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mind, and he determined to make the film, even though it proved impossible to make it in Alaska, since the conditions of work there were too difficult.
Now that Chaplin was determined, no obstacle could be allowed to stand in his way, not even the geographical contours of the land. He transported his entire company, executives and apparatus, to the Rocky Mountains, and there re-built the Klondyke. A pathway 2,300 feet long, with an ascent of 1,000 feet was cut, at a height of nearly 10,000 feet, to make the Chilkoot Pass in the Klondyke. That part of the film-making cost £12,000 and the production costs were £200,000. a fabulous sum in the film world of 1924.
For his leading lady in this film, to be called The Gold Rush, Chaplin had chosen an extremely beautiful sixteen year old, Lolita MacMurray. A few years before, she had been one of the child angels in the dream sequence of The Kid; then Chaplin, looking round for his lead in the Klondyke film, noticed her again, fell wildly in love with her, gave her a screen test, and offered her the lead. As Lita Grey, she signed the contract.
Once that part of the business was concluded, Mrs. MacMurray practically assumed possession of the studio. A dominant, aggressive woman, with her daughter's material interests very much at heart, she very cleverly manipulated Chaplin's heartwhole infatuation until the whole company, much against its will, revolved round the untried sixteen year old star.
The combination of extreme youth and extreme beauty proving, as always, irresistible to Chaplin, and the girl's mother insistent, Chaplin married Lita Grey soon after The Gold Rush was begun.
Almost immediately, he discovered that he had acquired a militant mother-in-law determined to rule her daughter, her daughter's husband, his public, private and artistic life. She failed only where his work was concerned; in all else life became rapidly intolerable. Once more Chaplin had acquired a very young wife with whom he had nothing in common; and this time, in so doing, he turned his home into a noisy and public guest house. For Lita Grey, with her mother beside her, enjoyed to the full the excitement and gaiety that Mildred Harris yearned for, but did silently without. There can be little doubt that, from the beginning, there was friction between Chaplin and Mrs. MacMurray, and that her influence over her daughter prevented any possibility of a real marriage being established. Lita, young, pleasureloving, and a born coquette, suddenly set down in a life of luxury and ease, with every hope of a successful film career, plunged into the most hectic social life imaginable, at a time when Chaplin was in the throes of a new film.
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