Charlie
Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889 in London. Her father was an
entertainer and although not one of the
big names, he was doing very
well. Her mother Hannah was also an entertainer. A wonderful mimic, she
had a sweet, charming voice. While they were by no means rich, the
music hall provided the Chaplins with a comfortable living.
Unfortunately happy life didn’t last long. Father’s alcoholism was
slowly, but surely destroying his marriage. Finally it ended in
divorce, but Hannah was indomitable. Without her, Charlie Chaplin would
have become just one more child lost in the poverty of Victorian
London. Somehow she not only managed to keep Charlie and his brother
Syney clean and warm, clothed and fed but she conjured little treats
for them. She would sit at the window watching the passersby and guess
at their characters from the way they looked and behaved, spinning
tales to delight Charlie and Syney. Charlie took in her skills and went
on using them all his life. Charlie had always believed,
even in the worst times, that had something special locked away inside
him. He took his courage and went to see one of the top theatrical
agents. With no experience at all, he was being
offered the plum part
of Billy-- the pageboy in a new production of "Sherlock Holmes".
"Sherlock Holmes" opened on July 27, 1903 at the enormous "Pavilion
Theatre" Charlie seemed to change overnight. It was as if he had found
the thing he was meant to do. It was, by now, 1908, Charlie
was nineteen and he fell in love. Hetty Kelly was only fifteen. But her
parents quashed the the romance before it really begun-- but the memory
of pretty Hetty stayed with Charlie all his life. In 1910,
when Karno set off on his yearly American tour, "One of the best
pantomime artists ever seen here." They had reached Philadelphia when a
telegram arrived and he was being offered the
chance to replace a star
in the Keystone film company. Cinema was born in the same
year as Charlie thought people still believed it was a passing fad, and
would never replace live shows. He was kept hanging about for several
weeks and he used the time to watch and to learn. He was determined to
master this new medium. It offered him the chance of money and success
-- and it would set him free from the unpredictability of live
audience. Charlie’s first film, released in February 1914,
was called "Making a living". Though it didn’t satisfy Charlie, the
public liked it. After that he had made ten films and he had learned a
lot. The public loved him and distributors were demanding more and more
Chaplin films. In an incredibly short time, Charlie had become a very
important man in motion picture...