1 Kennington Park Road at the time of Chaplin’s boyhood.
2 Charles Chaplin, father of Charles, aged about twenty.
3 Hannah Chaplin, mother of Charles and Sydney, about 1885.
4 Illustrated cover for Charles Chaplin Senior’s song ‘Pals That Time Cannot Alter!’, c. 1892.
5 Bill for New Empire Palace Theatre of Varieties, Leicester, featuring Charles Chaplin Senior, 1898.
6 Leo Dryden about the time of his liaison with Hannah Chaplin.
7 Cuckoo Schools, Hanwell.
8 Charles Chaplin (circled) at the Hanwell Schools, 1897.
9 Charles Chaplin at the time he was touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads.
10/10a Marceline, ‘The Droll’, in pathetic and manic moods, 1900. The eleven-year-old Chaplin’s experience working alongside this inspired young clown no doubt helped shape his own future concepts of comedy.
11 Chaplin as Sammy the Newsboy in Jim, A Romance of Cockayne, 1903.
12 Chaplin as Billy the Page in the touring company of Sherlock Holmes, 1903.
13/13a Chaplin’s two Sherlock Holmeses: H. A. Saintsbury and William C. Gillette.
14 Sydney Chaplin, aged eighteen, c. 1903.
15 Chaplin, with hammer and offensive tam-o’-shanter, in Repairs (1906).
16 The Casey’s Circus company, 1906. Chaplin (in bowler hat) at Will Murray’s left. Others in the group are Hal Jones (back row, third left), George Doonan (back row, extreme right), Tom Brown (? left of centre row), Eddie Emerson (next to Murray), Herbert Kirk (next to Chaplin), Fred Hawes, Hal Cheryl and Billy Leonard.
17 The real Dr Walford Bodie, from an advertisement in The Era.
18 Chaplin’s impersonation of Dr Walford Bodie, 1906.
19 Fred Karno c. 1920.
20 Chaplin c. 1909, at the time he joined the Karno companies.
21 Sydney Chaplin as Archibald in Skating, with his wife, Minnie.
22 Charles Chaplin as Archibald in Skating.
23 Hetty Kelly as stage artist.
24/24a Two portraits of Hetty Kelly about the time that she became Mrs Alan Horne. Hetty’s signature on them suggests that she may have had these rather elegant photographs taken by Rita Martin of Baker Street, to send to her fiancé on the Western Front. After the death of his young wife, and for the rest of his own life, Sir Alan Horne kept these two pictures, along with the one reproduced on the preceding page, together in one frame.
25 The Karno company on tour in the USA. At the train windows, left to right, are Amy Reeves, Emily Seaman, Muriel Palmer, Albert Austin, Fred Karno Junior, Bert Williams and Chaplin. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph says ‘Charlie at $75 a week’.
26 On tour with Karno troupe: about to leave Solano railway depot, Philadelphia. To Chaplin’s right are Albert Austin (holding his arm) and Alf Reeves.
27 Chaplin in front of a poster for A Night in an English Music Hall, during his first American Karno tour. His companions are believed to be the vaudeville gymnasts, Lohse and Sterling. Ralph Lohse and Chaplin briefly planned to go into partnership raising pigs – a business on which Lohse ultimately embarked with success.
28 Chaplin with posters at Exeter (California) railway depot.
29 The Keystone Studios about 1913.
30 Mack Sennett on the set (probably in costume for an acting role), about the time Chaplin joined Keystone.
31 Mabel Normand.
32 Making a Living, Chaplin’s first film. The actor in the centre is Henry ‘Pathé’ Lehrman, who also directed the film.
33 The Essanay Studios at Niles, California, 1915.
34 The Majestic Studio (formerly Bradbury Mansion) where Work was filmed.
35a-e Group of picture postcards, with scenes from Essanay films, issued in Britain in 1915.
36 A unique panoramic group photograph of Chaplin’s Essanay unit taken on the set of The Bank, 1915. Such photographs were taken by means of a slowly revolving camera: it was thus possible for a person photographed at the starting end of the line to run behind the camera and take up a new position at the other end, so as to appear twice in the finished photograph. The producer Jess Robins – probably urged by Chaplin, standing next to him – has achieved the feat in this case. Each person in the picture has signed the photograph, but many of the signatures are now illegible. A note at the foot of the picture says that the dotted cross indicates the British members of the unit. From left to right: 1 Jess Robins, 2 Chaplin, 3 Edna Purviance, 4 (unknown), 5 Charles Insley, 6 Leo White, 7 Billy Armstrong, 8 Carl Stockdale, 9 Fred Goodwins, 10 Lawrence A. Bowes, 11 Harold (?), 12 Paddy McQuire (sic), 13 John L. Crizer, 14 (?) Easterday, 15 Jack Roach, 16 Stockdale, 17 (unknown), 18 George Cleethorpes, 19 Harry Ensign (cameraman), 20 (unknown), 21 (unknown), 22 Shortie Wilson, 23 (unknown), 24 (?) Charlie Gordon Jr, 25 (unknown), 26 (unknown), 27 (unknown), 28 George Green, 29 (unknown), 30 (unknown), 31 William Gorham, 32 Lee Hall, 33 Jess Robins. The set for the bank vault is clearly visible; to the left is part of the set of the manager’s office. At the right of the picture are the dressing rooms, and overhead the muslin light diffusers.
37 Chaplin’s first days at the Lone Star Studios. He can be seen at the front of the stage. Around him are the uncompleted sets for The Floorwalker, including the escalator.
38 Filming The Vagabond, 1916.
39 Edna Purviance, 1918. An informal photograph by Jack Wilson, Chaplin’s second cameraman.
40 Chaplin and Sydney at the site of the projected studio, 1918.
41 The studio in early stages of construction.
42 Chaplin precariously balanced on the skeleton of the part-built studio.
43 Anticipation of Shoulder Arms: ‘advertisement’ for a putative film, probably sketched by Chaplin in April–May 1918.
44 Aerial view of the Chaplin studio taken by Jack Wilson in 1918, showing the extent of the citrus groves at the time.
45 Aerial view of the studio during the shooting of A Woman of Paris, 1922–3.
46 Aerial view of the studio during the shooting of Modern Times, 1935–6. The urban encroachment is evident; the film sets can be distinguished on the back lot.
47 A Dog’s Life (1918). The ‘lady’ at the top right is Henry Bergman, whose ‘fur’ for the scene cost $2.34, according to the studio records.
48 A Dog’s Life (1918). Charlie with Mut.
49 An unshaven Chaplin after four days and nights spent editing A Dog’s Life.
50 A rehearsal at the studio, posed for How to Make Movies (1918). From left to right, front: (unknown), Loyal Underwood, Chaplin, Henry Bergman, Edna Purviance; standing, Jack Wilson, cameraman.
51 Harry Lauder visits the studio, 23 January 1918. With him are the Chaplin brothers and Douglas Fairbanks.
52 Chaplin addressing a Bond rally in Wall Street, New York, 1918.
53 Shoulder Arms, 1918: kitchen set for abandoned prologue.
54 Shoulder Arms, 1918: banquet set for abandoned epilogue.
55 The Bond (1918): Chaplin and Edna. This photograph illustrates the remarkable Expressionist style of the decors.
56 Shoulder Arms, 1918: Chaplin getting into his tree costume.
57 A break during filming The Bond. In the foreground, Henry Bergman, as John Bull, is chatting to Sydney Chaplin, as the Kaiser.
58 An impetuous visitor: Douglas Fairbanks vaults the gate of the Chaplin Studio.
59 The United Artists: Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Chaplin and D. W. Griffith with Oscar Price (facing camera).
60 Jack Wilson taking the above photograph. Mr Biby, the studio manager, stands beside the camera; Edna, wearing shawl, behind.
61 Mildred Harris Chaplin, 1918.
62 The grave of Norman Spencer Chaplin, Glendale Cemetery.
63 The Kid (1921): Chaplin, with wings, practises flying.
64 The Freak: for this unrealized film, which Chaplin still hoped to make in the early 1970s, his daughter Victoria was to play a girl who suddenly grows wings. Here she tries a costume very like the one her father wore fifty years earlier in The Kid.
65 The Professor (1919). During the filming of the dosshouse scene, Charles Riesner grins at the stills photographer, while Jack Wilson (left) and Rollie Totheroh operate the two cameras.
66 The Kid (1921): Chaplin with Jackie Coogan, Edith Wilson and her baby. Edith Wilson was the wife of Jack Wilson, the second cameraman, who wrote on the back of the photograph, ‘Charlie thanking Edith for taking part in his picture. She was paid $15 for 4 hours work. Not bad, eh?’
67 Chaplin and Clare Sheridan, November 1921.
68 Chaplin with Max Linder at the studio, 1921.
69 Chaplin in his cutting room, c. 1920.
70 Chaplin and Pola Negri at the press conference to announce their engagement, 28 January 1923.
71 A Woman of Paris (1923): two informal pictures of Chaplin on set, at left directing Edna Purviance.
72 Chaplin rehearsing for a gramophone recording with Abe Lyman’s orchestra, 1925.
73 The Gold Rush (1925). Lita Grey (Lillita MacMurray) with Chaplin at the signing of her contract.
74 The Gold Rush (1925): Chaplin on set: evidently things are not going quite right.
75 The Gold Rush (1925): the stereogram which first inspired the film. Originally published in 1896, the series of gold rush stereograms was reissued and extensively marketed in the early 1920s.
76 The Gold Rush (1925): Chaplin’s version of the great trek, compared with the historical original.
77 The Gold Rush (1925). Lita Grey as leading lady.
78 The Gold Rush (1925). Georgia Hale as leading lady.
79 The Gold Rush (1925). Shooting the original ending.
80 Chaplin, out of costume, performs the Dance of the Rolls.
81 The Gold Rush (1925). Between takes on location: Chaplin as a chicken, with Mack Swain and Kono Toraichi.
82 Chaplin’s first Hollywood home, from 1918, at 2000 De Mille Drive.
83 Chaplin’s home on Summit Drive, from 1923 until his final departure from the United States.
84 The Circus (1928). Merna Kennedy as the circus girl.
85 The Circus (1928). Chaplin succumbs to exhaustion. Unofficial photograph taken by Jack Wilson.
86 The Lita Grey divorce: Lita takes the oath in court.
87 The aftermath of the studio fire, 28 September 1926.
88 Sea Gulls (A Woman of the Sea). The cast and crew on location. Flanking Edna Purviance are the director Josef von Sternberg (on rock) and Gayne Whitman. Standing behind Whitman is Eve Southern, and to the right of her, Raymond Bloomer and Charles French.
89 Sea Gulls (A Woman of the Sea). Edna Purviance.
90 Chaplin and Sergei Eisenstein on the tennis court, 1930.
91 City Lights (1931). Chaplin on the set, with Ralph Barton beside the drinking fountain. When the film was completed, Barton accompanied Chaplin on the first stage of his world tour, but returned to New York and committed suicide.
92 City Lights (1931). The studio back lot during shooting. The row of ‘buildings’ in the background are in fact trompe l’oeil painting. Chaplin can be seen at left of centre.
93 City Lights (1931). Chaplin with Virginia Cherrill, as the flower girl.
94 City Lights (1931). Chaplin shows Virginia Cherrill how to play the role. Rollie Totheroh behind.
95 Hannah Chaplin in 1921, while still in the nursing home in Peckham.
96 Hannah, with friends, in her Hollywood home.
97 Chaplin’s sons, Charles Jr and Sydney, c. 1930.
98 City Lights. The première at the Los Angeles Theatre, 30 January 1931.
99 City Lights (1931) Chaplin with Professor and Mrs Einstein at the première.
100 The 1931 world tour. Chaplin, looking conscious of being exploited, at the Majestic Hotel, Nice. He is flanked by Frank J. Gould and Florence Gould, the noted socialites of the Côte d’Azur and, as proprietors of the Majestic, Chaplin’s hosts. Sydney is on Mrs Gould’s left. (Frank Gould’s first wife, from 1909 to 1916, was Edith Kelly, sister of Hetty and Arthur Kelly).
101 The 1931 world tour. Sydney with May Reeves in front of a snowman Charlie at St Moritz.
102 Paulette Goddard, photographed by Hurrell.
103 Modern Times (1936). Chaplin, out of costume, rehearses the automated feeder sequence.
104 Modern Times (1936). Chaplin and Paulette Goddard, as the nun, in the abandoned original ending.
105 Paulette Goddard and Chaplin at the première of Modern Times.
106 Key members of the Chaplin unit at the period of Modern Times. Back row: Mark Marlatt, assistant cameraman; Girwood Averill, projectionist; Morgan Hill, assistant cameraman; William Bogdonoff, construction. Front row: Joe Van Meter; Henry Bergman; Roland Totheroh; Della Steele, secretary and script girl; Allan Garcia, casting.
107 Set design, probably by J. Russell Spencer, for department store skating sequence in Modern Times.
108 Chaplin as Napoleon at a fancy-dress party given by Marion Davies, 1925. Also in the group are (left to right) Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, William Randolph Hearst and Princess Bibesco.
109 Chaplin as Napoleon, mid-1930s. He appears to be using the old costume from Marion Davies’s fancy-dress party.
110 The Great Dictator (1940).
111a The Great Dictator (1940). Storyboard designs by J. Russell Spencer for rooftop sequence.
111b The Great Dictator (1940). Design by J. Russell Spencer for abandoned crazy inventor sequence.
111c The Great Dictator (1940). Design by J. Russell Spencer for rally sequence.
111d The Great Dictator (1940). Design by J. Russell Spencer for abandoned triumphal arch sequence.
112 The Great Dictator (1940). Chaplin and Roland Totheroh on the camera crane.
113 The last meeting of Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, on the set of The Great Dictator, 15 November 1939.
114 Chaplin at a music recording session for The Great Dictator.
115 Chaplin with Oona in a Hollywood restaurant, 1944.
116 Monsieur Verdoux (1947). Plan for Thelma’s villa, by John Beckman. Such plans, produced for every scene, were characteristic of the precise pre-planning of the film, then unprecedented in Chaplin’s working method.
117 Monsieur Verdoux (1947). Plan of villa garden, by John Beckman.
118 Monsieur Verdoux (1947). Chaplin and Martha Raye.
119 Chaplin directing Somerset Maugham’s Rain at the Circle Theatre, Hollywood, 1948. Seated in the front row at left are (from left to right) William Schallert, June Havoc, Earle Herdan, Jerry Kilburn. Jerry Epstein is at far right, wearing white sweater, with Sydney Chaplin in front of him (head on hand).
120 Limelight (1952). Chaplin as Calvero with his half-brother Wheeler Dryden as the Doctor and Claire Bloom as the unconscious Terry.
121 Limelight (1952). The screen debuts of Michael, Josephine and Geraldine Chaplin.
122 A King in New York (1957). Chaplin, with Michael Chaplin as the son of a victim of the Un-American Activities inquisitions. Oliver Johnston, in the role of Ambassador Jaume, stands behind Chaplin.
123 Manoir de Ban, Corsier sur Vevey, Switzerland, Chaplin’s home for the last twenty-four years of his life.
124 Chaplin and Oona in the park at Vevey, Switzerland, late 1960s.
125 Chaplin family group, 1972. From left to right, back row: Josephine holding her son Charlie; Jane; Nicky Sistovaris (Josephine’s then husband); Eugene; Sydney with his son Stephan standing in front of him; Noelle Adam (Sydney’s wife); Victoria holding her daughter Aurelia; Jean-Baptiste Thierrée (Victoria’s husband). In front, Annette, Charles, Oona, Christopher. Of the children, only Geraldine and Michael are absent.
126 Oona as widow and hostess, August 1983. With James Mason, Mrs Mason and (back to camera) Rachel Ford, the Chaplins’ diligent manager for more than thirty years.
127 The last official portrait, December 1977.