Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood processes of the Black List — we heard one leading club woman exclaim : " That Charlie Chaplin, he's got to look after himself. I tell you that if he has one more scandal the whole of the women's clubs of America are going to combine against him. We shall issue a boycott against his films, and any cinema house that dares to show him will be ostracized. Then you'll see what your great Mr Chaplin looks like. He just can't outrage the great American public too far." Ever since we have returned to Europe the first question we have been asked on all sides is : " Did you meet Charlie Chaplin?" We did not. We did not want to meet him casually. He is probably the most pestered man in Hollywood, and, if even the most ordinary star must erect a defence around himself as a protection for his personal liberty against the intrusion of the outside world, then Chaplin must need trenches and barbedwire entanglements. His star-meeting-the-public manner should be a masterpiece of polite camouflage, although he is, unlike many of his rivals and peers, a thoroughly versatile man, interested in the arts and sciences and in things beyond the provincialism of the movies. For instance, while we were in Hollywood he was sponsoring a special troupe of Japanese actors who gave remarkable exhibitions of their peculiarly dramatic and rhythmic acting. We were flattering ourselves on being especially fortunate, for through his camera-man we had permission to sketch on the sets during the progress of his coming production. He was due to start work at any moment ; the principal sets were already built, but Chaplin, as yet unsatisfied with the script, had retired to his house in Santa Monica, where he had shut himself away from intrusion. Time [214]