New Book: Dawn Addams - My Life As Chaplin's Leading Lady

16 May 2024

“What he is satirizing in the film is not so much America as our whole modern civilization — the world of television and fan hysteria, of exiled monarchs and corrupt republics, the values or lack of values in our age. It just so happens that Chaplin has lived so many years in the States that he knows how far that country is the synthesis of all our ills. Whereas Mod- ern Times was a satire on the machine age, so A King in New York may proba- bly come to be considered as a satire on the atomic age.”

In 1957, Dawn Addams cast a lucid gaze upon the film she had just starred in as lead actress: A King in New York.

Charles Chaplin was forced into exile from America in 1952 during the time of McCarthyism and the Red Scare. In the 1950s, Chaplin wrote and directed in England the film comedy, A King In New York, that satirized America in the atomic age and blacklisting. He cast English actress Dawn Addams as his co-star.

Just before the film’s release in 1957, film writer John Francis Lane sat down with Addams and conducted an illuminating interview on what it was like to work with Chaplin.

Dawn Addams - My Life As Chaplin’s Leading Lady is a cleverly compiled book by journalist and author James Pepper which includes John Francis Lane’s interview with Addams while A King is New York was still in post-production and original writing by Charles Chaplin from the same period, giving his thoughts and definitions of comedy and tragedy. The chosen extracts are from a rare draft typescript preserved in the Chaplin Archives.

Printed in a limited edition, this little gem of a book is illustrated with black and white photographs from the Chaplin Archives and can be ordered at www.jamespepperbooks.com

CHAPLIN, CHARLES, DAWN ADDAMS, JOHN FRANCIS LANE. Dawn Addams - My Life As Chaplin’s Leading Lady - Filming Charles Chaplin’s A King In New York - By John Francis Lane. Introduction and Afterword by James Pepper. Santa Barbara: Santa Teresa Press, 2024. First Edition. Limited to 500 copies.

New Chaplin Video Game

25 Apr 2024

Chaplin Fans, take advantage of this exclusive opportunity! For a limited time, play a brand new Puzzle Game BEFORE its eventual release to the general public.

B Df’rent Games is launching the first officially licensed Charlie Chaplin mobile game ever: “Charlie Chaplin,The Missing Pieces”!

The demo is available on the App Store, Google Play Store, or on PC.

Download it now and share your valuable feedback to help B Df’rent Games on their official Discord server to create the perfect gaming experience tailored just for you!

New Limited Edition Vinyl: City Lights Soundtrack Album

25 Oct 2023

A new double LP of the CITY LIGHTS soundtrack is now available as part of the collection of Chaplin film soundtrack vinyls we are producing in collaboration with [PIAS] France. This deluxe edition includes two 180g vinyls (in full mono), rare bonus materials and a 24-page booklet illustrated with photographs and documents from the Chaplin Archive.

New French DVD & Blu-ray Release: A WOMAN OF PARIS

20 Oct 2023

The new 4K restoration of A WOMAN OF PARIS has just been released on blu-ray and DVD by POTEMKINE films in France.

This exciting edition includes a recently recorded soundtrack based upon Chaplin’s 1976 score for the film and on a selection of his 1952-1969 composition sketches, restored, orchestrated, and conducted by Timothy Brock. According to Brock, “Over the course of many weeks I aurally transcribed what Chaplin was working out on the piano, and identified about 14 finished compositions and about 20 un-finished, or incomplete, musical ideas. It is these pieces, in conjunction with some of the 1977 score, that make up the new posthumous score, 100% composed by Chaplin. I developed the new score as best I could in the Chaplin earmarks and idioms, and orchestrated it in the model of CITY LIGHTS, which was Chaplin’s earliest personal attempt at orchestration, some 8 years after A WOMAN OF PARIS.” Recording by the Orchestra Città Aperta. Audio Post Production by l’Immagine Ritrovata.

Bonus materials:
- Introduction by David Robinson (5’)
- Chaplin Today: A Woman of Paris - Documentary by Mathias Ledoux with the participation of Liv Ullmann. (27’)
- Presentation of rare archives with commentary by Arnold Lozano of the Chaplin Office (9’)
- Outtakes
- United Artists signature archival footage

New Book: The Early Years of Charlie Chaplin by Lisa Stein Haven

17 Aug 2023

Professor Lisa Stein Haven takes us back to The Early Years of Charlie Chaplin, her latest book just released by White Owl (an imprint of Pen & Sword Books).

Charlie Chaplin’s career has been described, critiqued, and scrutinized. There are book-length studies on Chaplin’s music hall career, his career at Keystone Studios and the Mutual Studios. Somehow, his tenure with First National, however, has been largely neglected, even though it was during this several-year contractual time period that Chaplin built and occupied his own studio for the first time, that he attempted and succeeded in filming a comedy feature (The Kid) and that he helped to set up United Artists, an organization that protected the salaries and creative freedom of actors in Hollywood. This period in Chaplin’s story is especially interesting because such landmark moments are accompanied by Chaplin’s first marriage and divorce, the death of his first child, his friendship with French silent film comedian Max Linder , World War I and the role he would play in it, and the production and release of several unsuccessful films that marked Chaplin’s first creative blockage - one that threatened his future career.

This book discusses the transitional periods just before and after the First National contract, as well as the all-important period satisfying it. Archival evidence provides most of the support for the book’s assertions, from the Chaplin archive (property of Roy Export, digitised by Cineteca di Bologna, Italy), and the personal archives of other individuals or institutions discussed. Rare photos illustrate the story.

Josephine Gardin-Chaplin

21 Jul 2023

It is with deepest regret that we share news of the passing of Josephine Hannah Gardin-Chaplin, daughter of Charlie Chaplin and Oona O’Neill, on Thursday, July 13, 2023. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her beloved family and friends.

For years, Josephine managed the Chaplin Office in Paris on behalf of her siblings until she took leave to care for her husband Jean-Claude Gardin.

She appeared in a number of films, including Pier Paolo Pasolini’s THE CANTERBURY TALES, and her father’s LIMELIGHT and A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG.

Our deepest condolences are with her family.

The Chaplin Office

New Chaplin Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles by Craft Hub

07 Jul 2023

Calling all Chaplin-loving dissectologists!*

Discover four new licensed wooden jigsaw puzzles from Craft Hub – a fun and colorful tribute to Charlie Chaplin.

Each puzzle piece is unique, many of them in Chaplin-themed shapes: silhouettes, hats, roller skates, circus tents and more!

These puzzles are a challenging and rewarding brainteaser to solve alone, with family or friends.

All four designs are available on Craft Hub’s website for worldwide shipping & delivery.

*A person passionate about solving jigsaw puzzles. The term originated from the wooden “dissected” maps that were popular in the 19th century.