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The Essanay Company told Motion Picture News that this rumor was created by a film exhibitor in New Orleans when they promoted Chaplin’s film Work. This film released on June 21, 1915, the rumor spread since May, so it is reasonable to explain that this rumor created for promoting Chaplin’s new film.
However, even Motion Picture Magazine and Motion Picture News already published a statement to clean this rumor, still had some readers sent a letter to ask whether Chaplin die or not, especially one of them ask whether Chaplin was a Jewish.
No, Charlie Chaplin is not dead. That’s only gossip.8
That report that Charles Chaplin is a deaf and dumb Jew is false.9
The editor of Motion Picture Magazine explained the rumor about Chaplin was deaf, dumb, again, and editor also explained that Chaplin was not a Jewish.
Rumors in Mutual Period
‘Secret Griefs and Cankers in Bosom,’ written by Ivan Gaddis, it mentioned that many writers like to write fake rumors about Chaplin:
It seems that space writers go crazy trying to invent a new fable about Charlie. He has read recently that he spent some time in asylum; that he is a dope fiend; that he is married.10 ……Also, he has been startled to hear that he had died;11
Sometimes in the column of Motion Picture Magazine, “Answer Department,” the editor would answer reader for the question about Chaplin’s rumors.
I don’t care to answer such question as “Has Charlie Chaplin been in the
asylum?” “Is Theda Bara really very wicked?” You in the wrong pew. No, to both question, however.12
8 Motion Picture Magazine, Aug, 1915, p160.
9 Motion Picture Magazine, Sep, 1915, p133.
10 Ivan Gaddis, “Secret Griefs and Cankers in the Bosom”, Motion Picture Magazine, April, 1916, p47.
11 Ivan Gaddis, “Secret Griefs and Cankers in the Bosom”, Motion Picture Magazine, April, 1916, p49.
12 Motion Picture Magazine, March, 1916, p151.
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I don’t believe one word of all that stuff you say you heard about Chaplin. As soon as a person becomes famous, then the news-carriers get busy.……13 No; Charlie Chaplin is not deaf and dumb.14
In the “Question” column on Photoplay Magazine, the editor also faced the same question about Chaplin’s rumor:
No, Charles Chaplin is not a deaf mute, even if you can’t hear what he says on the screen.15
No matter in Motion Picture Magazine or Photoplay Magazine, both editors of magazine faced a bunch of questions about whether Chaplin was an ordinary person or not from their readers.
Some people also thought Chaplin was an actor who could not speak, listen or out of mind.
“The Mix-up” plays were films which mix several scenes of Chaplin’s films as an illegal and unauthorized film; it was a problem for Chaplin that bothered him very much. In Gaddis’s article, it said that:
He is about to bring an injunction against the production of a picture play called
“The Mix-up.” He says that this is a patchwork of old scenes which were used in different plays.16
On February 5, 1916, Motion Picture News also reported a similar case with this “Mix-up” issue:
The charge against Levi was violating the copyright law. He has been the object of investigation and prosecution by the Essanay company, for several months.
Through exhibitors it was learned that he was “duping” Charlie Chaplin films, and putting them out as original productions.17
According to these sources, we can know that some people faked these “Mix-up” films as Chaplin’s original films for cheat audiences, and this was a profitable illegal business.
In addition to the death rumor and “Mix-up” problem, Chaplin also told Gaddis that there had three big troubles which also bothered him.
13 Motion Picture Magazine, August, 1916, p166.
14 Motion Picture Magazine, August, 1917, p157.
15 Photoplay Magazine, January, 1917, p156.
16 Ivan Gaddis, “Secret Griefs and Cankers in the Bosom”, Motion Picture Magazine, April, 1916, p49.
17 “Dupester” Brought Within Toils of Law by Essanay,” Motion Picture News, Vol.13, February 5, 1916, p708.
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His biggest “trouble” symptoms are of three distinct kinds. One is biographies.
Another is provided by that host of men willing to sustain bumps and kicks for art’s sake, who do turns on the vaudeville stage and in shows of various kinds under the guise of the original Charlie Chaplin. The third big trouble emanates from the “Originals.”18
The biggest of these three troubles was about “Originals.” Chaplin said that:
“The Originals, are always trying to pick an argument with me in controversies about makeups, about who discovered the hat, who invented the walk, who conceived the funny way to walk when kicked, and who first learnt to flirt a cane my way, and all the rest of it.”19
About this “Originals” debate, I discussed this subject in Chapter 2; this section will focus on the other two topics.
In Gaddis’s article, it mentioned that some people questioned Chaplin’s intelligence.
“Some of his public libelers take the view that he is a boob, an ignoramus, a simp of the first water. He says he has even read that Charlie Chaplin is so ignorant that he can’t sign a check.”20
It was a problem for Chaplin when some people thought he was ignorant like he was in the film.
In an early interview, “The New Charlie Chaplin,” the author quoted the words from W.W.
Barrett to describe Chaplin’s person image in real life. Barrett found Chaplin look different from stage image.
unlike and contrary to his stage appearance— a neatly and stylishly dressed young man; as charming and affable a boy—for he appeared to be but a young— as anyone would wish to meet; a hard worker, who writes, acts, produces and manages; an unusually intelligent man, modest, not in the least affected by his great popularity, and very keen, businesslike and thrifty—not at all like the usual actor of the “get-rich-quick” variety.21
Film audiences always connect the film actor’s image with the stage image. It is why many people believed that Chaplin was a stupid man after they watched Chaplin’s films. For change
18 Ivan Gaddis, “Secret Griefs and Cankers in the Bosom”, Motion Picture Magazine, April, 1916, p49.
19 Ivan Gaddis, “Secret Griefs and Cankers in the Bosom”, Motion Picture Magazine, April, 1916, p49.
20 Ivan Gaddis, “Secret Griefs and Cankers in the Bosom”, Motion Picture Magazine, April, 1916, p49.
21 J.B. Hirsch, “The New Charlie Chaplin”, Motion Picture Magazine, January, 1916, p115.
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public’s view, Chaplin tried through the press by doing some interviews, let people know he was not ignorant of his real life.