Myths about Charlie Chaplin

You have already read our selection interesting facts about Charlie Chaplin? Then we bring to your attention the widespread myths about Chaplin.

Charlie Chaplin was a communist

In the early 20s, he joined the Communist Party and gradually became one of its main sponsors – Chaplin regularly allocated from $1,000 to $25,000 for party needs. In addition, he was one of the key figures of Red Hollywood and commissioned from Moscow to shoot propaganda films criticizing the capitalist system – this is how “The Great Dictator” and “Monsieur Verdu” appeared.

Myth!

This myth was spread by Los Angeles Times columnist Hedda Hopper after Chaplin began to speak publicly in favor of the US entering the war and opening a second front. Although an FBI investigation in 1949 showed that Chaplin had never been in or financed the Communist Party, this did not prevent the US government in 1952 from banning Chaplin from entering the country as a communist supporter.

Chaplin was Jewish

This myth was born at the very beginning of the comedian’s career and, despite constant refutations, firmly established itself. Fans included Chaplin’s name in the encyclopedia “Who’s Who Among American Jews” (1938), and haters – in the “List of the Richest Jews” (1933).

Charlie Chaplin could not stand the smell of milk

Chaplin could not explain the nature of this phenomenon, but he said that he associates the smell of milk with sex and it makes him sick. Therefore, since childhood, Chaplin avoided everything dairy and was even afraid to touch bottles with milk.

Myth!

On the contrary, Chaplin himself often recalled how much he enjoyed eating oatmeal with milk as a child and his impressions when he first tried an American milkshake.

Chaplin had a secret correspondence with Lenin

In the late 1920s, three letters from Lenin addressed to Chaplin were discovered in Paris by playwright Jean Giraud. Based on them, Giraud planned to write a play and decided not to reveal the content of the correspondence.

Myth!

However, after Vsevolod Meyerhold persuaded Girod to hand over the letters to the Lenin Institute in Moscow, their contents were never made public. Meyerhold apparently became a victim of Giraud’s mystification – in an interview in 1928, he promised to report the letters to the Lenin Institute in order to return them to the USSR. However, neither Girod’s play based on the correspondence nor the letters themselves were ever discovered.

On the set, Chaplin fell into an insulin coma

Once Chaplin got so into the role that he almost killed himself. It was on the set of “The Gold Rush” in 1925. In the most famous episode, Chaplin’s hero boiled a shoe and ate it, imagining that he was having dinner at the Ritz Hotel. The shoe was made of licorice. Chaplin reshot the episode over three days without a break for lunch and hardly any distractions from sleep – all this time he ate exclusively liquorice shoe. The problem was that Chaplin had diabetes, and licorice contains almost no sugar – he was taken to the hospital with signs of hypoglycemic shock. There he was injected with glucose, and after a few days Chaplin returned to the site.

Myth!

The information that Chaplin was diabetic and almost died first appeared in the early 2000s on fan forums. At the heart of the myth about diabetes, however, was a very real episode: on the set of “The Gold Rush”, Chaplin really ate exclusively licorice shoes for three days and ended up in the hospital – only not with insulin shock, but with an upset stomach.

Charlie Chaplin Lookalike Contest

Chaplin participated in the competition of his own doubles and lost. The Little Tramp lookalike contests appeared in the mid-1910s and reached the peak of popularity in 1920, when Chaplin himself decided to take part in such a contest in San Francisco. Chaplin came to the competition without the false mustache and giant boots of the Little Tramp and ended up taking 27th place out of 40. He told reporters that he decided to take part in the competition because he could not watch how badly the doubles portrayed the Little Tramp’s gait.

Myth!

For the first time, the Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times wrote about Chaplin’s loss in the competition of his doppelgangers in 1920, based on the words of a certain Lord Desborough, who learned about the competition from actress Mary Pickford. Chaplin denied the information, saying that even if he wanted to, he simply would not be able to take part in the competition, because he spent all his time on the set.

A jealous husband of his girlfriend tried to kill Chaplin

Once Chaplin tried to kill the media mogul William Hearst. It happened in 1924: during a yacht cruise, Hearst found out that his lover Marion Davis was having an affair with Chaplin, and, finding them on the deck, shot Chaplin. But he was mistaken: he mistook producer Thomas Ince for Chaplin. Ince died from the shot.

Myth!

These rumors spread among Hollywood cinematographers after the news of the unexpected death of Thomas Ince on Hearst’s yacht. Ince was indeed on the yacht, but he died not there, but in the hospital, and not from a gunshot, but from a heart attack. In any case, Hearst could not confuse him with Chaplin – Chaplin was not on the yacht, and his short affair with Davis had long since ended.

Chaplin banned showing his films in the USSR

This happened after Stalin scolded the “Great Dictator” in 1940. Stalin liked the first part of the film, but did not like the second, especially the final monologue criticizing dictatorial regimes. The director Hryhoriy Alexandrov informed Chaplin about Stalin’s reaction, to which Chaplin replied that he would then prohibit showing his old films in the USSR and refuse to sell the rights to new ones.

Myth!

In the early 1970s, this version of events was told by the Soviet emigrant Nugzar Sharia, the nephew of Beria’s assistant Petro Sharia. Stalin actually watched The Great Dictator, but we don’t know his reaction for sure. In any case, as early as 1941, Soviet magazines wrote enthusiastically about the film, calling it a “masterpiece of war satire” and “the first truly popular film.” However, the film never made it to the Soviet box office. The Hollywood Reporter in the same year explained this by the fact that the Soviet authorities asked for a discount because of the war, and Chaplin refused out of respect for Great Britain, which paid the full price.

Chaplin conducted the casting through the bed

Usually, auditions for actresses in Chaplin’s films took place like this: Chaplin, dressed in a Little Tramp costume, showed the actresses cards, as in silent films, on which it was written what they should do. From the “Afraid” and “Crying” cards, Chaplin gradually moved to the “Undresses” and “Touches his breasts” cards and then forced them to have sex.

Myth!

These rumors were spread in 1943 by Hedda Hopper, who specialized in Hollywood gossip and hated Chaplin. It was talked about again with the emergence of the #metoo movement, referring to information from an article by The Sleeze, where a fictional film historian accused Chaplin of harassment. Although Chaplin had affairs with several actresses, none of them accused him of coercion.

Chaplin’s last words were addressed to the priest

Chaplin had always been skeptical of the church and avoided religious ceremonies, but when it became clear in December 1977 that the 88-year-old Chaplin did not have long to live, he gave in to his wife’s insistence and agreed to receive a priest. The priest came to the already dying Chaplin and read a prayer over him, ending with the words: “May the Lord have mercy on your soul.” Then Chaplin asked: “And why should he NOT pardon her? After all, she belongs to him, doesn’t she?” Before waiting for an answer, Chaplin died.

Myth!

The story of Chaplin’s dying meeting with a priest appeared in the early 2000s in the books of American priests. In fact, Chaplin did not meet the priest and did not say anything before his death: he died in his sleep, and the last words attributed to him are a quote from the movie “Monsieur Verdu”.