Word: chaplinitis
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...resentments were deferred, not dismissed. In the palmy days of Hollywood, a story made the rounds. Actor: "How should I play this scene, Mr. Chaplin?" Reply: "Behind me and to the left." It was more than a critique of the star's egomania; it was also a comment on his politics. From the start, Chaplin was a fan of sentimental collectivism, of revolution seen through a scrim. He needed no Bolshevik primer on poverty. Charlie had risen from the darkest of London slums. His father was a drunk; his mother sewed blouses for 1½ pence...
When the Hollywood Ten were exorcised from the film industry, Chaplin offered his voice to the choir of protest. Two years later, one of the ten, Alvah Bessie, called on Chaplin begging for a writing assignment. How about a movie on Don Quixote, Bessie spitballed, with you as Sancho Panza and Walter Huston as Don? "They'd crucify me," Chaplin told him crisply and offered a farewell handshake. When Bessie morosely withdrew, he found a folded hundred-dollar bill in his palm...
That was about the extent of Chaplin's Red menace. It was enough. By 1952 the sexual scandals had proliferated; he had been fingerprinted and tried for violation of the Mann Act (innocent) and in a paternity suit (guilty). More, the cold war had frozen the country's sense of humor. Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi fulminated against some socially conscious paintings. "I am sure," he said, "that some of them got into the home of Charles Chaplin, the perverted subject of Great Britain who has become notorious for his forcible seduction of white girls." Rankin was correct...
...Chaplin and his fourth wife Oona were in mid-Atlantic when they heard the news. Attorney General James P. McGranery had instructed immigration authorities to detain Chaplin on his return. "If assertions about Mr. Chaplin are true," said McGranery, "he is, in my judgment, an unsavory character . . . charged with making statements that indicate a leering, sneering attitude toward a country whose hospitality has enriched...
...Chaplin's second Academy citation. In 1929 he was honored for the "versatility and genius" of The Circus...