You know when sometimes you have two friends from competely different circles, and they just don't get on? Two people I greatly admire are H. Rider Haggard, the author of 'lost world romances' such as Allan Quatermain, and Charles Chaplin, the silent film comedian (etc.). While looking up something else in Haggard's diaries, I re-discovered this entry from 12 September 1921:

"The Press of England seems literally to have gone mad over the cinema star, Charlie Chaplin, and so have other people. Thus the Mayor of Southampton received him publicly on his arrival from America. Hideous pictures are published too of this very undistinguished-looking person, surrounded by crowds with folly stamped on every face. It really is extraordinary and as the Morning Post points out a great testimony of the power of the Publicity Agent who is working up all this excitement underneath."

I think he underestimated just how much people genuinely loved Chaplin, especially as he was coming back home after years in America. Sir Haggard was fairly elderly at this time, but there might have been a period earlier in his life when he wouldn't have minded a similar public reaction, but certainly not as a 'cinema star'. He evidently saw his prolific output of literature as a few steps above the art of the screen, though later his own adventure novels would go through a stage of being considered 'pulpy' - just about the same time that Chaplin's films were being branded intellectual (by some). Haggard's books would eventually re-emerge as classics too.

I hoped to see some mention of Rider Haggard in Chaplin's autobiography, but the only thread-thin connection I'm aware of is a photo of Charlie seated next to actress Alice Delysia, who played Ayesha in a 1916 version of Haggard's 'She'. Haggard was not beyond enjoying filmed versions of his own work, but was plagued by those who sought to adapt them illegally. Of the 1916 version Haggard wrote (5 Jun 1916) "The She film is going very well, nearly two million people having paid to see it already."

Here's a link to a related entry.