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Under the professional name of Lita Grey, she was signed, in March 1924, at a salary of seventy-five dollars a week. Lita jumped up and down exclaiming "Goody, goody!" while her ambitious mother exulted. The publicity mill ground out typical Hollywood announcements of the new leading lady, blurbing her beauty, her talents, her "aristocratic Spanish forebears," her accomplishments in sports, etc. Edna Purviance's dressing room was cleared out and refurnished to Mrs. McMurry's taste.
Lita and Chaplin began to appear together in public. He was obviously smitten with her although he, himself, had heard her admit that she liked him the better because of his name. Suddenly, that fall, Lita's family, which included a lawyer uncle named Edwin McMurry, demanded that Chaplin agree to an immediate marriage or face legal consequences. Chaplin, apparently forced to comply, sought the dreaded wedding without benefit of the press. An elaborate ruse was planned. He announced a change in the locale of his new film from the Far North to Mexico. Together with a technical crew, Chaplin's party entrained for Guaymas, Mexico. Some reporters with a hunch entrained as fellow-travelers. Others turned up in Mexico.
In Guaymas the technical crew was ordered to hire a fishing boat and stay out all day to give the impression that they were shooting sea scenes. Kono kept reporters away from Lita and her mother. With the newspaper men thrown off their guard, Chaplin, Riesner, Lita, and her mother drove to Empalme, in the state of Sonora, where, on November 24, 1924, Lita Grey became Mrs. Chaplin. After the ceremony Chaplin went fishing.
The "happy" couple started back for Hollywood with numerous relatives of Lita, the technicians, and about fifty reporters in tow. While Chaplin remained alone in his compartment, the McMurry clan celebrated in the dining car. Lita was later to quote her husband as say