Four years after beginning to make movies and near the end of World War I, Charlie Chaplin completed building his own movie studio in a Hollywood orange grove at a cost of $1.2 million.
“He was such a creative genius, such a strong character, he needed complete freedom. It was the most sophisticated state-of-the-art film studio in the world,” says artistic director of the Northwest Sinfonietta, Christophe Chagnard. There, the little man who created the Little Tramp wrote, scripted, produced, edited and acted in his own movies and also composed the accompanying music. “He couldn’t really read music though he played left-hand violin and piano, but all the material is from him and he had an arranger score it (for the orchestra). I’ve always admired him.”
Gathering Note 