Chaplin Is Remembered as the Strong, Silent Type

Real life or reel life?

Charlie Chaplin’s first child died three days after birth. Almost immediately, the legendary silent-film comedian began auditioning child actors, encountered Jackie Coogan, and undertook his most ambitious project to date: “The Kid,” about a tramp who finds a baby with a note pinned to his blanket, “Please love and care for this orphan child.”

Chaplin soon found himself filming his own similarly tragic childhood--he was virtually orphaned when his mother was remanded to an insane asylum--with slapstick and sentiment and a happy ending. He went on to have a gaggle of kids. Jane Chaplin of Orlando, Fla., is one of nine, including a half-brother who lives in Palm Springs.

“My brothers and sisters, who all live in Europe, have a tendency to say people have forgotten Chaplin, that they don’t care anymore,” she said by phone last week. “Maybe Chaplin films are an Anglo-Saxon phenomenon, maybe not.”

Someone obviously still cares enough about the Little Tramp to put together events such as the one coming Sunday to the Orange County Performing Arts Center and May 18 to Glendale’s Alex Theatre. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will accompany both screenings of newly restored prints of Chaplin’s 1921 feature “The Kid” and a short, “The Idle Class.”

Chaplin said her siblings are kind of down. “I say, ‘No, you’re wrong, there are people who run to see this kind of event.’ ”

The Mother’s Day screening is sponsored by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Jane Chaplin and Anthony Coogan, Jackie’s son, will attend the Glendale performance. London-based composer-conductor Carl Davis will lead the ensemble at both events in his adaptations of Chaplin’s original film scores.

That’s right, Charlie Chaplin wrote music too.

“He composed all of the music for all of his films,” Jane Chaplin, 38, recalled. “But I don’t think he knew the notes. He would sing the tune, hit the notes on the piano, a guy who would say, ‘Oh you want something like this?’ and . . . he’d say yes or no. Then my father would get an orchestra. . . . I did see him conduct one time; I don’t remember for what movie. It was very impressive. All right, so the guy can act and direct and produce and write, now he can do music too. It’s like, what else--go to the moon?”

Davis has specialized in musical accompaniments for silent films; past projects have included the silent versions of “Ben Hur,” “The Thief of Baghdad” and “Napoleon.”

“The Idle Class,” which runs 23 minutes, features Chaplin in dual roles: as the absent-minded husband of a wealthy woman and as the Tramp. Mistaken identities allow him to satirize the idle rich.

(Money is also at the root of a saga involving Jane Chaplin, who has two children by producer Ilya Salkind. Salkind is trying to settle a 1993 suit against his father, Alexander, his partner in the box-office shipwreck “Christopher Columbus: The Discovery”; Jane Chaplin reportedly lent the elder Salkind $6.75 million to fund the picture.)

Jane Chaplin talked about Charlie Chaplin’s role as father, which, for her, began when the comedian was about 70. Her siblings by Lady Oona Chaplin (playwright Eugene O’Neill’s daughter) range in age from 34 to 52; Chaplin’s son by Lita Grey is 70.

“First of all he didn’t have a mustache at home,” she recalled. “That already was pretty different. He was quite strict, but he did have his funny moments.”

He also had musical moments.

“I remember sitting on the stairs. . . . He had an old accordion, very heavy. He’d put it on his shoulder, strap himself up, and play these old English songs. The more we clapped the more he sang, and the more we got to stay up late.”

* The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and conductor Carl Davis provide live accompaniment for two Charlie Chaplin films, “The Kid” and “The Idle Rich,” Sunday at Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 3 p.m. $10-$37. (714) 553-2422.

Same program May 18 at the Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. 8 p.m. $25-$50 for screening and L.A. Chamber Orchestra performance;, $200 includes fund-raising supper. (213) 622-7001.