ulysses DeleteThis @mscomm.com (Candace) wrote in message news:<922772b5.0410010654.227301b1 DeleteThis @posting.google.com>...
> I agree, Charlie Jr.'s book is a sad reading experience. He hero
> worshipped his father who ignored him until Paulette got involved.
> There's also a telling line in May Reeves' book where Charlie
> off-handedly shows her a picture of his two little boys (sons he
> hadn't seen for years) and merely said, "They look Spanish, don't
> they?"
As I recall, he said a bit more than that. In addition to commenting
on their Spanish looks "not without pride," he said that the oldest
(Charlie Junior) was "pensive and serious," and "resembles me," while
the younger (Sydney) was "very handsome, full of life and creativity."
This is an accurate assessment of the two boys and shows something
well beyond lack of concern. I've always found the next sentence
especially telling: "One day they came to the studio with their nurse
while I was filming. I quickly removed my makeup and the little
moustache so they could see my real face." Indifference? I don't think
so.
There's a hint here that Chaplin saw Sydney as more talented--handsome
and full of creativity--and that's why he appeared to favor him and
made more effort to foster his career.
> Whether he was bitter over Lita or not, he should have spent
> time with his own boys. Chaplin's lack of fatherly ability is a sad
> indictment.
Chaplin had an absentee father himself. How could he have learned to
be a warm,
caring parent? Given the hand he was dealt,I'm surprised he managed as
well as he did, but Paulette certainly helped.
> Michael Chaplin seems especially bitter; Eugene also has
> given some interviews where you can sense his feeling that Charlie was
> not a stellar parent.
Michael sems to have mellowed out in the Schickel biography. He was a
rather
difficult person himself in his youth, and concedes that much of his
friction with his father was his fault.
> Charlie Jr. also says his father only wrote him two letters in his
> entire life, and this includes the time the younger Chaplin was
> serving in WWII.
Chaplin wrote very few letters to anybody.
As for "dumping" his sons in the exclusive Black Fox Academy, so did a
sizable portion of Hollywood notables, including Buster Keaton. Oona's
children were sent to "progressive" schools and other private schools.
Geraldine went to school with one of Nat King Cole's children. You can
get a hint of what Chaplin thought about some of those schools in _A
King in New York_.
I don't find Charlie Jr.'s book particularly sad regarding his
relationship with his father, since this obviously had its positive
side, and I admire his sensitivity and intuitive insight into his dad.
I do think being the son of a celebrity and the child of a failed
marriage were often painful and difficult for him, and that makes the
book sad at times.
Connie K.
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