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Summary
Summary
See him? That little tramp twitching a postage stamp of a mustache, politely lifting his bowler hat, and leaning on a bamboo cane with the confidence of a gentleman? A slapstick comedian, he blazed forth as the brightest movie star in the Hollywood heavens.
Everyone knew Charlie--Charlie Chaplin.
When he was five years old he was pulled onstage for the first time, and he didn't step off again for almost three-quarters of a century. Escaping the London slums of his tragic childhood, he took Hollywood like a conquistador with a Cockney accent. With his gift for pantomime in films that had not yet acquired vocal cords, he was soon rubbing elbows with royalty and dining on gold plates in his own Beverly Hills mansion. He was the most famous man on earth--and he was regarded as the funniest.
Still is. . . . He comes to life in these pages. It's an astonishing rags-to-riches saga of an irrepressible kid whose childhood was dealt from the bottom of the deck. Abundantly illustrated.
Author Notes
Sid Fleischman was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 16, 1920 but grew up in San Diego, California. He loved all things magical and toured professionally as a magician until the beginning of World War II. During the war, he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve, and afterwards, he graduated from San Diego State University in 1949.
After graduation, he worked as a reporter with the San Diego Daily Journal. After the paper folded in 1950, he started writing fiction. He tried his hand at children's books because his own children often wondered what their father did. To show them how he created stories, he wrote them a book. He wrote more than 50 fiction and nonfiction works during his lifetime including The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life; Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini; The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West; The Thirteenth Floor; and The Ghost in the Noonday Sun. His book, The Whipping Boy, won the Newberry Award in 1987. He is the father of Newbery Medal winning writer and poet Paul Fleischman; they are the only father and son to receive Newbery awards.
He also wrote screenplays including Lafayette Escadrille, Blood Alley, and The Whipping Boy. He died from cancer on March 17, 2010 at the age of 90.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fleischman, who died in March at age 90, left readers with this delightful and informative homage to one of his idols, the silent screen star who went into exile in 1952. "Chaplin had left town... to take up residence in Switzerland. But his footprints were everywhere." Those footprints turned "outward so that each angled off like opposite hands of a clock, at ten past ten," the duck-footed waddle of the Little Tramp, Chaplin's most famous character. Fleischman fills out the familiar outlines of Chaplin's biography-born to Dickensian poverty in England, he scaled the heights of Hollywood fame-in jocular prose and without sugarcoating. Chaplin's gift for mimicry got him laughs "without uttering a word," but he badly misread the tea leaves when "talkies" arrived, and his egomaniacal methods alienated co-stars, collaborators, and three of his four wives. Like Fleischman's biographies of Twain and Houdini, this book is as good-looking as it is well written, with b&w photographs, vintage newspaper clippings, source notes, and a filmography that should send many in search of the silent film gems that made Chaplin one of America's first movie stars. Ages 9-up. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
This volume examines the life of Charlie Chaplin, a sad boy who grew up to become the world's greatest comedian. Fleischman's humorous wordplay ("Noise and chaos were Keystone's proof that the studio was putting its best footage forward") makes the energetic narrative come alive. Some archival photographs (more would have been welcome, given the visual nature of Chaplin's talent) accompany the text. Timeline. Bib., ind. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Following well-received titles about Mark Twain and Harry Houdini, Fleischman's third biography is a bittersweet celebration: it is the last book the author published before his death, in March 2010. With a straightforward chronology, the chapters follow the famous comedian from his impoverished childhood in London slums through Hollywood stardom and his final years, when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. As in his previous books about famous lives, Fleischman infuses the narrative with energetic charm, and although the book is thoroughly documented with exemplary source notes, playful metaphors lend an almost tall-tale tone that echoes the humor of Chaplin's work: Custard pies were flying, Fleischman writes in a description of the tangled movie business. The author also deftly integrates details of early moviemaking into the colorful accounts of Chaplin's tumultuous personal and professional lives, and he writes with unabashed enthusiasm for Chaplin's work: of the chase scene in The Kid, he writes, If one can watch the sequence without tear ducts overflowing and heart in throat, one needs jumper cables. Young people with a noncurricular interest in Chaplin may be few, but once led to this fascinating, well-shaped, and entertaining title, they may well discover a curiosity about and appreciation for the films that made the great comedian famous. Photos and a time line complete this standout portrait.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5 Up-This lively and engaging account of a poor Cockney boy who became the world's greatest silent-movie comedian is a must for biography collections. By the age of six, Chaplin was fending for himself in London's slums, evading the workhouse as his mother checked in and out of mental institutions. He spent a few miserable months with his inebriated father and stepmother, who made an unwitting contribution to his future career: by observing them, Charlie was able to perfect his impression of the stumbling drunk, which won him many laughs in his early days on the stage. He developed his slapstick talents with a traveling comedy troupe, found his way to Hollywood, and immortalized himself as the Little Tramp, the darling character of the silent movie era. The book explores his rise to mind-boggling fame, and his fall from grace as he was touched by scandal, investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and eventually deported. Brief, easily digestible chapters, an extensive time line, and plenty of photos make the book's well-researched content accessible and appealing. Add to that Fleischman's playful narrative tone and you have a book as entertaining as Sir Charlie himself.-Emma Burkhart, Springside School, Philadelphia, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Fleischman's unabashed adoration for the duck-footed comedian, filmmaker and movie star effervesces from this fascinating, generously illustrated biography. How a nearly illiterate Cockney boy born to London vaudevillians in 1889 became a Hollywood movie mogul is truly one for the storybooks. The author is almost giddy in the telling, as if Chaplin's flair for hyperbole and comic timing were contagious. When discussing Chaplin's artistic perfectionism in demanding 100 retakes of a particular kissing scene, for example, the author quips, "The heroine went through enough lipstick to paint a small house." Chaplin was an ambitious man who spent his life compensating for the poverty of his childhood, but his adulthooddespite the phenomenal fame and fortune that accompanied itwas complicated and often tragic. Movie-history buffs will learn about the effect of "talkies" on the silent-film industry, and on the pantomime master's ego. Further exploration of Chaplin's classic films, from The Kid (1921) to Modern Times (1936), is a must after finishing this colorful homage to "the funniest man on earth." (timeline, references, photograph sources, bibliography, filmography, index) (Biography. 10 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
The author of last year's Mark Twain biography, The Trouble Begins at 8, here tells the story of the rise, fall, and rebirth of arguably the world's funniest man, Charlie Chaplin. Born into poverty in the slums of South London, Chaplin would grow to become the most popular entertainer of his day, then spend 20 years in exile when his adopted country turned its back on him. Yet, in the final years of his life, he was awarded an honorary Oscar and knighted by the Queen, ending his days as Sir Charles. Even readers well familiar with Chaplin's rags-to-riches story will be energized by Fleischman's enthusiasm for his subject (it was the author's last book). Fun fact: the movie studio built by Chaplin is now the home of Jim Henson's Muppets, and Kermit the Frog stands tall at its entrance, dressed as the Little Tramp.-Angelina Benedetti, "35 Going on 13," BookSmack! 9/16/10 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
