The Kid (1921)

It's the fourth and final day of the Nederlands Silent Film Festival (NSFF). On the programme this afternoon is The Kid (1921), one of the greatest films of the silent era. The comedy-drama was written, produced and directed by Charlie Chaplin. He also stars in it with Jackie Coogan as his adopted son and sidekick. Chaplin's first full-length film as a director was a huge success and was the second-highest-grossing film in 1921.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 664/1. Photo: Hansaleih. Charlie Chaplin in The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 664/2. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 721/1. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Jackie Coogan.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 721/2. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Jackie Coogan.

Abandoned in the back seat of an expensive automobile

The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) starts off with inter-titles, "A picture with a smile - and perhaps a tear," followed by "The woman whose sin was motherhood". An unknown woman (Edna Purviance) leaves a charity hospital carrying her newborn son. An artist (Carl Miller), the apparent father, is shown in the woman's photograph. When it falls into the fireplace, he first picks it up and then throws it back in to burn up. The woman decides to abandon her child in the back seat of an expensive automobile with a handwritten note imploring the finder to care for and love the baby. However, the car is stolen. When the two thieves discover the child, they dump him in a garbage can on the street.

The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) notices the baby wrapped in a blanket. First, Charlie tries to pass it off to someone else, but after stumbling upon a note which reads, "Please love and care for this orphan child", he decides to raise the child himself. He names the boy John. Elsewhere, the woman has an apparent change of heart and returns for the baby, but is heartbroken and faints upon learning of the baby having been taken away.

Five years pass, and the child (Jackie Coogan) becomes the Tramp's partner in a minor crime, throwing stones to break windows that the Tramp, working as a glazier, can then repair. Meanwhile, the woman becomes a wealthy opera star. She spends her spare time with charitable work handing out gifts to the children of poor districts to fill the void left by her missing child. By chance, the paths of the kid and his mother meet numerous times, unaware of each other's identities.

When the boy becomes seriously ill, a middle-aged country doctor comes to see him. He discovers that the Tramp is not the boy's father. The Tramp shows him the note left by the mother, but the doctor merely takes it and notifies the authorities of the County Orphan Asylum to take the child away. Two men take the boy to the orphanage, but after a fight and a chase, the Tramp steals the boy back just before he arrives at the Orphan Asylum. When the woman returns to see how the boy is doing, the doctor tells her what has happened, and then shows her the note, which she recognises.

Now fugitives, the Tramp and the boy spend the night in a flophouse, but the manager (Henry Bergman), having read of the $1,000 reward offered for the child, takes him to the police station to be united with his ecstatic mother. When the Tramp wakes up, he searches frantically for the missing boy, then returns to doze beside the now-locked doorway to their humble home. In his sleep, he enters 'Dreamland', with angels in residence and devilish interlopers. He is awakened by a kind policeman (Tom Wilson), who places the Tramp in a car and rides with him to a mansion. When the door opens, the woman and John emerge, reuniting the elated adoptive father and son. The policeman, who is happy for the family, shakes the Tramp's hand and leaves before the woman welcomes the Tramp into her home.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 664/3. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin, Lita Grey and Charles Reisner.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 665/1. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 665/2. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan.

The first major child star of the cinema

The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) is notable for combining comedy and drama. As the opening title says: "A picture with a smile—and perhaps, a tear". The most famous and enduring sequence in the film is the Tramp's desperate rooftop pursuit of the agents from the orphanage who had taken the child and their emotional reunion. The film made Jackie Coogan, then a vaudeville performer, the first major child star of the cinema. Many of the Chaplin biographers have attributed the relationship portrayed in the film to have resulted from the death of Chaplin's firstborn infant son just ten days before the production began.

J. Spurlin at IMDb: "Jackie Coogan (about five in this film), with his charming manners, his talents as a mimic and his adeptness at physical comedy, is one of the all-time great child actors. Want more evidence of Chaplin's genius? Coogan doesn't steal the film from him. This is true even though Chaplin, as producer, star and director, makes every evident attempt to spotlight the boy's talents. Coogan is even better here than he is in his own vehicles, like My Boy and Oliver Twist."

The portrayal of poverty and the cruelty of welfare workers are also directly reminiscent of Chaplin's own childhood in London. Several of the street scenes were filmed on Los Angeles's famed Olvera Street, almost 10 years before it was converted into a Mexican-themed tourist attraction.

Another IMDb reviewer, Lugonian, notes: "Chaplin, who constructs his gags to perfection, has one difficult scene that comes off naturally, this being where Charlie cuts out diapers from a sheet for the infant as he's lying beside him in a miniature hammock crying out for his milk. The baby immediately stops after Charlie directs the nipple attached to a coffee pot (a substitute for a baby bottle) back into his mouth. Another classic moment, of a serious nature, is when Charlie is being held back by authorities, being forced to watch his crying 'son' taken away from him. Charlie breaks away and goes after the truck as he's being chased by a policeman from the slanted rooftops. The close-up where father and son tearful reunite is as touching as anything ever captured on film."

After production was completed in 1920, the film was caught up in the divorce actions of Chaplin's first wife Mildred Harris, who sought to attach Chaplin's assets. Chaplin and his associates smuggled the raw negative to Salt Lake City, reportedly packed in coffee cans, and edited the film in a room at the Hotel Utah. Before releasing the film Charlie Chaplin negotiated for and received an enhanced financial deal for the film with his distributor, First National Corporation, based on the success of the final film. Twelve-year-old Lita Grey, who portrays an angel in the film, would become Chaplin's second wife from 1924 to 1927. In 1971, Charles Chaplin edited and reissued the film and he composed a new musical score.


Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Jackie Coogan.


Postcard by Palm Pictures, no. C 23. Photo: publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan. Collection: Daniël van der Aa. Tom Wilson is probably the cop in the background.


Jackie Coogan. Modern American postcard by Fotofolio. Photo: James Abbe, 1921.


French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris, 1991, no. CA 82. Photo: Bubbles Inc. Charlie Chaplin in The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921).

Sources: J. Spurlin (IMDb), Lugonian (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Jackie Coogan

Jackie Coogan (1914-1984) was unforgettable Charlie Chaplin's irascible sidekick in The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921). As a child actor, he also played the title role in Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, 1922) and several other silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester in the TV series The Addams Family (1964-1966). In the interim, he sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings ($56 to $75 million adjusted for 2019 dollars) and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers, widely known as 'the Coogan Act'.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 29. Photo: Evans, L.A.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 665/1. Photo: Hansaleih. Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan in The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 665/2. Photo: Hansaleih. Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan in The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 662/2. Photo: Terra-Verleih. Jackie Coogan in My Boy (Albert Austin, Victor Heerman, 1921). The wealthy lady is Mathilde Brundage, who plays the boy's grandmother.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 662/4. Photo: Terra-Verleih. Jackie Coogan and Mathilde Brundage in My Boy (Albert Austin, Victor Heerman, 1921). The old man is Claude Gillingwater, who plays Captain Bill.

The Kid

Jackie Coogan was born John Leslie Coogan in 1914 in Los Angeles, California, to John Henry Coogan Jr. and Lillian Rita (Dolliver) Coogan. His father was a dancer and actor, and his mother had been a child star. Jackie's younger brother, Robert Coogan, also would become an actor.

His parents put Jackie on stage as part of their act when he was just 16 months old. His film debut was an uncredited role as a baby in the successful silent film Skinner's Baby (Harry Beaumont, 1917), starring Bryant Washburn.

Charlie Chaplin discovered him in the Orpheum Theatre, a vaudeville house in Los Angeles, on the stage doing the shimmy, a dance popular at the time. Jackie Coogan was a natural mimic and delighted Chaplin with his abilities. Chaplin cast him in a small role in A Day's Pleasure (Charles Chaplin, 1919) to test Jackie. It proved that he had a screen presence.

Coogan then was the Tramp's irascible companion in The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921). Charlie raises the kid and then loses Jackie. The film was very successful.

The following year Jackie played the title role in Oliver Twist (1922), directed by Frank Lloyd. By 1923, when he made Daddy (E. Mason Hopper, 1923), he was one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. He would leave First National for MGM where they put him into Long Live the King (Victor Schertzinger, 1923). Coogan was one of the first stars to be heavily merchandised. Peanut butter, stationery, whistles, dolls, records, and figurines were among the Coogan-themed merchandise on sale.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 725/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Transocean-Film Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, 1922).


British postcard presented with The Penny Magazine. Photo: First National. Jackie Coogan in Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, 1922).


French postcard by Imp. Lison for Cinéma du Brun-Pain, 1923. Photo: Gaumont / Sol Lesser. Jackie Coogan in Trouble (Albert Austin, 1922).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 669/6. Photo: Transocean Film Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in Daddy (E. Mason Hopper, 1923). Postcard mailed in the former Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 701/3. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in Daddy (E. Mason Hopper, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 701/4. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in Daddy (E. Mason Hopper, 1923).


Italian postcard. Photo: First National. Jackie Coogan and Peaches Jackson in Circus Days (Edward F. Cline, 1923).

A children's crusade

The photo in Berlin above was taken during Coogan's European tour in 1924. According to Wikipedia, Coogan, working with Near East relief, toured across the United States and Europe in 1924 on a 'Children's Crusade' as part of his fundraising drive. His fundraising provided more than $1 million in clothing, food, and other contributions for Armenian and Greek children displaced during World War I (worth $15 million in 2019 dollars). He was honoured by officials in the United States, Greece, and Rome, where he had an audience with Pope Pius XI.

In addition, the tour promoted Coogan's film A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924), which, oddly enough, takes place in the Netherlands and not in Belgium (of which Flanders is a part). Coogan was also dressed up in a typical Volendam (Dutch) folklorist outfit. In The Netherlands, the film was therefore baptised 'Een Hollandsche jongen' (A Dutch Boy).

According to the newspapers, in September 1924 Coogan docked in Southampton and then visited London, Paris, Rome, and Athens. After ten days of holidays in early October in Semmering (Austria), the trip continued to Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin. Attempts to have him visit Amsterdam as well failed. After a return to Paris, he took the ship back to the US on 4 November, as he had to work from 28 October on the film sets again.

Coogan was tutored until the age of 10 when he entered Urban Military Academy and other prep schools. He attended several colleges, as well as the University of Southern California.

By 1927, at the age of 13, Coogan had grown up on the screen and his career was starting to go through a downturn. His popular film career would end with the classic tales of Tom Sawyer (John Cromwell, 1930) and Huckleberry Finn (Norman Taurog, 1931) with Junior Durkin. In 1932, he dropped out of Santa Clara University because of poor grades.


Jackie Coogan in Berlin. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 923/1. Photo: C. Fernstädt, Berlin. The man at the far left is Coogan's father, John Henry Coogan Jr.


Jackie Coogan on board of SS Leviathan in 1924. French postcard by A.N. in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series, Paris, no. 88. Photo: Rol. On 4 November 1924, Jackie Coogan went back to the US on the SS Leviathan, after his European tour of September-October that year, visiting London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin.


Hungarian postcard by FMSI, no. 84. Photo: Mûvèsz Film. In 1924 Coogan visited Budapest during his grand European tour. The photo refers to Coogan's outfit in A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924). Mûvèsz Film may have been the Hungarian distributor of that film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 669/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 680/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 726/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin.

The Coogan Act

In 1935, 20-year-old Coogan was the sole survivor of a car crash in the California mountains. The accident killed his father; his best friend, 19-year-old actor Junior Durkin; their ranch foreman, Charles Jones; and actor and writer Robert J. Horner. The party was returning from a day of dove hunting over the border in Mexico in early May. With his father at the wheel, the car was forced off the mountain highway near Pine Valley by an oncoming vehicle and rolled down an embankment. Jackie would later call it the single saddest day of his life.

As a child star, Jackie Coogan earned an estimated $3 to $4 million (now $56 to $75 million). When he turned 21 in 1935, his fortune was believed to be well intact. His assets had been conservatively managed by his father, who had died in a car accident five months earlier. However, Coogan found that the entire amount had been spent by his mother and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, on fur coats, diamonds, other jewellery, and expensive cars. Bernstein had been a financial adviser for the family and married Coogan's mother in late 1936. Coogan's mother and stepfather claimed Jackie enjoyed himself and simply thought he was playing before the camera. She insisted, "No promises were ever made to give Jackie anything", and claimed he "was a bad boy". Coogan sued them in 1938, but after his legal expenses, he received just $126,000 of the $250,000 remaining of his earnings.

Because of the public uproar, in 1939 the California Legislature passed the Child Actors Bill, also known as 'the Coogan Act', which would set up a trust fund for any child actor and protect his earnings. It required that a child actor's employer set aside 15% of the earnings in a trust (called a Coogan account), and specified the actor's schooling, work hours, and time off. When Jackie Coogan fell on hard times and asked Charlie Chaplin for assistance, Chaplin handed him $1,000 without hesitating. Although he eventually reconciled with his mother and stepfather after the lawsuit over his earnings, things were never the same, and his advice to future child stars was to "stay away from mothers."

In 1938, Jackie Coogan appeared with then-wife Betty Grable in the musical comedy College Swing (Raoul Walsh, 1938) starring George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye and Bob Hope. It was followed by supporting roles in Million Dollar Legs (Nick Grinde, 1939) and Sky Patrol (Howard Bretherton, 1939). In 1940, Coogan played the role of a playboy Broadway producer in the 'Society Girl' program on CBS radio. He also starred in his own radio programme, 'Forever Ernest' (1946), on CBS.

Coogan enlisted in the U.S. Army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor that December, he requested a transfer to the Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. After graduating from the Advanced Glider School with the Glider Pilot aeronautical rating and the rank of Flight Officer, he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In December 1943, the unit was sent to India. He flew British troops, the Chindits, under General Orde Wingate on 5 March 1944, landing them at night in a small jungle clearing 100 miles (160 km) behind Japanese lines in the Burma Campaign.


Spanish minicard (collector's card). Series Intimidades cinematograficas, series I, card 1 of 20. Caption: Jackie Coogan's signature. In the presence of his parents and Sam Goldwyn, Jackie Coogan signs a contract for his first film with Metro-Goldwyn.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 822/1. Photo: British-American-Films A.-G. (Bafag). Jackie Coogan in Long Live the King (Victor Schertzinger, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 822/2. Photo: British-American-Films A.-G. (Bafag). Jackie Coogan in Old Clothes (Edward F. Cline, 1925).


Italian postcard, no. 413. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Pictures. Jackie Coogan and Max Davidson in The Rag Man (Edward F. Cline, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3256/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3530/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. Jackie Coogan in Buttons (George W. Hill, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3530/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Uncle Fester

After the war, Jackie Coogan returned to acting, but he was unable to restart his career. He worked in B-films, mostly in bit parts and usually playing the heavy. During the 1950s, he started to appear on television. From 1952 to 1953, he played Stoney Crockett on the syndicated series Cowboy G-Men. In Denmark, he directed and starred in the thriller Flugten til Danmark/Escape from Terror (George Coogan, Jackie Coogan, 1955)

Coogan guest-starred on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. He appeared too, as Corbett, in two episodes of NBC's The Outlaws (1960-1962) with Barton MacLane. He had a regular role in the NBC series, McKeever and the Colonel (1962-1963). Coogan finally found his most famous television role as Uncle Fester in ABC's The Addams Family (1964–1966). ;When he was cast as Uncle Fester, Coogan was 50 years old and nearly broke. After the series ended in 1966, he never lacked work again, with numerous television and film appearances.

In the cinema, Coogan appeared as a police officer in the Elvis Presley comedy Girl Happy (Boris Sagal, 1965) and in A Fine Madness (Irvin Kershner, 1966) with Sean Connery. On TV, he appeared four times on Perry Mason (1966). He was a guest several times on The Red Skelton Show and appeared twice on The Brady Bunch. He also played Jeannie's uncle, Suleiman – Maharajah of Basenji in I Dream of Jeannie (1969). He continued to appear in TV series and feature films until his death. His final appearance was in the horror film The Prey (Edwin Brown, 1983).

Coogan was married four times and had four children. His first three marriages to actresses were short-lived. He and Betty Grable were engaged in 1935 and married in 1937, and they divorced less than two years later in 1939. Eighteen months later in 1941, he married Flower Parry. They had one son, John Anthony Coogan in 1942. They divorced in 1943. Coogan married his third wife, Ann McCormack in 1946. They had a daughter, Joann Dolliver Coogan, born in 1948. They divorced in 1951. Dorothea Odetta Hanson, also known as dancer Dorothea 'Dodie' Lamphere, became Coogan's fourth wife in 1952 and they were together for over thirty years, until his death. She died in 1999. They had two children together, a daughter, Leslie Diane Coogan (1953) and a son, Christopher Fenton Coogan (1967), who died in a motorcycle accident in Palm Springs in 1990.

After suffering from heart and kidney ailments, Jackie Coogan succumbed to heart failure in 1984, at age 69, in Santa Monica, California. He had previously suffered several strokes and had been undergoing kidney dialysis when his blood pressure dropped. Coogan was taken to Santa Monica Hospital, where he died from cardiac arrest. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. In 1972, Charles Chaplin returned to the U.S. after two decades of exile. He would receive the Handel Medallion in New York City and a special lifetime achievement Oscar in Hollywood. Coogan was one of several people to greet Chaplin when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. After greeting the other members of the party with perfunctory handshakes, Chaplin, recognised Coogan (whom he hadn't seen in decades), warmly embraced him, saying, "You know, I think I would rather see you than anybody else." Chaplin later told Coogan's wife, "You must never forget that your husband is a genius."


French postcard by Edition Cinémagazine, Paris, no. 197.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 698/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1527/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Parufamet.


Swedish postcard by Ljunggrens Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 161. Jackie Coogan in his outfit from Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, 1922).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3530/3, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Jackie Coogan in The Bugle Call (Edward Sedgwick, 1927).


Jackie Coogan and his little brother Robert Coogan. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6397/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9594/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount.

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 22 October 2023.

Jackie Coogan's 1924 European Tour

American actor Jackie Coogan (1914-1984) began as a child actor in silent films. He was Charlie Chaplin's irascible sidekick in The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) and played the title role in Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, 1922). In 1924, the popular child star made a charity tour through Europe of which remarkably many postcards were published.


Jackie Coogan, on board of SS Leviathan in 1924. French postcard by A.N. in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series, Paris, no. 88. Photo: Rol. On 4 November 1924, Jackie went back to the US on the SS Leviathan, after his European tour of September-October that year, visiting London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin. He had come with the same boat, wearing a cap from the boat during his tour.


French postcard. Drawing of Jackie Coogan by Marthe Antoine Girardin, Paris. The inscription "Best wishes, Jackie Coogan, Sept. 20, 1924" refers to Coogan's European tour of that year. The cap worn sideways probably refers to Coogan's film Daddy (E. Mason Hopper, 1923).


French postcard. Photo: Metro Pictures / Gaumont. The card refers to Coogan's visit to Geneva, during his 1924 European tour, and promotes his film Long Live the King (Victor Schertzinger, 1923) at the Colysée cinema. October 1924 Coogan celebrated his 10th birthday at Hotel Beau Rivage in Geneva.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, 922/1. Photo: Rembrandt, Berlin. The photo was taken in Berlin during Coogan's European tour in 1924. The man at the left is Coogan's father, John Henry Coogan Jr. 


Jackie Coogan in Berlin. The man at the far left is Coogan's father. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 923/1. Photo: C. Fernstädt, Berlin.

Using his status for a humanitarian cause

According to Wikipedia, Jackie Coogan toured across the United States and Europe in 1924 on a "Children's Crusade", working with Near East Relief (NER). The tour was part of his fundraising drive, which provided more than $1 million in clothing, food, and other contributions (worth more than $13 million in 2012 dollars), funds raised for Armenian and Greek Genocide Orphans.

In addition, the tour promoted Coogan's film A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924), which, oddly enough, takes place in the Netherlands and not in Belgium of which Flanders is a part. Coogan was also dressed up in a typical Volendamer (Dutch) folkloristic outfit. In The Netherlands, the film was therefore rebaptised 'Een Hollandsche jongen' (A Dutch Boy).

According to the newspapers, September 1924 Coogan docked in Southampton with the SS Leviathan and then visited London, Paris, Rome, and Athens. Coogan was accompanied by his father Jack, his tutor Mrs. Kora Newell, and his manager and future stepfather, Arthur Bernstein. His mother stayed home, as she was expecting her second son. After ten days of holidays early October in Semmering (Austria), the trip continued to Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin. Attempts to have him visit Amsterdam as well failed.

After a return to Paris, he took the ship back to the US on 4 November, as he had to work on the film sets again. Huge crowds attended Coogan's visits, reaching its climax in October 1924 in Athens, according to his biographer Diana Serra Cary, when he handed over the bills of lading for the relief cargo in presence of Greek and American dignitaries and some 7000 orphans in the care of Near East Relief. Coogan was awarded with the Silver Cross of the Order of St. George. Way before TV or internet, the media coverage of the tour in printed press, film magazines and newsreels was huge. The Ross Verlag postcards on Coogan's Berlin visit are clearly part of this.

Coogan was honored by officials in the United States, Greece, and Rome, where he had an audience with Pope Pius XI. He also had a 15-minute meeting with Benito Mussolini, who gave him an autographed photo inscribed "Al Piccolo Grande" (To the Little Great One). There were demonstrations against his visit to Vienna in October 1924 because some people on the far right believed he was Jewish. He was in fact of Irish Catholic descent.

Coogan may well have been the first star using his status for a humanitarian cause. After a return to Paris, Jackie Coogan and his father took the ship back to the US on 4 November, as he had to work from 28 October on the film sets again.


Jackie Coogan and his father travelling to Berlin. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 923/2. Photo: C. Fernstädt, Berlin.


Held by his father, Jackie Coogan waves to his fans from the balcony of the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, October 1924. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 923/3. Photo: C. Fernstädt, Berlin.


Part of the 1924 charity tour of Jackie Coogan through Europe. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 924/3. Photo: C. Fernstädt, Berlin.


Part of the 1924 charity tour of Jackie Coogan through Europe. Mark the cap from the ocean liner Leviathan with which he traveled to and from Europe. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 924/4. Photo: C. Fernstädt, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 680/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Bafag / MGM. Jackie Coogan in A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924), based on the novel by Ouida. The girl is Jeanne "Jean" Carpenter, who plays Alios Cogez, while the woman may be Nell Craig, who plays her mother, Marie Cogez.

Sources: : Pinkylovejoy, Diana Serra Cary (Jackie Coogan: The World's Boy King: A Biography of Hollywood's Legendary Child Star), Wikipedia and IMDb.