Re: Racist? -- The Charlie Chaplin Forum

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 02:19:05 05/08/00 Mon
Author: COUNT BROKO
Subject: Re: Racist?
In reply to: Calvero 's message, "Re: Racist?" on 22:12:23 08/25/99 Wed

> > A friend of mine has tried to tell me that she
> > remembers seeing an article in which a former
> employee
> > branded Chaplin a racist.
> > Now I am a big fan and am well aware that Charlie
> > viewed himself as a "humanist", and this pretty much
> > excludes any thoughts of bigotry. I am also aware
> that
> > several employees (like Rollie Totheroh) bad-mouthed
> > him years later. However, I am wondering if anyone
> > else has seen either the "phantom" aricle, or
> anything
> > else like it.
> >
> > Dan
>
> I haven't heard anything about Chaplin being a racist.
> He wrote the speech that was at the end of "The Great
> Dictator" and that spoke out for tolerance of
> everyone..."Jew, Gentile, black man, white" as he
> says. <p> And I also doubt Rollie or many employees
> badmouthed him. Chaplin was loyal to his cast and
> crew and they were loyal in return. He would pay
> their regular salaries whether or not he was shooting
> a movie and (I beleive) continued paying them even
> after he was exiled from America. I know that with
> one of his leading ladies, Edna Purviance, he
> continued paying her until her death in 1958, which
> was about 35 years after he had her as a leading lady.
> The only one that I can think of right now that
> worked for him and later said bad things about him
> later was Adolphe Menjou (who costarred with Edna in
> "A Woman of Paris") who was one of the guys back in
> the 1950s who named names during the communist witch
> hunt and said that Chaplin was a communist. That's the
> only person I can think of that said anything bad
> about him.

You are refering to the article Totherho gave in 1967 a few months before his death to, I think, Classic Film Collector magazine. He speaks rather bluntly that comes across unflattering. Classic Film Collector is no longer in print but the artcle was re-printed in a book "The Legend Of Charlie Chaplin" from 1983. That book is no longer in print either, but you might be able to track it down in a used book store.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]