Diane Kiesel, author of When Charlie Met Joan, in conversation with Michael Greenburg
When:
Wednesday, Jul 16, 2025 7:00p -
8:00p
Wednesday, Jul 16, 2025 7:00p -
8:00p
Where:
Porter Square Books
1815 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02140
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
History, Lectures & Conferences
Event website:
https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/2025-07-16/diane-kiesel-author-when-charlie-met-joan-conversation-michael-greenburg
Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Diane Kiesel for the release of her book When Charlie Met Joan: The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law. Writer and lawyer Michael Greenburg will join Kiesel in conversation.
This event will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below.
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ABOUT WHEN CHARLIE MET JOAN
Charlie Chaplin, the silent screen’s “Little Tramp,” was beloved by millions of movie fans until he starred in a series of salacious, real-life federal courtroom dramas. The 1944 trial was described by ace New York Daily News reporter Florabel Muir as “the best show in town.” The leading lady was a woman under contract to his studio—red-haired ingénue Joan Barry, Chaplin’s protégée and former mistress. Although he beat the federal criminal trial, Chaplin lost a paternity case and had to pay child support despite blood type evidence that proved he was not the child’s father.
A decade later during the Cold War, the U.S. government used the Barry trials as an excuse to bar the left-leaning, sexually adventurous, British-born comic from the country he had called home for forty years. Not only did these trials have a lasting impact on law; they also raise concerns about the power of celebrity, Cold War politics, the media frenzy surrounding high-profile court proceedings, and the sorry history of the casting couch. When Charlie Met Joan examines these trials from the perspective of both parties, asking whether Chaplin was unfairly persecuted by the government because of his left-leaning political beliefs, or if he should have been held more accountable for his cavalier treatment of Barry and other women in his life.
PRAISE FOR WHEN CHARLIE MET JOAN
"Kiesel’s account makes for entertaining and respectfully salacious reading–there is a lot of fooling around in the book–with astute assessments of the political, legal and culture milieus of the era."
— William P. Barrett, New to Las Vegas
"Kiesel’s fine-grained character portraits present Chaplin as a charming rake who hammed up his court testimony with fake tears, and Barry as a troubled wannabe starlet taken advantage of by a powerful man. A meticulous retelling of a choice bit of Tinseltown melodrama, this will change how readers see Chaplin."
— Publishers Weekly
"[M]ultiple wrongs don’t make a right, and today’s #MeToo movement would find much to sympathize with in Barry’s situation, as the author points out. Did any of it justify Chaplin being dragged repeatedly into court, smeared, and eventually deported? No. But it more than justifies When Charlie Met Joan, a terrific tale of Old Hollywood and a legal system gone awry."
— Ken Ackerman, Washington Independent Review of Books
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
A frequent legal contributor to CNN and MSNBC, Diane Kiesel is a retired judge of the New York Supreme Court who spent nearly 25 years presiding over criminal cases. Her latest book, When Charlie Met Joan: The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law, was published by University of Michigan in 2025. The dual biography is a deep dive into the series of trials involving silent film star Charlie Chaplin and a young actress that contributed to his being barred from the United States for 20 years.
Kiesel began her professional life as a journalist, first on a series of newspapers in New Jersey where she covered local government, and then in Washington D.C., where she covered Congress, the Supreme Court, and various government agencies for a chain of California newspapers. For her reporting, she received the prestigious Worth Bingham Prize for distinguished investigative reporting for an article in The New Republic about how legislators misused campaign funds. Her first biography, She Can Bring Us Home: Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee; Civil Rights Pioneer, earned the 2015 Richard Slatten Award for Excellence in Virginia Biography and the 2016 Colonial Dames of America Book Award. She is also the author of several editions of a textbook, Domestic Violence: Law, Policy and Practice that is used in law school classrooms around the country.
Michael Greenburg is a practicing attorney in suburban Boston. He is a graduate of Pepperdine University School of Law and was a member and editor of the Pepperdine Law Review. Michael is the author of the nonfiction books, Peaches and Daddy, A Story of the Roaring 20s, the Birth of Tabloid Media, and the Courtship that Captured the Heart and Imagination of the American Public; The Mad Bomber of New York, The Extraordinary True Story of the Manhunt that Paralyzed a City; The Court-Martial of Paul Revere, A Son of Liberty and America’s Forgotten Military Disaster; This Noble Woman, Myrtilla Miner and Her Fight to Establish a School for African American Girls in the Slaveholding South; and The Great Miscalculation, The Race to Save New York City’s Citicorp Tower. He has appeared as a guest on NPR Radio, The Bloomberg Network, The Smithsonian Channel, and The Travel Channel. He has spoken at the New York Public Library, the Boston Public Library, the US Constitution Museum, and many other libraries, societies, and organizations.
PARKING
Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket.
When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.
Upon exiting the lot, scan your ticket and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.
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