later cast as Mr. Postant in Limelight), Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Dr. Emil Ludwig, the biographer of Napoleon whom Chaplin met in France in 1931, and Mutiny On The Bounty directer Frank Lloyd.

The somewhat shady & opportunistic Arden met Chaplin in 1941 and became part of his small inner circle of friends. He is mentioned often in Chaplin's FBI file since the two shared what it called "leftist proclivities." Arden was also involved in the Joan Barry scandal. In fact, he may have been the one who suggested introducing Barry to Chaplin in the first place. Two years later in 1943, he was indicted for his participation in Chaplin's alleged violation of the Mann Act (aka conspiring to deny Joan Barry of her civil rights).  Ironically, the infamous incident in which Joan Barry broke into Chaplin's home with a gun occurred one week after this broadcast on December 23rd, 1942.

Arden and Chaplin

More about this broadcast and Arden's relationship with Chaplin can be found in Rob Farr's essay "Chaplin On The Radio--Part II" in Limelight and The Music Hall Tradition.

Now a little about this recording. It is missing the opening introductions & begins with Arden announcing the topic of the day: "The Question of Unity: How much unity do we have to have to bring this war to a successful conclusion?" Chaplin does not talk about his personal life nor his films. He only discusses politics--something he loved to talk about. And at times he gets very passionate about it. He will discuss the "bugaboo about Communism" & during one particularly heated response declares: "I am going to be Communistic." His remarks are often met with applause from the audience. This is a Chaplin most of us have only read about but not heard.

For those who only want to hear the Chaplin parts, the longest ones can be found at :50 & 6:53 (responding to comments by Nigel Bruce), 17:50, 19:20, 27:35, & his final remarks are heard at 41:20. However sprinkled in between these segments are some back and forth exchanges between Chaplin & the other panelists that are certainly worth hearing, if you have time.


¹Rob Farr, "Chaplin On The Radio--Part II"

BBC Radio Interview with Chaplin from October 15th, 1952

Charlie is interviewed by film producer Michael Balcon, actor John Mills and critics Dilys Powell and Paul Holt.

Duration: 29 minutes

"I'm always conscious of the Chaplin Tramp"

Dylan in London, 1966. Photo by Barry Feinstein.

Bob Dylan, who celebrates a birthday today, was asked early in his career about his idols: "If I'm on stage, my idol--even my biggest idol when I'm on stage, the one that's running through my head all the time, is Charlie Chaplin."¹

He impacted Dylan not only on stage but in other ways as well: "He influences me, even in the way I sing. His films really sank in. I like to see the humor in the world. There is so little of it around. I guess I’m always conscious of the Chaplin tramp."² Therefore it's not surprising that Dylan would include references to his idol in his radio show "Theme Time Radio Hour" which aired on SiriusXM from 2006-2009. Here are a few of those clips:

During an episode entitled "Street Map," Dylan briefly mentions Chaplin's 1917 film Easy Street.

Admin_ · Bob Dylan - Theme Time Radio Hour - Easy Street

In a show called "Work & Jobs," he discusses Jackie Coogan and plays a brief interview clip in which Jackie talks about working with Chaplin on The Kid.

Admin_ · Bob Dylan - Theme Time Radio Hour ("Work & Jobs," Season 3, episode 11)

Lastly, Dylan plays Judy Garland's version of "Smile" during an episode called "Happiness." He explains that the melody was written by Chaplin for his film Modern Times, which, not coincidently, is also the name of a 2006 album by Dylan.

Admin_ · Bob Dylan - Theme Time Radio Hour - Judy Garland

¹"The Billy James Interview," Fall 1961
²Robert Shelton, No Direction Home, 1986

Monsieur Verdoux press conference, Gotham Hotel, NYC, April 12th, 1947

Brief audio clip from the press conference 

Held the day the after the disastrous premiere of Monsieur Verdoux in NYC (where members of the audience booed and hissed at the screen), this press conference was described by George Wallach, who recorded the event for WNEW, as "more like an inquisition than a press conference." However, Charlie was ready for them, and at the start of the interview he invited the journalists to "proceed with the butchery."

Here are some snippets:

Question: Mr. Chaplin, according to a report from Hollywood you are a personal friend of Hanns Eisler, the composer?

Chaplin: I am. I am very proud of the fact.

Question: Are you aware of the fact that his brother is the Soviet agent, so attested by...

Chaplin: I know nothing about his brother!

Question: Do you think Mr. Eisler is a Communist?

Chaplin: I don't know anything about that. I don't know whether he is a Communist or not. I know he is a fine artist and a great musician and a very sympathetic friend.

Question: Would it make a difference to you if he were a Communist?

Chaplin: No, it wouldn't.

....

Charlie arrives at the Gotham Hotel for the press conference.

Question: Now, Mr. Chaplin, the Daily Worker, October 25, 1942, reported you stated, in an address before the Artists Front to win the war, a Communist front group: "I'm not a citizen, I don't need citizenship papers, and I've never had patriotism in that sense for any country, but I'm a patriot to humanity as a whole. I'm a citizen of the world. [with heavy sarcasm] If the Four Freedoms mean anything after this war, we won't bother about whether we are citizens of one country or another. "Mr. Chaplin, the men who secured the beachheads, the men who advanced in the face of enemy fire, and the poor fellows who were drafted like myself, and their families and buddies, resent that remark. And we want to know now if you were properly quoted.

Chaplin: I don't know why you resent that. That is a personal opinion. I am--four fifths of my family are Americans. I have four children, two of them were on those beachheads. They were with Patton's Third Army. I am the one-fifth that isn't a citizen. Nevertheless, I-I-I've done my share, and whatever I said, it is not by any means to be meant derogatory to your Catholic uh-uh-uh-GIs.

Question: It's not the Catholic GIs, Mr. Chaplin, it's the GIs throughout the United States!

Chaplin: Well, whatever they are, if they take exception to the fact that I am not a citizen and that I pay my taxes and that seventy percent of my revenue comes from uh-uh-uh abroad, then I apologize for paying that 100 percent on that 70 percent.

Question: I think that is a very evasive answer, Mr. Chaplin, because so do those veterans pay their taxes too!

Chaplin: Yes?

Question: Whether their revenue comes from elsewhere or not!

Chaplin: The problem is--what is it that your are objecting to?

Question: I am objecting to your particular stand that you have no patriotic feeling about this country or any other country.

Chaplin: I think you're...

Question: You've worked here, you've made your money here, you went around in the last war [World War I], when you should have been serving Great Britain, you were here selling bonds, so it stated in the paper that I read, and I think that you as a citizen here--or rather a resident here--taking our money should have done more!

Chaplin: [pause] Well, that's another question of opinion and as I say I think it is rather dictatorial on your part to say as how I should apply my patriotism. I have patriotism and I had patriotism in this war and I showed it and I did a great deal for the war effort but it was never advertised. Now, whether you say that you object to me for not having patriotism is a qualified thing. I've been that way ever since I have been a young child. I can't help it. I've traveled all over the world, and my patriotism doesn't rest with one class. It rests with the whole world--the pity of the whole world and the common people, and that includes even those that object to my--that sort of patriotism.

....

Question: Mr Chaplin, do you share M. Verdoux's conviction that our comtemporary civilization is making mass murderers of us?

Chaplin: Yes.

Question: Would you enlarge on that a little bit? I felt in the picture that that was the most striking line and I would like to have you enlarge on that.

Chaplin: Well, all my life I have always loathed and abhorred violence. Now I think these weapons of mass destruction -- I don't think I'm alone in saying this, it's a cliché by now -- that the atomic bomb is the most horrible invention of mankind, and I think it is being proven so every moment. I think it is creating so much horror and fear that we are going to grow up a bunch of neurotics.

Question: And your line at the end of the picture -- had the atomic bomb in it.

Chaplin: Well, it didn't have the atomic bomb in it -- it had weapons of destruction, and if the atomic bomb is in it, then it goes for the atomic bomb. I don't go all the way with science.

....

Question: Mr. Chaplin, what was your reaction to the reviews for Monsieur Verdoux?

Chaplin: I beg your pardon?

Question: What was your reaction of the reviews--the press reviews--in New York on the picture?

Chaplin: Well, the one optimistic note is that they were mixed. [laughter]


Source: Film Comment (Winter 1969)

Rare audio of Charlie delivering the final speech from The Great Dictator at the third inaugural ball of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, January 19th, 1941

Halfway through the speech Charlie’s throat gets dry & begins to crack (probably from nerves) and he pauses and asks for water. In his autobiography, Charlie recalled that a glass could not be found, so water was brought to him in an envelope.¹

Charlie & Mickey Rooney, who also performed, talk to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
 at the inaugural gala which was held the evening before  the swearing-in ceremony
 (which Charlie also attended). 

¹ Contemporary newspaper articles (as well as the announcer in the clip) say that master of ceremonies, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., brought Charlie a "glass" of water.

Love Theme from Modern Times

Composed by Chaplin, this tune later became known as "Smile" (with lyrics added by John Turner & Geoffrey Parsons). Here is the original, instrumental version from the film, which I prefer.

In this short audio clip from Bob Dylan’s defunct SiriusXM radio show “Theme Time Radio Hour," Jackie Coogan talks about working with Chaplin on The Kid. Bob later discusses Coogan’s financial troubles and the “Coogan Act."

("Theme Time Radio Hour," Season 3, Episode 11)