Charlie Chaplin (1951)

law suits and another marriage 281 large additional sum was ruled out in court while his contention that he had overpaid §24,938 was upheld. In 1942 Paulette Goddard, after nearly ten years together, obtained a divorce in Mexico. The New York Times reports that "so secretive was the action that an entry of the decree has been ordered removed from the record by the jurist who issued it." Miss Goddard, now an established actress, was soon to marry Burgess Meredith. On July 22, 1942, Chaplin made his premature demand for a second front. Speaking from Hollywood over a long distance wire to a meeting in Madison Square Garden, in New York, he said: "On the battlefield of Russia democracy will live or die." He demanded that England and the United States attack from the West while Russia had her back against the wall. Such a move might bring victory by the following spring. Otherwise, he warned, Hitler might overrun Asia. Many people considered the speech ill-timed and rather presumptuous on his part. Military leaders, better versed in these matters, were at that very moment maturing their own plans. In October, in Carnegie Hall, Chaplin again called for a second front: "This is the time for action and I want to do what I can. Right now is the best time for a second front while the Hun is so busy in Russia." In another address, at a dinner of the "Arts in Russia Week" committee of the Russian War Relief in the Hotel Pennsylvania, he urged elimination of anti-communist propaganda in the interest of winning the war, "since our Allies do not object to our own ideals and form of government." This, however, was more or less in line with the policies of the day. In 1943 and 1944 the tabloids had a headline festival over Joan Barry's paternity suit against Chaplin. A rather