‘Red Menace’ a bane for Chaplin

Dr. Frank Scheide will explore the pervasive phenomena of McCarthyism during the Buster Keaton Celebration this weekend.
Scheide will discuss the anti-communist movement of the early 1950s with James Karen, actor and longtime friend of the Keaton Family, at 2:20 p.m. Friday. At 9:10 Saturday morning his presentation is Friendship, Film Collaboration and Coping with McCarthyism in the 1950s: Jerome “Jerry” Epstein’s Audio Memoir on Charlie Chaplin.
Karen began his entertainment career in movies and on stage and television when McCarthyism was at its peak. Chaplin was among Hollywood notables blacklisted because of alleged ties to the Communist Party.
McCarthyism got its name from Sen. Joe McCarthy, Wisconsin Republican, who was obsessed with unveiling communist sympathizers, whether there was supporting evidence or not.
“It was a very ugly time,” Scheide said in a Tuesday afternoon telephone interview from the University of Arkansas, where he is an associate professor in the Department of Communications.
“They weren’t happy days,” Scheide continued. “So much of it was about personal gain, and destroying other people’s reputations.
“All the science fiction movies, with giant spiders” and other monsters cinematically created by radioactivity added to people’s fear, prompting them to look on nuclear devices, and those who might use them, as poison, a part of the “Red Menace.”
The attacks by McCarthy and others usually were distortions and manipulations of the truth, Scheide said, which prevented dialogue that might have been helpful.
Scheide’s discussion with Karen will shed light on what it was like to be in the public eye and in fear of being accused of being a communist or having anti-American leanings. Many careers were ruined, others were put aside for years because of alleged associations.
“The industry affected the most was Hollywood,” Scheide declared. “It was so visible” and led to many working within it being identified as enemies of the United States.
The problem, he added, was “the simple assumption was that being anti-McCarthyism came from being associated with communists” and the accused had to prove he was pro-American. “Freedom of speech was thrown out the window.”

EPSTEIN was a friend and colleague of Chaplin’s. He was liberal and didn’t think all communists should be painted with the same brush, Scheide said.
Meanwhile, Chaplin was a wealthy man, but leaned left of center in his politics, he said.
“He was one of the most successful men in Hollywood,” Scheide said, “but his politics got him in trouble,” and led to him being blacklisted.
That made little sense, said Scheide: “Why would he undermine the business where he made his money? He knew what life was like at the bottom and didn’t want to go back.”
Eventually, Chaplin, who never became a U.S. citizen, returned to England and never came back to the U.S. He died at age 88 in 1977 in Switzerland.

THE KEATON festival starts at 10 a.m. Friday with the annual pilgrimage to Piqua to visit the Buster Keaton Museum.
Events in the Bowlus Fine Arts Center start after lunch with a welcome at 1:20 and The First Keaton and Chaplin Collaboration, “Seeing Stars,” at 1:30 with Hooman Mehran.
Scheide’s interview with Karen will follow.
Selected shorts will be screened afterward and in the evening will be showings of “Out West,” starring Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle, and “A King in New York,” featuring Chaplin.
Scheide’s discussion about Chaplin and McCarthyism will be the first event Saturday at 9:10 a.m., followed by Two Faces of the Cold War: Charlie Chaplin, King Shahdov and “A King in New York” at 10 a.m. An hour later The American Counterculture and Chaplin’s Little Tramp will be a presentation of Dr. Lisa Stein Haven, Ohio University at Zanesville.
Afternoon fare includes Limelight: The Chaplin Archives, with Kate Guyonvarch, Chaplin office director, and The Talmadge and Keaton Families, with Melissa Talmadge Cox, granddaughter of Keaton and Barbara Talmadge, his daughter-in-law, moderated by David MacLeod.
“Her Sister from Paris,” featuring Constance Talmadge and Ronald Coleman, will be shown at 3:10. In the evening, starting at 7:30, will be “One A.M.,” a Chaplin short, and “Seven Chances,” starring Keaton.