Chaplin's Girl
Chaplin's Girl

Author: Miranda Seymour

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2009-05-05

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 1847377378

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 1931, City Lightsintroduced Charlie Chaplin's new female star to the world. The film - defiantly silent in the age of talkies - was an immediate and international hit. The actress who played the romantic lead had never been on screen or stage before. Chaplin's film turned her into the most famous girl in the world. And, like Rhett Butler, the most famous girl in the world didn't give a damn. Virginia Cherrill was the beautiful daughter of an Illinois rancher, who ran away to live through some of Hollywood's wildest years. She was the adoring first wife who broke Cary Grant's heart when she left him; who turned down the gloriously eligible Maharajah of Jaipur to befriend his wife and rescue her from purdah. Virginia Cherrill presided, during the thirties, over one of England's loveliest houses, as the Countess of Jersey. Everybody sought her friendship. All that eluded her was love. And when she found it, she gave up all she had to marry a handsome and penniless Polish flying ace, whose dream it was to become a cowboy. In this glorious, and undiscovered story of Hollywood, international high society, wartime drama and romance, Miranda Seymour works from unpublished sources to recapture the personality of a woman so vividly enchanting that none could resist her. This is the story of Cinderalla in reverse: of the poor girl who won everything - and gave up all for love. Breathtakingly romantic, exquisitely written, this is the stuff that dreams are made of . . .

Charlie Chaplin and His Women
Charlie Chaplin and His Women

Author: Irwin Guzov

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2001-09

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0595197868

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book is a novelistic description of Chaplin's tortured relations with women, starting with his insane mother. Rebuffed by his first love, a fifteen year old girl, he spends his whole life seeking someone who resembles his teenage sweetheart. Like Nabokov's antihero Humbert in "Lolita," (Nabakov had Chaplin in mind when he wrote his novel) he lusts after young girls. He pursues Mildred Harris, an actress, when she was but sixteen, and marries her only when she tells him that she is pregnant. He divorces her after she gives birth to a malformed baby who doesn't survive. His next willing inamorata is Lita Grey, age sixteen, whom he reluctantly marries when her family threatens him with a charge of statutory rape. During his marriages to Mildred Harris and others, and also between marriages, he provides the country's newspaper reporters with ample oportunities to write about his escapades with stars such as Marion Davies, the mistress of the famous publisher William Randolph Hearst, Pola Negri, Louise Brooks and Paulette Goddard, all known stars of the 1920's and 1930's. They are but a few of the women linked to his name in the daily headlines of the nation's newspapers. In the 1940's he becomes involved in an internationally publicized paternity suit brought on by an ostensibly disturbed and alcoholic girl named Jane Barry. He finally takes up with Oona O'Neil then age seventeen (he was fifty four), and marries her against the advice of saner heads.

Wife of the Life of the Party
Wife of the Life of the Party

Author: Lita Grey Chaplin

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 1998-03-05

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1461674328

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Wife of the Life of the Party is the memoir of the late Lita Grey Chaplin (1908-1995), the only one of Chaplin's wives to have written an account of life with Chaplin. Her memoir is an extraordinary Hollywood story of someone who was there from the very beginning. Born Lillita Louise MacMurray in Hollywood, she began her career at twelve with the Charlie Chaplin Film Company, when Chaplin selected her to appear with him as the flirting angel in The Kid. When she was fifteen, Chaplin signed her as the leading lady in The Gold Rush and changed her name to Lita Grey. She was forced to leave the production when, at the age of sixteen, she became pregnant with Chaplin's child. She married Chaplin in Empalme, Mexico in November 1924. The Chaplins stayed together for two years. Lita bore Chaplin two sons: Charles Chaplin, Jr. and Sydney Chaplin. In November 1926, after Lita discovered that Chaplin was having an affair with Merna Kennedy (Lita's best friend, whom she had persuaded Chaplin to hire as the leading lady in The Circus), Lita left Chaplin and filed for divorce. It was one of the first divorce cases to receive a public airing. The divorce complaint ran a staggering 42 pages and fed scandal with its revelations about the private life of Charles Chaplin. Lita's divorce settlement of $825,000 was the largest in American history at the time. Lita authorized the publication of another biography, My Life with Chaplin, in 1966. The book was mainly the creation of her co-author, Morton Cooper, who re-wrote her manuscript. Lita was never happy with the many inaccuracies and distortions of that book. Wife of the Life of the Party is not to be seen as a supplement to her early book, but rather Lita's own version of her life, told for the first time.

Charlie Chaplin and A Woman of Paris
Charlie Chaplin and A Woman of Paris

Author: Wes D. Gehring

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2021-01-15

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 147667244X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris (1923) was a groundbreaking film which was neither a simple recycling of Peggy Hopkins Joyce's story, nor quickly forgotten. Through heavily-documented "period research," this book lands several bombshells, including Paris is deeply rooted in Chaplin's previous films and his relationship with Edna Purviance, Paris was not rejected by heartland America, Chaplin did "romantic research" (especially with Pola Negri), and Paris' many ongoing influences have never been fully appreciated. These are just a few of the mistakes about Paris.

Refocusing Chaplin
Refocusing Chaplin

Author: Lawrence Howe

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2013-10-03

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 081089226X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Widely recognized in his character of the Tramp, Charlie Chaplin transcended the role of actor to become screenwriter, director, composer, producer, and finally studio head. The subject of numerous biographical studies, Chaplin has been examined as both myth and man, but these treatments fail to adequately address the often-overlooked complexity of his filmmaking. Refocusing Chaplin: A Screen Icon through Critical Lenses features essays that examine the actor and director through various theoretical perspectives—including Marxism, feminism, gender studies, deconstruction, psychoanalytic criticism, new historicism, performance studies, and cultural criticism. Complementing this range of intellectual inquiry is the wide reach of films discussed, from The Circus (1928), The Gold Rush (1925), and City Lights (1931) to Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947), and Limelight (1952). Shorter films, such as “The Pawnshop” (1916), “The Rink” (1916), and “A Dog’s Life” (1918) are also examined. These essays analyze the tensions between the carefully constructed worlds of Chaplin’s films and their cultural contexts. The varied approaches and range of materials in this volume not only comprehensively assess the screen icon but also foster a conversation that exemplifies the best of intellectual exchange. Refocusing Chaplin provides a unique view into the work of one of cinema’s most important and influential artists.

Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin

Author: Richard Carr

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-04-21

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1351782703

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Richard Carr’s Charlie Chaplin places politics at the centre of the filmmaker’s life as it looks beyond Chaplin’s role as a comedic figure to his constant political engagement both on and off the screen. Drawing from a wealth of archival sources from across the globe, Carr provides an in-depth examination of Chaplin’s life as he made his way from Lambeth to Los Angeles. From his experiences in the workhouse to his controversial romantic relationships and his connections with some of the leading political figures of his day, this book sheds new light on Chaplin’s private life and introduces him as a key social commentator of the time. Whether interested in Hollywood and Hitler or communism and celebrity, Charlie Chaplin is essential reading for all students of twentieth-century history.

Chaplin's War Trilogy
Chaplin's War Trilogy

Author: Wes D. Gehring

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-09-17

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1476616302

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The book examines Charlie Chaplin's evolving perspective on dark comedy in his three war films, Shoulder Arms (1918), The Great Dictator (1940), and Monsieur Verdoux (1947). In the first he uses the genre in a groundbreaking manner but yet for a pro-war cause. In Dictator dark comedy is applied in an antiwar way. In Monsieur Verdoux Chaplin embraces the genre as an individual in defense against a society out to destroy him. All three are pivotal films in the development of the genre in film, with the latter two movies being very controversial for their time.

The Music of Charlie Chaplin
The Music of Charlie Chaplin

Author: Jim Lochner

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2018-09-20

Total Pages: 451

ISBN-13: 1476633517

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Charlie Chaplin the actor is universally synonymous with his beloved Tramp character. Chaplin the director is considered one of the great auteurs and innovators of cinema history. Less well known is Chaplin the composer, whose instrumental theme for Modern Times (1936) later became the popular standard "Smile," a Billboard hit for Nat "King" Cole in 1954. Chaplin was prolific yet could not read or write music. It took a rotating cast of talented musicians to translate his unorthodox humming, off-key singing, and amateur piano and violin playing into the singular orchestral vision he heard in his head. Drawing on numerous transcriptions from 60 years of original scores, this comprehensive study reveals the untold story of Chaplin the composer and the string of famous (and not-so-famous) musicians he employed, giving fresh insight into his films and shedding new light on the man behind the icon.

Chaplin and American Culture
Chaplin and American Culture

Author: Charles J. Maland

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-01-12

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 0691223882

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Charles Maland focuses on the cultural sources of the on-and-off, love-hate affair between Chaplin and the American public that was perhaps the stormiest in American stardom.

Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin

Author: John W. Fawell

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2023-01-17

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 1538146061

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Charlie Chaplin was a skilled comedian, filmmaker and composer, and the mission of this book is to educate readers on the wide variety of Chaplin’s artistry: the subtlety of his mimetic satire, the sophistication of his film direction, and his prodigious musical skill that resulted in some of film’s greatest orchestral arrangements. This encyclopedia also emphasizes the singular nature of Chaplin’s biography: his unprecedented renown, the wide list of notables in art and culture with whom he fraternized, and the controversies that seemed to dog each stage of his life, perhaps most notably in his run-ins with the FBI and the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, both of whom suspected him of communist leanings. Charlie Chaplin: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works captures his life, and legacy. It features a chronology, an introduction that offers a brief account of his life, and a dictionary section listing entries on Chaplin’s childhood, career, family, and associates. The bibliography is one of the largest available of works concerning Chaplin.