{"id":5196,"date":"2013-09-17T23:19:03","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T07:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=5196"},"modified":"2015-07-16T22:42:22","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T06:42:22","slug":"did-douglas-fairbanks-and-charlie-chaplin-have-a-classic-meet-cute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/09\/17\/did-douglas-fairbanks-and-charlie-chaplin-have-a-classic-meet-cute\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin Have a Classic &#8220;Meet Cute&#8221;?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click <a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/movie-legends-revealed-history\/\">here<\/a> to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">MOVIE URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>:  Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin had a memorable first meeting outside of a movie theater.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the largest stars in all of film during the days of silent films were Charlie Chaplin&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/charlie-chaplin.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=B000F4TMIW&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>and Douglas Fairbanks (seen here as Zorro)&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/annex-fairbanks-sr-douglas-mark-of-zorro-the_01.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=6305211094&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The two men were great friends. They toured the United States together (along with famous film star Mary Pickford, who Fairbanks was dating) raising money for War Bonds during World War I (Chaplin is standing on Fairbanks&#8217; shoulders) &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/fairbanks_and_chaplin_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The two even decided to form their own motion picture studio together, along with Pickford and director D.W. Griffith (Fairbanks is the first one in the photo, from the left).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/fairbanks_-_pickford_-_chaplin_-_griffith.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That studio, United Artists, in one form or another has continued to exist to this very day (although the current United Artists is pretty much just connected by the name only)!<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/ua_pre-cruise_0453.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p>In any event, there&#8217;s an old story about how the two men met.<\/p>\n<p>Here it is (courtesy of an old Fairbanks biography):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>While passing a cinema in Hollywood one day, Charlie Chaplin stopped to examine the posters advertising the new Douglas Fairbanks comedy appearing there. &#8220;Have you seen this show?&#8221; Chaplin asked a young man standing nearby. &#8220;Sure,&#8221; he replied. &#8220;Any good?&#8221; Chaplin asked. &#8220;Why, he&#8217;s the best in the business,&#8221; the man exclaimed. &#8220;He&#8217;s a scream! Never laughed so much at anyone in all my life.&#8221; &#8220;Is he as good as Chaplin?&#8221; &#8220;As good as Chaplin!&#8221; the man exclaimed. &#8220;Why, this Fairbanks person has got that Chaplin person looking like a loom. They&#8217;re not in the same class. Fairbanks is funny. I&#8217;m sorry you asked me, I feel so strongly about it.&#8221; Hearing this Chaplin coolly revealed his identity: &#8220;I&#8217;m Chaplin.&#8221; &#8220;I know you are,&#8221; the other man laughed. &#8220;I&#8217;m Fairbanks!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>True?<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nRight off the bat, it pretty much sounds bogus, right?<\/p>\n<p>Forget the fact that Fairbanks was in his 30s when Chaplin made his film debut (at the age of 24), it just sounds made up period. <\/p>\n<p>And, luckily enough, we can pretty much say that yeah, that is not where Chaplin and Fairbanks first met. It is pretty well accepted (meaning I&#8217;ve found the same story in multiple biographies on both men) that they met each other at a party thrown by the actress Constance Collier (seen below from her days on the British Stage&#8230;) in March of 1917. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/cc6.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So no, they did not have a comical introduction like the above story, but it does make for an interesting story, at least!<\/p>\n<p>The legend is&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">STATUS<\/span><\/u>: False<\/p>\n<p>Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is b&#x63;r&#111;&#x6e;i&#110;&#x40;l&#x65;&#x67;e&#x6e;d&#115;&#x72;e&#118;&#x65;a&#x6c;&#x65;d&#x2e;&#x63;o&#x6d;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far. MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin had a memorable first meeting outside of a movie theater. Two of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-1lO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5524,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/12\/12\/did-douglas-fairbanks-really-graduate-from-harvard-university\/","url_meta":{"origin":5196,"position":0},"title":"Did Douglas Fairbanks Really Graduate From Harvard University?","date":"December 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far. MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. attended Harvard University. When it comes right down to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Movie Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8142,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2016\/07\/07\/did-i-love-lucy-invent-the-three-camera-approach-for-tv-shows\/","url_meta":{"origin":5196,"position":1},"title":"Did I Love Lucy Invent the Three-Camera Approach for TV Shows?","date":"July 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: I Love Lucy invented the \"three camera\" approach for TV shows. 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Adaptation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Movie Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9276,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2020\/10\/31\/bela-lugosi-frankenstein-monster\/","url_meta":{"origin":5196,"position":3},"title":"Was Bela Lugosi Nearly the Original Universal Studios Frankenstein&#8217;s Monster?","date":"October 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far. 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MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was essentially a film-length commercial for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Movie Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wonkabarfilm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":362,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/movie-legends-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":5196,"position":5},"title":"Movie Urban Legends History","date":"April 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are quick descriptions of each of the previous editions of Movie Urban Legends Revealed. To see if they are true or false, you have to click on the link! 1. Ariel from the Little Mermaid was based on the facial features of Alyssa Milano. 2. 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