Speaker 1: Why Ozzy Media productions. History books are filled with big
Speaker 1: names and big events, but sometimes the most influential people
Speaker 1: are behind the scenes, in the shadows across the dining
Speaker 1: room table. Sometimes just one chance encounter or one broken
Speaker 1: heart can change the course of history. I'm Sean Braswell
Speaker 1: and this is the thread of podcast from Azzi Media.
Speaker 1: This season, we pulled the thread on the death of
Speaker 1: rock star John Lennon and actually connected back to the
Speaker 1: communist leader Vladimir Lenin. Here's a quick recap of our
Speaker 1: thread so far, but please listen to the previous episodes
Speaker 1: if you haven't already. John Lennon is dead, shopped several
Speaker 1: times by young American as he was going into his
Speaker 1: home in New York. December eight, Mark David Chapman fired
Speaker 1: five bullets at John Lennon in front of the Dakota
Speaker 1: A building in New York. Police have a suspect and custody,
Speaker 1: whom they describe only as a local screwball. Chapman was
Speaker 1: a disturbed loner, and he was obsessed with the classic
Speaker 1: American novel The Catcher and the Rye by J. D. Salinger.
Speaker 1: Chapman believed that he embodied the book's main character, Holden Caulfield,
Speaker 1: and he railed against the phonies and hypocrites he saw everywhere,
Speaker 1: including John Lennon. Here's Mark David Chapman describing the morning
Speaker 1: of the murder to see an end's Larry King. I
Speaker 1: bought a copy of The Catcher in the Rye, signed
Speaker 1: it to Holding Caulfield from Holding Caulfield and wrote underneath
Speaker 1: that this is my statement. Why would a character like
Speaker 1: Holding Caulfield speak to Mark David Chapman. The answer has
Speaker 1: to do with the author, J. D. Salinger. For one thing,
Speaker 1: Salinger's great novel was shaped by his own dark and
Speaker 1: traumatic experiences as a soldier in World War Two. But
Speaker 1: the other part of the story has to do with
Speaker 1: the beautiful girl that helped inspire The Catcher in the
Speaker 1: Rye and then broke Salinger's heart before he shipped off
Speaker 1: for war. That girl was Una O'Neill. Without Una, there
Speaker 1: might never have been a world of phonies for Holding
Speaker 1: Caulfield and then Mark David Chapman to rail against. So
Speaker 1: today we find out what's the big deal with Una O'Neill.
Speaker 1: When you were sitting in the bunker, did you have
Speaker 1: a wonder about it catching all Charlie's eye. Don't worry
Speaker 1: in body, Jerry, which he made you carry turned you
Speaker 1: into one hell of a guy. So tell me what's
Speaker 1: the big deal Falcon alone, what's the big deal about Una? One?
Speaker 1: Una O'Neil Chaplin is the fulcrum of our story, the
Speaker 1: strand holding our thread together. And yet UNA's influence is
Speaker 1: often lost in the shadow of the great men whose
Speaker 1: lives and works she helps shape. I was walking on
Speaker 1: I want to say, Madison Avenue in New York, and
Speaker 1: there was a headline and it said wife of Charlie Chaplin,
Speaker 1: daughter of Eugene O'Neill, dead at sixty six. And what
Speaker 1: I was struck by was, as I remembered the headline,
Speaker 1: it didn't mention her name. This is Jane Scoville, writer, playwright, biographer,
Speaker 1: and the woman she was reading about that day on
Speaker 1: Madison Avenue was Una O'Neil Chaplin. I would describe her
Speaker 1: as the daughter of the postage stamp and the wife
Speaker 1: of a postage stamp. In other words, she was in
Speaker 1: the middle of two great men. When we last heard
Speaker 1: from Una, she had left J. D. Salinger behind heartbroken.
Speaker 1: Salinger spent more than a year of his life pursuing
Speaker 1: the attracted debutante. He paid for dinners and dates he
Speaker 1: could and afford. Salinger would write Una, long, beautiful, effusive letters,
Speaker 1: and then totally switched tax and pretend he didn't like
Speaker 1: her at all. Here's UNA's daughter, Annie Chaplin, reading from
Speaker 1: one of those letters. I've seen the folly of my ways,
Speaker 1: and never again will I shovel heavy and more into
Speaker 1: your pretty ear. In the future, I shall be gay.
Speaker 1: I shall right up and down Park Avenue on a
Speaker 1: white horse, throwing bottles of champagne at blind beggars. But
Speaker 1: the relationship wasn't meant to be. America entered the Second
Speaker 1: World War, Salinger was drafted and reported to boot camp. Una,
Speaker 1: who would soon break his heart, moved to Hollywood in
Speaker 1: pursuit of stardom. Una O'Neil biographer Jane Scoville. There's a
Speaker 1: charming screen test of her. She was supposed to be
Speaker 1: a Russian peasant. She's got a babusha on she she
Speaker 1: looks about as Russian as more Rena O'Hara. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is not a Russian face. She speaks in the
Speaker 1: screen test, and it's all very Park Avenue This screen
Speaker 1: test is just over a minute long. Una looks a
Speaker 1: bit lost. She has an unsure smile, her eyes sparkling
Speaker 1: as she tries to follow the director's instructions to look
Speaker 1: this way and that. We'll never know if Una O'Neill
Speaker 1: could have been a movie star, but this screen test
Speaker 1: is a haunting glimpse of what might have been if
Speaker 1: fate did not have other plans for Una in Hollywood. J. D.
Speaker 1: Salinger was just one in a long list of well
Speaker 1: known men who were infatuated with Una O'Neill. Another man
Speaker 1: on the list Orson Wells, the famous actor and director,
Speaker 1: took Una out for a night on the town when
Speaker 1: she first moved to Hollywood, in the back corner of
Speaker 1: some literary nightclub, Wells took her hand and offered to
Speaker 1: read her poem. He traced her love line, looked her
Speaker 1: in the eyes, and told her that it led directly
Speaker 1: to an older man. But it wasn't him. There was
Speaker 1: someone else, someone even more famous screen legend, Charlie Chaplin.
Speaker 1: Years later, Wells described the night in an interviews exactly
Speaker 1: the girl that would be happy with with Charlie, I suppose,
Speaker 1: and instead of thinking maybe you will meet him. I
Speaker 1: just twtted I lose. I said you're gonna marry him?
Speaker 1: And she did. Una met Charlie Chaplin just as Orsen
Speaker 1: Wells predicted. Chaplin described encountering Una for the first time
Speaker 1: in his autobiography, I became aware of a luminous beauty
Speaker 1: with a sequestered charm and a gentleness that was most appealing.
Speaker 1: Chaplin had a reputation as a womanizer. He once bragged
Speaker 1: that he had slept with two thousand women by the
Speaker 1: age of fifty. He had also gone through three wives,
Speaker 1: each of them significantly younger than himself. After a brief courtship,
Speaker 1: Una became wife number four in nineteen forty three. She
Speaker 1: was eighteen, he was fifty four. J. D. Salinger read
Speaker 1: about the wedding and the papers while at boot camp.
Speaker 1: He was devastated. Many were skeptical the marriage would last,
Speaker 1: but Charlie and Una proved them wrong. Una gave up
Speaker 1: any chance of a film career to focus on Charlie
Speaker 1: and their growing family, and they eventually had eight children together.
Speaker 1: Their house was a social gathering point for celebrities, artists,
Speaker 1: and intellectuals, from Dylan Thomas to Albert Einstein. Biographer Jane
Speaker 1: Scovel one went to see Charlie and one came away
Speaker 1: remembering Una. As the years went by, Charlie was pursued
Speaker 1: by the US government and j Edgar Hoover's FBI. Like
Speaker 1: many artists of his time, they wrongly accused him of
Speaker 1: being a communist. This is the biggest joke in the world. Charlie,
Speaker 1: each Applin. Nobody loved capitalism or money more than than Charlie.
Speaker 1: The Chaplains decided to leave America behind. They set sail
Speaker 1: for England in nineteen fifty two. They eventually settled in Switzerland,
Speaker 1: where they would remain together for the rest of Charlie's life.
Speaker 1: And he just doated on her. She was beautiful, she
Speaker 1: was smart. So it worked. It worked for a while
Speaker 1: for you know, quite a while. But uh, like all
Speaker 1: good things, it came to an end. Their problem basically
Speaker 1: was not love. It was time. The age difference between
Speaker 1: Charlie and Una started to take its toll. As he
Speaker 1: got older, he became very feeble, very feeble, and he
Speaker 1: demanded that Una be with him constantly, never let her
Speaker 1: out of his sight, and she didn't try to get
Speaker 1: out of it. But at the same time, This is
Speaker 1: no way to live. Meanwhile, Una struggled against a long
Speaker 1: term demon that plagued the O'Neill family, alcoholism. She drank alone,
Speaker 1: often locking herself in her room, and Una was I
Speaker 1: think literally pouring the booze into teacups so that Nolby
Speaker 1: would know, but everybody knew. Charlie Chaplin died on Christmas Day,
Speaker 1: v s Una was devastated, isolated, and lost an alcohol
Speaker 1: her life spiraled. She would sometimes take one of Chaplin's
Speaker 1: white gloves and hold it in her hand as if
Speaker 1: still holding his. One night in Switzerland, Una was quite drunk.
Speaker 1: She turned to a friend and asked, Charlie was a
Speaker 1: great man, wasn't he? Then all of a sudden Una
Speaker 1: burst out, what the did I do with my life?
Speaker 1: And in a way, it's a it's a very good
Speaker 1: question because this woman she wrote beautifully, she read, read
Speaker 1: read a lot, and she wouldn't allow herself to be
Speaker 1: the center of attention. She just served and that you
Speaker 1: don't get medals for that. Most of UNA's life centered
Speaker 1: around Charlie Chaplin, but in her teenage years she was
Speaker 1: the center of attention. Up next, we go back back
Speaker 1: to when Una was sixteen and had all of New York,
Speaker 1: including Salinger, wrapped around her finger. The thread is brought
Speaker 1: to you by Ausi fest. Azzi Fest brings together incredible music,
Speaker 1: provocative ideas, laugh out loud comedy, and mouthwatering food in
Speaker 1: New York City's Central Park. Check it out at aussi
Speaker 1: dot com slash AUSI Fest. J. D. Salinger developed his
Speaker 1: famous allergy to phoniness at Una O'Neill's side. Una and
Speaker 1: her two best friends, Carol Marcus and Gloria Vanderbilt, were
Speaker 1: Manhattan it girls, all from wealthy, upper class families. They
Speaker 1: were the gossip girls of their day. These essentially were
Speaker 1: three fatherless girls, and when they got together their main
Speaker 1: activity I think was dating. They were out all the time.
Speaker 1: Another literary giant and eyewitness to UNAH's life was the
Speaker 1: author Truman Capodi. The three girls, Marcus, Vanderbilt, and O'Neill
Speaker 1: inspired Holly Goo lightly the heroine of his classic story
Speaker 1: Breakfast at Tiffany's, the one played by Audrey Hepburn in
Speaker 1: the film. Una was popular, but shy. The sunny exterior
Speaker 1: seemed to mask a deep sadness. She was intelligent but
Speaker 1: didn't really apply herself, says biographer Jane Scoville, she was kind,
Speaker 1: always kind, very sympathetic, very loving, but very bright. By
Speaker 1: the time she was a teenager, her parents largely left
Speaker 1: her to her own devices, and like any teenager, Una
Speaker 1: acted out, albeit on a much grander scale than most.
Speaker 1: At night, she became the queen of New York's Cafe Society,
Speaker 1: and her home away from home was the Stork Club.
Speaker 1: You see, the Stork Club is the mecca for celebrities
Speaker 1: from all over the world. They come here to eat, see,
Speaker 1: and be seen as part of our audience. They attract
Speaker 1: an audience. Get it, Oh, no, I do. When you
Speaker 1: talk about the Stork Club. It was the most famous
Speaker 1: nightclub in all of New York. This is Ken Slowinski
Speaker 1: who told us about Salinger's story. Only the rich and
Speaker 1: famous content. You know, who's here with who, what's going on?
Speaker 1: And it would all be in the columns the next
Speaker 1: day in the paper. When own new, it was like
Speaker 1: an old time movie premiere, with the photographers flashing lights
Speaker 1: and everyone calling her name. She was treated like a queen.
Speaker 1: She was voted the number one New York debutante at
Speaker 1: the Store Club for Una appeared in newspapers and magazines
Speaker 1: across the country. One night, a reporter asked how her
Speaker 1: father felt about her winning Debutante of the Year. She said,
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I'm not going to ask him.
Speaker 1: He'll find out for himself. And that infuriated her father.
Speaker 1: But by that point Una was fed up. She had
Speaker 1: been chasing the love and attention of her father, a
Speaker 1: tempestuous playwright, her whole life. UNA's father, Eugene O'Neill, probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been a parent in the first place. O'Neil
Speaker 1: always said he didn't want children, and he was right.
Speaker 1: This is a guy who could have gotten a Nobel
Speaker 1: Prize for bad parenting. Jane Scoville again. The only thing
Speaker 1: he said that would make it bearable is if it
Speaker 1: were a girl, and if she were pretty. And she
Speaker 1: was a girl, and she was pretty, and that was Una.
Speaker 1: Una was born in Bermuda in nineteen the daughter of
Speaker 1: two artists, O'Neill and his wife, the writer Agnes Bolton.
Speaker 1: It seemed like an ideal life, but as pretty as
Speaker 1: little Una was, she was no match for the brooding
Speaker 1: playwrights real children the characters in his plays. Una was
Speaker 1: really a daddy's girl. She worshiped him, and then when
Speaker 1: she was two years old, he walked out on them.
Speaker 1: In nineteen Eugene O'Neil abandoned his family and married his mistress,
Speaker 1: the actress Carlotta Monterey. Little Una was confused and hurt.
Speaker 1: Una was absolutely just. She didn't know what to make
Speaker 1: of it. She'd see a picture of her father and
Speaker 1: she'd start jabbing it with her fingers, a daddy, Daddy, daddy.
Speaker 1: And then one time she got so hysterical she just
Speaker 1: broke down crying, and she could not be consoled. And
Speaker 1: yet Eugene couldn't bring himself to leave the picture completely.
Speaker 1: His guilty conscience kept the young Una on a thread.
Speaker 1: He wrote her loving letters periodically, saying he missed her
Speaker 1: a lot. In one he enclosed some pictures of himself
Speaker 1: and into the letter by saying, I love you very much,
Speaker 1: don't forget me. UNA's mother, Agnes or Aggie Bolton, wasn't
Speaker 1: much comfort either. Aggie was better, but she also was
Speaker 1: a writer, and she was busy with her work, and
Speaker 1: so Aggie was not exactly a hands on mother. She
Speaker 1: may mean, I wanted to say she was there, but
Speaker 1: she wasn't. As Una grew up, she longed to see
Speaker 1: her father. Aside from a short visit when she was six,
Speaker 1: Una didn't see Eugene O'Neil again until she was fourteen.
Speaker 1: She kept writing, can't I come to see you? Can't
Speaker 1: I come to see you? Uh? And finally he agreed
Speaker 1: to let her come out to visit. And he was
Speaker 1: working all the time, but he they had meals together
Speaker 1: and he gave her an hour in the afternoon. We're
Speaker 1: just the two of them were together, and he would
Speaker 1: play her his jazz records. She returned to New York
Speaker 1: and he returned to his work, and despite UNA's best
Speaker 1: efforts to stay in touch, he pretty much ignored her.
Speaker 1: She didn't have much adult supervision in her life, but
Speaker 1: Una seemed to gravitate to the adults who did pay attention.
Speaker 1: The adults the Stork Club. Eugene O'Neil was not happy
Speaker 1: about the public that his daughter was getting. Una announced
Speaker 1: she was going to Hollywood instead of college. A reporter
Speaker 1: asked if her father approved. Una replied, he's my guardian
Speaker 1: until I'm eighteen, adding with a twinkle in her big
Speaker 1: brown eyes. The reporter wrote, I'll be eighteen next May.
Speaker 1: A girl ought to earn her own living. O'Neil wrote
Speaker 1: a blistering letter to his daughter in response. All I
Speaker 1: know of what you have become since you blossomed into
Speaker 1: the nightclub racket is derived from newspaper clippings of your interviews.
Speaker 1: He wrote. All the publicity you have had is the
Speaker 1: wrong kind unless your ambition is to be a second
Speaker 1: rate movie actress of the floozy variety. The relationship whn't
Speaker 1: even further downhill until Eugene cut all ties with Una.
Speaker 1: That was it. She never saw him again. I could
Speaker 1: read you just a little bit from the final letter
Speaker 1: that he ever wrote her. This is Robert Dowling, Eugene
Speaker 1: O'Neill biographer. Here's open you change as you grow out
Speaker 1: of the callows stage. I had hoped there was the
Speaker 1: making of a fine, intelligent woman in you which would
Speaker 1: remain fine in whatever she did. I still hope. So
Speaker 1: if I am wrong, goodbye. If I am right, you
Speaker 1: will sometimes see the point in this letter and be
Speaker 1: grateful in which case or of war. That was their
Speaker 1: last correspondence, and then she went on to marry a
Speaker 1: man more than twice her age. You know it's it's
Speaker 1: Penny Anti psychological whatever. But if ever anyone was looking
Speaker 1: for a father, it was Una Jane Scoville. Again, let's
Speaker 1: put it this way. O'Neill was cold and distant. Charlie
Speaker 1: was worn and distant, but he was there far more
Speaker 1: then O'Neill ever was for his kids. So she worshiped
Speaker 1: him as she worshiped her father. And UNA's marriage drove
Speaker 1: her father crazy. He was furious, furious. Charlie was one
Speaker 1: year younger than Eugene o'hell, and he was a hundred
Speaker 1: times more famous. Una O'Neil Chaplin had a certain gravity,
Speaker 1: a gravity that held the brightest minds in art and
Speaker 1: literature in her orbit. Unfortunately, UNA's intelligence, her grace, and
Speaker 1: in the end, her entire life was eclipsed by the
Speaker 1: men that surrounded her. In the same way Una holds
Speaker 1: our thread together. She introduced J. D. Salinger to the
Speaker 1: dazzling and frivolous world of New York's cafe society. She
Speaker 1: helped inspire his greatest novel, the one that in turn
Speaker 1: inspired Mark David Chapman to murder John Lennon. But would
Speaker 1: Salinger have become the writer he did if he had
Speaker 1: landed the girl of his dreams. What if Una hadn't
Speaker 1: left him for someone like Charlie Chaplin, a man that
Speaker 1: she could worship like she worshiped the father that abandoned her.
Speaker 1: In our next episode, we continue our thread with UNA's father,
Speaker 1: Eugene O'Neil. He's been called America's Shakespeare and the poet
Speaker 1: Laureate of gloom. He almost single handedly transformed American theater
Speaker 1: from vaudeville to riveting drama. But o'neia lived his life
Speaker 1: on the stage in his mind and could only really
Speaker 1: connect with his family and his lovers through the world
Speaker 1: of his plays. The Threat is produced by Meredith hot Nutt,
Speaker 1: Libby Coleman, and me Sean braswell. Our editors are Carlos
Speaker 1: Watson and samir Rao. Meredith Hotnot engineered our show with
Speaker 1: mixing and sound design from James Rowland's special thanks to
Speaker 1: Cindy Carpian, David Boyer, Tracy Moran, Sean Cole, Agan, Sun,
Speaker 1: Jeeve Tandon, Cameo, George, and k A. Lw. This episode
Speaker 1: featured the song Una O'Neil by Lindsay and Russell John.
Speaker 1: Check us out at ausy dot com. That's o z
Speaker 1: y dot com. Or on Twitter and Facebook. To learn
Speaker 1: more about the thread, visit ausy dot com, slash the
Speaker 1: thread all one word, and make sure to subscribe to
Speaker 1: the thread on Apple Podcasts. If you love surprising and
Speaker 1: engaging stories from history like this one, look no further
Speaker 1: than the flashback section of AZZI. Thanks for listening. What's