Charles Chaplin

In 1911 a penniless young music-hall artist left England for America. His future was uncertain, but he did not believe it could be unhappier than his past. He had grown up in the slums of London’s East End and had experienced great poverty. His mother’s life had been so hard that she had finally gone mad, and his father had died of drink. Both parents had been on the stage and lived in the hope that they would one day be stars. Their son was determined to succeed where they had failed. By 1914 his optimism and determination had been justified. Charles Chaplin was the most talked-about man in America, the king of silent movies. He was not only admired as a first-class actor and comedian, he was also making his name as a director. How did he reach the top of the film world in such a short time? He was not an instant success. His attempts to copy other slapstick comedians who were popular at that time were a failure. However he gradually began to develop the character of the tramp that will always be connected with his name. He borrowed ideas from many sources and though he “stole” most of his clothes from other slapstick comedians of the time, he developed his own special mannerisms to go with them. He used his bowler hat to signal secret messages and his walking stick allowed him to cause confusion and punish his enemy from a distance. He got the idea for his famous flat-footed walk from a London taxi driver who had sore feet.