CHARLES SPENCER CHAPLIN

Evening Star, Issue 23864, 19 April 1941, Page 5

CHARLES SPENCER CHAPLIN

Many of our readers have asked us recently to tell them more about Charlie Chaplin. The renewed interest in the world’s greatest comedian is, of course, stimulated by the arrival on the screen of his newest production, 1 The Great Dictator.’ Charles Spencer Chaplin, whoso name has been translated into almost every language there is, and whoso cane, derby, and oversized shoos have become the most familiar symbols of laughter the world has ever known, was born in London on April 16, 18S!), less than a hundred hours before the birth in Austria of one Adolf Hitler. It is somehow significant that it was on the fiftieth anniversary of this coincidence that Chaplin began production on ' The Great Dictator,’ his most ambitions comedy to date, and the first nil-talking motion picture lie has over made.

hi the period between his birth in a hack street rooming house and the release of his latest and probably greatest films, Charlie Chaplin has experienced

the extremes of both poverty and the fame and fortune he enjoys to-day. His father was a music hall singer, and the young Charlie lived a life of almost Dickensian destitution in the slums and dingy shops of London. When his father came to town he used to stand in the wings and watch him, fascinated, and finally picked up enough of the music hall routine to find occasional employment on the stage. One of his first parts was that of a page hoy in a production of ‘ Sherlock Holmes,’ but before long he was in vaudeville with an act called ‘ A Night at an English Music Hall.’ When the company went to America the little man with the moustache who didn’t say a word throughout the performance instantly stole the show. In 1913, after he had completed his second vaudeville tour of the United States, Charlie Chaplin signed his first motion picture contract with Mack Sennet and the Keystone Film Comedy Company-of Los Angeles. That contract called for a salary of loOdol a week. But almost the moment

the American movie public saw his figure on the screen they expressed their pleasure so unmistakably that other studiosJiastened to sign him up. Within the next two years lie made dozens of two-reel comedies, and in 1917 put his signature to the only motion picture contract specifying a salary of a million dollars a year. After producing ‘ A Dog’s Life ’ in 1018 Chaplin, along with Alary Pidkford and Douglas Fairbanks, made his historic tour of the United States, in which ho made public speeches for war funds, called tho “ Third Liberty Loan Drive.” He followed this trip with the production of ‘ Shoulder Arms,’ his hilarious war comedy, which, contrary to all established notions, was a tremendous liit in a country still at war. By this time Chaplin was producing his own pictures, ns well as doing the directing, writing, and most of the acting. This policy ho has followed over since, and with the advent of sound lias added to his duties that of composing tho musical score. In 1921 Chaplin topped all previous successes with his production of ‘ The Kid,’ which introduced Jackie Coognn to the world. After making ‘ Tho Idle Class,’ in which ho played a dual role, Chaplin made a grand tour of Europe, where he was received with wild enthusiasm and adulation. When he returned to America- in 1919 he formed United Artists together with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith, and it has been under that banner that he has since released his motion pictures. ‘ A Woman of Paris,’ starring Adolphe Alonjou, was tho last of his productions in which be himself did not appear ; it was an experimental film and one of tho most popular and influential of its time. Charlie’s later hits—‘The Gold Bush,’ 1 The Circus,’ ‘ City Lights,’ and 1 Modern Times ’ — are all classics of cinematic comedy, the acknowledged masterpieces of the man whom George Bernard Shaw called “ the only genius in motion pictures.” But Charlie Chapin is more than a genius. He is an institution, the idol of millions of all races and creeds, the champion of tho pathetic ami oppressed. And, at a time when the world is sore and sick at heart, the little man with tlie funny moustache is something of a saviour, bringing with him at. a time we need if most tho invaluable therapy of laughter.