Fade to Black Magazine Presents:

In Who Was Charlie Chaplin and 
Why Did the FBI Investigate Him?
Chaplin Biography - Part II

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, established modestly in 1909 as the Bureau of Investigation, expanded its operations in the 1930s and 1940s under Director J. Edgar Hoover. Besides investigating and gathering information on such criminal activities in the United States as organized crime, bank robbery, kidnapping, murder, and white-collar crimes, it also became deeply engaged in domestic intelligence matters, especially after the Cold War set in just after the end of World War II.   

The FBI files on Chaplin revolve almost exclusively around two concerns: the Joan Barry case and the file on Chaplin as a domestic security risk. The first originated when a protégé of Chaplin's, actress Joan Barry, filed a paternity suit against Chaplin in 1943, claiming he was the father of the child she expected in October. Because paternity cases were handled in the California state court system, the FBI didn't become involved in the Barry investigation until Chaplin was charged with two federal crimes: 1) violations of the Mann Act (the so-called "White Slave Traffic Act," which forbade taking people across state lines for illicit sexual purposes) and 2) several counts of violations of Joan Barry's civil rights. The Barry investigations took place primarily between 1943 and 1945, when the federal charges were dropped. (Although blood tests proved Chaplin couldn't have fathered the child, a retrial in the state paternity case found him guilty--California didn't use blood tests as admissible evidence at that time--and Chaplin was ordered to pay modest child-support payments until the child reached 18.)  

The internal security file on Chaplin contains documents relate to Chaplin's political and social views. Chaplin's politics were left-of-center, and he came to the attention of the FBI as early as the 1920s; however, his domestic security file contains documents primarily from the 1940s through 1953, and particularly from the onset of the Cold War around 1947 until Chaplin chose to become an exile from the United States in 1953.   

It might be helpful for readers to know that in September 1952, during the height of the McCarthy era and amidst the second wave of HUAC investigations of Hollywood, Chaplin and his family set sail to attend the London premiere of Limelight. As a resident alien of the United States (he had chosen to remain a British subject, although he had lived, worked, and paid taxes in the U.S. since 1913), Chaplin had to secure a reentry permit from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to leave the country and be able to return. That he did in the summer of 1952, but two days after he and his family left for England, U.S. Attorney General Thomas McGranery revoked that reentry permit, saying that Chaplin would have to go before an INS Board to prove himself morally and politically fit to return to the country. The FBI spent considerable effort that fall and winter consolidating their records and carrying out further investigations of Chaplin, seeking evidence that would keep Chaplin out of the country. Although their efforts weren't successful (see below), Chaplin chose to become an exile, living the rest of his life in an elegant manor near Vevey, Switzerland. More detail on both the Barry case and Chaplin's domestic security file, as well as on Chaplin's films and his evolving public reputation, can be found in my book, Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image (Princeton University Press). 

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