Charlie Chaplin: Keeping a comedy genius in business

The Chaplin Office in Paris is the guardian of the film icon’s legacy. Decades after his death it is busier than ever.

For over 100 years Charlie Chaplin has been a cultural icon. Though often imitated, there is only one Chaplin and his family wants to keep it that way. | Photo Credit: Roy Export Company Ltd.

Do icons need agents? Well, when it comes to Charlie Chaplin, the answer is, Yes!

The film legend was born in England, made his most important films in Hollywood and spent his last decades in Switzerland. Yet, it is on a quiet street in Paris not far from the Louvre where the Chaplin Office is found. It is a tiny place with a big job. It is from here that a dedicated team is hard at work looking after Charlie Chaplin’s legacy and they are busier than ever, nearly 47 years after he died in 1977.

The Chaplin Office is not one thing. It is an umbrella organisation that manages different rights-holding companies and aims to bring together all copyright and licensing issues from around the world into one place. One company owns and manages the Charles Chaplin archives of private and professional photographs, home videos, manuscripts, and music. Another company has a trademark on the name and likeness of Charlie Chaplin and his “Little Tramp” character.

An additional company holds the copyright to his films and is responsible for rights and licensing around the world. The entire jumble of companies and copyrights are all still controlled by the Chaplin family.

During his lifetime, Chaplin made many millions through his talent and the tight control of his business affairs. Unlike most Hollywood stars, Chaplin did not only act in his movies. He had his own studio. He wrote, directed, and produced his own films. Later he composed soundtracks to go with his movies.

This complete creative control gave Chaplin copyright ownership to every film (with one exception) that he made after 1918, including The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator.

The Chaplin Office is not black and white

And just like Charlie Chaplin, Arnold Lozano, the man in charge of the Chaplin Office, is on a mission. The 41-year-old is not an agent but is responsible for keeping the classic film idol—and his Tramp character—in business in the 21st century.

His office faces a narrow street and has big windows. Nearly every surface is filled with Chaplin memorabilia—posters, framed photos, and shelves full of books. It is hard not to chuckle while looking around seeing the Tramp smiling back from every nook. Despite the laughs, this is a place for serious business.

After supporting the previous director for 10 years, Lozano took over as managing director two years ago. The son of Mexican immigrants, he was born and raised in California where he studied film and media before moving to France.

By chance, he found a job announcement in an English-language paper looking for someone to help in a film archive. It did not mention Chaplin and Lozano was surprised when he showed up for the interview to find out such an organisation even existed.

Even though he had studied film, Chaplin was not really someone he knew much about. Now, 12 years later, he has become an expert on the subject. And just like Chaplin in The Circus, Lozano has to walk a tightrope, but one between the past and the present.

His most important job “is respecting the Chaplin family’s wishes in order to protect the work of their father,” says Lozano. At the same time he must find “the balance of protecting it and also making sure it’s spread as far and wide as possible”.

It is a huge responsibility and only three other people know what he is faced with.

Making it up as they go along

Since the Chaplin Office was founded in 1953, it has only had four directors. The first three, Rachel Ford, Pamela Paumier, and Kate Guyonvarch, all worked there for decades. This continuity meant smooth running, which was especially important for a one-of-a-kind business with no role models to copy. Sadly, they never had much time to just sit around and watch old films.

For Lozano and his predecessors, much of the work is answering requests from around the world plus setting up licensing deals and contracts. His main partnerships are in France, Italy, Switzerland, and the US. But Lozano has worked with companies everywhere from Japan to Botswana and Mongolia.

Chaplin family support is crucial

Lozano does not do it all alone. He depends on a small team, support from the Chaplin family, and close partnerships with professional distribution company mk2 Films and Cineteca di Bologna. Together with family members he approves and assists on projects like live orchestra screenings, books, exhibitions, documentaries, and stage shows.

Another side job is merchandising. Over the years, Chaplin’s image has been used to sell everything from dolls to tea. Throughout the 1980s there was an advertising campaign to sell IBM personal computers using a likeness of the Tramp.

Today, the team does not actively chase promotion opportunities, the deals come to them anyhow. Each is decided on a case-by-case basis, though they now avoid licenses connected with tobacco, alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals, or political parties. However, that leaves plenty of Charlie Chaplin figurines, T-shirts, mugs, and notebooks.

Actual film distribution, like DVDs or TV broadcasts, was handed over to mk2 Films in a license agreement. Yet final approval for all deals is in the hands of the Chaplin Office.

Other jobs are not so pleasant and sometimes the team has to go after copyright violators. Most of these are cases where people did not realise the films are protected by copyright and are quickly resolved with a warning and without attorneys.

But the second Lozano sits with an audience and hears them laughing during one of Chaplin’s films, it makes all the work worthwhile, he says.

Getting Charlie Chaplin into the 21st century

Lozano will not say how much the office brings in each year through Chaplin, but it is enough to keep them incredibly busy.

The Tramp continues to be more than a character. It is a symbol that represents contempt for authority—a man who wants to live a simple happy life. It is a universal message that continues to touch audiences all over the world.

Though children are always the first to giggle as soon as the Tramp waddles onscreen, “Chaplin’s films contain incredibly recognisable human emotion alongside the comedy,” says Lozano. “The best of his films simply have not aged.”

What will age, however, is the protection of copyright laws. In 2047, the legal shields for Chaplin’s films will end unless laws change. That means the Chaplin Office has another 23 years to lay the groundwork by making sure the best copies of his films are preserved.

But no matter what the future holds, Chaplin will likely keep bringing in money and live on longer than most anything else to come out of Hollywood.