Chaplin Before 1920

Charlie Chaplin was one of the most recognized symbols of comedy and the every man. His character the Tramp is instantly recognizable still today by youths and adults alike the world over. How did he get so big? Where did he come from and learn how to do the things that he did? The answers start after the beginning of films rise as a medium. Before he made such classics as the Kid, Modern Times, City Lights, and The Great Dictator, he worked on stage and in a series of shorts for various studios. He brought with him an artists touch and a mavericks sensibilities in his approach to filmmaking. It was his earlier experiences that helped allow him to make such beloved films later on in life.

Charlie Chaplin learned performance at a young age, his mother performed Vaudeville, and he picked up the trade from their. Later on in life when he returned to perform in Vaudeville he perfected his comedic timing and abilities. From there he would learn how to translate his comedy into the film medium. As the film medium took rise Keystone was one of the more popular studios for comedy. They provided broad comedy for people, as witnessed with the Keystone Cops. Of the kings of comedy directors of the period the most Mark Sennett had made good use of his time. Mark Sennett learned filmmaking and storytelling from D.W. Griffith. Griffith’s use of film language- how to cut and compose shots- became important. Whereas Griffith used such storytelling to tell moving dramatic stories, Sennett used method for the purposes of laughter and comedy. Sennett recognized the potential of Chaplin and called for him to come to Hollywood to perform. Chaplin worked under Sennett. Sennett was an informal pupil who worked under Griffith, and so Chaplin became an informal pupil who worked for Sennett. Although Sennett was a camera man, and Chaplin a performer. Making a Living was his first film, but his character the Tramp first appeared in Kid Auto Races at Venice. In the latter his character plays the stand offish camera hog as cameramen try to film children racing. It shows what is to come, a character who stands off against authority and kicks it in the rear.

Much of the studio method of filmmaking displeased Chaplin. The Studio method is often compared to Ford assembly method of manufacturing, which Chaplin would later parody in his film Modern Times- no doubt inspired by his experiences. Sennett had an unusual method of filming and comedy. Michael Conway wrote in his article A Bit About Charlie Chaplin and His films in the book “The Films of Charlie Chaplin, “The Keystone comedy shorts were made in a strange manner. Scripts were unnecessary in many of Sennett’s films. If someone had an idea for a funny situation, and it was possible to film it, the camera rolled. Slapstick was comedy and comedy was slapstick. Sennett held to the theory that rough and tumble comedy had the most appeal.” (18) Chaplin wanted to exert himself, however, as an artist and a comedian. He had power struggles with Sennett and director Mabel Normand. Virginia Wright Wexman wrote in “A History of Film, 7th edition,” “Chaplin’s enormous popular success and shrewd handling of the income he earned from it allowed him, throughout his career, freedom for social-political comment and a degree of artistic autonomy.”(32) By the end of his first year in Hollywood, 1914, Chaplin emerged as a one of the most popular comedians in Keystone and Hollywood.

It was the continuation of the want of control and money that caused Chaplin to leave Keystone in 1915. Sennett had allowed for Chaplin to direct many of his own pictures, but that was not enough for Chaplin. Beyond the purely financial reasons for leaving, Charlie also felt that he could express himself with more freedom elsewhere. Chaplin began to use more reels, lengthening his films from 2 to 3, making his movies longer and longer. There were a string of Companies that Chaplin worked for until 1919 when he cofounded United Artists. United Artists was a break from many of the more traditional studios in that it was, as the title plainly states, founded by “Artists,” being filmmakers and actors, although it would become a more traditional studio later on being financed by banks and businessmen. It was also during this period after Keystone pictures that Chaplin further developed his trait of the tragicomic story, told through his character the Tramp. 

The popularity of Charlie Chaplin as a filmmaker and comedian results from a myriad of ways. Chaplin being a child and prodigy of Vaudeville sensibilities and entertainment. The fact that he could work with many of the early Hollywood greats as the medium was taking rise, allowing him to learn and experiment. Chaplin had perfect command over his body, moving often like a dancer to express himself through broad expressive movements.  A The Tramp had a recognizable and graphic outfits of slapstick comedians; with his bowler hat, tight jacket, oversized shoes and pants, as well as his odd walk and cane. The elements together make him an instantly recognizable icon, to which people today still imitate. America was exiting a war and entering a depression, and the Tramp expressed many of the sentiments that Americans were feeling.The tragicomic element of Chaplin, I feel is one of the greatest elements of his films and the Tramp. That the Tramp was in nature a good person, funny and kind; yet he was self sacrificing for other good and decent people, he never really got a break that allowed him to prosper like most Americans. In those ways he reflect what many Americans were going through, and their values. This last element, I believe, is was truly separates Chaplin from other knockabout slapstick pictures; wherein authority gets slapped and we laugh, the end. I think that people did recognize the fact Chaplin did have more substance than did the Keystone Cops, and returned to him again and again.

Chaplin did continue to grow as an artist after 1920, but he established himself as an artist during this period. He learned filmmaking from Sennett and other filmmakers at Keystone. He had fine tuned comedy in the Vaudevillian stage. He had even gained control and power over his films that no one else except for D.W. Griffith had before. Chaplin was a power that rose and grew to become a worldwide icon.