|
Many stories have been written about Charlie's life, including
his own, so I will just give you the basics. All info I have gathered are from different books, sites and people. If any of
the info is wrong, let me know. I am doing my best to promote this great man in the best possible light, but he did live a
LONG time ago, and words do get jumbled and confused. I'll do my best from what I know.
Charlie was born Charles Spencer Chaplin In Walworth, East
Lane, South London, on April 6th, 1889. This was the year after The Ripper did his dirty work, so it seems all that much more
in the past. Since Charlie is still with us in many ways, it almost seems like he was ageless and had no real timeframe. But
he wasn't born into poverty, that came later after his parents split up. I think he was around 5 or so when they split due
to many problems: one being Charles, Sr's drinking heavily. The mother, Hannah and Charlie's older brother from a previous
relationship (yes, they did that back then, too) Sydney joined Charlie in the struggle to live. It was a tough time to exist
in the poor neighborhoods of South London in Victorian England, soon to be Edwardian Britain. There were no real handouts,
and the absolute bottom, the Nadir of life was going to the Workhouse. As you can imagine, it's pretty desperate and horrible.
People had to give up all they had and go in shame to this horrible place so they could survive. The barest of the bare food
was given, the clothing was threadbare, you had to bathe withothers in one giant tub. You get the idea of Victorian England.
Hannah also had a relationship with another man during this time and had an out-of-wedlock child named Wheeler Dryden, and
the Father took the child with him. This also, as you can imagine, added to the separation.
Hannah suffered occasional bouts of psychosis, later to
be found out as late stage syphillis. After many years of dormancy, this disease ravages your brain and causes hallucinations,
psychoses and delusions. Hannah seems to have has this for quite some time. Along with general malnutrition, the family was
not in the best of health, and this could explain Charlie's small stature. People back then weren't generally very tall as
they are today, but he was pretty small: he grew to be five-foot-five at most. Sydney grew to be a little taller as he went
into the Navy for awhile at age 11. Thankfully, none of the children ever contracted the disease.
They scraped to get by, and moved a few times, back and
forth between the same places. Mothr and Father, in their earlier days were amongst the Vaudevillian tribe. They had a small
modicum of success with travelling the nightclubs and singing. Dad was apparently a decent singer and wrote some songs: Mother
was a 'soubrette' which means a lady that sang some mediocre songs for entertainment value. Let's face it, they didn't have
television or movies back then, so this was the thing to do. After her voice cracked one night playing the horrible place
of Aldershot, Charlie ran onto the stage and finished the song for her, picked up the thrown coins, and Mother never returned
to the stage again to sing. He then discovered through sheer survival that this could mean something. People liked seeing
a little Cockney kid on stage singing, it was cute. And if people threw money, so much the better.
Along the years, Charlie eventually joined a few travelling
troupes, along with Sydney who was already ensconced in the comedy business and who originally got him a few gigs to start
with. Hannah was put into Cane Hill Asylum, a fearsome place back in Edwardian England. You can imagine the treatment. When
they were able to visit her, they were appalled at how she had been neglected. But they had no choice but to leave her there.
When they started earning more money, they brought her to a better place.
After Charlie and Sydney had enjoyed a low-level of success
(compared to living on the streets or eating hand-outs) they rented a nicer apartment and Mother checked herself out for a
time and came to live with them. They found this a little awkward, and so did she. She had been absent for a long time and
the boys had found self-sufficiency comfortable. But they were all pretty close and did the best they could. Soon afterwards,
Mother has to go back due to relapsing psychosis, and the boys went back on the road. Eventually, Sydney, the more successful
of the two, auditioned Charlie for a job with his boss, Fred Karno, a pretty successful Vaudevillian who had a travelling
troupe of comedians who performed on stages all over England. He got the job, of course, and soon afterwards travelled for
the first time to America. If I am not mistaken, Sydney did not join Charlie at this time, and Charlie went to America with
the troupe: he was a loner from the start and felt he could not relate to strangers except as a character on the stage. This
way, he was not himself: he was another person and lost all shyness.
The Karno troupe performed for a few years and returned
to England. But Charlie wanted to go back to the States. After another trip to the States, he received a telegram from Mack
Sennett who had seen him on stage in New York. He got the telegram and replied to Sennett, who was the 'King of Comedy' in
newly developing Los Angeles. Charlie decided when his Karno contract was up, he'd go, make some good money for a year or
so, and head back home. The 'Flickers', as movies were called, were not professional at all. Most people were not credited
for their work, and most of the work was pretty poorly done. It was shown in Nickelodeons around the country. Ten minute 'movies'
were cheap entertainment, people getting hit with pies, cops getting kicked in the ass, and generally low-grade humor ensued.
Every 'movie' was a chase, or a girl on the railroad tracks, etc. Nothing very interesting. To work in the flickers meant
you failed on the stage. You got paid around 25 dollars a week and took no credit for your work. You were just a face and
a body.
When Charlie arrived in Hollywood, he was so nervous he
showed up at Sennett studios twice and never went to the office. He just showed up, lost his nerve, and went back to his hotel.
Finally at the end of the week, Sennett sent a telegram stating 'where the hell are you?' and Charlie showed up. Sennett was
expecting a much older man, as most comedians back then were older fellows. Charlie proved to Sennett that he was indeed Chaplin
and was hired at $150 a week.
His early movies were awkward and clumsy. He hadnt found
his style yet for some time. His early chacter of the Tramp was mean-spirited, did a lot of hitting and kicking and was generally
nasty to people. He needed to find a middle-ground for him, but people expected the crudities of the early films to be just
that: slapstick.
Eventually, the character took shape and form. Charlie
just picked his outfit after drawing from his memory all the people he knew in life in London: bums, rummies, drunks, street
people, and combined it all into the Tramp. A man with dignity despite his situation, a former aristocrat fallen on hard times,
he maintained his sense of pride and optimism and wouldnt let anyone get him down or stop him: hence, the theme of the common
man and why they could identify with him.
Charlie stayed with Sennett for a year; went to Essanay,
he then signed another, more lucrative offer with Mutual, then after that contract, signed with First National, the one he
hated the most. He felt hemmed in with First National, and was constantly being checked on by studio managers on the progress.
If there is anything Charlie hated, it was loss of control and being told what to do. He was never an aimless man because
he has a vision of what he wanted from early on and refused to stop until he became his own man. He finally did in 1918 when
he built his own studio in Hollywood (which still stands) on La Brea and DeLongpre Avenues. From then on, he made his own
movies at his own speed, his own way and with his own money. This was the beginning of United Artists, which is still in existence
today.
Obviously, I have left out quite a bit that I don't have room for. Discover
Chaplin on my links I have posted.
I have loved Charlie Chaplin since I was around 19 years old. I liked him before that but knew nothing
about him until I grew older. I was fascinated: this man's personality was so similar to mine it was unbeleivable. I am not
as driven as he is, but the words, the actions, the attitudes and the ways of dealing with problems were about the same. I
was interested in him so much my Mother bought me some videos of his movies, something not so readily available back then.
Now, I cherish anything Chaplin.
|
