Charlie chaplin biography petite maternity

(Photo: My Autobiography, Charlie Chaplin)

How influential were Chaplin’s parents, Charles Sr. & Hannah, on his successful career?

Charlie Chaplin’s sense of humor becomes contagious as the crowd watches the waddle in his step and the repetition in his motions. It is clear to audiences around the world that he has natural crowd-pleasing abilities both on the stage, and through in his films. Charlie’s natural ability to amuse and captivate an audience can easily be attributed to both of his parents, Charles Chaplin Sr. and Hannah, who were successful performers in the primes of their lives.

            Charles Sr. and Hannah married in the late 1800s, but did not stay married long. Just a few years after Chaplin’s birth in 1889 (Walworth, England), his parents separated. This separation caused many struggles in young Chaplin’s life, including being forced in and out of foster care and later having to live on the street. Although Charlie’s life was hard, there wasn’t a moment that he didn’t admire his mother as an inspiration for his work. The earliest memories Charlie has of his mother are of her tucking him and his brother into bed before she headed off to the theater. He admired her beauty; young, violet-blue eyed and long brown hair (Chaplin 14). Charlie’s mother was a singer and comedienne in Britain. She went by the name Lily Harley, obtaining some great success in her field (Chaplin Official Site)! Unfortunately, her mental state was not always well leaving her unable to perform when she needed to. Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography describes in detail the moments he remember of his mothers musical performance demise. “She had been having trouble with her voice… In the middle of singing it would crack and suddenly disappear into a whisper, and the audience would laugh and start booing. The worry of it impaired her he

Table of contents :
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Prologue
Chapter 1. The Circus
Chapter 2. “Feathering Her Nest”
Chapter 3. The Lost Little Tramp
Chapter 4. “A Brooklyn Stenographer”
Chapter 5. “One Girl in Hollywood”
Chapter 6. “I Wanted to Hurt Charles the Way He Had Hurt Me”
Chapter 7. A Lost Soul
Chapter 8. “A Story That Needed Many Ears”
Chapter 9. “Shouldn’t We Run This Down?”
Chapter 10. “We Never Close a Case”
Chapter 11. The Magnificent Mouthpiece
Chapter 12. “There Can’t Be Too Many Women on a Jury for Me”
Chapter 13. Joan Finally in the Spotlight
Chapter 14. The Big Thaw
Chapter 15. “Oh, I Think I Kissed Her before That”
Chapter 16. “Here Lies the Body of Joan Berry”
Chapter 17. “We Hope Charlie Chaplin Now Disappears”
Chapter 18. “Like an Ocean Breeze in a Musty Room”
Chapter 19. “I Have Committed No Crime”
Chapter 20. “All Unhappy in Chaplin Case”
Chapter 21. “The Biggest Role of My Life”
Chapter 22. “Proceed with the Butchery”
Chapter 23. “A Minor Case of Anxiety”
Epilogue
A Note on Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Figures

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W H E N C H A R L I E M E T J OA N

WHEN CHARLIE MET JOAN THE TRAGEDY of the CHAPLIN TRIALS and the FAILINGS of AMERICAN LAW Diane Kiesel

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS ANN ARBOR

Copyright © 2025 by Diane Kiesel All rights reserved For questions or permissions, please contact [email protected] Published in the United States of America by the University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper First published February 2025 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data Names: Kiesel, Diane, author.   |  Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher. Title: When Charlie met Joan : the tragedy of the Chaplin trials and the

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Wife of the

Life of the

L1TAGREY CHAPLIN'IU JEFFREY VANCE I1lREII'ORD BY S YO~l'Y CIIIII'LiN

G7 119 ifi' (iflllr Ufl oflile Party is the memoir of

LU the late Uta Grry Chaplin (1908 - 199S), the last surviving wifl' of Charles Chapl in and thr

only one of Chaplin's wives to have II'rillrn an :ICCOlllU of life with him. Her memoir is an ('xtm· ordinaf)' lIollywood stO!)' of somronr who was t.herr from the very brgillning. Bom Ullita Louise MacMulTJY in Hollywood. she bfgan hrr carreT at age Iwr]\'c with tilt' Charlie Chaplin Film Company. when Chaplin selected hrr to al'l,rar with him as the flirting ;lI1gc! in 11w Kid. When

she was fifteen, Chaplin sigurd IIrr as the lrading l.tdy in rile GoltJ RIJS/I and changed her n3111(' (0 Lita Grey. She was forcrd to lrave the llToduclion when. at the age of sixteen. she breamc pl1"gnan( with Chapli n's child. She married Chaplin in Empalme, Mexico. in November 1924. The Chaplins were 10 stay together for two years. Uta bore Chaplin 1\\'0 SOliS: Charles Ch~lplin Jr. and Sydnry Ch~lplill. In NO\'cmber 1926. after she discovered that Chaplin was having all affair wHh Mema Kenlledy (Lila's best friend, whom she h~ld persuaded Chaplin to hire ~IS the leading lady In TltcCir(l/s), Uta left Chaplin and flied for dh'orce in January 1927. It was one or the first dh'orct cases to rcceire a public airing. The di\'Orce complaint ilsclf ran a staggering 42 pages and fed scandal with its revelations about the private urI' (corttirlllcd 011 barkflap)

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FILMMAKERS SERIES edited by ANTHONY SLIDE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.

James Whale, by James Curtis. 1982 Cinema Stylists, by John Belton. 1983 Harry Langdon, by William Schelly. 1982 William A. Wellman, by Frank Thompson. 1983 Stanley Donen, by Joseph Casper. 1983 Brian De Palma, by Michael Bliss. 1983 1. Stuart