MICHAEL JACKSON DRESSED IN CHAPLIN’S LITTLE TRAMP COSTUME

Jackson was fascinated, if not in fact obsessed, with the trajectory of Charlie Chaplin’s life story.

Like Chaplin, Jackson went into show business at a very early age.

Chaplin in his first professional role as a child performer: he was a member of clog dancing [...]

Ten days after the death of his firstborn infant son, 30-year-old Charlie Chaplin began interviewing child actors for this previously unplanned film in which his Little Tramp finds, adopts and raises an abandoned infant who grows to be a miniature version of himself. The child actor is Jackie Coogan.

Charlie & Jackie in the film THE [...]

OR….WHERE’S CHARLIE?

For a photo-essay on THE CIRCUS see essay #33 on this website (see list on the left side of this web page).

For a wonderful film clip of 83-year-old Chaplin receiving the longest standing ovation in the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences go to Charlie’s Oscar

Ten days after the death of his firstborn infant son, 30-year-old Charlie Chaplin began interviewing child actors for this previously unplanned film in which his Little Tramp finds, adopts and raises an abandoned infant who grows to be a miniature version of himself. The child actor is Jackie Coogan.

Charlie & Jackie in the film THE [...]

Like millions of others, Charlie was an immmigrant and fully understood that experience. This classic master shot from his masterpiece captures the essence of that experience.

THIS TWO-REEL MASTERPIECE WAS CHAPLIN’S COMIC VALENTINE TO THE AMERICAN DREAM. IT AFFECTIONATELY PORTRAYED THE TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS OF NEWCOMERS TO THE PROMISED LAND FILMED AT A PERIOD IN AMERICAN HISTORY WHEN FULLY ONE-THIRD OF ALL PEOPLE IN AMERICA WERE EITHER FOREIGN-BORN OR HAD AT LEAST ONE FOREIGN BORN PARENT.
FOR DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE OF THE ACTUAL [...]

Charlie Chaplin transformed his childhood experiences with poverty and starvation into comedy. Chaplin grew up at times living beneath the poverty line. As a 14-year-old he personally witnessed the harrowing spectacle of his 38-year-old formerly glamorous and vivacious showgirl mother being driven mad by severe hunger and chronic malnutrition to the [...]