Chaplin Gets the Tramp Stamp
ON SEPTEMBER 20, 1952, THE LONDON Daily Mirror reported that silent-movie star Charlie Chaplin would be detained by immigration officials and “held until he was brought before a court of inquiry to decide if he could re-enter the country” should he attempt to cross the United States border. Chaplin had just finished working on his latest movie, Limelight, and was vacationing with his fourth wife when a wire message was delivered to him. Attorney General James McGranery was revoking Chaplin’s ability to reenter the United States.
Charlie Chaplin was no stranger to controversy. He had been married four times, fathering eleven children. The first wife was Mildred Harris, who was more than twelve years younger than Chaplin. They wed in 1918 when Harris was sixteen and Chaplin was twenty-nine. Their marriage produced one son named Norman Spencer Chaplin, who died three days after his birth. Just two years after the pair said “I do” they divorced. Harris went for Chaplin’s money. Chaplin went for Harris’s reputation, saying she had a lesbian affair.
There was an even greater age difference between wife number two and Charlie Chaplin. Lita Grey was sixteen when she married Chaplin, who was then thirty-five, in 1924. The union produced two sons—Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Chaplin. Not only was the relationship a wreck, but Chaplin was facing troubles related to unpaid taxes. The marriage dissolved into a costly divorce in less than three years. Many claim Chaplin’s relationship with Grey is what turned his hair gray.
Many claim Chaplin’s relationship with Grey is what turned his hair gray
Third in line was Paulette Goddard, who can be seen in starring roles alongside Chaplin in Modern Times and The Great Dictator. Goddard was twenty-four years younger than Chaplin, and they kept their marriage secret to not affect her acting career. The two wed in 1936 when Goddard was twenty-six and Chaplin was fifty. The couple bore no children and divorced six years later under what was described as mutual terms.
Chaplin married his fourth and final wife during an ongoing paternity case. The dispute began in 1943 and went well into 1944. A blood test proved Chaplin was not the father, but the court ruled for him to pay child support anyway. In the midst of the drama, Oona O’Neill became Oona Chaplin on June 16, 1943. Oona was eighteen and Chaplin was fifty-four. The thirty-six-year age difference was the largest of Chaplin’s four marriages. The union provided eight more children for the Chaplin clan, five girls and three boys.
Now, what had started as a family vacation for the Chaplins had become an exile. In the book Remembering Charlie, Jerry Epstein, a friend and worker on Limelight, has quoted Chaplin as saying, “I could have never found success in England. This really is the land of opportunity.” However, a different quote, this one appearing in an issue of the Daily Worker dated October, 25, 1942, gained the attention of the U.S. government. Charlie’s quote in the paper read, “Thank God for communism. They say communism may spread all over the world. I say so what?” That same year, on October 14, Chaplin was the keynote speaker of the “Second Front” meeting held at Carnegie Hall. The event had a strong Hollywood support base that wanted to see troops diverted from the Pacific to Europe. They felt the larger numbers would crush Hitler’s army, forcing them out of the Soviet Union. “Second Front” was sponsored by the “Artists’ Front to Win the War,” a group with numerous members in the communist party.
“Thank God for communism.”
In 1947 Chaplin made a movie called Monsieur Verdoux, which he himself described as “cynical pessimism.” It was the first time Charlie appeared on screen as a different character other than the Tramp. This time Charlie plays Monsieur Verdoux, a man who marries women, takes all their money, and then kills them in order to support his sick wife and small child. The movie was a commentary on Chaplin’s disdain for capitalism and war. When released much of the public saw Monsieur Verdoux as further proof that Charlie Chaplin was a communist.
Charlie Chaplin in his first film, Making a Living.
Now the man who was born in England but had ingrained himself into American history and culture was no longer welcome in his adoptive home.
The child of two performers, Charlie Chaplin moved to America to pursue his own dreams of stardom. His first movie was in 1914 for Keystone Studios. One of Chaplin’s most famous movies was also for Keystone Studios, the 1936 comedy Modern Times, which is not only important to Chaplin’s career, but is also a reflection of his life prior to stardom and his political leanings. The toll from years of alcoholism claimed Chaplin’s father when Chaplin was a young boy. His mother suffered from mental illness and was often admitted into psychiatric hospitals. His rough childhood drove him deeper into his art and shaped his personal beliefs. Modern Times shows Chaplin’s timing and fast-paced wit as a writer, director, and actor. It also portrays the conditions for factory workers as a series of dangerous tasks performed for their uncaring employers. Maybe the underlying message of Modern Times didn’t catch on with the masses. Or maybe audiences related to the movie and wouldn’t question Chaplin’s patriotism until he became more vocal in the 1940s.
His rough childhood drove him deeper into his art and shaped his personal beliefs.
Knowing that if he were to return to the United States he would face intense questioning in court about his political leanings, he released a statement saying that McCarthyism “ha[s] created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted. Under these conditions I find it virtually impossible to continue my motion-picture work, and I have therefore given up my residence in the United States.”
Chaplin made his new home in Sweden, where he made two more movies before retiring for good: A King in New York in 1957 and A Countess from Hong Kong in 1967. Chaplin had talked about making one more movie with his daughter, but it never came to fruition. In 1972 Chaplin briefly returned to the United States for one last time to receive an honorary Oscar for his lifetime achievement. He died in his sleep on Christmas day, 1977 from old age. Even in his later years when his health was failing, those who were close to Charlie Chaplin said he never lost his charm or goodwill.
4
The Lost Autobiography
NO ONE CAN DENY THE ENORMOUS TALENT of Judy Garland. She had a voice many have tried to imitate and have failed. She was the American sweetheart who went over the rainbow. In 1963 she began narrating her life story into a reel-to-reel tape recorder. These tapes were to be transcribed and turned into her autobiography.
Judy Garland had a tumultuous life. Underneath the surface was a lifetime of emotional trauma. She could’ve started her autobiography with her childhood—the time her family was essentially run out of town after her father became the center of a homosexual scandal. It’s been said he liked to sit in the back of the theater he owned and make sexual advances towards young men.
She could have started with her mother, who gave her pills to stay awake and peppy for auditions, then more pills to help her sleep at night. Or the MGM studio bosses who attempted to shame her into losing weight, gave her more pills (Benzedrine and Phenobarbital), and corseted her developing body into costumes to keep her looking childlike.
She could have complained about being the lowest paid actor in The Wizard of Oz, despite being the most talented. Or the time director Victor Fleming slapped her in the face for laughing too much during filming. Or the grueling work schedule she faced to make and promote
