April 16
LITTLE TRAMP DAY
In his autobiography, he wrote, “There are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books.”
Charlie Chaplin’s life was a work of art and it began on this day in 1889 in London, England. He started on his acting career as a young child, performing on stage, then touring with Fred Karno’s company as a teenager. When he was twenty-four, Chaplin joined Mack Sennett’s Keystone company where he made over thirty films. These films were the making of the cane-twirling clown with the baggy pants. The character of the little tramp came to fulfillment in the 1915 film, The Tramp.
Four years later, he formed United Artists Corporation with other film artists, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith, and produced many independent films including The Gold Rush in 1925, City Lights in 1931 and Modern Times in 1936. His first talkie was The Great Dictator in 1940. And one of his most remembered films was made in 1952, Limelight.
Ostracized from the American film community and denied reentry after a trip abroad, because of his refusal to become an American citizen, his left-wing causes and his marriages to several teenagers, Charlie Chaplin lived in Switzerland from 1952 until 1972 with his fourth wife, Oona, the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.
In 1972, he returned to the United States (this time he was permitted entry) to accept a special award at the Annual Academy Awards. And, in 1975 he was knighted by the Queen of England. Two years later, on Christmas Day, the little tramp died at his home in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.
Many have imitated or attempted to become the next Charlie Chaplin. However, as Max Sennett once said, Chaplin is the “greatest artist who ever lived.”
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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