Fred Goodwins - Charlie Chaplins Red Letter Days: At Work with the Comic Genius

Charlie Chaplins Red Letter Days

Picture-Play Weekly was one of many magazines that both profited from and promoted Chaplins growing fame.

Charlie Chaplins Red Letter Days

At Work with the Comic Genius

Fred Goodwins

Edited by David James

Annotated by Dan Kamin

Rowman & Littlefield

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

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Copyright 2017 by Rowman & Littlefield

Thanks to Grey Smith of Heritage Auctions for providing images of the original release posters of The Champion, The Floorwalker , One A.M. , and The Rink .

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Goodwins, Fred, 18911923 author. | James, David, 1964 editor. | Kamin, Dan, 1946 editor.

Title: Charlie Chaplins Red letter days : at work with the comic genius / Fred Goodwins ; edited by David James and Dan Kamin.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016043506 (print) | LCCN 2017003916 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442278080 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442278097 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Chaplin, Charlie, 1889-1977Criticism and interpretation.

Classification: LCC PN2287.C5 G66 2017 (print) | LCC PN2287.C5 (ebook) | DDC 791.4302/8092dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016043506

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Introduction

Red Letter Days

On February 26, 1916, a British magazine called Red Letter began a series of thirty-seven articles about Charlie Chaplin by Fred Goodwins, an actor who became part of Chaplins stock company in early 1915. By the end of 1914 Chaplin had become the most popular actor in films, and reporters were clamoring for access and interviews. What makes Goodwinss articles stand out is that he was a working member of the company, and therefore a privileged eyewitness to Chaplins revolutionary transformation of crude slapstick into cinematic art.

Equally remarkable is how unguarded Chaplin is throughout the series. This is largely because Goodwins was not only a member of the company, but also one of the studios core British members. Chaplin had cut his artistic teeth in the British music hall, and he surrounded himself with fellow music hall veterans. There were deep and unspoken levels of understanding between these countrymen, and their jovial spirit of camaraderie comes across clearly in the articles. The presence of old colleagues also elicits a good deal of spontaneous reminiscing on the comedians part, as well as some surprisingly frank reflections on his current concerns, including his controversial decision not to return to England and enlist to fight in the Great War.

The series is studded with gems of information and insight about Chaplins working methods during this critical time of his artistic development. In addition, in the months leading up to Goodwinss series the magazine published a rich array of Chaplin-related material that captures a world in the grip of Chaplin fever, including Chaplin covers on many of the issues, Red Letter Photocards, which were postcards given away with the magazine that featured stills from Chaplins 1915 Essanay films, and a series of strikingly well-drawn cartoon strips featuring Charlie causing his characteristic mayhem. It was all fodder for an eager public that couldnt get enough of their comic hero. To illustrate the book we have included a selection of Red Letter Photocards, along with posters, sheet music, and magazines of the era.

The articles constitute a unique and vivid account of the ebb and flow of life at the Chaplin studio. They both deepen our understanding of Chaplins artistry and shed new light on his personality. They also shed new light on the personalities of Chaplins unsung collaborators, such as his beloved costar Edna Purviance, his gigantic nemesis Eric Campbell, and the other familiar faces that populate his films.

The text has never been reprinted, nor even referred to in the vast body of literature on Chaplin published since then. This volume contains everything Goodwins wrote (truncating only the longish article titles the magazine supplied to entice readers and most of his references to photos we have not reprinted). In addition, we have included as appendixes three anonymous articles published in Red Letter that cover Chaplins exhilarating trip to New York in February 1916, when he signed the historic Mutual contract that made him the highest-paid star in Hollywoodindeed, the highest-paid employee of any kind in the worldand affirmed his status as the most famous and popular person alive.

The magazines were discovered in the British Library in 2013 by Dr. David James, the editor of this book. James worked with Chaplin expert Dan Kamin, who annotated the articles to highlight their revelations. The two of us hope that the resulting book will be as pleasurable for todays readers as the original articles were for readers in 1916.

Charlies Last Film

February 26, 1916

The world is ringing with the name of Chaplin. The little comedians vogue is today undoubtedly even greater than it has ever been, but nowadays we have Chaplin everything thrust under our noses, until we are beginning to lose sight of the great vital import of the name, representing as it does the most phenomenal rise to the most phenomenal fame any man or woman has ever achieved in the history of the world, and, what is greater, the world-wide triumph of a style of comedy and a sense of humour that is distinctively British.

[Goodwins begins his series by appealing to his readers pride in the way Chaplins distinctively British humor has swept the world. His claim that Chaplin had become not only the most famous person alive, but the most famous person who had ever lived, might be considered a bit premature in 1916, since it wasnt until the late teens that Chaplins films were widely distributed in China, India, and some of the other non-Western regions, as well as war-torn European countries such as France. By 1920, though, the extent of Chaplins fame was indisputable. He is as universal as laughter and as common as tears, was the way another writer eloquently put it in 1926. Chaplin himself was known to boast that people who had never heard of Jesus Christ could imitate his distinctive comic walk. ]

But there is something more in the comedian than that great sense of humour and that omnipotent personality. There is the soul of a great human being. I have written certain articles for the press of both Continents upon Chaplin as a personality and as a worker, but the little Britishers utter humanity is so essentially a part of all that the name of Chaplin conveys that I feel bound to write about a wonderful week I have just spent with him during the taking of his last Essanay picture.