Travel Charlie Chaplin: His Personal Life, Part 2 BY ED BOITANO Well, it’s been a week. And once again I find myself sitting on the park bench in Vevey, Switzerland, next to the statue of Charlie Chaplin, with whom I share the panorama of shimmering Lake Geneva and the pristine snowcapped Alps. I’ve covered a lot of tracks: indulging in the region’s world-class wines and scrumptious Swiss-French cuisine, wandering Lausanne’s cobblestone streets, and seeing the former home of Audrey Hepburn in Tolochenaz, near Lausanne, and the current home studio of Jean-Luc Godard, also near Lausanne. I tried to make sense of Huguenot, John Calvin’s Gestapo-like control of Geneva, and laid victim to the region’s steep prices. A simple café au lait and a buttery croissant set me back $20 U.S. But it was time to return to the centerpiece of my trip, an exploration of the life of Sir Charles Spencer Chapin. He chose Manoir de Ban, a neoclassical mansion in Corsier-sur-Vevey, to live his remaining 25 years, which, according to his family, constituted his “happy years.” I reserved my
final day to visit the Manoir, now rechristened Chaplin’s World, which has been repurposed and expanded as a museum that showcases Chaplin’s work and life as a family man in Switzerland.
Personal life Chaplin enjoyed what had appeared to be a fun-filled period during his time in Hollywood. Privately, he led a lonely life, filled with scandal and haunted memories of his impoverished youth. His home in Beverly Hills’ Pickfair neighborhood—named after the mansion of married couple Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks—was designed by himself and built by studio carpenters, not known for building structures that lasted. It began to slowly fall apart and was affectionately coined “The Breakaway House.” The guests loved it, and it became a place of merriment and refuge from Hollywood’s bright lights. Chaplin would entertain his guests by playing a pipe organ, inventing new gags and organizing swimming parties and games of tennis, where even the elusive Greta Garbo was a frequent player. Sadly, defamation was also part of his life. During World War I, the British press labeled Chaplin as a self-absorbed coward whose loyalty to his home country of England was questioned for never serving in the military, despite aggressively selling war bonds and transferring large amounts of his substantial income to the British government. Nevertheless, cutouts of the Tramp were propped up by British soldiers in the trenches “so the Germans would die laughing,” and his movies were projectSir Charles and Lady Oona Chaplin are buried side by side in a simple gravesite at Corsier-sur-Vevey. (Photo by Deb Roskamp)
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Chaplin, Oona and kids departing on a vessel back to the United States. (Photo courtesy Pinterest)
ed on the ceilings of military hospitals where wounded warriors could enjoy morale-raising laughs from their beds. Another scandal occurred when Chaplin briefly dated 22-year-old Joan Barry, who later reappeared in his life, claiming that Chaplin was her baby’s father, and filed a paternity suit. The public trial was so intense that Chaplin’s hair literally turned gray overnight. Blood tests proved Chaplin was not the father, but, at the time, blood tests were inadmissible evidence and he was ordered to pay $75 a week until the child turned 21. Matrimony was also a problem for Chaplin: marrying three times to younger women with striking resemblances to his mother, Hannah. The wives club included Mildred Harris, age 17; Lita Grey, age 16; and actress Paulette Goddard, age 28, who costarred with Chaplin in “Modern Times” and “The Great Dictator.” His life took a blissful turnaround upon meeting the luminous Oona O’Neill in 1943, daughter of American playwright Eugene O’Neill. Chaplin was looking for a lead actress for his next (unrealized) project, and discovered the mesmerizing 17-year-old O’Neill. He was overwhelmed by her captivating beauty, and their meeting led to a life-long romance. A month after O’Neill turned 18, they eloped and married in a secret civil service in Carpentaria, California. Her father immediately disowned her upon learning of her marriage to Chaplin,
who was the same age as him. He refused all future attempts at reconciliation. Chaplin’s final marriage lasted until his death, producing eight children. Although Oona stayed in the background—she was happy to focus on their home and children— she spent time at the studios when Chaplin was working, offering her opinion about his various projects. During the 1950s, the House Un-American Activities Committee’s witch hunts—a disturbing period in U.S. history where Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion—were in full swing. The committee used various charges of communism, communist sympathies and disloyalty to attack a number of individuals, which included many left-leaning Hollywood personalities. Chaplin was considered dangerously progressive and amoral. FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover and HUAC mistakenly believed he was injecting communist propaganda into his films. It was also revealed he never bothered to become a U.S. citizen. When Chaplin and his family were departing back by vessel to Hollywood from a European vacation, Chaplin was informed that he would have to submit to an interview concerning his political views and moral behavior in order to re-enter the United States. Rather than fight a pending investigation by immigration services, Chaplin decided not to return to Hollywood at all. The Chaplin family, though, needed a new address in Europe. His older half-brother, Sydney www.LovinLife.com
