Wife of the Life of the Party - (Scarecrow Filmmakers) by Lita Grey Chaplin & Jeffrey Vance (Hardcover)

About the Book

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.

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

Wife of the Life of the Party is the memoir of the late Lita Grey Chaplin (1908-1995), the last surviving wife of Charles Chaplin and the only one of Chaplin's wives to have written an account of life with him. Born Lillita Louise MacMurray in Hollywood, she began her career at age 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 were to stay together for two years. Lita bore Chaplin two sons: Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Chaplin. In November 1926, after she 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 in January 1927. It was one of the first divorce cases to receive a public airing. The divorce complaint itself 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 My Life with Chaplin in 1966. The book was mainly the creation of her co-author, Morton Cooper, who rewrote 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 thefirst time.

Review Quotes

Lita writes frankly, and from the perspective of many years, about their unlikely relationship...she also writes interestingly, and not scurrilously, about the social life of Hollywood in the 1920s...this memoir provides a vivid account of a relationship that was doomed from the start.

Lita Grey writes as she was in person, straight, shrewd, funny and charming-even if you miss those dark eyes that were still as stunning in her eighties. She remembers and analyses the Chaplin marriage without rancour, almost objectively. Charlie may emerge very far from saintly, but he is not demonised. Looking back at what went wrong she concludes, with marvellous acuity, 'he did it to protect what he created.' Jeffrey Vance deserves great gratitude for encouraging her to record it all and for providing the necessary context.

The 40 photographs include wonderful candids from The Kid and The Gold Rush.

About the Author

Lita Grey Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin's second wife, was a film actress, singer, and author of two memoirs concerning her life with Charlie Chaplin. Jeffrey Vance (M.A., Boston University) assisted Lita Grey Chaplin in compiling her memoir.