Author Scott Eyman explains how silent film actor Charlie Chaplin was smeared in the press, scandalized for his affairs with young women, condemned for his alleged communist ties and banned from returning to the U.S. "At one time or another he was the target of the entire security apparatus of the United States of America," Eyman says. His book is Charlie Chaplin vs. America. Also, Justin Chang reviews two highly-anticipated blockbusters, Wicked and Gladiator II.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the significance of Charlie Chaplin in American cinema?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. Charlie Chaplin is a legendary figure of American cinema, remembered for silent films such as Modern Times about the alienation of factory work and The Great Dictator, a talking picture in which Chaplin satirized and imitated Adolf Hitler. But Chaplin also led a colorful and controversial life beyond his film career.
Today we're going to listen to Terry's interview with writer Scott Iman about his book, Charlie Chaplin vs. America, When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided. It's now out in paperback. Eyman writes about Chaplin's affairs with younger women, a paternity suit in which he was falsely accused, and the FBI's investigation into his alleged communist ties, among other things.
When Chaplin went to England in 1952 to promote a film, his reentry papers were revoked, forcing him to spend the last 25 years of his life in exile. Scott Iman is also the author of books about John Wayne, Cary Grant, John Ford, and Cecil B. DeMille. Cary spoke to him last fall when his book Charlie Chaplin vs. America was published in hardback.
Chapter 2: What controversies surrounded Charlie Chaplin?
Scott Iman, welcome to Fresh Air. I found this book really interesting. I didn't realize how controversial Chaplin was and how many different agencies had investigated him. The FBI, the CIA, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Post Office, the House Un-American Activities Committee. So his most controversial film was the 1940 film The Great Dictator. This was a satire of Hitler.
It was made a year before the U.S. entered World War II. What was controversial about ridiculing Hitler?
Well, he started shooting the film in September 1939. It came out in October 1940. At this point in history, America is an isolationist country, as is Congress. Hitler was not our problem. The Jews of Europe were not our problem. If Hitler took England, we would just have to make a separate piece. And that would be the end of our problem. Chaplin believed otherwise, as did Franklin Roosevelt.
Chapter 3: Why was The Great Dictator considered controversial?
As a matter of fact, Franklin Roosevelt was one of the few people in America that wanted the film made. Nobody in Hollywood wanted the film made. Because in the latter part of 1939, anti-fascist films were very, very few on the ground. But he was basically bound and determined. There's a letter in the book from Jack Warner to Chaplin.
Jack Warner had just had a meeting with Roosevelt in the Oval Office.
And Roosevelt had brought up Chaplin's... Jack Warner is in the Warner Brothers Company.
Exactly. And Roosevelt had heard the mutterings about Chaplin making an anti-Hitler satire. And he brought it up to Warner that he certainly hoped Chaplin was going to go ahead and make the film because he thought it would do a lot of good.
And Warner wrote a letter to Chaplin reporting his conversation with the president and said, if President Roosevelt believes it'll do a lot of good, so do I. I hope you go and make it, Charlie. He didn't offer to help. But he was passing along the story. He didn't really need to pass along the story. Chaplin was totally committed. But nobody wanted that film made.
The British Foreign Office didn't want the film made because Neville Chamberlain was the prime minister. And he was attempting to appease Hitler. Unsuccessfully, obviously. The American Congress was totally isolationist. And the industry also. The American film industry thought it was a dangerous film to make. But Chaplin basically ignored everybody.
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Chapter 4: How did Franklin Roosevelt influence Chaplin's work?
The Nazi representative in Los Angeles was a man named George Gisling. And his job essentially was to strong-arm anybody that wanted to make an anti-Nazi picture by writing a threatening letter or two or three.
And he wrote a threatening letter to the head of the Motion Picture Association, a man named Joe Breen, inquiring us to Chaplin's plans to make this film about, clearly, manifestly about Hitler. and Breen reported back that he'd asked Chaplin about it, and Chaplin said, well, there's no script, there's no story, there's no nothing.
And if indeed Breen did call him about this, Chaplin was lying through his teeth, because three weeks later he started building sets to make the film. So he was going to go ahead and make the film Come Hell or High Water.
One of the reasons I think that his studio didn't want him to make the film is that they wanted all their films to play in Germany. And Germany was definitely not going to play an anti-Hitler film. And also the Germans for a while thought that Chaplin was Jewish. Why did they think he was Jewish?
They were obsessed with the idea that Chaplin was Jewish. That's a very good question because at one point there was a book published in Germany by a Jewish consortium that included Chaplin in a roster of famous show business Jews. which was erroneous. He wasn't Jewish. But he never denied the erroneous charge because he felt it would give aid and comfort to anti-Semites.
And besides that, he liked Jews. So he just went along with it. So most people went along with him because he hadn't bothered to deny it.
So what was the impact of the great dictator on Charlie Chaplin's life?
The thing about Chaplin is that he was going to do what he thought was the right thing to do. He didn't listen to committees. He didn't listen to friends who told him you're making a mistake. He had a very... monotheistic view of his own career. The audience had always followed him wherever he led.
They had followed him into feature motion pictures with The Kid and The Gold Rush when people said that they didn't think he could pull off a feature because the character wasn't strong enough. They had followed him into the 1930s when he insisted on making silent pictures after silent pictures were dead and buried.
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Chapter 5: What were the implications of Chaplin's political stance?
What were some of the different chapters in it? What were some of the things they investigated about him over the years?
You name it. It depends on the period you're talking about. Basically, at one time or another, he was the target of the entire security apparatus of the United States of America. They would bug his phones at some times, then they would back off on bugging his phones, and they would set up perimeters outside of his house to see who showed up at his front door. They would open his mail.
All this took place over a period of eight to ten years, depending upon how excited J. Edgar Hoover was getting.
Did he know this was happening?
I can't imagine he didn't know. But if he did know, he did not acknowledge it.
Did you get access or try to get access through the Freedom of Information Act to the FBI files on Charlie Chaplin?
Yes. They've been available for years.
Oh, I didn't realize that. So you read them.
Uh-huh. All 1,900 pages. The very interesting thing is there was this disconnect between Hoover in Washington and the FBI office in Los Angeles. The FBI in Los Angeles were the men on the ground in terms of surveilling the motion picture industry. And the head of the FBI office in Los Angeles was a man named Richard Hood. Because Hoover seldom went to Los Angeles.
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Chapter 6: What led to Chaplin's exile from the U.S.?
After the Immigration and Nationalization Service banned Charlie Chaplin from returning to the U.S., and he refused to fight it because he felt he'd been so mistreated in the U.S. and so smeared, he never returned to the U.S., right? That was it.
He came back to get his honorary Oscar in 1972. Oh, okay. On his terms. His films were being reissued all over America, all over the world. He signed a deal for his film library. And his films were being reissued, and they gave him an honorary Oscar to make up for the fact that in 1952, basically the entire movie industry had turned the other cheek and ignored...
The fact that the most famous comedian in town had just been driven out of the country. When he got kicked out of the country, three people in Hollywood stood up publicly and said this was a terrible mistake. You know who they were?
Who?
Sam Goldwyn, Cary Grant, and William Wyler. Everybody else shut up.
What did Charlie Chaplin say in his acceptance speech?
He was overwhelmed. It was a 12-minute ovation. It was the longest ovation in the history of the Oscars. Old age is beginning to have its way with him when you look at it on YouTube. He's older, he's frail. He just kind of shakes his head and he can't believe it that after all these years, you know. The funny thing was his son, Sidney, wonderful man, gone now.
But I had a long interview with Sidney, oh, 20 years ago probably. And he said the thing that you have to understand about my father was he didn't care about the Oscar. He didn't care about awards. Those meant nothing to him.
He said my father's image of himself was as a workman, to show up every day and work on the script until it's as good as you can make it, to show up on the set every day until the scene is as good as you can make it. He said it wasn't about awards. It wasn't even about money. It was about being a good workman. putting in your time. He said that's why he hated to go on vacation.
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