Oona O'Neill and assistant, Harry Crocker. Crocker photographed the event for gossip columnist Louella Parsons, to whom Chaplin had given exclusive rights to publicize news of the marriage in the hopes that she would write a more positive article about it than her rival, Hedda Hopper, who strongly disliked him. The elopement received a large amount of media attention due to the 36-year age gap between O'Neill and Chaplin, and because his ex-girlfriend, Joan Barry, had filed a paternity suit against him only two weeks earlier. Although Agnes had given the union her blessing, it cemented O'Neill's estrangement from her father, who
Lois Weber about 1935. In November 1939, Weber was admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital in critical condition, suffering from a stomach ailment that had afflicted her for years. Almost two weeks later, she died on Monday, November 13, 1939, destitute, from a bleeding ulcer. She was 60 years old. Her younger sister, Ethel Howland, and friends, Frances Marion and Veda Terry, were at her bedside. Her death was largely overlooked, with her "Variety" obituary only two brief paragraphs long, and a brief mention in the "Los Angeles Examiner". Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper contributed a more substantial tribute in "The Los Angeles Times".