When Charlie Met Joan The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Diane Kiesel is a retired judge of the New York Supreme Court. Her other books include She Can Bring Us Home: Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, Civil Rights Pioneer, and Domestic Violence: Law, Policy, and Practice.
<p>"Kiesel’s account makes for entertaining and respectfully salacious reading–there is a lot of fooling around in the book–with astute assessments of the political, legal and culture milieus of the era."</p>
William P. Barrett, New to Las Vegas
<p>"Kiesel’s fine-grained character portraits present Chaplin as a charming rake who hammed up his court testimony with fake tears, and Barry as a troubled wannabe starlet taken advantage of by a powerful man. A meticulous retelling of a choice bit of Tinseltown melodrama, this will change how readers see Chaplin."</p>
Publishers Weekly
<p>"[M]ultiple wrongs don’t make a right, and today’s #MeToo movement would find much to sympathize with in Barry’s situation, as the author points out. Did any of it justify Chaplin being dragged repeatedly into court, smeared, and eventually deported? No. But it more than justifies<i> When Charlie Met Joan</i>, a terrific tale of Old Hollywood and a legal system gone awry."</p>
Ken Ackerman, Washington Independent Review of Books
<p>"Kiesel's book invites a reassessment of the individuals and legal processes in play and provides an opportunity to reflect on how changes in gender politics, science, and the law impact our perceptions."</p>
Jeremy Conrad, Washington Lawyer
<p>"Not many biographers are able to do such a service for the lives of their subjects, and in this case, provide the justice to Joan Barry’s story that Chaplin, the courts, and her own family were not able to supply."</p>
Carl Rollyson, The New York Sun
<p>"Readers will feel as though they are in the courtroom. Kiesel makes the testimony come alive."</p>
Laura A. Ward, New York Law Journal
The 2026 PROSE Award Category Winner for Biography and Autobiography
Charlie Chaplin, the silent screen’s “Little Tramp,” was beloved by millions of movie fans until he starred in a series of salacious, real-life federal courtroom dramas. The 1944 trial was described by ace New York Daily News reporter Florabel Muir as “the best show in town.” The leading lady was a woman under contract to his studio—red-haired ingénue Joan Barry, Chaplin’s protégée and former mistress. Although he beat the federal criminal trial, Chaplin lost a paternity case and had to pay child support despite blood type evidence that proved he was not the child’s father.
A decade later during the Cold War, the U.S. government used the Barry trials as an excuse to bar the left-leaning, sexually adventurous, British-born comic from the country he had called home for forty years. Not only did these trials have a lasting impact on law; they also raise concerns about the power of celebrity, Cold War politics, the media frenzy surrounding high-profile court proceedings, and the sorry history of the casting couch. When Charlie Met Joan examines these trials from the perspective of both parties, asking whether Chaplin was unfairly persecuted by the government because of his left-leaning political beliefs, or if he should have been held more accountable for his cavalier treatment of Barry and other women in his life.
Exploring the lasting impacts of the Little Tramp’s real-life courtroom drama
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Prologue
Chapter 1. The Circus
Chapter 2. Feathering Her Nest
Chapter 3. The Lost Little Tramp
Chapter 4. A Brooklyn Stenographer
Chapter 5. “One Girl in Hollywood”
Chapter 6. “I Wanted to Hurt Charles the Way He Had Hurt Me”
Chapter 7. A Lost Soul
Chapter 8. “A Story That Needed Many Ears”
Chapter 9. “Shouldn’t We Run This Down?”
Chapter 10. “We never Close a Case”
Chapter 11. The Magnificent Mouthpiece
Chapter 12. “There Can’t Be Too Many Women on a Jury for Me”
Chapter 13. Joan Finally in the Spotlight
Chapter 14. “The Frozen Hatred for My Client Thawed”
Chapter 15. “Oh, I Think I Kissed Her before That”
Chapter 16. “Here Lies the Body of Joan Berry”
Chapter 17. “We Hope Charlie Chaplin Now Disappears”
Chapter 18. “Like an Ocean Breeze in a Musty Room”
Chapter 19. “I Have Committed No Crime”
Chapter 20. “All Unhappy in Chaplin Case”
Chapter 21. “The Biggest Role of My Life”
Chapter 22. “Proceed with the Butchery”
Chapter 23. “A Minor Case of Anxiety”
Epilogue
A Note on Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“This is a story that will captivate the general reader and scholar alike and the author is the perfect person to tell it. Chaplin is an inherently fascinating historical character. He was deeply flawed, and rightly morally condemned for many of his actions, including those mentioned in this forensic and readable analysis. But this did not make him guilty of all of the charges laid before him, and thus there is a fascinating story to tease out. This page-turner of a brilliant book does just that.”
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Diane Kiesel is a retired judge of the New York Supreme Court. Her other books include She Can Bring Us Home: Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, Civil Rights Pioneer, and Domestic Violence: Law, Policy, and Practice.