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Chaplin’s Salary
In this news, ‘Charlie Chaplin Signs Contract with Mutual Film,’ it published an interview with Chaplin, during this interview, the reporter noticed that Chaplin did not talk about his salary too much.
Mr. Chaplin is not much inclined to talk about business.
“A great many people are inclined to make wide eyes at what is called my salary,”
he remarked. “Honestly it is a matter I do not spend much time thinking about.
“Money and Business are very serious matters and I have to keep my mind off of them. In fact, I do not worry about money at all,” he admitted convincingly.51
Chaplin talked to the public that he had not worried about money. Unlike Freuler or Weisfeldt spoke about how much money in this contract, Chaplin kept a low profile when people talked about his salary. It seems that Chaplin did not want the public to regard him as a kind of actor who was very enthusiastic about seeking high salary after he signed a new contract with Mutual.
It also different with his previous interviews that Chaplin claimed he wanted to make more and more money in the film industry.
In this interview, it also mentioned a interesting information: “Charles Chaplin was accompanied by his brother, Sidney Chaplin, who conducts the younger comedian’s business affairs and salary negotiations.”52 According to this news, Chaplin’s business was handled by his elder brother, Syd Chaplin. The other report on July 22, 1916, it mentioned a rumor about the relationship between Charles Chaplin and Syd Chaplin was broken, but both denied this rumor:
Both Syd and Charles Chaplin make vigorous denial of the report that there has been a “split” between the brother screen comedians. …… “Not only is there no split, but we never have had a serious difference,” Syd Chaplin declared. “We have always kept our interests in each other's work and whenever it has been possible we have lived together. We will be living under the same roof again if it happens that I go to Los Angeles to work.”53
51 “Charlie Chaplin Signs Contract with Mutual Film,” Motion Picture News, Vol. 13, Mar. 11, 1916, p1459.
52 “Charlie Chaplin Signs Contract with Mutual Film,” Motion Picture News, Vol. 13, Mar. 11, 1916, p1459.
53 Motion Picture News, Vol.14, Jul. 22, 1916, p442.
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According to this news, Syd Chaplin said that they have no split even do not have a severe difference.
Chaplin wanted people to believe that this new contract with Mutual was not just about money, but also about it an opportunity that could let him do his work better and reach the expectation from public people. Chaplin told the reporter:
“What this contract means is simply that I am in business with the worry left out and with the dividends guaranteed.”
“It means that I am left free to be just as funny as I dare, to do the best work that is in me and to spend my energies on the thing that the people want. I have felt for a long time that this would be my big year, and this contract gives me my
opportunity. There is inspiration in it. I am like an author with a big publish to give him circulation.”54
Chaplin Chaplin’s salary was always the popular question that people wanted to know. Since Chaplin joined Essanay in 1915, the public, media, and fans had started being interested in Chaplin’s salary. In 1915, the editor of Motion Picture Magazine responded reader’s questions about Chaplin’s salary after he joined Essanay:
I am not sure, but at the time Charles Chaplin left Keystone and signed with Essanay it was commonly reported around Los Angeles that his salary was to be
$1,000 a week.55
It was rumored that Charles Chaplin gets $1,000 a week.56
According to these two responses, Chaplin’s salary during the Essanay period is 1,000 a week.
After Chaplin signed a contract with Mutual Film, some readers of Motion Picture Magazine asked the editor about how much was Chaplin’s salary.
54 “Charlie Chaplin Signs Contract with Mutual Film,” Motion Picture News, Vol. 13, Mar. 11, 1916, p1459.
55 Motion Picture Magazine, 1915, May, p152.
56 Motion Picture Magazine, 1915, June, p162.
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The latest is that Charles Chaplin is with Mutual at a salary of $10,000 a week and a bonus of $150,000.57
Well, Charlie Chaplin gets $600,000 a year and he think it isn’t enough. I am told that Marry Pickford gets $10,000 a week, Marguerite Clark about $2,000, Anita Stewart about $700, and Earle Williams about 600. It seem to me that they ought to be able to eat three meals a day and keep the wolf from the door on that. What?
Contracts make cowards of us all.58
No, it was on March 4th, 1916, that Charlie Chaplin signed his contract with Mutual calling for a salary of $670,000.59
The highest paid movies actor? I suppose you would say Charlie Chaplin.60
Not all people had a positive view of film stars earned higher and a higher salary. One of
Motion Picture Magazine’s readers believed that the film company would fail when they pay
more and more salary to film actors. The editor of Motion Picture Magazine also thought that it would be a problem when film actors or actresses gain too much salary. He took a list of some film stars who earned a high salary including Chaplin.You think that many of the picture companies will fail on account of high salaries? I agree with you, and here is what some of the stars are drawing down:
Douglas Fairbanks, $100,000 a year; Frank Keenan, $65,000; W. S. Hart, Pauline Frederick, Marguerite Clark and Olga Petrova all $100,000 a year; Lenore Ulrich,
$52,000; and then there is Mary Pickford with $10,000 a week and a share of the profits, and Charlie Chaplin with $10,000 and a share of the profits that may bring him up to $15,000 a week. I guess you’re right; somebody has got to go bust.61
However, someone defended for Chaplin’s high salary. An article in February issue of Motion
Picture Magazine, ‘It He Worth It, and Does He Get It?’ published in 1917, the author wrote
that:Now, I am not saying that Charlie is the only funny man on the screen — not by a long shot; but he comes so much nearer scoring one hundred per cent. of hits than any other comedian, that I, who cant possibly know anything about salaries, costs of production and the like, would consider him an idiot if he didn’t demand a king’s ransom for his efforts.
57 Motion Picture Magazine, May, 1916, p153.
58 Motion Picture Magazine, December, 1916, p135.
59 Motion Picture Magazine, March, 1917, p138.
60 Motion Picture Magazine, June, 1917, p129.
61 Motion Picture Magazine, December, 1916, p156.
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Not considering Chaplin's salary, is there anything about his films that cost more than the sort of films that never drew a single dime into a box-office? …… and it wouldn’t be economical to have a poorly paid camera-man “shooting” such a high-priced star; but these items surely must be inconsiderable when the
thousands and thousands of dollars begin to roll into the Mutual coffers after each release.62
In this article, the author thought that the company may pay Chaplin a high salary, but Chaplin would bring massive box-office, let the company make big money.
“Charlie Chaplin is English, but Uncle Sammy has taken a strong liking to his income at least. His income tax for this year amounts to $25,000
.
”63 It is a response which Motion PictureMagazine answered the letter from its reader. For some people, Chaplin’s English identity was a
problem for them. Some people also worried that Chaplin may leave America and back to England. One of the editor’s answers from Motion Picture Magazine said that: “You need have no fear about Charlie Chaplin going to England. His contract with Mutual would not allow him to go out the U.S. without written permission.”64In fact, on March 11, 1916, Motion Picture News published the detail about Chaplin’s
contract with Mutual, in this news, it wrote that: “Mr. Chaplin is a British subject. It is stipulated that he shall not leave the United States within the life if the contract without the permission of the corporation.”65 It meant that when Mutual offered a contract for Chaplin, they had the same concern, too.
In the July issue of Motion Picture Magazine in 1917, it published a comment about Chaplin’s salary:
Charles Spencer Chaplin’s middle name might well be spelled $ucce$$. It required seven figures to total his last bank balance. The account on his twenty-eighth birthday. April 10th, 1917, showed his fortune had passed the $1,000,000 mark and nearly reached the $1,500,000. He makes fun for fun’s sake, not for
62 John Tillman Melvin, “Is He Worth It, and Does He Get It?”, Motion Picture Magazine, February, 1917, p100.
63 Motion Picture Magazine, December, 1916, p142.
64 Motion Picture Magazine, May, 1916, p157.
65 ”Charlie Chaplin Signs Contract with Mutual Film”, Motion Picture News, Vol. 13, Mar. 11, 1916, p1459.
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money’s sake. He says: “I have quite enough money”; but the public haven’t had quite enough fun—let’s hope Mr. Chaplin will not think of retiring, at least not until his next birthday, just because he is a Croesus, and can.66
This comment made a joke about the Chaplin middle name that suggested Chaplin should change his middle name as ‘$ucce$$’ because Chaplin was a successful actor and earned large money.
However, the author believed that the public still hoped Chaplin to keep making more money because they wanted to watch more Chaplin’s films.
Chaplin’s contract with Mutual made him the highest paid movie star, but it was still not enough for him, a rumor said that:
…… and lastly comes the big rumor that Charlie Chaplin is not satisfied with his
$640,000 per year pocket-money and is about to branch out as his own producer.
Charlie, no doubt, will vote to give himself at least $5,000,000 per.67
In the early news from Motion Picture News on May 5, 1917, it reported some detail about the contract negotiation with Mutual:
Sid Chaplin, brother and business manager of Charlie Chaplin, is conferring in New York with John R. Freuler, president of the Mutual Film Corporation.
Many interesting rumors attend the Chaplin-Freuler conference. Chief among them is that Chaplin is “holding out” for $1,000,000 a year. It is also said that Chaplin wants to stop making two-reel comedies and go in for long features, presumably five reels in length at least.68
Chaplin’s brother Syd Chaplin presented him to negotiate with the president of Mutual, according to the report, he not only pursued higher salary but also wants to make a longer film instead of two-reel films.
Mutual tried to raise Chaplin salary from 670,000 per year to 1000,000 in his new contract, but Chaplin did not accept the new offer. The negotiation was broken, on July 14, Motion
Picture News exposed that Chaplin would sign a new contract with First National for 1,075,000
66 Motion Picture Magazine, July, 1917, p168.
67 Motion Picture Magazine, August, 1917, p129.
68 Motion Picture News, Vol.15, May 5, 1917, p2862.
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per year,69 and on July 21, it reported that the Chaplin formally signed a contract with First National.70
In the September issue of Motion Picture Magazine, it published a comment about Chaplin’s new contract:
Charlie Chaplin has made a new contract! His salary has been almost doubled!
From a mere $670,000 per year Charlie has been raised to $1,075,000. Mutual offered the magnetic little comedian $1,000,000, but his new boss, the First National Exhibitors' Circuit, went one better with the neat little bonus of $75,000, and Charlie succumbed; He is to have a free hand in his own production and will produce eight pictures a year. Some little coin-accumulator—yes?71
In this comment, the author calling Chaplin “succumbed
” to
First National’s higher offer. This comment had a little satirical meaning when the author narrated Chaplin’s new contract.In 1918, Motion Picture Magazine’s editor answered reader about Chaplin’s salary:
Charlie Chaplin's salary is $1,075,000 a year. He ought to be able to eat three meals a day on that—provided prices dont go up much higher.72
Also, in the same issue of Motion Picture Magazine, it published an advertisement about Chaplin’s first film of First National. (See Figure 5) This advertisement printed a letter from Chaplin with his signature. In this letter, Chaplin described his first film of First National as
“Million Dollar series of comedies” and asked audiences to identify his legitimate films with his signature.
69 See report: “Chaplin with Exhibitors Circuit at $1,075,000 For Year,” Motion Picture News, Vol.16, July 14, 1917, p223.
70 See report: “Chaplin Formally Signs Contract With Circuit,” Motion Picture News, Vol.16, July 14, 1917, p384.
71 Motion Picture Magazine, September, 1917, p126.
72 Motion Picture Magazine, September, 1918, p90.
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(Figure 5)
73Like the Mutual contract, people also regarded Charles Chaplin’s First national’s contract as an accomplishment of Syd Chaplin. In October 1919, Campbell James wrote an article, “The
Money Market” in Motion Picture Magazine, it said that: “It was entirely thru Syd’s skillful
Manipulations that Charlie Chaplin's famous million- dollar-a-year-contract with First National was engineered.”74These sources can prove that “Money” played an important role in early Chaplin career.
Chaplin had tried to seek another big contract, pursue more salary. Even Chaplin showed up his desire of money in some early interviews with magazines, in most of the time, Chaplin still did not want to connect himself with money directly, it can explain why Chaplin let his elder brother, Syd Chaplin handle the contract issue.
73 Motion Picture Magazine, September, 1918, p133.
74 Motion Picture Magazine, October, 1919, p46.