Charlie Chaplin

Despite the fact he found Los Angeles "an ugly city, hot and oppressive," Charlie Chaplin lived and worked here from late December, 1913, when he joined Mack Sennett's Keystone Co., to Sept. 6, 1952, when he left for England, later to be barredfrom returning to the United States by the federal government. In four decades here, he became perhaps the planet's most celebrated person of his the and made films that will endure--just as he suspected that Northern California would endure long after "Hollywood has disappeared into the prehistoric tar pits of Wilshire Boulevard."

With his 1947 provocation "Monsieur Verdoux," Charlie Chaplin completed a remarkable transformation from the universally beloved Little Tramp to a vilified monster both on-screen and off. In the most polarizing film of his career, just issued on DVD by the Criterion Collection, Chaplin plays the title character, a bank clerk who loses his job and finds a new business in murder - "liquidating members of the opposite sex," as he puts it. ...

After a 20-year exile in Europe, Charlie Chaplin returned to Hollywood to receive an honorary Oscar on April 10, 1972, for such comedies as "The Kid," "The Gold Rush," "City Lights," "Modern Times" and "The Great Dictator. " Chaplin, then 82, received probably the longest standing ovation in the history of the Oscar telecast as he walked slowly to the podium to pick up his Academy Award for his "incalculable effect in making motion pictures the art form of the century. " Chaplin was quite literally speechless as he looked at the throng of stars whose cheers kept getting louder.

Are you a film buff who received a holiday gift certificate for books? Not to worry. Here's a post-Christmas guide to three books about legendary cinema stars, and a fourth about some of Hollywood's bit players. "Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies": Christel Schmidt edited this lavish exploration of one of cinema's first film stars, who by the age of 20 had appeared in more than 100 silent movies (among them "Sparrows," "Daddy-Long-Legs" and "Little Lord Fauntleroy"). Known as "America's Sweetheart" because of her long, curly blond locks, Pickford was in reality a savvy businesswoman - the first female movie mogul.

A new biographical Charlie Chaplin musical that began in 2010 at the La Jolla Playhouse has set an opening day for Broadway. "Chaplin" is scheduled to open Sept. 10 at the Barrymore Theatre in New York, with preview performances starting Aug. 21. The musical made its debut two years ago in La Jolla under the title "Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin. " The moniker changed to "Becoming Chaplin" following La Jolla and now has been shortened to just "Chaplin. " The show features music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis and a book by Curtis and Tony-winner Thomas Meehan.

Before there was Roman Polanski, there was Errol Flynn. Before David Letterman, Charlie Chaplin. Celebrity sex scandals have been around for as long as there have been celebrities -- yes, even before TMZ and Perez Hilton -- so the recent arrest of Polanski relating to his having sex with a 13-year-old girl and Letterman's confession of having sex with female members of his staff are just the latest in a long and sometimes sordid history. "This is nothing new for the media and the public to become obsessed with this and report this in juicy, lurid, titillating detail," says film historian and critic Stephen Farber, who notes that there is "this very moralistic side to this country that sort of plays on that.

Norman Lloyd says he can remember when he first became aware of Charlie Chaplin -- even if he was only 1 year old and it was more than 90 years ago. The year was 1916 and, as Lloyd recalls, "there were little Charlie Chaplins that you would wind up and they would walk. I remember vividly. I was sitting in the high chair with the little tray in front of me. My parents would wind it up and it would walk to me." The 94-year-old actor, producer and director, best known for playing the kindly Dr.

A Spanish-style house built for Charlie Chaplin in the Sunset Strip area is for sale at $1,725,000. The restored and updated 1926 residence was owned by actor Robert Downey Jr. in the 1990s and, later, reality TV star Kelly Osbourne, according to property records and Times archives. The original beamed ceiling remains in the living room. French doors open off the dining room to a patio. The 2,728-square-foot house has three bedrooms and five bathrooms. The two-story-tall master suite includes dual bathrooms and a sitting area.

Entering the Charlie Chaplin cottage, I stooped to avoid hitting my head. At 5 feet 8, I'm about 3 inches taller than Chaplin. (It's said the Little Tramp had the door made small so his guests would have to bow as they entered.) I was at the Charlie, an eccentric but charming West Hollywood hotel occupying a cluster of cottages where, it's also said, Gloria Swanson, Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis and other screen luminaries once lived. They are among the famous for whom the cottages are named.

Charlie Chaplin was in great spirits during the production of his 1952 film "Limelight," his first film since his poorly received 1947 dark comedy, "Monsieur Verdoux. " "Limelight," turned out to be Chaplin's final Hollywood film - and it brought back memories of the legendary actor and filmmaker's glory days. "He was like the young Charlie. I would sit in his old-time dressing room being made up with him and he was full of fire," said his friend, actor Norman Lloyd, who appears as a choreographer in the sentimental drama about a once famous clown named Calvero, who prevents troubled young ballerina Thereza (Claire Bloom)

Norma Shearer's silk sheets sat for years in a Los Angeles garage, with no one to admire the embroidered monogram: NST, for Norma Shearer Thalberg. The starlet's Louis Vuitton steamer trunks waited in vain to voyage. One was dedicated solely to protecting Shearer's shoes - some of its 30 leather-trimmed drawers still bearing hand-written labels like "silvered lizard sandal evening" and "gold kid sandal evening high heels. " This was Golden Age glamour. It was an auction house's dream.

Charlie Chaplin was in great spirits during the production of his 1952 film "Limelight," his first film since his poorly received 1947 dark comedy, "Monsieur Verdoux. " "Limelight," turned out to be Chaplin's final Hollywood film - and it brought back memories of the legendary actor and filmmaker's glory days. "He was like the young Charlie. I would sit in his old-time dressing room being made up with him and he was full of fire," said his friend, actor Norman Lloyd, who appears as a choreographer in the sentimental drama about a once famous clown named Calvero, who prevents troubled young ballerina Thereza (Claire Bloom)

I was just months away from marrying my high school sweetheart and shipping off to the Peace Corps. I'd had a bright five-year plan that included teaching English in a faraway land. The idea of a new culture and new life filled me with the sense that all the pieces were falling into place. Except the pieces fell apart. My eight-year relationship with the man I thought I'd marry quickly soured, the dynamic changing after we moved in together. I was puzzled over how someone I thought I knew better than myself could seemingly change overnight.

A new biographical Charlie Chaplin musical that began in 2010 at the La Jolla Playhouse has set an opening day for Broadway. "Chaplin" is scheduled to open Sept. 10 at the Barrymore Theatre in New York, with preview performances starting Aug. 21. The musical made its debut two years ago in La Jolla under the title "Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin. " The moniker changed to "Becoming Chaplin" following La Jolla and now has been shortened to just "Chaplin. " The show features music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis and a book by Curtis and Tony-winner Thomas Meehan.

After a 20-year exile in Europe, Charlie Chaplin returned to Hollywood to receive an honorary Oscar on April 10, 1972, for such comedies as "The Kid," "The Gold Rush," "City Lights," "Modern Times" and "The Great Dictator. " Chaplin, then 82, received probably the longest standing ovation in the history of the Oscar telecast as he walked slowly to the podium to pick up his Academy Award for his "incalculable effect in making motion pictures the art form of the century. " Chaplin was quite literally speechless as he looked at the throng of stars whose cheers kept getting louder.

Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics Steven J. Ross Oxford University Press: 512 pp., $29.95 Republicans take heart: Hollywood is not as liberal as you think. Steven J. Ross convincingly shows in "Hollywood Left and Right" that since its early days, the movie industry has been as quietly conservative as publicly liberal. After all, where did Ronald Reagan come from? Reagan may be the most successful actor-turned-politician, but Ross makes the case that his transition owes much to George Murphy and the conservative legacy built by Louis B. Mayer at MGM. Mayer was an up-from-nothing immigrant who became a titan ruling Hollywood's grandest studio back when the studio system was Hollywood.

Sydney Chaplin, an actor who experienced his greatest success on stage, earning a Tony Award for starring in the late 1950s musical "Bells Are Ringing," died Tuesday. He was 82. Chaplin, the oldest surviving child of film legend Charlie Chaplin, died at his Rancho Mirage home of complications following a stroke, said Jerry Bodie, a longtime friend. He was the second son of Charlie Chaplin and his second wife, Lita Grey, an ingenue who married the movie giant when she was 16 and he was 35.

In this quiet little community south of Santa Barbara, there is never much hoopla when changes are made at its historic hostelries. But if you visit the Biltmore, Montecito Inn or San Ysidro Ranch you'll be happily surprised by the recent events. For instance, the venerable Biltmore, a posh destination since opening at the ocean's edge in 1927, has a new owner and operator. It's the sophisticated Four Seasons hotel group.

Mo Rothman, a veteran studio executive who helped pave the way for Charlie Chaplin to end an acrimonious, two-decade exile from the United States and returned some of the filmmaker's classic movies to American screens, died Sept. 15 in Los Angeles. He was 92. Rothman had Parkinson's disease, his family said. Rothman had met Chaplin in the 1950s when he was a European manager for United Artists. Chaplin, one of the founders of United Artists along with D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, was one of Hollywood's most powerful and creative figures until his image was tarnished by affairs with underage women and his leftist politics, which made him a target of McCarthy-era Communist hunters.

A Spanish-style house built for Charlie Chaplin in the Sunset Strip area is for sale at $1,725,000. The restored and updated 1926 residence was owned by actor Robert Downey Jr. in the 1990s and, later, reality TV star Kelly Osbourne, according to property records and Times archives. The original beamed ceiling remains in the living room. French doors open off the dining room to a patio. The 2,728-square-foot house has three bedrooms and five bathrooms. The two-story-tall master suite includes dual bathrooms and a sitting area.