{"id":14634,"date":"2019-12-11T22:45:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T06:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/?p=14634"},"modified":"2020-12-30T21:28:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T05:28:31","slug":"in-search-of-charles-chaplin-the-man-and-the-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/in-search-of-charles-chaplin-the-man-and-the-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"In Search of Charlie Chaplin: The Man and the Genius"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"the
Sir Charles Chaplin spent the happiest 25 years of his life at the neoclassical Manoir de Ban in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. Photo courtesy of Chaplin’s World\u2122 \u00a9 Bubbles Incorporated.<\/span> Photo C. Recourat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charlie
Chaplin, circa 1933.<\/span> Copyright \u00a9 Roy Export Company Limited.<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A warm wind blows across Lake Geneva<\/a>, which I find both soothing and invigorating. Soon I\u2019m amidst the steep terraced vineyards in the UNESCO region of Lavaux<\/em>, the largest contiguous vineyard area in Switzerland. Terrace after terrace of vines surround me. It has been said that the vineyards in Switzerland’s Lake Geneva region are blessed with three forms of sun:\u00a0 direct sunlight, second-hand sunlight that bounces off Lake Geneva, and the warmth of the sun contained in ancient Roman walls that terrace many of the vineyards. It was the Romans who introduced winegrowing on the shores of Lake Geneva, with Benedictine and Cistercian monks continuing the tradition, dating back to the 11th century. My senses are kicked up a notch higher, with magnificent views of the deep blue lake below and the snowcapped alps in the distance above. Who wouldn\u2019t want to live here? I was in the Lake Geneva Region to explore its seemingly endless wonders. But the centerpiece of my time would be a journey to the neoclassical mansion, Manoir de Ban<\/em> in Corsier-sur-Vevey<\/em>, and the final resting place of Sir Charles Chaplin and his wife Oona in a nearby simple grave. In Los Angeles, I once had the pleasure of meeting Chaplin\u2019s middle son, the most gracious Eugene Chaplin. He had informed me that Manoir de Ban<\/em> had been repurposed as Chaplin\u2019s World by Gr\u00e9vin<\/em><\/a> and expanded as a museum that showcases Chaplin\u2019s work and life as a family man. I was already champing at the bit to see it.<\/p>\n

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The Little Tramp statue on the banks of Lake Geneva.<\/span> Photograph courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vevey has long been popular for its sublime tranquility, not to mention its position in a nation which serves as a tax haven for wealthy expats. This is where Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life, which were his happiest, according to the Chaplin family.\u00a0 I recall a scratchy home move, where Oona, his wife of 36 years and daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill, pushed the elderly wheelchair-bound\u00a0Chaplin along Vevey\u2019s lakefront path, stopping to gaze at the bronze statue of the diminutive Little Tramp. Despite their differences in age, you could tell they were still happily in love. Upon my arrival at Vevey I too gazed admiringly at the Little Tramp statue. Chaplin\u2019s work as a film director and actor had an immense effect on the world, including my life as well. Now I would walk in his tracks, breathe the same fresh air and experience the same enchanting beauty as I reflected on his life.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie
Chaplin at age 8 or 9.<\/span> Copyright \u00a9 Roy Export Company Limited<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The magical name of Charlie Chaplin is known throughout the far corners of the globe. Just saying \u201cCharlie\u201d or \u201cCharlo\u201d (popular in France and Spain) is bound to elicit a smile. The positive act of smiling is something that Chaplin strove for, and the world really did smile along\u00a0with the most famous actor in film history, not to mention one of its greatest film directors. Despite a horrific childhood right out of Dickens\u2019 bleakest novels, it was his embrace of life that kept him marching onward, taking the world along with him.\u00a0 His situation, according to his authorized biographer David Robinson<\/a>, was “the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told.” Charles Spencer Chaplin was born into immense poverty in the slums of Victorian London. His father (who abandoned the family when Charlie was still an infant) was a successful music hall artist. He died at age 38 as the result of his alcoholism when Charlie was 12 years old. His mother, Hannah, was also a professional musical hall entertainer, whose career was plagued on and off by ill health. She was a loving mother who would perform humorist bits for Charlie and his older half-brother Sydney. Charlie and Sydney\u2019s younger half-brother, Wheeler Dryden, was taken away from Hannah by his father, Leo Dryden, when he was a baby. Hannah instilled confidence in Charlie, frequently telling him he possessed remarkable talent. She was also overtly sensitive with a very fragile grip on life. Her health continued to decline and she found herself making a poor living as a seamstress and was eventually put into a mental hospital. \u00a0His mother\u2019s tenure in asylums was a frequent occurrence throughout her life, and the children had no choice but to be placed in a series of bleak workhouses and residential schools during her bouts of ill health and psychosis, believed to stem from syphilis and malnutrition. \u201cThere was nothing we could do but accept poor mother\u2019s fate,\u201d Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in my care until her death in 1928.\u201d Critics have noted that many of Chaplin\u2019s waif-like leading ladies and wives often bore a strong resemblance to her.<\/p>\n

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Mother illuminated to me the kindliest light this world has ever known,<\/em>
\nwhich has endowed literature and the theatre with their greatest and richest themes:<\/em>
\n love, pity and humanity.
\n<\/em>\u2013 Charles Chaplin<\/span><\/p>\n

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The seven year old Chaplin would take to the streets, performing ingenious comedic routines. Little Charlie\u2019s talent was wide-spread throughout his neighborhood, eventually leading to stints in the theatre and on the vaudeville circuit, where, despite his young years, he rose\u00a0through the ranks to become a lead performer. Thanks to Sydney, also working on the stage, he was recruited by the British music hall\u2019s preeminent impresario, Fred Karno.<\/p>\n

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Chaplin & Roscoe \u201cFatty\u201d Arbuckle (no stranger to scandal himself, who mentored Chaplin & discovered Buster Keaton & Bob Hope).<\/span> Photo courtesy of Mack Sennett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His success with the Karno troupe led to two tours of the U.S. Six months into the second American tour, early movie pioneer\u00a0 Mack Sennett<\/a> of Keystone Film Company<\/a> was in the audience. Impressed with Chaplin\u2019s performance, he turned to his business partner sitting beside him, and purportedly said, \u201cIf I ever make it in this town I\u2019m gonna hire that guy.\u201d And Sennett\u2019s success was achieved shortly after with the advent of his slapstick Keystone Cops, <\/strong>often spelled \u201cKeystone Kops.” Sennett\u2019s comment became a self fulfilling prophesy, and Chaplin was signed by Keystone Film Company in 1914, with the character The Tramp<\/a> debuting\u00a0 in Kid Auto Races at Venice<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie
Copyright \u00a9 Roy Export Company Limited<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.
\n<\/em>\u2013 Charles Chaplin<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Genesis of The Little Tramp<\/h2>\n
\"Charlie
Chaplin in the editing room circa 1921.<\/span> Copyright \u00a9 Roy Export Company Limited.<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Little Tramp was a man with the toothbrush mustache, undersized bowler hat, baggy pants, bamboo cane, and a funny walk, who struggled to survive while keeping his dignity in a world with great social injustice. Chaplin created a character with a positive outlook on life, where the human spirit always reigns supreme, despite a cruel and unforgiving social order that still exists in Britain\u2019s class system today. The usual bitter sweet endings in the Little Tramp films are where the character waddles down a dusty road alone; at first dejectedly and then with a familiar spring in his waddled steps. He created comedies with a deep undercurrent of pathos. At the time of Chaplin\u2019s arrival, Hollywood movies portrayed tramps as villains: housebreakers, street muggers and train robbers. It was a remarkable move to present a vagrant as a hero, or even a romantic lead.<\/p>\n

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A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow,
\nalways hopeful of romance and adventure.
\n<\/em>\u2013 Charles Chaplin<\/span><\/p>\n

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According to Chaplin\u2019s much-quoted recollection, he was hanging around the Keystone lot after having finished his first short film for the studio. Mack Sennett complained that the film they were currently shooting was lacking in big laughs, so he ordered Chaplin to go to the wardrobe department and get into comedy make-up, stressing anything will do. He added, then return to the set with some new gags. The image of Little Tramp came to him after only a moment\u2019s thought: \u201cOn the way to the wardrobe I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat. I wanted everything a contradiction.\u201d A toothbrush mustache was added to age his 24-year-old face without masking his expressions, according to Chaplin\u2019s autobiography. \u201cThe clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the set he was fully born.\u201d Keystone employees noted that when Chaplin returned back to the set in his Little Tramp costume, he started fooling around, swinging his cane and ad-libbing gags.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie
Chaplin begins to direct his own films.<\/span> Copyright \u00a9 Roy Export Company Limited.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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My costume helps me to express my conception of the average man, of almost any man,
\nof myself. The derby, too small, is a striving for dignity. The mustache is vanity.
\nThe tightly buttoned coat and the stick and his whole manner are a gesture toward
\ngallantry and dash and \u2018front.\u2019 He is chasing folly, and he knows it. He is trying to meet the world
\nbravely, to put up a bluff, and he knows that, too. He knows it so well that
\nhe can laugh at himself and pity himself a little.
\n<\/em>\u2013 Charles Chaplin<\/span><\/p>\n

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Truth be told, Chaplin had some help along the way in his inspired costume of contrasts: as he charged into the dressing room he found soon-to-be comedy legend, Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle<\/a> and fellow comedic actor, Chester Conklin, playing pinochle. The extra large baggy pants was borrowed from Arbuckle; the small derby from Arbuckle’s father-in-law; the small cut-away coat from the diminutive Conklin; and the toothbrush mustache made from crepe paper belonging to actor Mack Swain<\/a>, best remembered for his large supporting role as Big Jim McKay in Chaplin\u2019s third feature film The Gold Rush<\/a><\/em>.<\/em> To complete the costumes, Chaplin took a pair of size 14 shoes from comedian Ford Sterling of Keystone Cops fame, which were so big on him, he had to wear them on the wrong feet to keep them on.\u00a0 This resulted in the Little Tramp having to waddle when he walked. The only item that actually belonged to Chaplin was the cheap bamboo cane.<\/p>\n

\"the
The former Chaplin Studio still rests in the heart of Hollywood, easily accessible to his favorite restaurant, Musso & Frank’s on Hollywood Boulevard. Completed in 1919 and stylishly designed by Chaplin himself as a picturesque English village street, unlike other studios which resembled factories.<\/span> Photograph courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To cinephiles, Chaplin is more than the man who created the iconic Little Tramp, but one of the greatest filmmakers of all-time. Famed film critic, Andrew Sarris places Chaplin in his pantheon of the greatest American film directors in his still ground breaking book, \u2019The American Cinema: Directors and Directions,\u2019 which changed the course of film criticism. As head of his own studio, Chaplin had an unique approach in translating his ideas into visual form, virtually never shooting from a working script. Often times he would simply sit on the set, surrounding by his cast, waiting for an idea to come. Occasionally the idea would not come, and he would dismiss the cast for the day, still with full payment. This resulted \u2013 along with his perfection of never releasing the final cut of his film until 100% satisfied \u2013 in long periods of absence on the silver screen. In his autobiography, the only mention of his shooting style was long-shot for comedy, close-up for tragedy, in which he embraced both in his stylistic signature; the essence of the duality of the Little Tramps films.<\/p>\n

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The last remaining house on the Chaplin back lot, now a real home in a real unremarkable Hollywood neighborhood.<\/span> Photograph courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stay tuned for Part 2 where Ed Boitano addresses Chaplin\u2019s work as a director.<\/strong><\/p>\n

See teaser below:<\/p>\n

\"Charlie
Chaplin on the Gold Rush set and snow.<\/span> Copyright \u00a9 Roy Export Company Limited.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1925 The Gold Rush<\/a><\/em> (Feature): The Little Tramp is a lonely prospector who ventures to the Klondike looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia Hale, playing a rather hardened, dance-hall girl. He tries to win her heart with his kindness, but with no success. According to David Robinson, the idea came to him when viewing stereoscope pictures of the 1896 Klondike gold rush, and was struck by the image of an endless line of prospectors snaking up the Chilkoot Pass, the gateway to the gold fields. For two weeks the unit worked on location in the snow country of California\u2019s Sierra Nevada, recreating the historic image of the prospectors struggling up the 2300 feet Chilkoot Pass through the mountain snow. Six hundred extras were used, with many vagrants and derelicts of Sacramento. The film was an important box office success after\u00a0A Woman of Paris<\/em> had bombed with audiences. In a revised version in 1942 Chaplin composed an orchestral score, and replaced the title cards with a commentary which he spoke himself. Chaplin, who was known to have changes in opinion, felt it was the greatest picture he had ever made. In this clip, The Little Tramp has fallen asleep while waiting for the dance-hall girl and her three friends to arrive for a New Year dinner in his little cabin. The ladies had forgotten about the party and never arrive. The Little Tramp dreams about how the party could have been, and does perhaps his most famous bit: \u2018the dance of the rolls,\u2019 with just forks and rolls. Audiences were so thrilled by the scene that often times they demanded theatres to stop the film, roll it back and perform an encore.<\/p>\n