James Baquet

    Who doesn’t know on sight the “Little Tramp,” otherwise known as Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, or more simply, Charlie Chaplin?

    His is a true “rags to riches” story. When he was still a boy in England, his father and mother — who had once been performers — split up, and young Charlie ended up living in the workhouse. His mother was committed to an asylum, and Charlie was reunited with his father, a severe alcoholic.

    In the midst of all this, the young boy began to perform. Charlie later remembered that he had first taken to the stage one night at 5 when his mother was too ill to perform. By 10 he was part of a clog-dancing troupe, but his heart was set on becoming a comic. Dropping out of school at 13, he registered with a theatrical agency, and began performing on stage — in small parts, but quite successfully. By 18, he had succeeded as a comic in music halls.

    He landed a spot in a production that toured North America for nearly two years, and, on a second successful tour, was invited to join the famous Keystone Studios. As a stage performer he found the Keystone productions to be rather crude, but he was excited at the idea of working in film. After signing a US$150-per-week contract in September 1913, he moved to California, where the studio was located.

    He disliked his first film, released in February 1914, but he received good reviews. By his second picture, he was wearing the outfit for which he became famous. He described it like this, “The pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large... I added a small moustache, which, I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully born.”

    He made over 10 films in the first half of 1914, and by May had directed his first picture. From then on he directed most of his own films, and by 25, he was the film industry’s first truly international star.

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. separated, stopped living

    together

    2. lacking refinement, rough

    3. attained, achieved

    4. residential hospital for

    the insane

    5. recognize immediately

    6. a place where the poor are given work

    7. group of performers

    8. from poverty to great wealth

    9. brought together again

    10. funny person, comedian