Original version

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Radio

World Service Radio

Hollywood Exiles

Podcasts

Factual: History

A story of glamour, duplicity and the FBI's battle against communism in Hollywood

Host Oona Chaplin guides listeners through the period known as the Red Scare - an ideological battle that implicated Hollywood’s biggest stars, including her grandfather, Charlie.

No Master Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC Afghan Radio

Hollywood Exiles: 3. The case against Charlie Chaplin

06/03/2024 GMT

3. The case against Charlie Chaplin

BBC - Hollywood Exiles, 3. The case against Charlie Chaplin

Movie star Charlie Chaplin stands trial amid a media storm

A relationship of Charlie Chaplin’s lands him in legal trouble, as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and the FBI conspire against him. Hopper calls him and his movies “un-American.”

Charlie Chaplin’s personal life sparks legal woes. Hedda Hopper, known as the queen of Hollywood gossip, was Chaplin’s nemesis, and she deemed him "un-American.” Joan Barry was just 22 years old when she arrived in Hollywood with dreams of stardom. She soon met Chaplin and the pair became romantically entwined. When the relationship went sour, Chaplin’s enemies – including J Edgar Hoover and columnist and radio star Hopper – saw an opportunity. Chaplin soon landed in court facing charges under the White-Slave Traffic Act. 

Archive: 
 
The Hedda Hopper Show, 3 December 1940
J. Edgar Hoover, Battle of the United States, Army-Navy Screen Magazine, 1940 
Pearl Harbor newsflash, WOR Radio 1941 
The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin, United Artists, 1940

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Hollywood Exiles

3. The case against Charlie Chaplin

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service

About BBC World Service