Charlie Chaplin: A Political Biography from Victorian Britain to Modern America

306 Pages·2017·1.75 MB·English

by  Richard Carr

Charlie Chaplin
Richard Carr’s Charlie Chaplin places politics at the centre of the
fi lmmaker’s life as it looks beyond Chaplin’s role as a comedic
fi gure 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 experi-
ences in the workhouse to his controversial romantic relationships
and his connections with some of the leading political fi gures 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.
Richard Carr is a Senior Lecturer in History and Politics at Anglia
Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. His previous publications
include Veteran MPs and Conservative Politics in the Aftermath
of the Great War: The Memory of All That (2013). He has also
co-authored the books Alice in Westminster: The Political Life of
Alice Bacon (2016) and The Global 1920s (2016).
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Forthcoming:
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Charlie Chaplin
A Political Biography
from Victorian Britain to
Modern America
Richard Carr
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2017 Richard Carr
The right of Richard Carr to be identifi ed as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Carr, Richard, 1985– author.
Title: Charlie Chaplin : a political biography from Victorian Britain
to modern America.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon : New York, NY :
Routledge, 2017. | Series: Routledge historical biographies |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2016048529 | ISBN 9781138923256 (hardback :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138923263 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315201672 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Chaplin, Charlie, 1889–1977. | Chaplin, Charlie,
1889–1977—Political and social views. | Motion picture actors
and actresses—United States—Biography.
Classifi cation: LCC PN2287.C5 C35 2017 | DDC 791.43092/
33092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016048529
ISBN: 978-1-138-92325-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-92326-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20167-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of fi gures viii
List of tables ix
Acknowledgements x
Chronology xiii
Introduction: A very political life 1
1 Chaplin’s England 15
The descent 20
Chaplin’s Dickensian period 23
Hanwell and the workhouse 26
Boer War 35
The state Charlie was in 38
Charlie fi nds his career, and his country 43
Karno and Kelly 45
First sights of America 49
2 To shoulder arms? Charlie and the First
World War 55
Hollywood and the evolution of fi lm 57
Charlie changes fi lm 62
Fame 68
A shirker? 70
Mildred 79
vi Contents
3 Moscow or Manchester? Chaplin’s views on
capitalism before the Depression took hold 86
Max Eastman, Rob Wagner and Chaplin’s early
political development 88
Charlie the anarchist 93
Charlie the mogul 95
Chaplin and his money 100
Taking him seriously 104
4 Sex, morality and a tramp in 1920s America 110
Chaplin’s women 111
Censorship and the movies 122
‘Respectable’ Hollywood 127
5 Between Churchill and Gandhi: A comedian
sees the world 132
Eisenstein in Hollywood 133
The talkies 137
City Lights 139
Back to Britain 143
The German question 147
Chaplin and Empire 150
Homeward bound 152
6 Modern Times and the Great Depression 156
The Depression and Charlie 157
Social Credit 158
Upton Sinclair and taking a political stand 161
The making of Modern Times 166
The Napoleonic diversion 171
7 The Tramp and the dictators 178
Charlie and two fascists 179
Before The Great Dictator 183
Contents vii
The Bercovici case 188
Putting America fi rst 191
Censoring The Great Dictator 194
Content and release 198
8 Comrades and controversy 210
The House Un-American Activities Committee 211
Backing the Red Army 218
Joan Barry and the Cockney cad 222
Monsieur Verdoux 227
The pressure intensifi es 233
9 A citizen of the world 243
The Tramp leaves America 244
Charlie and the Cold War 250
Later plaudits and a fi nal reconciliation
with America 255
Conclusion 265
Select bibliography 273
Archival collections 273
Correspondence 276
Published sources 276
Other cited published works 277
Doctoral theses 279
Other important works 280
Index 281
Figures
1.1 Winston Churchill’s article analysing
Chaplin’s life, m id-1930s 16
2.1 A mascot of Charlie Chaplin made by British
soldiers during the First World War 76
5.1 Charlie pictured with Winston Churchill
and family, 1931 150
6.1 Chaplin pictured at his studio with Upton
Sinclair and Governor James Vardaman 162
7.1 On the set of 1940’s The Great Dictator 199
9.1 Charlie and Oona Chaplin take in 1950s London 251
Tables
2.1 Most successful fi lms released 1918– 31,
and the age of marriage of their star 81
7.1 Instances of ‘propaganda’ as defi ned by the
Production Code Administration, June 1938 193