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Charlie Chaplin was born Charles Spencer Chaplin in London, England in 1889. His parents were music hall entertainers, but they separated when Charlie was only three, and his mother had mental problems and was in and out of asylums, and his father died when he was 12.

Charlie had an older half-brother Syd, and they pretty much raised themselves, working in music halls from when they were very young. In 1910, Charlie joined a traveling troupe that went to the U.S., and returned in 1912.

In 1913, he was seen by Mack Sennett, who hired him for his Keystone Comedies. His first movie was Making a Living in 1914, and it was not a success, but in his second movie, Kid Auto Races at Venice, he invented his famous character, The Tramp. This was a huge success, and Chaplin started directing and writing many of his movies, most with his Tramp persona.

He became Keystone's greatest star. In 1916, the Mutual Company paid Chaplin $670 to create 12 two-reel comedies, and some of these were among his very best movies, like Easy Street, and One A.M. These movies made him so popular that his older movies were constantly being shown throughout the late 1910s.

In 1918, he signed an 8 movie million dollar contract with First National. He had complete control over these movies. In 1919, he co-founded United Artists with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith, but he couldn't make movies for UA until he had satisfied his First National contract, which he did with The Kid, A Dog's Life, and others.

At United Artists, he was finally absolutely in control of his movies, and he started taking longer and longer to make each one, because he had no one to answer to. In 1925, he made The Gold Rush for United Artists, considered by most to be his masterpiece.

When sound came to movies, Chaplin resisted, and he made City Lights in 1931 as a silent movie with a musical soundtrack, and his Modern Times in 1936 had mostly only sound effects and next-to-no dialog.

In 1940, Chaplin made The Great Dictator (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), a black comic attack on Nazism, with Chaplin playing a crazed Hitler-like character. It was quite daring for its day, and is a wonderful movie. His next movie was not until 1947 and it was the ultrablack comedy, Monsieur Verdoux, and while it was not successful on its first release many people (including myself) think it is a wonderful movie.

Chaplin made three more movies, and passed away in 1977. He had many wives, underage girlfriends, and children, and was involved in many scandals. But he was surely the most influential person in the history of the movies, and was a master actor, director and writer, and we will never see his like again! AND Douglas Fairbanks (Sr.!) was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado in 1883. His father was a prominent New York Jewish lawyer, and he met Doug's mother (who was 17 years younger than he) when she was getting divorced from her second husband (he was her lawyer). They married, and he soon relocated to Denver, where Doug was born when his mother was 33 and his father was 50, but his parents separated when Doug was 5, and his mom changed his last name to Fairbanks, which was not her maiden name, but which had been the name of her first husband! Doug acted as a child, and did quite well on the stage as a teen, but was constantly in trouble and did not graduate high school. He may have attended another school and also Harvard, but if so he was expelled from both! Shortly after the turn of the century he moved to New York, and he made his Broadway debut in 1902. In 1907 he married, and in 1909 their son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., was born. In 1915 he moved to Hollywood, where he began making adventure movies, where he demonstrated the great physical skills that marked most of his greatest successes, and by 1918 he was Hollywood's most popular and highest paid actor. He started an affair with Mary Pickford (then the highest paid actress) and in 1918 he was divorced, and he married Pickford in 1920, and in 1922 they moved into "Pickfair", their palatial Beverly Hills estate. In 1919, Fairbanks, Pickford, Charlie Chaplin (Fairbank's best friend), and D.W. Griffith had formed United Artists together, and in the 1920s he would make his greatest movies for United Artists, including The Mark of Zorro, The Three Musketeers, Robin Hood, The Thief of Bagdad, and many more! But by the late 1920s Fairbanks was aging, and his health was not great, and he had difficulty performing the kind of stunts he had become famous for. In 1929 he and Pickford together made their first talkie, The Taming of the Shrew, but the movie was not very successful, and he only made three more before retiring in 1934. Meanwhile, son Doug Jr., who had been in movies since the mid-1920s adapted great to sound, and was a top romantic lead, marrying Joan Crawford in 1929. Doug Sr. separated from Pickford in 1933 after he began an affair with Lady Sylvia Ashley, and he divorced in 1936, with Mary keeping Pickfair. He married Lady Ashley that year, and in 1939 he had a heart attack after working out (his last words were "I've never felt better") and he passed away at age 59. In 1937 Pickford had married movie star Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, 12 years younger than she, and they remained married until her passing in 1979. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was the greatest action adventure star of all time, and I highly recommend seeing as many of his 1920s classics as you can, because they are truly amazing movies! I wish those who make action adventure movies today would study Fairbanks' movies, so they can see what is missing from their efforts. AND Mary Pickford was a Canadian actress from the 1900s to the 1930s. She was one of the top silent actresses, who specialized in playing young girl roles as an adult, and she was called "America's Sweetheart", and when she married Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., the country rejoiced (and the country mourned when they divorced!). Some of her movies include: Little Annie Rooney, Sparrows, My Best Girl, and Tess of the Storm Country.

Important Added Info: It's hard to imagine six more powerful Hollywood people gathered in one room at one time than these six, who were the members of United Artists' studio board of directors! Also note that this news photo measures 7" x 9 1/2" [18 x 24 cm].

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