Click to enlarge. A delighted girl peeks through a screen door during The Kid.

While Chaplin fans packed theaters worldwide to watch his onscreen antics, during several scenes in The Kid you can see fans watching him onscreen as well.  Here are several surprise fan cameos, thanks to the remarkable image quality of the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray release of The Kid. My recent post HERE shows how Chaplin made The Kid, which I explain in full detail in my book Silent Traces.

This neighbor suddenly peeks over the fence as the orphanage truck travels west down Labory Lane.

Shielding his eyes from the sun, this real-life waif watches Jackie Coogan in the orphanage truck as it turns from the east end of Labory Lane onto Hewitt.

Two girls are seen here as Dan Dillon returns the foundling baby to Minnie Stearns’ stroller.

Fans made cameos in other early Chaplin films.  Thanks to the Blu-ray quality of the Flicker Alley release of Chaplin’s Essanay comedies, here below you can see a bystander through the window (notice his hat) during the opening scene from The Bank (1915), and further below a seaside crowd from By The Sea (1915).

We’re watching Charlie, and so is the man in the hat, watching him through the window in The Bank.

A large crowd gathers to watch Charlie – anticipating what will happen with the banana in By The Sea. Filmed beside the Venice Diamond Cafe at the north corner of the former Venice Plunge (indoor pool).

Harold, Buster, and Harold – sites from Never Weaken, a newly discovered scene from My Wife’s Relations, and Safety Last! that we’ll visit on the Cinecon 2016 walking tour.

The block of Cahuenga south of Hollywood Boulevard was the setting for more silent movie filming than any other spot in town. I’ll be leading walking tours of this historic site at the upcoming Cinecon 52 Classic Film Festival during the Saturday and Sunday lunch breaks, September 3 and 4.  You can meet us at the Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, on Saturday at about 12:05, and on Sunday at about 12:40, or join us when the tour kicks in to high gear at 6410 Hollywood Boulevard near the SW corner of Cahuenga, at about 12:15 on Saturday, and about 12:50 on Sunday. The tours are free.  For those walking from the theater the round trip will be about 1.2 miles. A highlight of the tour will be visiting the site of a newly discovered scene from Buster Keaton’s 1922 comedy My Wife’s Relations (center above), discussed in my prior post HERE.

Visit where Harry Houdini filmed The Grim Game (1919) and Buster Keaton filmed Cops (1922).

You can download a comprehensive PDF tour of Hollywood silent movie filming locations at this link.  Hollywood’s Silent Echoes Tour – Cinecon 2016 – John Bengtson.

A newly discovered scene! Buster at the Hollywood alley.

You can read other posts highlighting some of the locations we’ll see HERE and HERE.

Click to enlarge. The corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga. Clockwise from the bottom, Harold Lloyd in Why Worry?; Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, and Marie Dressler in Tillie’s Punctured Romance; Buster Keaton in Cops; Douglas Fairbanks in Flirting With Fate; and Mary Pickford in 100% American.

Charlie again out of work – tough times for Charles Foster Kane – matching views from Modern Times and Citizen Kane.

I recently watched Citizen Kane (1941) for the first time in years, broadcast on TCM, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Having seen it many times before, the scenes and the dialog were all familiar, but still powerful and engaging. But now that I’m afflicted with ‘location-itis’ I couldn’t help but notice a common setting appearing in the Orson Welles classic with a scene from Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936) (see above and right).

The closed factory gate depicting Charles Foster Kane reeling from the 1929 crash during the mock newsreel of his life at the outset of Citizen Kane is the same factory gate Chaplin used for the factory scenes late in Modern Times where Charlie and other workers recently re-hired after a long shutdown must suddenly go on strike, leaving Charlie once again out of work. You can read more about this Modern Times setting in my book Silent Traces.

Humphrey Bogart runs to save his job in The Great O’Malley (1937).

Bogie, down on his luck.

The year following Modern Times the factory gate appeared again during The Great O’Malley (1937), a Warner Bros. melodrama with Pat O’Brien in the lead. When by-the-book policeman O’Brien stops Humphrey Bogart for a minor traffic infraction, a loud muffler on his car, it causes Bogie to be late, losing his chance for a factory job. Unable to support his family, Bogart commits a petty crime and is sent to jail. O’Brien eventually learns compassion, and secretly helps Bogie’s family, and helps

Delmar Watson

arrange for his early parole. Delmar Watson appears with a credited role. The nine Watson family children, “The First Family of Hollywood,” appeared collectively in nearly 1,000 silent and classic-era films, and are honored with a star on Hollywood Boulevard. Their father Coy Watson Sr. was a Hollywood cowboy and special effects man who among other projects rigged the flying carpet for Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad (1924).

Click to enlarge. The factory gate stood at Ramirez and Howard (arrow) east of the former Chinatown. LAPL.

The Chaplin crew at work filming Modern Times near the corner of Ramirez and Howard (note the street sign at back).

When I read correctly online that Balboa Park in San Diego, and Oheka Castle, the enormous Long Island estate of magnate Otto Kahn, were used to depict Xanadu during the mock newsreel footage from Citizen Kane, I couldn’t help myself, and created these ‘then and now’ images, presented below without further elaboration. Color images (C) Google.

1022 Cole Avenue looms at back as Chaplin surveys construction of the department store set for his first Mutual production The Floorwalker (1916). Marc Wanamaker – Bison Archives.

The sturdy two-story home once located at 1022 Cole Avenue had a front row seat to some of the most remarkable scenes in early Hollywood history. Its rear dormer window looked down on the humble open air stage where Charlie Chaplin filmed his 12 Mutual comedy short films in 1916-1917, and where Buster Keaton later made his independently produced short and feature films (1920-1928). Moreover, the home appears peeking over the studio fence in many early scenes. One can only imagine the cinematic activity this home witnessed before it was demolished in 1929 to make way for the Technicolor Building, itself a landmark of Hollywood history, and now a Gold’s Gym.

This aerial view, likely taken March 7, 1921, shows the home relative to the open air stage that Keaton would close over later that year. Remnants of the Convict 13 prison guard tower set, discussed further below, can be seen in the far corner. The white wall near the prison set is Buster’s ‘WANTED’ poster appearing in The Goat. The Metro Studio front office buildings appear at top. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

1022 Cole, similar views – The Boat (left) – newly restored from The Blacksmith (right).

Since Buster filmed more frequently than Charlie on the studio backlot, the home makes several cameo appearances in Keaton’s early short films. Above the home stands watch over The Boat (1921), as Buster and family realize that towing a boat through a too-narrow basement doorway has just destroyed their domicile. The Cole home also appears in some of the remarkably restored Lobster Films footage from The Blacksmith (1922) newly released by Kino-Lorber. The home first appears over the fence in these scenes with Buster and Big Joe Roberts filmed inside the studio gate on Cahuenga, above and at left.

Click to enlarge – 1022 Cole (box) and upper right during the opening and closing scenes from Day Dreams.

Although fairly obscured by a fake garden fence, the home also appears during the opening and closing scenes from Day Dreams (1922) shown above, purportedly looking from Reneé Adorée’s front porch, as Buster dodges a car when first greeting her, and again during his return home, via parcel post, following his failure to strike it rich in the big city.

The arrow in this circa 1920 photo marks where Renee’s house would later be built for Day Dreams in 1922, facing a small vacant lot across the street, behind which stood 1022 Cole. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

The Blacksmith – 1022 Cole at right

Chaplin and Keaton built their biggest sets in the empty backlot corner at Romaine and Cahuenga pictured at right above. Chaplin built the “T”-shaped tenement set for Easy Street (1917) at this corner, and likely built the fountain and spa exterior set from The Cure (1917) there as well. As explained further below, the above view shows both the prison set from Buster’s Convict 13 (1920), and Buster’s similarly configured tenement set from Neighbors (1920). Buster also used the small vacant lot across the street from the studio (shown above) for many films including College (1927), where he built a dormitory set on the vacant lot. This vacant lot appears in many restored scenes from The Blacksmith (left), where in one shot (above) 1022 Cole appears again at back to the right.

A closer view of the small corner backlot shows where Buster filmed this scene from The Boat.

This even closer view shows the Convict 13 prison set, and the Neighbors tenement set.

Note the 1022 address by the door.

While Day Dreams marked the final onscreen appearance for the back of the Cole Avenue home, Buster saved the best for last when filming Sherlock Jr. (1924), where the front of 1022 Cole portrays his fiancé’s family home. The home appears in full view when Buster pays Kathryn McGuire a visit, and again in closer view when Buster, an amateur detective, ponders whether to shadow his rival up the street. The 1022 address appears clearly visible beside the door, and in faded numbers on the front step.

Click to enlarge – 1022 Cole in real life (left) and in “reel” life from Sherlock Jr. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

Geographically consistent, the following scene of Buster closely tracking Ward Crane’s every step and gesture was filmed looking east as they walk north from the home up Cole, providing a clear view of the Keaton Studio enclosed stage and corner barn, perhaps the only extant movie footage in which this historic studio appears.

Looking east from Cole towards the Keaton Studio barn and enclosed shooting stage. HollywoodPhotographs.com.

On a human note, I checked the city directories online at the LA Public Library, and found that Allen J. Henderson, a salesman, lived at 1022 Cole in 1916, while Edgar C. Beach, a ‘pumper’ lived there in 1917. Juanita D. Caplinger resided there in 1920, Louis J. Ramirez, a truck foreman, later salesman, lived there the longest, during 1921-1923, while Taylor E. Duncan, photographer lived there in 1924. Robert wrote to me that the 1920 census shows Juanita was the sister in law, along with several members of the Gilman family, all living at 1022 Cole. One of them, Frederick Gilman, is listed in the census as occupation “Actor,” and appears to be the gent listed here at IMDB.

Frame images from Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917 – 1923 (C) 2016 Kino-Lorber, Lobster Films.

1022 Cole Avenue today.

The upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival’s Day of Silents winter program this December 3 at the Castro Theater offers something for everyone, from Ernst Lubitsch’s 1926 Jazz Age gem So This is Paris, to the Oscar’s first ever Best Actor performance, Emil Janning’s portrayal of an exiled Russian general turned Hollywood extra in The Last Command (1928). The morning program leads off with three beautifully restored shorts Charlie Chaplin filmed for the Essanay Film Company in 1915, and co-presented by the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. The films will be introduced by preservationist David Shepard, whose Blackhawk Films Collection was the source for many of the restorations. In addition to His New Job, filmed at the Essanay Studio in Chicago, and A Night in the Show, where Chaplin plays dual roles, we’ll be seeing The Champion, a boxing comedy filmed entirely on location in Niles, the second of five films Chaplin made for Essanay during his brief stay in the Bay Area before returning to Los Angeles to finish out his one-year contract with the studio.

During this early scene Charlie and his little pal, a champion bulldog named Quapaw Lord Orry, walk south down G Street in Niles, beside the Essanay Studio fence, towards studio bungalows that still stand today.

As reported here, The Champion provides charming views of early Niles, including the former Essanay Studio facility that once stood at the corner of Niles Boulevard and G Street. During the film, Charlie’s hungry tramp character signs up to be a boxing sparring partner, only to end up winning the championship and Edna Purviance’s affections. Chaplin was an avid boxing fan, and by the time of filming had started on off-screen romance with Purviance, whom he had only recently hired to be his first leading lady.

Looking south at Chaplin’s path down G Street beside the Essanay Studio, built in 1913.

Looking NW at G Street and 2nd – Essanay built these bungalows for studio employees. To the far right is the home appearing with Charlie in the fence scene above.

A modern fire station with retro design now stands on the corner where the Essanay facility stood from 1913 to 1933 – the bungalows appear to the left. (C) Google Street View.

Looking west at the side of the Essanay Studio. The house at left appears in the Chaplin frame. At right, Charlie chases a boxer through the gate in the studio fence. Notice the enclosed glass shooting stage appearing behind Charlie’s head.

Looking north – filming The Champion within the glass shooting stage, visible behind Charlie in the prior scene.

Looking east – when Charlie chases a boxer out of the studio fence gate, the southern face of the Township Register newspaper building appears at back. The inset shows the other side of the building.

Looking east, Charlie struts and performs calisthenics within the fenced-in studio grounds. Above is a similar view east taken in Niles before the studio was built in 1913. The top of the extant Edison Theater (box) peeks over the fence, while the color view shows the side of the theater today, now home to the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. Charlie walked his dog from left to right along the outside of this fence. (C) Google Street View.

Looking SW at the corner of the studio at G Street, and the studio fence gate (arrow). Notice the glass stage behind Charlie.

Click to enlarge – Charlie captures the attention of a policeman in this view looking west along the front of the studio. The bleachers for the adjacent Sullivan Park baseball field (box) appear in the upper right corner (see below).

Click to enlarge – looking north, this frame from Ben Turpin’s 1915 comedy Snakeville’s Champion shows the Sullivan Park baseball field, due west of the studio. The inset from Charlie’s scene in The Champion, reversed here for comparison, shows the park’s shaded bleachers. Turpin and Chaplin made two films together for Essanay, His New Job filmed in Chicago, and A Night Out filmed in Niles and Oakland.

Click to enlarge – looking NE, this panoramic view of the ball park combines frames from Ben Turpin’s film. The inset shows the Essanay Studio baseball team in 1913. Second from the right stands Rollie Totheroh, who would become Chaplin’s cameraman in 1916, working with him until Rollie retired in 1954. This ball field stood due west of the studio. Historian David Kiehn writes that Chaplin did not necessarily endear himself to the townspeople during his brief stay. Notorious for his huge salary and signing bonus with Essanay, widely publicized at the time, Chaplin reportedly didn’t tip local waitresses, pay for his rounds at the bar, and mooched walnuts at the general store. “He was a shy person off-camera, and I think he tried to make up for it by pretending to be outgoing,” says Kiehn. “There are stories that at baseball games he would go under the bleachers and pinch the bottoms of women.” Presumably any bottom-pinching in Niles would have taken place here.

Chaplin’s boss and Essanay co-founder Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson, cinema’s first cowboy star, had been making films at Niles for a couple of years before Charlie arrived there in late January 1915. This recent post explains how Chaplin filmed the iconic shot of his Little Tramp traipsing down a country road, the concluding scene from The Tramp, at the same spot where Anderson had previously filmed action scenes for his cowboy films. The Tramp was Chaplin’s final production during his 10-week stint in Niles before heading to Los Angeles. Anderson and Chaplin became friends working together in Niles. At the right, Anderson plays a cameo in The Champion, seen here staring into the camera, as an extra watching Charlie’s boxing match. You can purchase a newly released two DVD set containing 16 Anderson Broncho Billy films, shot mostly at Niles, HERE.

All vintage images courtesy of David Kiehn, historian for the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, and author of the wonderful history of the studio, Broncho Billy and the Essanay Film Company. You can read more about Chaplin filming The Champion in my book Silent Traces.

Preservationist Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films, and Cineteca di Bologna, have restored all 15 of Chaplin’s 1915 Essanay short comedies, available as a 5 disc Blu-ray/DVD box set from Flicker Alley. The restoration of The Champion was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

All images from Chaplin films made from 1918 onwards, copyright © Roy Export Company Establishment. CHARLES CHAPLIN, CHAPLIN, and the LITTLE TRAMP, photographs from and the names of Mr. Chaplin’s films are trademarks and/or service marks of Bubbles Incorporated SA and/or Roy Export Company Establishment. Used with permission.

Charlie beside Chick’s Saloon, with enhanced contrast

Do you know the way to San Jose? It turns out Charlie Chaplin did. Thanks to the Blu-ray clarity of Charlie’s restored Essanay comedies, and the tenacious research by Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum historian David Kiehn, we now know Chaplin and crew filmed saloon scenes from A Night Out (1915) in San Jose beside the Alcantara Building (1903), still standing on the NW corner of Post and Market Streets.

Charlie began fulfilling his one-year Essanay contract at the studio’s primary Chicago facility early in 1915. But after making only one movie there, His New Job, Chaplin fled the frigid Windy City and started his first northern California production, A Night Out, soon after arriving at the Essanay Studio in Niles on January 18. While researching his definitive history book “Broncho Billy and the Essanay Film Company,” David found a local newspaper account from Thursday, January 28, 1915, describing five players from Essanay filming saloon scenes that day on Post Street for a comedy called A Night Out. (Interestingly the story missed the lead – that soon to be world-famous Chaplin was leading the crew.)

The Alcantara Building (1903) still standing at Post (left) and Market (right). Charlie likely filmed on Post just steps from the corner. (C) 2017 Google.

The Market Street face of the Alcantara Building appears at back (center) in this vintage photo.

While capturing some movie frame images to assist the Museum prepare decorations for its upcoming Charlie Chaplin Days festival July 21-23, I noticed what appeared to be the word “CHICKS” (enhanced above and below) barely visible on the sidewalk during the A Night Out saloon scenes, and mentioned this to David. He responded that a notorious liquor racketeer Clarence “Chick” Leddy once ran a saloon at 107 Post Street. More astounding, as revealed

A 1914 map of downtown – Chick’s Saloon at 107 Post Street stood at the corner of Market.

on Google Street View, the vintage saloon building is still standing, with high tech company Electric Cloud as a tenant. Once an eyesore threatened with demolition, the now upscale building was renovated with numerous picture windows along the ground floor on Post Street.

Chick’s Saloon stood at 107 Post, likely near the corner. The words on the doors read “Ridgemore Whiskey,” sold by the Alexander Company of San Jose (see below).

Advertised on the saloon doors above, Ridgemore Whiskey was a local brand.

To be thorough, I checked the 1912 San Jose City Directory and the 1915 Sanborn fire insurance maps. Both sources revealed eight candidate saloons that could have been used for filming. But unless one of these seven other saloon owners also went by the name “Chick” the likely candidate has to be 107 Post Street.

The saloon bar appears visible through the doors.

Per David’s newspaper accounts the San Jose Liquor License Committee recommended granting Mr. Leddy a saloon license for 107 Post Street on March 30, 1909. Yet by 1918 the Civic Council revoked Chick Leddy’s soft drink business license because he had sold $150 of whiskey from the premises. By 1928 Chick Leddy was convicted of murder, with help from his bartender, for beating a salesman to death, apparently for winning too much slot machine money at Chick’s Prohibition-era roadhouse. Despite receiving a life sentence, David reports Chick later bribed his way out of San Quentin, and died in San Jose in 1950.

Click to enlarge – the San Jose skyline circa 1935, looking south. The Alcantara Building (arrow) facing Market Street to the far right, with the dome of St. Joseph’s close by. San Jose State University Gordon Panoramic Collection.

While researching his book, David discovered Charlie also filmed scenes for A Night Out in Oakland beside the Peralta Apartments at 184 13th Street, and the Sierra Apartments at 1502 Alice Street, both still standing near Lake Merritt.

Charlie and fellow comic Ben Turpin beside the Peralta Apartments 184 13th Street in Oakland.

Charlie takes a spill beside the Sierra Apartments at 1502 Alice Street in Oakland.

The Alcantara Building stands just a block north of the historic Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph (completed in 1885), and the neighboring historic post office building (completed in 1895), now anchor for the San Jose Museum of Art. You can read more about Chaplin filming A Night Out, and locations from all of his other movies, in my book Silent Traces.

Chaplin made five movies at Niles before returning to Hollywood in May 1915, filming a few exterior scenes in San Francisco and Oakland. But we now know Chaplin once made his way to San Jose too.

I want to especially recommend Dan Kamin’s unique Funny Bones performance at the festival on July 22 at 7:30. A gifted comic, author, and renowned Chaplin authority, Dan coached Robert Downey, Jr. in his Oscar-nominated turn in the movie “Chaplin”(which Dan will introduce at the festival July 21) and coached Johnny Depp for the movie “Benny and Joon.” Using film clips and live demonstrations, Dan deconstructs Chaplin’s unique physical comedy and body language, showing how and why Charlie moved the way he moved. Dan’s show is absolutely fascinating, and you’ll leave feeling you’ve seen Charlie in a whole new light. Dan is also performing Funny Bones at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael on July 20.

Paul Ayers, attorney, SoCal historian, and Altadena hiking trail expert and restorer, has shared many remarkable location discoveries over the years, including the finale from Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus (1928). Stemming from Paul’s discoveries, we now know a tree that witnessed Chaplin’s finale still survives (see below).

I met Paul after confessing in the first edition of Silent Echoes that I had no clue where Buster Keaton narrowly passed in front of an oncoming train in Sherlock Jr. (1924). Paul wrote to me with the correct solution, included in later editions of the book, and his methodology was stunning.

First, by noting the engine’s number, Paul excluded all Southern Pacific engines and rail lines. Next, given the design of the station at back, the lesser quality of the road bed, Paul’s sense that secondary rail lines are easier to shut down for filming, the lack of hills or desert terrain in the background, etc., Paul correctly surmised it was likely a secondary Santa Fe line in Orange County. Then, leafing through his train history books, Paul found photos from 1924 confirming the exact spot. Buster filmed riding up Richfield Road, crossing Orangethorpe Avenue in Atwood, in what is now Placentia. The rail line is still in active use today.

With similar skill and ingenuity, Paul has correctly identified numerous other locations, including one of my favorites, the final scene from The Circus, where the Little Tramp stands alone in a field watching his lady love and the rest of the circus crew leave him behind.

Click to enlarge – looking east towards Verdugo Road, above grade (notice the car within E6). Only the tree west of Verdugo, W2, casts a shadow below the road. The “E” trees stand east of Verdugo, E4-E6 along a side road “R” visible in the 1928 aerial below. Taller, and further east than E1 and E3, E2 appears in the photo below.

Knowing that the studio records mention Chaplin filmed the scene in Glendale, and that no major hills or mountains appear onscreen, Paul correctly surmised it must have been filmed looking south from the mouth of Verdugo Canyon. Triangulating from production stills and other clues in the movie, including auto traffic seen on what turned out to be Verdugo Road, Paul visited the site in person, and by matching ridge lines (a difficult task given all the homes there now), confirmed generally the circus field area as within Glenoaks Blvd., N. Adams Street, and Verdugo Road, north of the Wilson Middle School. I cover this, and Paul’s handiwork, more fully in my Chaplin book Silent Traces.

The circus wagon train departs south down Verdugo Road. Only two trees, W1 and W2 stood west of the road, and only W1 stood next to a telephone pole (see W2 in above photo). The surviving tree E2, the tallest, stands across the road.

When I recently came upon vintage aerial photos of the Glendale shooting site, I realized there might be trees that witnessed the Chaplin production still standing today. (As I write in another post, certain trees at the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Memorial Park appear during the battle field scenes from The Birth of A Nation (1916), and in the 1937 Three Stooges short Playing The Ponies ).

Above, both looking east, with Verdugo Road running north-south (left-right) across the images, these 1928 aerial views show the unique W1-W2 pair of trees west of Verdugo across from a cluster of six trees east of the road (E1-E6), and the side road (R) running beside E4-E6. Reckoning from the W1-W2 trees I was able to identify the corresponding trees in the two production stills annotated above. UC Santa Barbara c-300_k-181.

By 1938 (upper left), Verdugo Road had been widened and paved, losing the west W1-W2 trees in the process, as well as E1 and E3, the easterly trees closest to the road. By 1944 (upper right), homes were built west of Verdugo.

By 1952 the area east of Verdugo was also built over, with sidewalks installed along the east side of the street, leaving only one tree, E2, still standing. Visiting the site on Google Street View, it’s apparent why E2 remains. When they graded along the road to install the eastern sidewalk, they created a large square retaining wall to preserve the tree.

Thus, just as there are trees that remain today having witnessed the making of The Birth of A Nation, a giant old oak tree in Glendale, appearing onscreen at left, witnessed the concluding scenes from The Circus.

Note: Paul was also the key to locating the avalanche of beer barrels scene in the Buster Keaton MGM talkie What No Beer? (1933). (Gif file courtesy of Danny Reid’s fascinating early cinema site Pre-code.com – What No Beer? review).

All images from Chaplin films made from 1918 onwards, copyright © Roy Export Company Establishment. CHARLES CHAPLIN, CHAPLIN, and the LITTLE TRAMP, photographs from and the names of Mr. Chaplin’s films are trademarks and/or service marks of Bubbles Incorporated SA and/or Roy Export Company Establishment. Used with permission.

Aerial photos UC Santa Barbara FrameFinder. Atwood train photo – Rails Through the Orange Groves: (Vol. II) by Stephen E. Donaldson and William A. Myers, Ronald D. Sands and Edward W. Cochens. What No Beer? © 1933 Turner Entertainment Co. Color images (C) 2017 Google.

The surviving tree at 920 N. Verdugo Road in Glendale.

Charlie Chaplin’s brilliant and courageous challenge to tyranny, The Great Dictator (1940), remains sharply relevant today. I will be introducing this classic film at the beautiful Alex Theater in Glendale on Thursday, April 19, 2018, and signing copies of my Chaplin book Silent Traces. David Totheroh, grandson of Chaplin’s long-time cameraman Rollie Totheroh, will also be on hand for a Q&A after the screening.

The refugees cross Trifuno Creek near Peter Strauss Ranch – discovery and photo by Jeff Castel De Oro.

Looking north at the Chaplin Studio backlot.

My intro will address highlights of Chaplin’s career, details of the film’s remarkable history and production, and several then and now locations, some unchanged after nearly 80 years. To the right is a composite image of Chaplin’s backlot, from 16mm home movie footage taken by Charlie’s half-brother Sydney.

Intact globe found by the Russians in Hitler’s ruined office.

The screening is hosted by the Alex Film Society, which presents programs of classic feature films, cartoons, newsreels, and short subjects at the theater.

If you live in the Los Angeles area, I hope you’ll consider supporting the Alex Film Society by attending my talk and book-signing at the Alex Theater on Thursday, April 19.

All images from Chaplin films made from 1918 onwards, copyright © Roy Export Company Establishment. CHARLES CHAPLIN, CHAPLIN, and the LITTLE TRAMP, photographs from and the names of Mr. Chaplin’s films are trademarks and/or service marks of Bubbles Incorporated SA and/or Roy Export Company Establishment. Used with permission. Big Bertha cannon photo the Totheroh Family Collection, courtesy of Frank Underwood.