Charlie Chaplin was one of Hollywood’s first and biggest stars. He helped create the art and industry of movies. But by the 1960s, he was exiled. Oona Chaplin follows her grandfather’s rise from the grinding poverty of his childhood in Victorian London to wealth and fame in Hollywood. In many ways, it seemed like the embodiment of the American Dream. But almost as soon as he hit the big time, Chaplin made some powerful enemies. Federal investigators were suspicious of his political beliefs and began to build a file on him. We learn how Hollywood became the battleground for the soul of America.Archive:Communism Condemned, Universal Newsreel, 1947 Hedda Hopper's Hollywood show, 14 January 1951 Testimony of J. Edgar Hoover before HUAC, National Archives and Records Administration, 1947

Hollywood Exiles

1. An American dream

History remembers Charlie Chaplin as Hollywood’s first superstar. At the height of his career, the FBI considered him and other figures from the film industry something else: a threat to the United States. His granddaughter, Oona Chaplin, tells the story of how Hollywood became a battleground for the soul of America. Hollywood Exiles is a story of glamour, duplicity, and the US government’s decades-long campaign to root out communism in Tinseltown. Premieres 22 January 2024.

Introducing Hollywood Exiles

Host Oona Chaplin guides listeners through the period known as the Red Scare - an ideological battle that implicated Hollywood’s biggest stars, including her grandfather, Charlie.

About

1. An American dream

Introducing Hollywood Exiles