Chaplin: A Life
An in-depth psychological study of the formative childhood experiences of the comedian’s early years, Chaplin: A Life traces the evolution of a former Cockney slum urchin from an invulnerable child into an invincible screen character.
ADVANCE REVIEWS
“A fresh entry in the evergreen field of works devoted to Charlie Chaplin. If ever an artist’s life lent itself to psychoanalysis, it’s Chaplin’s. . . . Weissman lends dimension to the classics . . . and demonstrates Chaplin’s ability to transform family heartbreak into film comedies. . . . With lean, energetic prose, Weissman brings this colorful theatrical period to life. . . . He o ffers vivid sketches . . .and carefully follows the confluence of several artists that lead to the creation of the Chaplin’s iconic Little Tramp. Throughout the book,the author caps exhaustive sourcing with an overlay of insightful observations about Chaplin’s creative process. Find space on the crowded Chaplin shelf for this perceptive, literate take on the great screen clown.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“Weissman uncovers the source for the “shabby gentility” of the Little Tramp, as well as the development of that extraordinary character. En route, he paints an engaging…portrait of how a cinema artist is created and how he practices his craft.”
–Publishers Weekly
To Learn More About This Book:
Click Here: Check out “Chaplin: A Life”
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The Contemporary Relevance of Charlie Chaplin’s Life & Times (Songs & Scenes from the 1930s)
The Little Tramp’s message on how to emotionally survive economic hardship:
Click Here: Check out “YouTube – Smile, Charlie Chaplin , Modern Times, 1936″
FDR’s cognitive therapist-like advice to the nation on how to cope emotionally
with economic insecurity. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Click Here: Check out “YouTube – “Happy Days are Here Again!” (Ben Selvin & Crooners, 1930)”
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Geraldine Chaplin’s introduction to this book:
A few years ago I received a phone call from an acquaintance I had made at a film festival, resulting in the following conversation:
- You might want to check this out… Some cocky young author has written an article about your father insinuating that your grandmother was a doxy.
– A what?
– A chippy, a tart, a… houri!
– What?
– Oh! And that she had syphilis.
– WHAT?
– Yeah, well I put it in the post for you. Check it out.
I had dinner with my stepson that night. I told him…
Apparently some jerk has published an article calling my grandmother a syphilitic whore!
My stepson was non-plussed and practical:
-Well, get in touch with whoever wrote it, thank him for the information then tell him that by the way, your grandmother worked in the same establishment as his grandmother, his mother, his sisters, aunts and all his female cousins!!!
The article arrived in the mail a few days later. It’s “cocky young author” turned out to be a notable psychoanalyst, Steve Weissman MD. The article was riveting and perceptive and diligently researched (it has since been published in Richard Schickel’s The Essential Chaplin. It also rang true. I was duly shocked. I was intrigued.
I phoned a friend who is the “Central Intelligence Authority” on who is doing what on Chaplin (the “Langley” of Chapliniana).
I asked him if he had heard of Steve Weissman.
-Weissman? The shrink? Sure have! He’s had your father on the couch for years! (…a posthumous psychoanalysis of my father??? oh dear…) He’s doing a book. Something special. Big time if you ask me.
To make a long story short I contacted Dr.Weissman who confirmed that he was writing a book and promised to send it to me when it was finished.
+He kept his promise and here is the book.
It is unlike anything that has ever been written about my father. Weissman weaves a psychologically astute narrative of Chaplin’s life and art, brilliantly exploring the relationships between experience and creativity.
A mixture of gritty social history, romance and medical science, the book begins with Weissman dissecting Chaplin’s parents’ tempestuous courtship and disastrous marriage, coming to surprising conclusions.
He then takes us into the world of the Victorian Music Hall. He is an expert (wonderful anecdotes about George Leybourne, Alfred Peck Stevens “The Great Vance”,
Joe Saunders… the male impersonators Vesta Tilly, Nellie Power, Ella Shields…) He brings to life the streets of South London, the grim Hanwell orphanage, and finally, with a fresh insight, takes us to the Hollywood of the teens and the twenties.
Did Chaplin spin personal tragedy into universal comedy creating “the little tramp” as a parody and a memorialization of his alcoholic father???
Are Chaplin’s film heroines sublimated half-remembered, half- repressed memories of his tragic and adored mother???
Weissman probes into the psychological explanation of the closest human bonds. It is uncanny how intuitively correct a trained outside investigator’s conclusions can turn out to be.
This book, always provocative and at times heart-wrenching, is an enlightening read, an important addition to an understanding of my father’s genius and art, and a unique meditation on the mystery of creativity.
….Geraldine Chaplin
