‼️ My Autobiography by Charles Chaplin ‼️

70/∞

🔑 Key Words: #CharlieChaplin #FromRugsToRiches #Films #Director #Artist 

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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 out of 5)  (excellent read)

📚 Length: 512 pages

🔊Audiobook: 19 hrs and 34 min

Why you should read this book?

💡Amazing story from rugs to riches of one of the most famous film maker of all time written by life itself

💡To learn why Chaplin got barred from the USA

💡To discover Chaplin’s work and although some of his movies are silent, they are still relevant today

It was a coincidence of fortunate events that I found myself in a souvenir shop of Charlie Chaplin’s Maison in Corsier-sur-Vevey, by lac Léman (lake Geneva) in Switzerland.

I have heard about Chaplin and his movies, nevertheless, I did not know much about him, except that he was English, a film maker and that he was barred from the USA for supposedly being a communist. When I discovered that Charlie Chaplin was born in Victorian England in London at the end od 19th century and had very hard childhood, my heart sunk and in that very moment I knew I want to learn more about him.

…

From Rugs to Richies

Charlie Chaplin was born into what we would today call a Victorian England. He was a son of a theatre hall performers. Both his mother and his father were in this trade. With his father earning 40 GBP / week and his mother 25 GBP / week, little Charlie was born to a relative comfort. But this comfort wasn’t there to last. His mother and father had separated. We can say that his father was an alcoholic as theatre performers were paid more for sticking around a bar once a performance was finished, because theatre halls made more money off the bars than off the musical performances itself.

His mother was still a well paid woman in Victorian England, but for some reason, she has lost her voice and could not perform anymore. Now, this is just a thought, but Victorian London was filthy and polluted place. You might know why all umbrellas in London were black once. It was because the sooth and the pollution in the air. When it rained (and God, it rains often in London), your umbrella had turned black regardless the colour it was.

Since Charlie’s mother got the asthma and never managed to fully recover her voice, the family had fallen on the hard times. Charlie had an older brother, Sydney, whom his mother had with some Jamaican plantation owner. They were even joking that Sydney will one day inherit 200.000 GBP worth of estate. It never happened, of course.

Charlie describes in the book his earliest memories, of being on a horse drawn carriage in London and grabbing a little twitch of what nowadays would be a double decker. Back then, there was no roof on the top, of course. He describes London as 'a sedate’ place and as we know, this kind of London does not exist anymore. Today’s London is a rat race, fulled by survival.

The mother was often out of work. She could not do anything else once she has lost her voice. She was trying to make a little money by sewing theatre costumes, but her income was never enough to feed two little children, Charlie and his brother Sydney. They moved from place to place, renting cheaper and cheaper rooms until there was nowhere else to go.

Charlie’s father sustenance consisted of 3 raw eggs in the morning. He drunk himself to death by the age of 37. Charlie and his brother Sydney were sent to their father. Boys were taken care of by their stepmother who did not like Sydney. She also drunk and had very violent relationship with their father.

When back at his mother’s, little Charlie was teaching dancing classes to earn a few extra pennies. Eventually, the mother of Charlie Chaplin went mad. To some theories, this could have been caused by an intense stress and malnutrition. As there was no social support system in Victorian England, his mother was sent to a workhouse. You may have heard about workhouses. In my own opinions, the workhouses were only one step away from Nazi concentration camps and Soviet GULAGs. They provided shelter and little food. Parents and children were separated. And one had to work in order to stay in. The range of activities one could choose from wasn’t the greatest. You could break stones all day long or do some weaving. In the aftermath, the workhouses were causing the working professionals like potters to completely destroy their hands and not being able to work at all.

So little Charlie and his brother Sydney were sent to the workhouse with their mother. This led to the fact that Charlie was never able to learn to spell correctly, as the classes were big and the teachers did not pay much attention to all the children they had in their class. During Charlie’s childhood, they would be in and out of workhouses a few times.

Charlie’s brother Sydney eventually joined the Royal Navy when he was thirteen to get away from it all.

Charlie Chaplin was forbidden by his mother to do any other trade but acting. He went to a couple of theatres in London and eventually joined a theatre company. He and his brother always helped one another and Sydney also become an actor.

They both travelled through the United Kingdom to Wales, Scotland and played at different locations. This is what got Charlie to the USA. He went there with his theatre company. The USA he is describing back then, is long gone. He talks about frontiers, where you could buy a 16-year old girl off the spot. No wonder, back then it was a real wild west.

Hollywood

He then started to star in movies. Moved to Hollywood (the cradle of the film industry) and slowly became unhappy to be directed by somebody else. This was the first step which will later lead to establishing his own movie studious and The United Artists.

He then goes on a series of producing loads of movies like The Kid, The Gold Rush and so on. I am not old-fashioned, but I have watched some of his movies based on this book and I was really touched. For me, Chaplin was a true artist, not just a regular film director.

In his memoirs he describes his creative process. How he would come up with ideas, how he was trying sometimes for months to come up with an idea for a new movie, but nothing would come out of that.

Charlie being accused of being a communist

One of the most interesting things on this book is that Chaplin got barred from entering the USA, after he had lived and prospered in the country for over 40 years. Despite the fact he lived in the USA so long, he never felt the need to become an American citizen.

During the WWII he was asked to speak on behalf of US Ambassador in Russia who was advocating to open the second front and help the Russians (Soviets) to defeat the Nazi Germany. He addressed people in the room comrades and was on the government’s list since then.

Charlie was pretty cheeky about leaving the USA. He has said he is going to the holiday in Europe, from which he has never returned and that was then and only then when he settled in Switzerland in Corsier-sur-Vevey.

Chaplin always denied being a communist, but his views were very left wing. He was also meeting up with a whole range of intellectuals and celebrities who were communists, were fascinated by communism or had strong left wing views. In my own opinion Chaplin’s views are justifiable, because he had very tough childhood in Victorian England. This was also his gift, which he was able to project in his film work.

4 wives

Charlie had 4 wives, from which he mentions properly in his book only two of them: the first one and the last one. The first one was a career women (an actress) and instead of staying at home and taking care of household, she was constantly away. They had one child, but it died after the birth very soon. And since Charlie and his first wife did not enjoy another one’s presence, they divorced.

Charlie mentions that his biggest blessing was his last wife Oona (O’Neill). A daughter of Irish-american descent whose father was a playwright and won a Nobel prize for literature. Oona was only seventeen when she met Charlie. They had 7 children together (which is very Irish). 😆

Kaiser’s Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 out of 5)  (excellent read)

Excellent book, I have enjoyed it very much. The most interesting part was for me Charlie’s childhood and the description of Victorian England.

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Peace 🧘‍♂️✌️🌱

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