A museum dedicated to the life and works of Charlie Chaplin is finally set to open in April after more than 15 years of planning, seven of which appear to have been spent in legal procedures and Swiss courts.
Situated in the village of Corsier-sur-Vevey in the Vaud canton, the museum will be in the manor house which the Chaplin family occupied.
Chaplin spent his final 25 years in Switzerland after being denied re-entry to the US in 1952 owing to suspicion of harbouring communist sympathies. The US was at that time in the grip of Senator Joe McCarthy who feared that the US was not strong enough to withstand Soviet infiltration.
Instead he moved onto a 14-hectare estate overlooking Lake Geneva with his wife Oona where they brought up their eight children.
A second part of the museum will be in a separate building containing an imitation Hollywood studio for visitors to see Chaplin’s work on screen.
The opening of Chaplin’s World will be just one day after what would have been the star’s 127th birthday. Born into poverty and hardship, including two stints in a workhouse, the boy from London began performing at an early age rising to become one of Hollywood’s great legends.
The project has taken 15 years to reach fruition. The organisers waited years for a building permit and then were involved in a lengthy court case brought by a neighbour who was concerned the museum would change the character of the area.
