WEBVTT - The Original Child Star: Jackie Coogan 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:02.720 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:07.360 Hi Elizabeth, Hi, my name is Elizabeth and yours Aaron. 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:10.280 You can call me Dizzy and LISZ. 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:12.880 How you have to ask you a question? 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:14.720 Sure, I got time, and that. 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.599 Question is you know what's ridiculous I do? 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.960 And this one is in honor of our recently lost 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.000 great one, Ozzy Osbourne. Now, a lot of people been 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.400 sharing different things that Ozzy did over the years, you know, 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:28.840 a lot of focus on some of the well known things. Well, 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.440 I found one from some eyewitnesses who would know some Ozzy. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.760 The members of Motley Crue, Oh boy yeah, and they're 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.320 in the dirt a memoir. The members of Motley Crue 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.600 shared a bunch of stories from the road and as 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.360 aka the world's most notorious rock band, which they take 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:48.239 pride in. Nicky six tells the story of Ozzy Osbourne. 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.520 It dates back to nineteen eighty four and NICKI six, 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.200 I will just turn it over to him. Quote. I 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.600 handed Ozzy the straw and he walked over to a 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.040 crack in the sidewalk and bent over it. I saw 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.080 a long column of ants marching to a little dugout 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:04.520 built where the pavement met the dirt, and I thought 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:09.240 to myself, no, he wouldn't. He did. He put the 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.400 straw to his nose, and with his bare white peeking 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:14.640 out from under the dress he was wearing like a 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.640 sliced honeydew, he sent the entire line of ants tickling 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.959 up his nose with a single monstrous snort. 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.640 Ozzie didn't they like sequence his jeans? 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.200 Oh yeah, the sequences whole genome right. And they found 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.800 that Ozzie had numerous genes they had never seen before, 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.000 and they theorized this is how he was able to 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.160 do all the drugs he did and survived what he did. 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:45.880 So he was a literal genetic mutant from Keith Richards totally, 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:47.840 and I want one for myself, just to test a 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:52.919 couple of things. Yes, No, I think Keith Richards definitely 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.160 would be interesting. And then I'd like to see his 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:57.120 and compare some notes on my own, because I'm like, 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:59.240 how am I still alive? And I'm like, I'm not. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:01.360 I'm not Keith. I'm not saying that, but I just 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:03.480 want to see if, like, Okay, here's where it is. 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.680 Because he he's the hero, he is, He is ridiculous. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.040 Elis that's ridiculous. Do you want to know what else 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:11.640 is ridiculous? 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:13.720 Oh my god, I love ridiculous. 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:37.960 Stealing from your own kid. No, no, this is Ridiculous Crime, 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:43.000 A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.400 It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:51.440 percent ridiculous. Damn right, that's right. You studied film, right, Sarah. 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:52.720 I went to film school technically. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:54.800 Well, see, you know all about the history of film. 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:56.120 I would say all about it, but I know a 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:57.200 lot more than the average bearer. 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.840 You're a cinophile, Yes, I think that's fading. And I 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.480 know you love old Hollywood stories. 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:04.760 I do love old Hollywood stories. I love old Hollywood. 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:06.800 What's the beginning of an industry? This is going to 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:07.760 change the world. 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.160 Yeah, totally. I mean it's really the synthesis of all 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:11.400 of the art forms up to that day. 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.280 Yeah, it's going to change how we see things, how 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:16.120 we understand things, we see ourselves. 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:17.760 Yeah, it's a think of how many criminals we know 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:18.440 about change. 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:22.079 It's going to change crime. It's going to inspire generations 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:23.280 of would be bank robbers. 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.880 It's good stuff, powerful stuff, powerful magic. 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:31.079 Powerful magic. So if you want to go early early Hollywood. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.480 That's the silent film era. Yeah, and so before the 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.880 talkies roughly eighteen nineties to the late nineteen twenties. 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:40.320 Yes, so they get jazzing. 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.320 Yeah. So it was during the twenties they produced about 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.640 eight hundred feature films each year, and then, like you said, 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.800 the Jazz Singer comes out in twenty seven, the silent 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.240 era fades away. The Jazz Singer was the first feature 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.400 length film was synchronized silog, but until then it was, 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.320 you know, a sensation. These silent films. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.520 Totally, they're very powerful because as I said, they gave 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.160 good face. People could really project onto them. You know, 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:08.400 it changes obviously with sound, but then it was like 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:09.320 myths come alive. 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:14.000 It's very distilled that the dialogue was conveyed through inner titles, 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.360 text cards. There was live music, so it wasn't totally silent. 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.680 In the theater. Sometimes there would be full orchestras and 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.080 like large staters, smaller venues. Ers be like a dude 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.719 at a piano and like, like you were saying, he 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:30.240 had to have this face. So performers they use these 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:35.279 exaggerated expressions and the gestures to convey emotion and the plot. 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:40.400 The exaggerated gestures weren't just like a stylistic choices that 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.440 the early cameras had really poor resolution, very true subtlety 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.440 didn't register exactly. So it's kind of like an. 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.760 A there's no denros, no no. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.280 And it's kind of like an ancient Greek theater where 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.280 you're up in like the top of the amphitheater, you 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.400 can't see a face down. And that's why they would 0:04:57.400 --> 0:04:59.920 wear these giant masks and have outsized. 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.280 A lot of the poses to represent things. There's a 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:04.560 lot of that in the early films, so. 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:10.120 They would take that theatrical grounding of it, and that 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.760 help them do this to like convey plot without sound. Sure, 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.359 so early black and white film stock was really sensitive 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:22.120 to red light, and that made red lipstick look black. Yeah, 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.320 so actresses would wear blue or green lipsticks so that 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.240 it would look natural on screen. And we think of 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.240 silent films as being in black and white, but that 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:31.360 wasn't always the case. 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:33.920 Have you ever seen the makeup photos they either have 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.160 been colorized or if at some points they actually are 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:38.400 like early color examples where you take like the same 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:40.520 picture with three different shots and then you could give 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.880 blend them into one shot so it's colorized. You'd see 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:44.880 these actresses when they're actually painted up with their all 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:46.760 green face makeup, and it's like on their cheeks, what's 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:48.800 on their lips, It's everywhere you would think red would be, 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:50.360 and it looks insane. 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.840 Crazy, it looks super crazy. But like, so they would 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.799 have the film in black and white, right, but sometimes 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:02.160 they would hand tint framed by frame, they use stencils, 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:06.240 they'd use like the early color processing total. The nineteen 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.239 fourteen film The Life of Moses had color sequence. 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:10.880 Oh, I can see that fourteen. 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:16.360 So those early films were also shot on nitrate, highly flammable, 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:17.600 chemically unstable. 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:21.240 In the Tarantino film, you see that moment where the 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:25.800 character they burn the theater, that's the nitrate film that 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:27.760 you're using, because she's able to burn the whole theater 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:28.640 down to kill everybody. 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:29.560 Glorious. 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:31.360 I forgot to mention the. 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.599 Film that, But what it means a lot of the 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:39.599 classics have been lost forever through dcom About eighty percent 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.000 of original silent films have been destroyed. 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:43.680 Yeah, so crazy. 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.560 This is big business though, Like it's this sensation, so 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.159 a good weekly salary for early Hollywood film executives was 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:54.840 fifty bucks. Wow, that's like eight hundred dollars. Yeah, so 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:57.279 you know, we look at it, eight hundred bucks a week, 0:06:57.400 --> 0:06:59.800 that's not a lot of money. Extras made about a 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.240 dollar fifty a day and that's like twenty five dollars today. 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:08.279 This is basically the same. But stars stars, that was 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.920 a different story. So by the twenties, big stars were 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.760 earning the equivalent of millions today, So they were raking 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.480 it in. We hadn't switched it over to where the 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.080 executives were getting a lot of them. Yes, yeah, there 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:21.960 were no stuntmen. 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:24.560 Yeah. A lot of the early stars, like Harold Lloyd, 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:25.360 they did their own stuff. 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:27.440 Yeah yeah, so like they would want to do it 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.880 because the executives didn't want to spend money on an 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:30.560 extra person. 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:32.760 That's why you get a lot of old cowboys like Calm, 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.280 Mixed and Bush and a comedy version obviously Charliechaplan. 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:40.520 No safety nets, no cgi Buster Keaton. Actually, in Steamboat 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:44.680 Bill Junior nineteen twenty eight, a full building facade falls 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.520 around him, missing his body by inches because they had 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.760 like very precisely measured the open window totally, and then 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:53.240 he was like, you know what, if I had stood 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.280 like an inch off my mark, I'd be dead. 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.400 Completely crushed, completely, no chance of Yeah. Film, and also 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:00.800 those true of a lot of his stunts. He does 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:02.720 ones where the car falls apart underneath him, or he's 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.680 there's like a ton of stuff with ladders and all 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.080 sorts of stuff where if anything went wrong, he would 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:09.760 probably not walk again or be dead. 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:13.400 Yeah, exactly. There were times when it didn't go so well, 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.800 so like while filming just a publicity photo not the 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.080 film itself in nineteen nineteen Harold Lloyd, he picked up 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.120 what he thought was a fake prop bomb, but it 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.800 blew up. Yeah, it took off his thumb index finger. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:28.800 Dear God, and he just continued doing. 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.400 His stunts afterwards. He would wear gloves or prosthetics. In 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:35.880 the film's lawn cheney. He was known as Man of. 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:37.280 A thousand faces total. 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.680 He made like homemade prosthetics to get these crazy, terrifying looks. 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.160 They still use a lot of his techniques. 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:45.959 Yah Phantom of the Opera nineteen twenty five, he pulled 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.560 his nose back with wires and he wore these like 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:53.040 crazy dentures, painful to get that phantom's face. And he 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.880 was so secretive about his techniques that he would lock 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.520 his dressing room. Yes, he didn't want anyone snooping around 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:01.240 because he was like it when it came to that. 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:04.839 The first movie fan magazines emerged in this era. 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.679 That's right, of course, like the Rudy Valentino. 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:14.400 And Photoplay Motion Picture Magazine. They created Hollywood celebrity culture totally, 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.600 and they gave fans gossip, behind the scenes stories. Then 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.720 you got like directors, right d W. Griffith directed Birth 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.839 of a Nation intolerance, of course, there was Cecil B. 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:25.280 De Mille. 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.439 Yeah, Fritz Lang, expression is coming. 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:34.080 Over the boundaries right of storytelling, cinematograph. This the industry 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.920 was wild and it was larger than life, and there 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.440 were so many publicity stunts, so like for the nineteen 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:45.360 twenty film Way Down East, d W. Griffith arranged for 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.400 airplanes to drop free tickets over Manhattan Wow, and this 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.480 caused an absolute frenzy and the crowds were like scrambling 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.400 in the streets the studios, like if they had jungle 0:09:56.440 --> 0:10:00.160 themed films, they would bring exotic animals down the street. 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.320 For the Adventures of Tarzan, in nineteen twenty one, they 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:09.840 walked a real elephant down through downtown La Buster Keaton's 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.000 The General. In nineteen twenty six, a real train engine 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.319 was sent across a burning bridge and it collapsed dramatically 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:16.920 into a river. 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:18.520 It was one of the most amazing things ever done. 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:20.959 Yeah the time, well, it was filmed for the movie. 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.680 It was also hyped as a live event. So like 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.560 they've invited all the public to come watch them film this. 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.880 Everyone wanted to expensive. They had to get it right. 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:30.920 And the wreckage, Yeah, because you only get one take. 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.560 The wreckage remained in the river for decades and it 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.600 became a tourist attraction. Harold Lloyd. As you mentioned safety 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.480 last oh, nineteen twenty three, Yeah, hang off hanging from 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.360 the clock high above the street. So in order to 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:48.520 promote the film, stunt performers they staged similar but safer 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.320 hangs from actual buildings to like thrill the onlookers get 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:53.560 newspaper inches. 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:55.439 Oh and then there's like Chaplin who would fake it 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:57.960 with like mirrors and forced perspective where he's not actually 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:00.560 dangling over the edge on his roller skates. He just 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:01.280 made it look like. 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.280 It looked like it so they were playing with all 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:07.440 these these like the technology of it stuff like the 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:12.040 Fire Brigade nineteen twenty six MGM staged a controlled fire 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:17.560 outside of theaters and so like local fire departments would participate. 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.320 It turned into this huge spectacle and like everyone's like, 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.040 I want to see a movie about this. And then 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.960 the stars saren give me the star. I've mentioned some 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:30.520 of them already, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, Oh yeah, Douglas Fairbanks, 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:34.920 Rudolph Valentino, Lillian Gish, Harold Lloyd, those are like the 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.640 famous ones. And then the guy who's made an appearance 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.600 on here before your man, Charlie Chaplin. Oh yes, yeah, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.400 there was another star. He's what I want to tell 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:48.080 you about today. He wound up changing Hollywood forever, but 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.280 in an unexpected way, and it was a change that 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.240 came from a crime. Trying to guess who could be Well, 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.680 I'll tell you please, I'm talking about Jackie Cougan. Okay, 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.400 I'm glad to Cougan, John, because there's some other choices. 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:02.480 It would not be as much fun. 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:07.400 No, No, John Leslie Coogan born October twenty eighth, nineteen fourteen, 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:08.560 in Los Angeles. 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:09.840 I was born in La yeah. 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.400 It's the son of John Henry Coogan, junior of vaudeville performer. 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.359 Okay, a lot of vaudeville performers. 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.599 Case, oh yeah, and then Lillian Dolliver Coogan, who was 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:22.480 a dancer. So from infancy he was exposed to show business. 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.080 He was on stage with his dad as a toddler. 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:27.760 It's likely hearrd Lloyd. He was a Bodville kid. He 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:29.800 used to get thrown around on stage by his dad. 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:31.000 That's what he's so good. It's stune. 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:32.000 They're so comfortable. 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.920 They basically yeah, babies raised in suitcases, you. 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:39.080 Know, exactly. So like Jackie Coogan, he had this absolutely 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:39.960 cherubic face. 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:42.840 Yes, yeah, big saucer eyes. 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:48.560 Natural expressiveness, and so he was an instant draw baby. Yes, yes, 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.360 And in the audience was someone important who caught notice 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.640 of Jackie. The most famous filmmaker of the Silent era 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:57.000 Charlie Chaplin. 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:57.760 Oh yeah. 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:57.880 So. 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.640 One of Charlie Chaplin's most famous films is The Kid 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.000 in Chaplain. He began work on The Kid not too 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.560 long after the death of his infant son, which obviously 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.720 weakly affected him. So the emotional theme of parental loss 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.679 and connection is often attributed to that personal tragedy. So 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.400 he's preparing to make the movie. He needs to cast 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:22.720 the kid. He discovered Jackie Coogan at age four, performing 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:26.520 on stage in La with his dad. Sure, Chaplin struck 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.360 by Cougan's expressive face, his mimicry. He later called him, 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.000 quote the most wonderful child actor I've ever seen. He 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:37.600 had present completely So Cougan he could mimic emotions with 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:42.600 like uncanny precision, but he couldn't read yet four years old. 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:43.160 Totally. 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.920 Yeah, So Chaplain used live demonstrations and physical acting rather 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.360 than scripts to show him what he wanted to do 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:52.320 in each scene. Oh, he kind of had to act 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.520 it out. So filming started in nineteen nineteen went through 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.560 nineteen twenty. Chaplin had a contract with First National Pictures, 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.959 and that was going to let him produce his films 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:03.600 without a set release schedule. 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:04.960 Oh cool, pretty good. 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.200 But the production of a Kid ran long. Yeah, yeah, 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:11.200 he was very long. He was a perfection, he was exactly, 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.200 and so First National they start to make a fuss. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:18.760 To avoid First National from interfering with his vision, Chaplin 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.440 smuggled the original film Negatives from California to a hotel 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:23.400 in Salt Lake City. 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:24.560 Oh wow, I love that. 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:27.720 And he edited the film in secret using a makeshift 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.080 editing setup. Oh yes, and that's how he was able 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.320 to keep full creative control. You don't even know where 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.120 I am working. He goes a little movie and he's 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.440 in Yeah, in a Salt Lake City hotel room. So 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.680 the movie The Kid comes out January twenty first, nineteen 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:45.720 twenty one. It's fifty three minutes long thereabouts, written, directed, 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.640 produced by Charlie Chaplin. He plays the tramp. Jackie Coogan 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:51.000 plays the kid John. 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:51.760 So. 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.760 The film tells the story of this vagabond Chaplain who 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.000 finds an abandoned infant and raises him, and over the 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.680 years the bond between them deep in the story's humorous 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:06.040 and heartbreaking. It represents Chaplain's signature blend of pathos and 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:09.680 slapstick the best, absolutely perfect, make. 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.040 Them laugh, make them cry, yes's. 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.440 And that's that's the most like the Catharsis. 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.800 You created, dating back to the Greek theater. 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.280 Right, So Chaplain he'd grown up in extreme poverty in 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.840 Victorian London. He'd been separated from his mother and brother 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.120 due to her mental illness, and his character's care for 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.080 this orphan child was drawn from his own experiences in 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:31.560 the workhouse and on the streets totally. So the movie 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.720 had a budget of about two hundred and fifty thousand 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:40.800 dollars a lot, but it ultimately grossed over five million dollars, 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:42.880 making it one of the highest grossing films of the 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.960 nineteen twenties. And it was the first feature length film 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.800 by Chaplain. So before The Kid, he'd only made short. 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.400 Fut comedic twenty two minute long reels. 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.680 Right, and it was one of the earliest films to 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:58.880 effectively mix comedy and drama that influenced decades of filmmaking 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.320 still I mean yes here like also in that era. 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.920 It's highlighting the themes of poverty and child welfare, class 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:10.400 inequality coming out of World War One. Critics, audiences, everybody 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:14.960 loves the film. In fact, nineteen seventy two, Chaplin created 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.240 a re edited version of it with a new musical 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.720 scory termed A Few Sees Really. In twenty eleven, the 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.120 Library of Congress selected The Kid for the National Film Registry, 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:28.280 saying it was culturally, historically, and esthetically significant, definoid and 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:30.360 it's on a ton of lists of like the greatest 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.080 silent films of all oh. I So while this was 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.480 a huge film for Chaplain, it was mega huge for 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:37.320 Jackie Coogan. 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:39.760 I even thought about that suddenly everywhere. 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.240 Yeah, of course, let's take a break. When we come back, 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:44.120 we'll learn more about Jackie Coogan. 0:16:44.320 --> 0:17:08.639 Nice, Okay, al right, here we are Jackie Coogan. 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.640 Yes, Jackie, he's the first child star. 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:13.320 I didn't thought about that. 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:18.040 So he had his debut, his breakout hit the Kid, just. 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.439 Like before Little Rascals and like you know, Spanky and Alfalfa. 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:23.320 I mean, he is the child. 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.960 Everyone loves me. He's instantly famous, and with fame came merchandising. 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.320 Oh my god, it's the twenties. It's hyper commercialism. At 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:33.200 the beginning of that. 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:37.600 Jackie Coogan dolls, whistles, figurines. There was a Jackie Cougan 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.520 comic strip. And here's my favorite. There was even Jackie 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.800 Coogan peanut butter what Yeah, like an O G mash. 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.640 You can buy tens like on eBay and like other 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:53.639 you know, uh novelty sites or whatever antiques things they have. 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:55.520 You can get there in these metal tins. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.000 Jackie Coogan pet. 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:04.560 So by age seven. He's an international sensation. He starred 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.720 in films like Oliver, Twist Daddy, Long Live the King. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.840 He was commanding salaries of up to twenty two thousand 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.160 dollars a week. That's the equivalent of over four hundred 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.960 thousand dollars a week today. Can you imagine as an adult? 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.520 Can you imagine making four hundred thousand dollars a week? 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:23.960 No? 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:24.520 I cannot. 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:27.800 Like, I know they say, mo money, MO problems, but 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:29.800 I think I would have very few problems. 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.000 You want to handle those problems with the money you have. 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.800 Many of my problems will go far, far away. I 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:39.600 would wave them, oh bye and move. Jackie Coogan, though right, 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.679 he's raking in the dough, adored by the public, But 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:47.080 he wasn't a freewheeling kid. So his life off screen 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.640 was really tightly controlled. His parents, particularly his mother. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:53.600 Are they doing like Judy Garland level or that he 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:55.800 has controlling what he eats and all that kind of everything. 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.120 Yeah, And so his mom and then his stepdad, who 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:02.919 was also his business manager, Arthur Bernstein, they oversaw his 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.640 affairs and so his earnings estimated to be around four 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.000 million dollars through his whole childhood. That's the equivalent of 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.679 seventy five million dollars today. They held them in accounts 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.480 that Jackie didn't have access to. But that makes sense. 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:17.280 He's a little kid. 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:17.639 Sure. 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:22.520 In public, his life is like storybook perfect. Here's the 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:24.040 sweet little kid, and he's doing all. 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.520 This stuff, and he's like Shirley Temple. Everyone loves him. 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.920 Everyone's and his mom loves talking to the press and 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:35.920 like shares all sorts of anecdotes. Yes, in private, though 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.800 he was worked relentlessly. They didn't care about his education. 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.480 They didn't care about his you know, emotional development. 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:44.960 Of course does He didn't even get to play with 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:45.520 other kids. 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:48.520 No, here's what his mother said once quote. He wasn't 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:49.919 a child. He was an actor. 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:52.000 Thanks mom, Thanks Ma. 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:55.679 Like when I was little, maybe round four, a casting 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:57.600 agent came up to my mom and tried to picture 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.000 on the idea of me doing like TV or movie. 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:01.320 Oh wow, yeah good. 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:03.439 We were like at a restaurant. I feel like I 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.720 was cute as hell. Now I peaked at age five 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.280 and it's been all downhill since. But my mom told 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:12.600 the agent to kick rocks, which I guess it is smart. 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:15.920 Is good because like child, stardom messes people up. 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:18.280 Completely when we lived in LA when my sister had 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.119 a kid, a little blonde haired kid who is like, 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.760 you know, super cute and he's like five, same thing, 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:25.639 and people try to come up and Megan was like, 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:29.800 we should take him auditions. I said, absolutely, absolute, kid. 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:32.720