Customer Reviews

Charlie Chaplin My Autobiography

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I originally read this book back in the early 1970's when I was a teen-ager. Recently I found it at my Dad's house and had the great pleasure of re-reading it. As with any autobiography there is a certain amount of self-promotion and justification, however this book really keeps it to a minimum. The period covered is from birth until his expulsion from the United States, and gives great insight on the early years of Hollywood, including his formation of United Artists with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. If you're a fan of "the Tramp" then I highly recommend this book. If you're not a fan but looking for a great true-to-life story, I would still recommend it as well.

Chaplin is Chaplin. This is enough to make his autobiography interesting. It is his honesty and sensitivity and attempts to be in touch with himself at various points of his life that makes this book remarkable. And it is through sharing his inadequacies and traumas that the comic tramp makes me cry.

This book is invaluable in getting an insight into early days of Hollywood. It also provides a great account of Charlie's life and struggles. So the learning is tremendous.

However, the best part of the book is its humanness - fallible, confused, hesitant, and shy and yet successful, rich, adored, and mobbed by fans.

What struck my heart is the loneliness in the midst of a celebrity status and Charlie's ability to get in touch with it and share it.

What is also moving is his trauma during the McCarthy era and his eventual 'reverse migration' to Europe.

Even JFK could not get him back.

While the movie Chaplin is very well done, no person can tell a story like they can tell there own. Based on this, I chose to read the book written by the cinematic legend himself. While there are some discrepencies between the book and movie, books have an ability to make details evident that movies can not make evident.

The book spends a considerable amount of time in his early life. Chaplin struggled with a rarely present father and a mentally ill mother. It was through this poverty that he followed the chosen career path of his parents in the theatre. The theatre would would lead him to America where he would begin working in the new film industry. Through this industry he made classic films that continue to influence modern cinema despite their age. When Chaplin made a film, it had something to say. It was art that spoke to the human soul with humor, love, and hope. His films were not merely a way to make money.

Aside from his work in films, Chaplin was a humanitarian. He supported America in times of war depite not being a citizen. Chaplin never forgot his roots, making him empathetic to the needs of the less fortunate. This trait led to the revoking of his citizenship when he spoke of openly of opening a second front in Russia during World War II. It was through this stance that he was labeled a "communist" and had his citizenship was revoked. In spite of these attacks led by J. Edgar Hoover, Chaplin rarely mentions Hoover in his book. Nor does he harbor ill will toward America. It is a travesty that this film legend and humanitarian was treated so poorly by the American government in his later years.

The book ends shortly after Chaplin has settled in to his new life in Switzerland. With his new life, Chaplin has a positive outlook. One has to wonder what might have been if Chaplin finished his life in America. Surely he was capable of creating more great work. However, sometimes a man's greatest work and pleasure is his family.

Despite all the exquisite books that have been devoted to Charlie Chaplin through the years, the comedian's own account of his life remains my first recommendation to anyone interested in his life and work. In fact, it seems to me that the relevance of MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY increases as every new book is written, because every Chaplin-biographer since has relied so heavily on the incredible memory, sensitivity and insight provided in this book. Thus to not recognize it in its entirety would likely result in an unbalanced view of the man.

It is the general standpoint that the first twelve out of twenty-nine chapters are the most fascinating. Born and raised in London, Chaplin's intense observations of the late Victorian era, seen through the eyes of a man who suffered a confused and insecure childhood, are often heartwrenching. Although Chaplin tells his story in retrospect as one of the richest and most celebrated personalities the world has ever known, it is made so obvious in his writing that the feelings of desperation and inferiority never quite left him, that I constantly found myself imagine not Chaplin the man, but Charlie the boy telling me his story as though it happened yesterday. His first appearance on the stage, the struggle for money, his mother being transmitted to a mental asylum, the death of his alcoholic father, his first experience with love, his rise from a bit player to a major comedian on the stage, leading to his first movie contract while on tour in the States; it is all here, told through a vast amount of anecdotes and descriptions of everyone and anything.

Chaplin devotes an entire chapter on his first year in the movie industry; he talks about the working methods of the time, the various comedians he worked with, his first attempts as a director, and of course the birth of his famous Tramp character who within months turned him into not only a star but also the truly first icon of the movies. He also spends some time further into the book analyzing the development of his character, how the Little Fellow (as he always named him) matured from a rough charicature with certain saddistic traits, into the lovable and (mostly) well-meaning Tramp we remember. As for his movies, one thing of particular interest to me was that Chaplin as early as in 1916 intended to make a science-fiction comedy, having his Tramp character travelling to the moon; one sequence was to have him feeded by a machine. Sadly this movie was never made, but Chaplin used the idea of the feeding machine twenty years later in one of his most acclaimed films.

However, as he turns attention to his position as a celebrity, it seems as though Chaplin becomes less interested in talking about his work. He shares interesting recollections of how he was inspired to do THE KID, THE GOLD RUSH, CITY LIGHTS, THE GREAT DICTATOR, MONSIEUR VERDOUX and LIMELIGHT as well as the receptions of these films, but only names a few particular incidents from the shootings. Several pages are spent on his trip to Hawaii in the early 30's, but the making of MODERN TIMES is gained less than two pages. Many readers find this disappointing, and not without reason, but I don't think the comedian's neglections are that surprising. The general enthusiasm in Chaplin's writing reveals that he probably wrote this memoir as much for his own pleasure as for his readers, and it can be assumed that he simply didn't find enough amusement in recalling the inexhausting years he spent on his masterpieces. On the other hand, he expressed in interviews that he remembered his early years as an entertainer with nostalgia; which quite certainly explains why he is more obsessed with his early work than later on.

As for his private life, Chaplin spends little time discussing his well publicized affairs with young women, including his two first wives. He does not by any means ignore this aspect of his life; he is frank with his interest in sex, which was mostly present when he had no work to attend, but prefers not to dwell on it, which I think is understandable considering that he'd led a very happy and healthy life with Oona and their children for twenty years by this time. I for one would hardly focuse much on such things if I ever wrote a memoir, as I think they are nobody's business but the involved parts. (Besides, as Chaplin- biographer Robinson has pointed out, this was in the 1960's when a "memoir" obviously was viewed by another standard than today.) From the infamous Joan Barry-scandal on, though (when he was forced to pay for a child that was not his), Chaplin is very open with his bitter feelings, and he remains such throughout the recollections of his exile from the U.S. in 1952.

The comparatively brief time spent on his sex life and working habits seems to be the only thing many people care about. What strikes me as far more important is that despite some slight disappointments, MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY remains a wonderful book throughout. Chaplin talks about love, loneliness, the nature of comedy and tragedy, and his passion for music even till the very last page. His vocabulary is outstanding; it is impossible to recognize the fact that this man got only two years of formal education. In contrast to most memoirs written by movie stars, it is vertified that nothing of Chaplin's book was ghost-written.

In addition to being an actor, Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited and compsed the music to his own films; it is through this phenomenal amount of talent, unequalled by anyone else in the business, that he remains one of the most recognizable figures the world has known. He gave us this book to tell his story, and we should be grateful for that.

While this is by no means a perfect book, it is still very enjoyable to read Chaplin's account of his life and times. Other works may portray him more accurately and with less bias, but they cannot offer the same personal touch that this book presents. For the most part, the book is a smooth read-even though Chaplin tends to leave out important points that are uncomfortable (but essential), creating a few strange transitions. Further, it appears that even the realm of non-fiction biography is not safe from fictional enhancements. Chaplin, being the tireless dramatist, invented at least one character in this book for fluency and apparently stretched a story here or there as well. Despite this, a fan of the great comedian must respect (or at least accept) the fact that this is how Charlie Chaplin wanted to be remembered.

CHARLES CHAPLIN: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY tells the revealing life of one of the most beloved and iconic American silver screen legends of the twentieth century. In his well-known bowl hat, toothbrush mustache, floppy shoes, and bamboo cane, Chaplin had a long illustrious film career that spanned from 1914 to 1957 where he made about 88 films. Through his modest upbringing in Victorian era England by former stage performers, Charles and Hannah Chaplin, Charles picked up where his parents left off. He was an entertainer as he was an articulate man who lived a somewhat vagabond life, which included travels all over the world, but between directing and performing, he spent his time reading the classics from history to philosophy; he was observant of the world around him, but dealt with the subject of history as poetic and a breath of skepticism. Chaplin states, "After all, there are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books" (323).

MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY does not cover controversial terrain. Chaplin is honest and respectful of the people he encountered throughout his career, and this is conveyed within his narrative. Charlie Chaplin lived and worked during the most serious periods in world history, the two World Wars and the controversy of looming accusations that he was tied to communist sentiment. Chaplin had the opportunity to become acquainted with the most towering dignitaries of the world, Sir Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, US presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, he offers little hints of particular encounters, such as with his meeting with Herbert Hoover, but does not elaborate on the details and leaves it up to the readers to come to their own conclusions. Indeed, he had a deep concern for humanity. He clearly was cognizant in translating his concerns through his creative endeavors, such as in his full-length films, "City Lights" and "The Great Dictator." One of the interesting aspects of Chaplin's discussion of "Dictator" is that he includes the transcript to the last lines to the film in this book.

As a fixture of Hollywood, Chaplin shared the limelight with his peers. His most revered friendships were with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, William Randolph Hearst, H.G. Wells, and mentor Upton Sinclair. He also experienced less than stellar relationships with different women that led to three failed marriages, but finally succeeded in finding happiness with his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill, when she was only eighteen years old and shockingly, he was in his 50's.

Overall, Charlie Chaplin shares with readers his most creative and colorful life. The only weakness to the book is that Chaplin seldom mentions any particular date to an event, thus readers are assumed to have knowledge of history and the individuals in which he speaks about in order to parallel these events to his own life. Nevertheless, MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY will enlighten the Chaplin aficionado or curious reader.

GREAT, WONDERFUL, THE BEST. these are just a few of the words that could discribe this briliant book about the talented little tramp, Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin. He tells of his hardships as a child, and his stage debute at the age of five that changed his life, all the way to the first time he walked onto the keystone movie sets, with the creation of the little tramp. He goes on to tell us about all of his movies and all of the trouble making them. He talkes about the invasion of talking movies and the meeting and wedding of the love of his life to the day he died, Oona O'neil. He very gracfully talkes of his exil on the way to the london premier of "Limelight," and the buying of his new house in Switerland, Manoir de Ban. This was, is, and forever will be a great book for all ages to read.

Once grown up, sort of, I never lingered long at the video shop over Chaplin's oeurve, passing his famous movies by for another day and then renting the Mambo Kings or True Grit, whatever. Finding his autobiography on a sale rack at Gecko Books in Chiang Mai stopped me though, and a few perused pages were enough to intrigue me as the man wrote affectionately and well. How the world has changed! Chaplin will acquaint you with turn-of-the-century London with its vibrant theatrical entertainment juxtaposed with 'work houses' and 'loony bins'. His initial tours as a stage actor in America are wonderfully rendered, filled with anecdotes worthy of Dos Passos, then followed by his swift ascent to fame and fortune working in and transforming the nascent movie industry in Los Angeles. After that sweet ride Chaplin confronted the 'talkies', a somewhat diminished energy and, eventually, the crude machinations of a voracious media and paranoid government. These latter periods are peppered throughout with overly long renditions of the rich and famous who sought him out or he them; mostly they ate and drank together. The look into celebrityhood is, at the very least, quite entertaining as a test of trivia. My Autobiography is a fine book and very well written, by one of the most engaging men of the twentieth century - I've got to rent those videos.

There is no doubt that Chaplin was a man of many talents, but he was also a human being. And like us all, was of contradictions, and many flaws. He tells of an absolute horrible childhood,with an alcoholic father, and a very emotional, unstable mother,that left him with a wary eye,towards practically everyone. It is true, that this autobiography left out those that he considered his equal. Such as Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton. He was probably deeply in love with a young girl named Hetty Kelly,that he knew in England-whom he never told how much he cared for her, and when she died, affected him profoundly. His pattern of marriages and their subsequent failures, told me that forever after, he continued to search for Hetty Kelly. Chaplin may have been famous, but this was one deeply sad story, that gave him a lifetime, to reflect on, and mourn.

Charles Chaplin was easily the first international superstar the world had ever known, but his story is an intriguing tale of a person with hopes, dreams and faults. The towering successes in Chaplin's life are mirrored by his failures, especially during the early part of his life while he was struggling to perfect his craft. By all means, Chaplin was a comedic genius of the first magnitude, but with it came a price only perfection can demand.