Even though Charlie Chaplin filmed some of his greatest movies, one hundred years ago, some of the locations used in those classic silent picture masterpieces still exist here in Los Angeles - and you can visit them whenever you like for FREE!
Please Note: These locations are either private office buildings, homes, or apartment buildings, so if you decide to visit please be respectful, and do not trespass or disturb anyone who lives or works there.
CHARITY HOSPITAL location used in Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 masterpiece “The Kid”!
Written, produced, directed, and starring Charlie Chaplin, the film also features Jackie Coogan as his foundling baby, adopted son, and sidekick. This was Chaplin’s first full-length film as a director. “The Kid” tells the story of a tramp (played by Chaplin) who reluctantly rescues a baby abandoned by an unwed mother (Edna Purviance) and successfully raises him for several years. When the mother eventually attempts to retrieve the child, the tramp and his young protégé (Coogan) embark on a desperate attempt to escape and stay together.
The film was a huge success and was the second-highest-grossing film in 1921, behind “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” starring Rudolph Valentino. In 2011, “The Kid” was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The film opens with an image of the front of an austere, three-story CHARITY HOSPITAL. At the maternity hospital’s front metal gate, “The Woman,” an unwed mother leaves the hospital with her newborn child. Astonishingly the building, trimmed off its upper floor and roof, is still standing, now a modest apartment block located at 121 North Avenue 50, in Highland Park. This is a private apartment building, so if you decide to visit please be respectful, and do not trespass or disturb anyone who lives there.
Built in 1904, this unpainted masonry structure was designed in the Classical Revival style by the firm of Dennis & Farwell. It served for ten years as the main building for Occidental College, once visited by Presidents Taft and Teddy Roosevelt, which moved to Eagle Rock in 1914. It is the only remaining structure from the Highland Park campus.
The building - known as the Occidental College Hall of Letters Building (Savoy Apartments) - was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #585 on October 15, 1993
I’m certain the people who live here have no idea that two Presidents of the United States, and Charlie Chaplin, all once visited here.
Street corner location used in Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 masterpiece “MODERN TIMES”!
“Modern Times” marked the last screen appearance of the Little Tramp - the character which had brought Charles Chaplin world fame, and who remains the most universally recognized fictional image of a human being in the history of art.
Written and directed by Chaplin this silent comedy film centers around his iconic Little Tramp character who is struggling to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and financial conditions many people faced during the Great Depression — conditions created, in Chaplin's view, by the efficiencies of modern industrialization. The movie stars Chaplin and Paulette Goddard.
The movie was shot mainly in the Chaplin studios but a few scenes were shot around Los Angeles. For example, the location where the Tramp and the Gamin (played by Paulette Goddard) run away after an escape from the patrol wagon is still there! The Spanish Colonial Revival building that they run around is located at 11271 Massachusetts Ave in Los Angeles (on the corner of Sawtelle & Massachusetts).
Built in 1929, this property is the current home to the UCLA Thrift Shop which sells merchandise at bargain prices to raise money for the UCLA Medical Auxiliary. This is a private business so if you visit please do not trespass or disturb anyone that works there.
In 1989, “Modern Times” was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Fun fact - The Little Tramp's last words are "Smile! C'mon!"- in silence of course (it's easy to read Charlie’s lips) - at the very end of the film.
The Jim Henson Company Studios on La Brea Avenue was originally the Charlie Chaplin Studios!
Chaplin began construction on his studio in 1917, it was completed in 1919 and it still stands in the heart of Hollywood at 1416 La Brea Ave., just south of Sunset Boulevard. The studio was designed to his specifications, as he explained it, "to give the effect of a picturesque English village street."
Every independent film he ever produced was made at the studio, including the classics “The Kid” (1921), “The Gold Rush” (1925), “City Lights” (1931), “Modern Times” (1936) and “The Great Dictator” (1940). His last film “Limelight” (1952) was also shot there.
Not only did he create his chain of classic films here, but he also hosted and filmed legions of luminaries at the studio, including Helen Keller, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Winston Churchill, and Albert Einstein.
After Chaplin left Hollywood—and America—permanently in 1952 to take up residence in Switzerland, where he lived out his last years, he sold the studio. The new owners leased it out to a Chicago TV company that renamed it Kling Studios. Shows such as the original “The Adventures of Superman” series, “Perry Mason” and “The Red Skelton Show”, one of CBS' most popular shows, were made there.
In later years it was bought by A&M Records where countless classic recording sessions were held (most famously, the 1985 "We Are the World" sessions, which featured Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and many others). In 1969, it was designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
Today it is owned by the Jim Henson Company and there is a statue of Kermit the Frog—Jim Henson’s most famous creation—dressed as Chaplin’s Little Tramp by the studio gates. Charlie’s concrete footprints and signature can still be found in front of Sound Stage Three.
Thankfully all three pieces of Hollywood history still stand and Charlie’s legacy remains at these locations after all these years!
These three locations are a part of the coffee table book that I am writing about my year during the lockdown, posting my HOLLYWOOD PANDEMIC TOUR for my friends and family to enjoy. Hopefully someday soon I’ll finish writing it and you’ll be able to purchase a copy of it. Keep visiting this blog for future updates!
Listen to my fascinating conversation with Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter Kiera Chaplin by clicking on the links below. Enjoy!
Episode 29 - HERE
Episode 30 - HERE
