I didn’t know Charlie was a member of The Turtles.
Charlie & Paulette in The Great Dictator (1940).
Chaplin’s left middle finger was caught in the slamming gate and broken during the filming of this scene (one of the few times he was ever injured while making a film). Paulette immediately called for a car to take Charlie to the hospital. After a being ignored for a long period of time, she told someone that Mr. Chaplin had to be seen immediately. A doctor came out, looked at his finger, peered at him closely, and then apologized, saying that when they arrived in costume and make-up, everyone thought they were “a couple of Hollywood jokers having a little fun at our expense.” Evidently, the injury remains in the film, but Chaplin did not react to it while the cameras were rolling. If you look closely, you can see him favoring his hand, as well as the bandage on the finger, in later scenes.
With Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin and his daughter, French Riviera, 1931.
Plans for Chaplin Museum back on track -
It’s about time!
Charlie plays a prop saxophone on the set of A Woman Of Paris.
Some of you were surprised that Charlie played the saxophone during the radio broadcast I posted about earlier. I’m not sure how well he could play, but evidently Charlie himself used a saxophone, or saxophone mouthpiece, to represent the voices of the officials at the beginning of City Lights.
Catalina Island, 1930s.
Charlie gives his first radio broadcast at WOR in Newark, NJ to promote A Woman Of Paris, October, 1923. “My friends,” he began, “this is all way beyond me. I’m glad you can’t see me—I am nervous as a witch.” In the course of the broadcast, which lasted half an hour, he told the listeners that he was experimenting with the possibilities of voice on the air. He then played the violin and saxophone and did some impersonations.
Irish tenor John McCormack (second from left) visits Charlie during the filming of The Rink, 1916.
Charlie during the filming of Monsieur Verdoux.
Charlie poses with a visitor at the Chaplin Studios, c. 1925.
Oona O’Neill Chaplin was born 87 years ago today. Happy Birthday, Oona.
(May 14, 1925 – September 27, 1991)
The following is from a rare interview with Oona conducted in 1962 by English journalist Frederick Sands, at the time she was awaiting the birth of her last child, Christopher. An interesting tidbit from the interview was the revelation that Oona called her husband, “Charlie, my boy”, while the children referred to their father, lovingly, as “Fatcheeks”.
The one inevitable subject that comes up about Charlie and myself is the difference in our ages. In fact, you know, I am married to a young man!
People seem to think of Charlie as my father, but age counts for nothing in this house. To me he seems younger every day. There is certainly no father fixation about my feeling for him. He has made me mature and I keep him young.
I never consciously think of Charlie’s age for 364 days of the year. Only his birthday is the annual shock for me. But I can feel the way some people stare at me with puzzlement and then at him wondering how we have kept it up; whether it is just a facade. Well, my security and stability with Charlie stem not from his wealth, but from the very difference in years between us. Other young women who have married mature men will understand what I mean.
Provided the partners are suited, such a marriage is founded on a rock, solid and with no unpleasant surprises ahead. The man’s character is formed. His life is shaped. He has learned a sense of responsibility and tolerance.
We have been blessed with children, the older ones who we keep busy and encourage to become independent. They have a place in our lives but not all of it.
Charlie has given me one great gift that I had not known before. My childhood was not a very happy one and what he has brought to me is the gift of laughter. And that is beyond price.
Charlie’s mother, Hannah, c. 1928.
“In spite of the squalor in which we were forced to live, she had kept Sydney and me off the streets and made us feel we were not the ordinary product of poverty, but unique and distinguished.”
—My Autobiography (1964)
Interview with Syd Chaplin biographer Lisa Stein Haven -
Derek McClellan of centuryofcinema.com interviews Lisa Stein Haven, author of Syd Chaplin: A Biography. Click the link to listen.
Anonymous asked: what sort of authors / books did charlie like to read? (ps: great tumblr you're keeping here)
Hello and thank you!
Charlie enjoyed books by the following authors/poets/thinkers: Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, Shakespeare, Lafcadio Hearn, Schopenhauer & Nietzsche, among others. However he mostly read non-fiction (“I like realism” he once said)—biographies, history, & economics. In My Life with Chaplin, Lita Grey Chaplin mentions reading Charlie’s well-thumbed copy of the erotic novel Memoirs Of A Woman Of Pleasure (aka “Fanny Hill”) by John Cleland, as well as some graphic sex manuals he also had on the book shelf. According to Charlie, Jr., his father kept a stack of detective magazines next to his bed. He evidently liked to read them before going to sleep at night. Charlie once admitted that he was a slow reader & would browse through a book instead of reading the whole thing. Some say this was due to dyslexia, but was most likely due to his lack of a formal education. Charlie took great pride in the fact that he educated himself.
I hope this was helpful.
Jessica