Author: zaCCCPanec
02 March 2021 03:17
Community: Stars and celebrities: stories, photos, sensations
Tags: Sir Charles Spencer (Charlie) Chaplin day in history interesting
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The life of celebrities is not always like a fairy tale. Sometimes they cannot find the desired peace not only in this world, but also in the next world. On March 2, 1978, Charlie Chaplin's coffin was stolen.
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The great Charlie Chaplin went through a lot - a difficult childhood, the envy of his colleagues, problems with women, political persecution. In 1952, the film genius was forced to leave this country forever due to persecution by the US authorities.
Disappearance.
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He spent the last quarter century of his life in Switzerland, in the city of Corsier-sur-Vevey, on the shores of Lake Geneva. Chaplin lived in the three-story mansion Le Manoir de Ban with his fourth wife Oona, three sons and five daughters.
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At his home in Vevey, Charles Spencer Chaplin died in his sleep on December 25, 1977, at the age of 89. The actor was buried in the local cemetery at the Anglican Church. But, as it turned out, “The Little Tramp” did not find his final peace. On March 2, 1978, a cemetery watchman, walking around the churchyard, discovered that Chaplin’s grave had been dug up and there was no coffin in it. He immediately reported the incident to the police and the relatives of the deceased.
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CHARLES SPENCER CHAPLIN
MUSIC FROM THE MOVIE “STAMP LIGHTS”
On April 16, 1889, at eight o'clock in the evening, in London, on East Lane, in the Walworth area, a boy was born - Charles Spencer Chaplin. His parents - Lily Harley and Charles Chaplin - were actors and met when they played together in the same melodrama. They were in love, but during the tour Lily met an elderly lord and ran away with him to Africa. Sidney, Charlie's older brother, was born there. Lily soon returned to England, her romance with Charles resumed, and they soon married. And three years later, Charlie was born to them.
As he later recalled, in early childhood he did not suspect the existence of his father and did not remember the time when he lived with his family. The fact is that Charles drank a lot, which is why, according to Lily, they separated a year after the birth of their son. Charlie's mother performed as soubrette in a variety theater and earned good money. She and her two sons lived in a three-room flat in West Square, Lambeth. Charlie said that his mother loved to dress him and his brother up on Sundays and take him for walks. “We strolled sedately along Kennington Road, bursting with pride and self-satisfaction,” he recalled. But when Charlie was five years old, trouble happened - Lily lost her voice.
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More and more often he broke down while singing and turned to a whisper. She received engagements less and less often, and then they stopped inviting her completely. It so happened that Lily's last performance was also little Charlie's first performance on stage. That day, his mother lost her voice, the audience started booing her, and she had to go backstage.
The director said that he could try putting her son on stage (he once saw the boy presenting something to his friends). Finding himself in front of the audience, Charlie was not at a loss and sang the then popular song “Jack Jones”, but before he could finish, coins flew onto the stage. The boy announced that he would first collect them and only then continue to sing. This amused the audience even more. “I felt at home on stage, chatted freely with the audience, danced, imitated famous singers, including my mother, performing her favorite Irish march,” Charlie said. Repeating the chorus, he depicted how his mother’s voice was breaking - this caused a storm of delight among the audience, and they again began throwing money onto the stage, and when Lily came out to take Charlie away, the audience greeted her with applause.
….When Sydney left Exmouth and Charlie left the orphanage, he and his mother moved often, and as a result they ended up back in the workhouse, from where the boys were sent to Norwood Asylum, which, according to Charlie, was even darker than Hanwell. While they were there, sad news came: Lily lost her mind and was sent to a mental hospital. Sydney cried, and Charlie was overcome with despair: “Why did she do this? Mom, so cheerful and carefree, how could she go crazy? I had a vague feeling that she had lost her mind on purpose so as not to think about us. My heart sank with despair and it seemed to me that I saw her in front of me! She looks at me pitifully, and the wind carries her somewhere into the void,” he later recalled about the feelings experienced that day.
After some time, it became known that Lily had recovered and left the hospital. She rented a cheap room and took the boys in with her. During this time, she began to awaken Charlie's interest in theater and convinced him that he had talent. However, he was not accepted to play in the school production of Cinderella. Charlie was jealous of those who were chosen, and the performance itself seemed very dull to him then, and he was saved only by the beauty of the girl who played Cinderella, with whom Charlie was secretly in love.
But two months later success came to him. One day Lily saw a funny poem in a bookstore window, rewrote it and brought it home. Charlie learned it and read it to a friend during a break at school. He was overheard by a teacher who then asked Charlie to speak to the class. The guys were rolling around laughing. The next day, Charlie was taken from class to class, after which the fame of his talent spread throughout the school. Teachers and students became interested in him. As Charlie said, he only now tasted fame, although he had to perform before. Since then, he became interested in school, he even began to study better. But his education was soon interrupted when Charlie left school to join the Eight Lancashire Lads clogdance group.
……………….After some time, Charlie persuaded his mother to allow him to leave school so that he could go to work. He tried many jobs: he served as a delivery boy in a small shop, worked in a waiting room for two doctors, was a servant in a rich house, worked in a writing instruments store, worked as a glass blower for one day, then in a printing house... But as Charlie admitted later, he understood that everything this is temporary and he will eventually become an actor. While working at the printing plant, Charlie fell ill with the flu and Lily insisted that he return to school.
One fine day a telegram arrived in which Sydney said that he was arriving the next day. From that moment on, life changed for the better. My brother brought home good earnings and things started to improve. And one fine day, Charlie was invited to a theater agency and learned that he had been hired for the role of the messenger Billy in the play “Sherlock Holmes,” and before rehearsals began, he was offered to play the boy Sammy in the play “Jim, a Ragamuffin Novel.” As Charlie rode home in the omnibus, he began to realize what had happened: “At last I had escaped the shackles of poverty and entered the long-awaited kingdom of my dreams - the kingdom about which my mother had spoken so often and so selflessly. I will become an actor!
..Charlie hardly knew how to read, but Sydney helped him with this. He read aloud, and within three days Charlie had memorized all thirty-five pages of his considerable role as the boy Sammy. At the rehearsals of "Jim" he performed very well, and Mr. Saintsberry, the play's author, had to correct only one flaw: Charlie jerked his head and grimaced too much when speaking. "Jim" was not a success; reviewers tore it to smithereens. However, the role of Charlie was a success. Here’s what a reviewer from the London Tropical Times wrote after reviewing the play: “The only thing that saves the play is the role of Sammy, the newsboy, a kind of savvy London boy, who made the audience laugh. Quite banal and hackneyed, it was, however, very funny performed by the young Charles Chaplin, a capable and temperamental young actor. I have yet to hear about this boy, but I hope to hear a lot about him in the very near future.”
.After a two-week tour of “Jim,” rehearsals for “Sherlock Holmes” began. A big tour followed. The play was a success. When the troupe returned to London after ten months of touring, Charlie asked the director to give Sydney a small role in the play, and they went on the second tour together. Shortly before returning to London, they received news that their mother had recovered. Lily came to see her sons, but after a while she went home to arrange housing. Charlie and Sydney visited her at the end of the second tour, but soon went on tour again. One day they learned that Lily was sick again. Clarity of mind never returned to her.
Text from a biography about Charles Chaplin.
THE FURTHER SUCCESSES OF CHARLES SPENCER CHAPLIN ARE KNOWN.
HE BECAME A GREAT ACTOR AND COMEDIAN.
A PERSON WHO WON THE LOVE AND APPLAUSE OF THE WHOLE WORLD.
LEGENDARY PERSON..
MAN IS THE ERA.
ACTOR, MUSICIAN, COMPOSER, DIRECTOR, SCREENWRITER -
GENIUS!!!
AND HE OFTEN WRITTEN THAT IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE LOVE, ATTENTION FOR THE CHILDREN OF HIS POOR MOTHER
LILY HE WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME WE KNOW HIM...
AT THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY,
WHEN MONEY WAS NO LONGER A PROBLEM FOR HIM.
HE BOUGHT LILY FOR MOM, WHO NEVER CAME OUT OF MADNESS,
HOUSE, SET HER THERE,
WHERE SHE SPENT THE LAST YEARS...
"Charles would have thought it funny"
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Oona Chaplin, having learned that the remains of her loved one were missing, almost fainted. The children were also in shock, from whom it was impossible to hide this terrible incident. The police combed the surrounding area, but this did not bring any results. And in the evening, a phone call rang in the Chaplin family house. “The coffin is in a safe place,” said the unknown person, demanding a ransom of 650,000 Swiss francs. Oona Chaplin, née O'Neill, was a woman of courage and determination. At one time, for the sake of marriage with Chaplin, she broke off all relations with her father, Nobel Prize winner in literature Eugene O'Neill, who did not accept his son-in-law. Therefore, after experiencing the first shock, she refused the kidnapper, remarking: “Charles would find the idea of paying for a dead body ridiculous.”
Negotiations followed by exposure.
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The kidnappers clearly did not expect such a reaction, but they did not intend to retreat from their goal. The calls continued, and the unknown person began to threaten other family members. However, the criminals made it clear that they were ready to reduce the ransom amount. The police, who were informed about the calls, asked to continue negotiations in order to “detect” the perpetrators of the crime. At first it was possible to establish that the thieves were calling from a street pay phone located in Lausanne. Having taken control of Lausanne telephone booths, law enforcement officers detained the first attacker. He turned out to be 24-year-old immigrant from Poland Roman Vardas. The Pole did not show any resistance, and thanks to his help, his accomplice, 38-year-old native of Bulgaria Gancho Ganev, was soon detained.
Second, fifteen-year-old wife of Charlie Chaplin
The great artist himself had already fixed his eyes on the woman (more precisely, of course, still a girl) who was destined to become his second wife. In his first feature film, The Kid, this 12-year-old little girl played not just anyone, but an angel. Her name was Lolita MacMurray or Lita Gray. At first, the experienced womanizer really saw himself as a father-mentor to a little orphan (Lita never had a dad). But soon things took a completely different turn.
On the eve of the launch of the film “The Gold Rush” with her participation in production, the 15-year-old brat managed to get pregnant, and, in fact, acquired a brazenly protruding belly. Chaplin, as before, did not want to serve 30 years behind bars, nor did he want any unnecessary scandal, especially since the fame of “simpleton” Charlie, as a lover of little girls, grew and expanded. There was only one way out. The young couple got married secretly in Mexico in November 1924, managing to evade the press that was hot on their heels.
Chaplin: New relatives are “a bunch of scum”
The honeymoon, apparently, was a great success. While waiting for the train to take the newlyweds home to California, Chaplin called his new relatives “a bunch of money-obsessed scum.” And when the pregnant Lai-ta, having lost consciousness for a second, took a step towards the edge of the platform, Charlie approached her from behind and asked in an unctuous voice:
- Why did you stop?
Lita's place both on the set and in the heart of Charlie Chaplin was taken by 24-year-old actress Georgia Hale. The great actor and womanizer had never encountered such resistance before. For exactly four years Georgia did not let him into her perfumed bedchamber - until the day when the judge announced the divorce of Mr. and Mrs. Chaplin.
The actor got off
- 1 million and 125 thousand dollars in alimony,
- 1 million legal costs,
- another two million, which he paid into the tax fund,
- and scandalous headlines in all newspapers of the world.
In those days, the most luxurious women and girls in the world were at his service. This is how one of those who had the honor of being allowed to see his body remembers Chaplin:
“Ideally built, always dressed with particular scrupulousness, with thick gray hair, snow-white teeth and ivory skin, he seemed so clean and sparkling, like a pearl just taken from the ocean waters...
Forgetful thieves.
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As the kidnappers admitted, the idea of stealing the coffin was prompted by news about the large inheritance that the artist left to family members. The method was suggested to them by the media, which at that time wrote a lot about the abduction of the body of the Milanese rich man Salvatore Mataressa. The original plan did not involve removing the coffin from the cemetery at all - they simply wanted to bury it deeper, simulating theft. But it was raining, and Vardas and Ganev decided to act differently. The coffin was loaded onto a van, taken about 15 km from the cemetery, and buried in a wheat field. But when the kidnappers were brought to the place where they hid Chaplin’s remains, they hesitated, and then admitted that they didn’t remember where exactly in the field they were buried. This meant that the police would have to use the technical means at their disposal.
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The coffin was eventually discovered and returned to the cemetery in Vevey, where a second funeral ceremony took place on May 17, 1978. To avoid further attempts to disturb the peace of the deceased, Chaplin's grave was filled with concrete. “For disturbing the peace of the deceased and attempted extortion,” Roman Vardas was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, Gancho Ganev received 1.5 years of probation.
