The Little Tramp turns 100

The Little Tramp yawns.

With all the hoopla surrounding the 50th anniversary of The Beatles first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, another equally important entertainment milestone is being largely overlooked by the media. This month marks the 100th birthday of Chaplin's Little Tramp. The first -and most enduring- world famous movie persona ever created in Hollywood.

A 24 year old Charles Chaplin arrived in Los Angeles in early December 1913. He was under contract to Mack Sennett. His very first movie was a one-reeler called Making a Living. Chaplin hated it. For his second picture, Mabel's Strange Predicament (with Mabel Normand), he decided to try his hand at creating a unique character. Here's how Chaplin described the process in his autobiography...

“I had no idea what makeup to put on. I did not like my get-up as the press reporter [in Making a Living]. However on the way to the wardrobe I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat. I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large. I was undecided whether to look old or young, but remembering Sennett had expected me to be a much older man, I added a small mustache, which I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression.”

He went on to say, “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.” It wouldn't be long before all the world felt as if they knew and loved the Little Tramp as well.

Mabel's Strange Predicament was the picture for which Chaplin created his iconic screen persona but it wasn't the first time movie audiences got a look at the Little Tramp.  That honor belongs to Kid Auto Races at Venice which was filmed a few days later but beat Mabel's Strange Predicament to theaters by two days. It premiered on February 7, 1914 and is notable for the fact that Chaplin (in full Little Tramp regalia) can be seen standing in front of a crowd of people attending the titular races and yet none of them take notice or seem to recognize him. It was one of the last times this would ever occur as he would be world famous within a year.

The Little Tramp smiles.

For the next 22 years -until the final non-talking Little Tramp movie Modern Times in 1936- he reigned as the world's most widely recognized fictional movie character. The Little Tramp made audiences laugh and cry with his potent mix of slapstick and pathos. Chaplin has been lauded as one of the few true geniuses of cinema and one viewing of The Kid or City Lights makes it pretty difficult to disagree. On a level certainly equal to those four lads from Liverpool he changed the world through his art. And he remains instantly recognizable today. Can you name another silent era star that still shows up as a Halloween costume in the 21st Century?

The birth of the Little Tramp coincides with the birth of Hollywood. He is the first, and remains the most enduring, symbol of Hollywood and the motion picture business. He predates the world famous Hollywood Sign by nine years. Tourists today will find that his likeness remains nearly as popular on Hollywood Boulevard as that of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. After a century Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp endures still and will surely last as long as people go to the movies.