#sydney chaplin

[chaplinfortheages]

Charles Chaplin Jr's book “My Father, Charlie Chaplin” written in 1960, gives a fair and honest account of Chaplin both as a father and a man. But it’s the below passage regarding Paulette Goddard, what she meant to two young boys Charles Jr. 7 and Sydney 6 that is one of the most touching. They met Paulette in late 1932, their own mother Lita was often away on singing tours.

“This is Paulette Goddard boys. Now what do you say to the nice lady?”

“Syd and I lifted our heads and looked into that friendly face with its mischievous conspiratorial smile, and we lost our hearts at once, never to regain them through all the golden years of our childhood. Have you ever realized, Paulette, how much you meant to us? You were like a mother, a sister, a friend all in one. You lightened our father’s spells of somber moodiness and you turned the big house on the hill into a real home. We thought you were the loveliest creature in the whole world. And somehow I feel, looking back today, that we meant as much to you, that we satisfied some need your life, too.”

Top - Pictured Charles Jr’s book and visiting his father at his home in Switzerland, holding his daughter Susan Maree, Charlie’s first grandchild.

Two notables pictured Shirley Temple (bottom) and author H.G. Wells (above that).

[chaplinfortheages]

Beautiful color slides from the original Broadway production of "Bells Are Ringing" 1956. Starring Sydney Chaplin (Charlie's 3rd son) and Judy Holliday. Both won Tonys for their performance.

Judy Holliday starred in the film version released in 1960 with Dean Martin taking the male lead.

New York Public Library Digital Collection (x)

[chaplinfortheages]

Charlie Chaplin and Madame Olga Petrova, stage and screen actress visits set of "Shoulder Arms" July 9th 1918. Born Muriel Harding in England 1884, later changing her name to something right out of the Russian Empire. Brother Sydney in bottom photo.

Charlie would have been shooting scenes he discarded depicting him as a family man and Army draftee.

Top and bottom photo credit to my facebook friend Shunichi Ohkubo.

[chaplinlegend]

26 February 1916, Charlie Chaplin signed his contract with the Mutual Film Company.

Many of the major studios of the time expressed interest in signing Charlie Chaplin, including Universal, Triangle, Famous Players, Vitagraph and Fox. The winning bid, however, was submitted by John R. Freuler, president of the Mutual Film Corporation. The company existed for only three years and was founded the year Charlie Chaplin arrived in the United States. Freuler agreed to a signing bonus for Chaplin of $150,000 (Charlie immediately signed more than half of Sydney's bonus), and under the agreement he was to be paid $10,000 a week (a significant advance compared to Essanay's weekly rate of $1,250 dollars).

In the photo from the right: Charlie Chaplin, his brother Sydney Chaplin and John R. Freuler, president of the Mutual Film Corporation.

[citizenscreen]

(Original Caption) Chaplin and son team up in a new movie. Hollywood, California.

Charles Chaplin is shown here in the role of Calvero with his son, Sydney, playing Neville, a composer, in a scene from Chaplin's Newest movie, Limelight. (1952)

[chaplinfortheages]

Charlie Chaplin's son Sydney and Judy Holiday during the Broadway production of "Bells are Ringing", for his role as Jerry Moss in 1957 he won a Tony Award. In 1960 the play became a movie, while Judy Holiday kept her role, his went to Dean Martin.

[letterboxd-loggd]

If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968) Gianfranco Parolini

March 17th 2024

[chaplinfortheages]

Charlie Chaplin and brother Sydney (seated to his left top photo) in Naples, Italy March 6th 1932. From there they boarded the Japanese ship Suwa Maru, they'd spend the next 3 months visiting through out Asia before heading back to Los Angeles in June.

[chaplinlegend]

On February 13, 1931, Charlie Chaplin sailed for Europe on a tour to promote his new film, "City Light's", during which he visited England, Germany, Austria, Italy, and France. After the tour ended, Chaplin stayed in Europe—mostly in Switzerland and the French Riviera—because he simply did not feel like returning to Hollywood. In February 1932, after being away from home for exactly a year, Charlie Chaplin decided to return to California. Instead of taking the shorter, faster route across the Atlantic and then to the American continent, he took the longer, roundabout route through the Orient, a part of the world he had always wanted to visit and explore.

Not wanting to travel alone, Charlie Chaplin asked his brother Sydney, then living in Nice in the south of France, to accompany him.

Charlie's personal secretary, Toraichi Kono, a Japanese who had worked for him since 1916, also accompanied him on the journey. On March 2, 1932, they boarded the Japanese liner NYK (Nippon Yusen Kaisha) Suwa Maru at the port of Naples, Italy. Passing through the Suez Canal and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), they arrived in Singapore on March 27, according to the local press, - although the date March 25, a Friday, is listed in the itinerary given in Charlie Chaplin's travel diaries.

Pictured: Charlie Chaplin was the guest of Ranee of Sarawak, her daughter H.H. Daya Elizabeth and Mr. H.C. Strickland, on April 27, 1932. Charlie's brother Sydney Chaplin is visible on the right.

Courtesy of the establishment of the Roy Export Company.

[howardhawkshollywood]

Sydney Chaplin side eyes Joan Collins in an original publicity still for Land of the Pharaohs (1955)

[justbusterkeaton]

In December 1951, Chaplin sent for him to discuss a scene in his new film, a drama of the English music halls called Limelight. The two men embraced; there was always great affection between them.

“That sequence was a very, very difficult sequence to do, the two of them together,” said Jerry Epstein (Chaplin’s assistant) “Buster came on the first day wearing his Buster Keaton hat, ready to go, and Charlie took him aside and said, ‘Buster, this is not that kind of picture. We’re playing different parts now. We’re not playing the old thing.’ And he said, ‘Yes, Charlie, of course. Sure. Of course. Anything you want.’ Which is what was sweet about him. It was like his first picture. He had all this enthusiasm of starting in pictures again, and that was terribly endearing….The crew just loved it, seeing Keaton and Chaplin working together.”

There was this kind of unconscious communication that went on,” said Norman Lloyd. “Not much talk. They would look and do something, then do it again. No talk. There was a kind of communication between them that was unspoken. But it happened as they would adjust the routine—maybe more music or maybe Charlie wanted to pull the pants up higher or whatever. But then—‘No, we’ll do it again.’ And Buster would keep adding stuff at the piano with having more music falling all over the place.”

The routine ends in applause and death, Calvero working himself into such a lather he tumbles off the edge of the stage and lands in a bass drum, from which he continues to play. They haul him up and carry him off, drum and all, to the laughs and the cheers of the audience. He has hurt his back, he thinks, but as he lies on a couch in his dressing room, the doctor determines he’s had a heart attack. While an ambulance is summoned, he asks to be carried to the wings to watch the performance of a ballerina he’s mentored. And there he dies. As the body is covered with a sheet, the camera pulls back to include those surrounding him, principally Keaton, Sydney Chaplin, Norman Lloyd, and Nigel Bruce. It continues out onto the stage where Claire Bloom, in mid-performance, twirls into the shot.

It was a deceptively complicated movement that momentarily summoned the filmmaker in Keaton. “The camera,” said Lloyd, “was on Charlie—centered on him—and, as we were going backwards, with no dialogue, just music, I heard a voice, very quiet, just above a whisper, saying, ‘It’s okay, Charlie. You’re right in the center of the shot. Yeah, you’re fine, Charlie. It’s perfect. Right in the shot. Right in there…” That was Buster. He just volunteered that. He had nothing to do with the making of the shot at all, but he was directing that scene. He wanted to make sure that camera never got off Charlie. And he’s making certain that Charlie gets his shot.”

Excerpts taken from - Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life by James Curtis 2022

[chaplinlegend]

"The Bond" - a 1918 film directed by Charlie Chaplin.

The main roles were: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Henry Bergman, Sydney Chaplin, Tom Wilson, Joan Marsh, Albert Austin.

The film is full of patriotic scenes intended to encourage people to purchase bonds, the money from which will support the Allied forces fighting in World War I. The creators refer to interpersonal bonds such as friendship, love and marriage, at the same time emphasizing the great importance of freedom. (X)

[genevieveetguy]

Papa, the Lil' Boats (Papa les petits bateaux…), Nelly Kaplan (1971)

[chaplinfortheages]

Charlie Chaplin and brother Sydney visit Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka) March 1932.

[letterboxd-loggd]

Limelight (1952) Charlie Chaplin

June 22nd 2024

[chaplinfortheages]

May 1st 1932 Tokyo, Japan: Charlie Chaplin (bow tie) and brother Sydney are entertained by Nakamura Kichiemon, famous Kabuki Theatre actor, during their visit to the Japanese Capitol.

March 6th 1936 Tokyo, Japan: Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard took in a performance at a Kabuki Theatre.

Charles Chaplin Jr. (1925-1968) wrote in his book published in 1960 "My Father, Charlie Chaplin" page 72 regarding Japanese people:

“They understand and love his pantomime, which has so much in common with the tradition of their own Kabuki theater. My father, for his part, fell in love with Kabuki style of acting, with its stress on pantomime, from the first time he saw a Japanese troupe performing in this (U.S.) country.”