Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin is a man of many talents. He is best known as The Little Tramp Clown as well as an actor, comic, producer, director, editor, and composer, but he will always be remembered for entertaining Americans during the rough times they faced starting in the 1910s and going straight through to the 1960s. Charlie Chaplin is a great American Icon whose work will be remembered for years and years to come. Wherever he went he stole the spotlight and had a charisma that you could not take your eyes off of. In his films he had the ability to captivate the audience and take them away from the rough world they were in at the time, whether it was during the Great Depression, or World War II, whether he was the star of the film, or the director, it was plain to see he had a great talent from birth, something that could not have been taught. Since him, no one has come close to being as great a contributor to American culture and society as he has been.

Charlie Chaplin was born as Charles Spencer Chaplin in London England on April 16th 1889, to the parents of Charles and Hannah Chaplin (Timeline). His parents were not very wealthy and divorced when he was still young. He and his stepbrother, Sydney lived off their mother’s earnings as a seamstress the best they could, but as Charlie got older his mother was checked into an asylum for mental illness. (Raymond) Things after that were hard but started to look up for the brothers when their mother was released and they were reunited, but unfortunately she was readmitted a few years later and the boys were sent to live with there father. He had a bad case of alcoholism, and the boys did not have the best life with him. (Raymond) To keep himself busy, Charlie would act, sing and perform as much as he could when he wasn’t working, and that eventually led to his start in the business.

He started out acting and performing at the very young age of 5, filling in as a singer for his mother when she was too ill to perform one night. During his childhood, Charlie had fallen ill and was on bed rest for weeks. At night, his mother would sit with him and teach him all she knew as an actress and performer. It is said she would “act out what she saw outside in the streets.”(Wikipedia Contributors) At only 11 years old he performed at the prestige Hippodrome in England, appearing in the pantomime rendition of Cinderella. After that he worked on three more acts until he became a clown on Fred Karno’s slapstick comedy, ‘Fun Factory’ (Wikipedia Contributors). From then until age 21 he appeared in other musicals. (Timeline) At the age of 21 he came to America and worked in New York.

In November of 1912, Charlie got the opportunity that would forever change his life, and motion pictures, as we know it. He was signed with Keystone Film Company starting at a base pay of $150 a week, an incredible amount for such a little known actor from England. In 1914 he began making his legendary films. (Timeline) He starred in 35 films his first year with Keystone, including Making a Living, Kid Auto Races, Mabel's Strange Predicament, and Between Showers, just to name a few. He then signed with another film company named Essanay Films, there he went on to make 12 more films the following year at a base salary of $1,250 a week, plus a $10,000 signing bonus. (Raymond)(Pringle) While at Keystone, Charlie invented his famous persona, The Little Tramp. This is where his signature look comes from, bowler hat, cane and small mustache. In 1916 he signed with Mutual Films for am amazing $10,000 a week, plus $150,000 signing bonus (Wikipedia Contributors), and in 1917, he signed with First National Films for $1 million dollars. He was the first actor ever to be paid that amount.(WikipediaContributors). In the fall of 1917, construction began on a film company Chaplin had started. This now meant more stability in his finances and film career. He had complete control over everything in his life.

Since Chaplin seemed to be the biggest star of his time and maybe ever in America’s history at that point, his life was watched and criticized extremely closely. He had many scandals and controversies throughout his career. The first one that was really big and became out of control was that he never applied for U.S. citizenship and he often joked he was a “paying visitor”. (IMD) The British were outraged and its reported that whenever he visited there, a group of “anti-chaps” showed him he wasn’t welcomed. This led to allegations of Chaplin using propaganda to support communist beliefs and intertwined then with his films. (IMD)

Another widely viewed scandal was the brief public relationship with Joan Barry. They had their problems like all couples, but the big surprise came when she claimed her unborn baby was his. (Wikipedia Contributors) She