I've always been fascinated by Charlie Chaplin. His gifts as an actor and filmmaker seem almost preternatural, and his films at their best are works of visual poetry. So getting to learn more about the redoubtable Mr. Chaplin was one of the rewards of working on Wild Bird: The True Jazz Age Tale of Ruth Wightman Morris.
There's a fascinating section in Charlie Chaplin: Man and Meme, an unpublished biography of Chaplin by Harry Crocker (courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library), that reveals one of the ways Charlie developed his movie ideas. Crocker, who had been a long-time reporter for the Los Angeles Examiner before becoming Chaplin's personal aide for a time, describes a trip the two of them made to the Monterey Peninsula in November 1925.
Charlie was trying to develop ideas for a movie he was planning called The Circus, but he needed time away from Hollywood to concentrate. Once settled in at the Del Monte Lodge in Pebble Beach, he began a routine that is quite revealing about his creative process, and the key turns out to be long walks.
Each day Chaplin and Crocker would set out for a stroll. Sometimes it was through the woods in Pebble Beach. Other times it was over the hill to Monterey. Still another time they walked from the Carmel Highlands along the shoreline to Carmel.
Initially there would be chatter. Charlie might expound on the beauty of his surroundings and become philosophical. Or he might go off on a political rant about the plight of the working man. Then he would grow silent and ask that he be left alone to concentrate. As he continued to walk, he would drift into a zone. Lost in his thoughts an idea for a scene would begin to form. Then spontaneously he would begin acting out the scene, oblivious to any people who might be passing by.
At one point Charlie and Harry found themselves wandering around downtown Monterey, staring into shop windows, but Charlie wasn't just window shopping. He was thinking. As new ideas popped into his head, he would share them.
This was the Chaplin creative process in action. Some people are able to generate ideas by writing. Bob Dylan in his early days was at his most creative at a typewriter. For Chaplin, though, it was walking and reaching a kind of daydream state.
By the time Charlie left the Peninsula and returned to Hollywood, he had a clear idea of where he wanted to go with his film.