My Autobiography (59 page)

Although
The Great Dictator
was extremely popular with the American public, it no doubt created underground antagonism. The first inkling of this came from the Press on my return to Beverly Hills, an ominous gathering of men, over twenty of them, who sat in silence in our glassed-in porch. I offered tham a drink and they refused – this was unusual for members of the Press.

‘What’s on your mind, Charlie?’ said one, who evidently spoke for all of them.

‘A little publicity for
The Dictator
,’ I said jokingly.

I told them of my interview with the President and remarked that my film was giving the American Embassy trouble in the Argentine, believing it a good story, but they still remained silent. Then after a pause, I said humorously: ‘That didn’t seem to go over so well, did it?’

‘No, it didn’t,’ said the spokesman. ‘Your public relations are not very good: you left here ignoring the Press, and we don’t like it.’

Although I was never too popular with the local Press, his remark rather amazed me. As a matter of fact, I had left Hollywood without seeing them because I believed that those who were not too friendly might tear
The Great Dictator
to bits before it had a chance to be seen in New York. And I could not afford to take chances with a $2,000,000 investment. I told them that an anti-Nazi picture had powerful enemies, even in America, and that to give the picture a chance I had decided to have it previewed at the last moment, before its presentation to the audience.

But nothing I said affected their antagonistic attitude. The climate began to change and many snide items began to appear in the Press; mild attacks at first, stories about my stinginess, then ugly rumours about Paulette and me. But in spite of the adverse publicity
The Great Dictator
continued breaking records both in England and America.

*

Although America was not yet at war, Roosevelt was waging a cold one with Hitler. This made it very difficult for the President, for the Nazis had made inroads into American institutions and organizations; whether these organizations were aware of it or not, they were being used as tools of the Nazis.

Then came the sudden and dramatic news that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. The severity of it stunned America. But she immediately girded herself for war, and before long many divisions of American soldiers were overseas. At this juncture the Russians were holding off Hitler’s hordes outside Moscow, and were calling for an immediate second front. Roosevelt recommended it; and although the Nazi sympathizers had now gone underground, their poison was still in the air. Every device was used to divide us from our Russian allies. Vicious propaganda was rife at that time, saying: ‘Let them both bleed white, then we’ll come in at the kill’ – every kind of subterfuge was used to prevent a second front. Anxious days followed. Each day we heard of Russia’s appalling casualties. Days went by into weeks and weeks into many months and the Nazis were still outside Moscow.

At this moment I believe my troubles began. I received a telephone call from the head of the American Committee for
Russian war relief in San Francisco, asking if I would take the place of Mr Joseph E. Davies, the American Ambassador to Russia, who was to speak, but at the last moment had been attacked with laryngitis. Although I had only a few hours’ notice, I accepted. The meeting was scheduled for the following day, so I caught the evening train which arrived in San Francisco at eight in the morning.

The committee had a social itinerary mapped out for me – a lunch here and a dinner there – which gave me little time to think of a speech, and I was to be the principal speaker. However, at dinner I drank a couple of glasses of champagne and that helped matters.

The hall held ten thousand and was packed. On the stage were American admirals and generals, and Mayor Rossi of San Francisco. The speeches were restrained and equivocating. Said the Mayor: ‘We must live with the fact that the Russians are our allies.’ He was cautious not to overstate the Russian emergency, or overpraise their valour, or mention the fact that they were fighting and dying to hold back nearly two hundred divisions of Nazis. Our allies were strange bed-fellows was the attitude I felt that evening.

The head of the committee had prevailed on me to speak for an hour if possible. This terrified me. At the most, four minutes was my limit. But after listening to such weak palaver my indignation was aroused. I made four topic notes on the back of my dinner place-card. Pacing up and down backstage in a state of nerves and fear, I waited to go on. Then I heard my introduction.

I was wearing a black tie and dinner jacket. There was applause which gave me a little time to collect myself. When it subsided I said one word: ‘Comrades!’ and the house went up in a roar of laughter. When it subsided, I said emphatically: ‘And I mean comrades.’ There was renewed laughter, then applause. I continued: ‘I assume there are many Russians here tonight, and the way your countrymen are fighting and dying at this very moment, it is an honour and a privilege to call you comrades.’ Through the applause many stood up.

Now I became inflamed, thinking of the expression ‘Let them both bleed white.’ I was going to express my indignation about it – but an inner prompting stopped me, and instead I said: ‘I am not a Communist, I am a human being, and I think I know the reactions of human beings. The Communists are no different from anyone else; whether they lose an arm or a leg, they suffer as all of us do, and die as all of us die. And the Communist mother is the same as any other mother. When she receives the tragic news that her sons will not return, she weeps as other mothers weep. I don’t have to be a Communist to know that. I have only to be a human being to know that. And at this moment Russian mothers are doing a lot of weeping and their sons a lot of dying.…’

I spoke for forty minutes, now knowing what was coming next. I made them laugh and applaud with anecdotes about Roosevelt and about my war-bond speech in the First World War – I could do no wrong.

I continued: ‘And now this war – I am here on behalf of Russian war relief.’ I paused and repeated: ‘Russian war relief. Money will help, but they need more than money. I am told that the Allies have two million soldiers languishing in the North of Ireland, while the Russians alone are facing about two hundred divisions of Nazis.’ There was intense silence. ‘The Russians,’ I said emphatically, ‘are our allies, they are not only fighting for their way of life, but for our way of life and if I know Americans they like to do their
own
fighting. Stalin wants it, Roosevelt has called for it – so let’s all call for it – let’s open a second front now!’

There was a wild uproar that lasted for seven minutes. That thought had been in the heart and mind of the audience. They would not let me go any further, they kept stamping and applauding. And as they stamped and yelled and threw their hats in the air, I began to wonder if I had said too much and had gone too far. Then I grew furious with myself for having such pusillanimous thoughts in the face of those thousands who were fighting and dying. When at last the audience was quiet, I said: ‘As you feel this way about it, will each and every one please send a telegram to the President? Let’s hope that by tomorrow he will receive ten thousand requests for a second front!’

After the meeting I felt the atmosphere charge with tension and uneasiness. Dudley Field Malone, John Garfield and myself
went somewhere for supper. ‘You have a lot of courage,’ said Garfield, referring to my speech. His remark was disturbing, for I did not wish to be valorous or caught up in a political
cause célèbre
. I had only spoken what I sincerely felt and thought was right. Nevertheless, after John’s remark I began to feel a depressing pall over the rest of the evening. But whatever menacing clouds I expected as a result of that speech evaporated, and back in Beverly Hills life went on as usual.

A few weeks later I had another request to speak by telephone at a mass meeting in Madison Square. As it was for the same cause I accepted – why not? It was sponsored by the most respectable of people and organizations. I spoke for fourteen minutes, which speech the Council of the Congress of Industrial Organizations thought fit to publish. I was not alone in this effort, as the following booklet issued by the C.I.O. will disclose:

THE SPEECH

‘ON THE BATTLEFIELDS OF RUSSIA

DEMOCRACY WILL LIVE OR DIE’

The great crowd, previously warned not to interrupt with applause, hushed and strained for every word.

Thus they listened for fourteen minutes to Charles Chaplin, the great people’s artist of America, as he spoke to them by telephone from Hollywood.

In the early evening of 22 July 1942, sixty thousand trade unionists, members of civic, fraternal, veteran, community and church organizations and others gathered at Madison Square Park in New York to rally in support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the immediate opening of a second front to hasten the final victory over Hitler and the Axis.

The sponsors of the great demonstration were the 250 unions affiliated with the Greater New York Industrial Union Council, C.I.O. Wendell L. Willkie, Philip Murray, Sidney Hillman and many other prominent Americans sent enthusiastic messages to the rally.

Bright skies favoured the occasion. The flags of the Allied Nations flanked Old Glory on the speakers’ platform and placards with slogans of support for the President and slogans for opening the second front dotted the sea of people that choked the streets around the park.

Lucy Monroe led the singing of
The Star-Spangled Banner
to open the meeting and Jane Froman, Arlene Francis and several other popular stars of the American Theatre Wing entertained. United States
Senators James M. Mead and Claude Pepper, Mayor F.H. La Guardia, Lieutenant Governor Charles Poletti, Representative Vito Marcantonio, Michael Quill and Joseph Curran, president of the New York C.I.O. Council, were the main speakers.

Said Senator Mead: ‘We shall win this war only when we have enlisted the vast masses of people in Asia, in conquered Europe, in Africa, wholeheartedly and enthusiastically in the struggle for freedom.’ And Senator Pepper: ‘He who hampers our efforts, who cries for restraint, is an enemy of the Republic.’ And Joseph Curran: ‘We have the men. We have the materials. We know the one way to win – and that is to open a second front now.’

The massed crowd cheered with united voice every mention of the President, of the second front and of our heroic allies, the courageous fighters and people of the Soviet Union, Britain and China. Then came the address of Charles Chaplin via long-distance telephone.

TO SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT’S RALLY

FOR A SECOND FRONT NOW!

Madison Square Park, July
22 1942

‘On the battlefields of Russia democracy will live or die. The fate of the Allied nations is in the hands of the Communists. If Russia is defeated the Asiatic continent – the largest and richest of this globe – would be under the domination of the Nazis. With practically the whole Orient in the hands of the Japanese the Nazis would then have access to nearly all the vital war materials of the world. What chance would we have then of defeating Hitler?

‘With the difficulty of transportation, the problem of our communication lines thousands of miles away, the problem of steel, oil and rubber – and Hitler’s strategy of divide and conquer – we would be in a desperate position if Russia should be defeated.

‘Some people say it would prolong the war ten or twenty years. In my estimation this is putting it optimistically. Under such conditions and against such a formidable enemy the future would be very uncertain.

WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

‘Russians are in desperate need of help. They are pleading for a second front. Among the Allied nations there is a difference of opinion as to whether a second front is possible now. We hear that the Allies haven’t sufficient supplies to support a second front. Then again we hear they have. We also hear that they don’t want to risk a second front at this time in case of possible defeat. That they don’t want to take a chance until they are sure and ready.

‘But can we
afford to wait until we are sure and ready? Can we afford to play safe? There is no safe strategy in war. At this moment the Germans are 35 miles from the Caucasus. If the Caucasus is lost 95 per cent of the Russian oil is lost. When tens of thousands are dying and millions are about to die we must speak honestly what’s in our minds. The people are asking themselves questions. We hear of great expeditionary forces landing in Ireland, 95 per cent of our convoys successfully arriving in Europe, two million Englishmen fully equipped, raring to go. What are we waiting for when the situation is so desperate in Russia?

WE CAN TAKE IT

‘Note, official Washington and official London, these are not questions to create dissensions. We ask them in order to dispel confusion and to engender confidence and unity for eventual victory. And whatever the answer is we can take it.

‘Russia is fighting with her back against the wall. That wall is the Allies’ strongest defence. We defended Libya and lost. We defended Crete and lost. We defended the Philippines and other islands in the Pacific and lost. But we cannot afford to lose Russia, for that is the aggressive front line of democracy. When our world – our life – our civilization are crumbling about our feet, we’ve got to take a chance.

‘If the Russians lose the Caucasus it will be the greatest disaster of the Allied cause. Then watch out for the appeasers, for they’ll come out of their holes. They will want to make peace with a victorious Hitler. They will say: “It’s useless to sacrifice any more American lives – we can make ‘a good deal’ with Hitler.”

BEWARE OF THE NAZI SNARE

‘Watch out for this Nazi snare. These Nazi wolves will change into sheep’s clothing. They will make peace very attractive to us and then before we are aware of it we will have succumbed to the Nazi ideology. Then we shall be enslaved. They will take away our liberty and control our minds. The world will be ruled by the Gestapo. They will rule us from the air. Yes, that’s the power of the future.