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Wife of the Life of the Party
A Memoir
Authors:
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Publisher:
1998
Summary
Wife of the Life of the Party is the memoir of the late Lita Grey Chaplin (1908-1995), the only one of Chaplin's wives to have written an account of life with Chaplin. Her memoir is an extraordinary Hollywood story of someone who was there from the very beginning. Born Lillita Louise MacMurray in Hollywood, she began her career at twelve with the Charlie Chaplin Film Company, when Chaplin selected her to appear with him as the flirting angel in The Kid. When she was fifteen, Chaplin signed her as the leading lady in The Gold Rush and changed her name to Lita Grey. She was forced to leave the production when, at the age of sixteen, she became pregnant with Chaplin's child. She married Chaplin in Empalme, Mexico in November 1924.
The Chaplins stayed together for two years. Lita bore Chaplin two sons: Charles Chaplin, Jr. and Sydney Chaplin. In November 1926, after Lita discovered that Chaplin was having an affair with Merna Kennedy (Lita's best friend, whom she had persuaded Chaplin to hire as the leading lady in The Circus), Lita left Chaplin and filed for divorce. It was one of the first divorce cases to receive a public airing. The divorce complaint ran a staggering 42 pages and fed scandal with its revelations about the private life of Charles Chaplin. Lita's divorce settlement of $825,000 was the largest in American history at the time.
Lita authorized the publication of another biography, My Life with Chaplin, in 1966. The book was mainly the creation of her co-author, Morton Cooper, who re-wrote her manuscript. Lita was never happy with the many inaccuracies and distortions of that book. Wife of the Life of the Party is not to be seen as a supplement to her early book, but rather Lita's own version of her life, told for the first time.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
1998
ISBN-Print
978-0-8108-3432-3
ISBN-Online
978-1-4616-7432-0
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
310
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Foreword No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction No access
Note on the Text No access
"I'm the Wife of the Life of the Party" No access
1. The Early Years and The Kid No access Pages 1 - 28
2. The Gold Rush and Marriage to Chaplin No access Pages 29 - 68
3. Pickfair and San Simeon No access Pages 69 - 88
4. The Beginning of the End No access Pages 89 - 110
Epilogue No access Pages 111 - 124
Introduction to the Chaplin Divorce Documents No access Pages 125 - 131
Complaint for Divorce No access Pages 132 - 162
Answer of Defendant No access Pages 163 - 216
Cross-Complaint No access Pages 217 - 234
Answer to Cross-Complaint No access Pages 235 - 284
Order No access Pages 285 - 286
Order—Alimony, Attorneys' Fees, etc. No access Pages 287 - 288
Order—Making Permanent Pendente Lite, Restraining Order of January 11, 1927 No access Pages 289 - 290
Order Fixing Amount of Bond No access Pages 291 - 292
Notice of Motion for an Order No access Pages 293 - 294
Interlocutory Judgment of Divorce No access Pages 295 - 298
