Book Your Next Vacation in Charlie Chaplin’s Sex Cabin
Fans of classic silent film comedies, and Charlie Chaplin in particular, will no doubt be interested in visiting the “Chaplin Cabin” in Paradise Springs, California. No, Chaplin didn’t film any of his iconic movies in the cabin, nor did write any iconic gags while staying there. The cabin was purely for “debaucherous” partying during the heyday of prohibition.
These days, the cabin is part of a glamping resort owned by the French company Huttopia. On its website, Huttopia boasts that the Paradise Springs’ Chaplin Cabin is “rustic yet refined,” features a “cozy atmosphere perfect for relaxing evenings” and is a “historic retreat nestled in a stunning natural setting, rich with Hollywood history.”
They’re not wrong, but that Hollywood history is actually pretty darn filthy.
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The original owner of the cabin wasn’t Chaplin, it was silent film actor Noah Beery Sr., who along with his “hard-partying” Oscar-winning brother Wallace Beery bought the Paradise Springs property and turned it into “a hedonistic wonderland for stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age.”
As a Fodors journalist noted during a recent stay in the cabin, the “Chaplin” designation stems from the fact that the City Lights star was a frequent guest of the Beerys. As the campground host proudly proclaimed, one of the cabin’s staircases was built by Chaplin himself because “it’s where his mistresses would run up and escape out the back window if his wife was coming up the hill.” Somehow the Robert Downey Jr. biopic omitted all the horny carpentry scenes from Chaplin’s life.
As reported by The LAist, the prohibition-era parties were pretty wild. According to the marketing director of the Christian camp that would, ironically, later take over the property, the parties included illegal bathtub gin, illegal gambling and an also illegal “cathouse.”
The Beerys were also rivals with famed psycho newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who reportedly tried to burn down the resort and once released a wild bison into the Paradise Springs ballroom (Beery took the animal out with a shotgun, then invited his guests to join him for a barbecue).
Thanks to all this immoral tomfoolery, Chaplin, who had invested money to help the Beerys purchase the property, “loved Paradise Springs.”
That being said, Chaplin was a sexual predator who targeted underage girls and physically abused women with his cane. The cabin looks like a cozy spot, but maybe we shouldn’t romanticize Chaplin’s libidinous escape stairs?
Incidentally, if you’re planning on booking a stay at the Chaplin Cabin, you should know that it isn’t cheap: It costs a whopping $650 a night. And that doesn’t even come with any bathtub gin or barbecued bison meat.