Charlie Chaplin in the gold rush - 1889 (1925)

MASTERS OF DIVERTISSEMENT The Producer The Exhibitor SO much has been said of Charlie Chaplin's genius and of his early discovery, that it may not come amiss to relate here, as from one who has been close to him, something concerning his discovery. As a matter of absolute fact,—Charlie Chaplin was discovered by the little children of all the world. He was not financially embarassed when he entered pictures, —a young man just over twenty years old. He had several thousand dollars, a considerable sum for a young actor. Besides, he has been well known i n England a n d America as a juve- nile comedian for several years. Another fact, known by but a few people, Chaplin was the biggest man on the comedy lot from the time he made his first comedy. Mack Swain, the giant comedian, called the ''fun niest villian" HB m for his portrayal of WJ^k Big Jim McKav in "The Gold Rush," was one of the first men to appear with 1 ' Chaplin in that seem- charlie chaplin jnglv long-ago per- iod. It is from no less authority than Swain that Charlie Chaplin, from the very first day, divined and went beyond what was expected of him. Within a short time after his entry into pictures, the directors complained to the powers-to-be that Chaplin wanted his own way and would not "take direction." It was great talent trying to assert itself and climb out of the embryo into the uniform of the greatest actor in the world. He was conscious of ability in his soul, as great talent ever is. Charlie's greatest problem in his early picture days was his struggle with the comedy makers to allow him to portray his parts and ideas as he felt them. He fought to wear the baggy trousers and the battered hat. He wanted from the first to instill ideas, humor characterization into his work. When, after much effort, he was allowed to do this he found himself, and then the children found him. They soon greeted him as the crowned King of Laughter. And within eighteen months' he was world-famous and earning a million a year. That Charlie Chaplin was born to be a great actor is obvious—and no one man "discovered" him at all. He first discovered himself, and the children responded. The intellectuals came later—as they always do—trailing behind them their second-hand approval. THE genius of Sid Grauman, mastercraftsman of the prologue, has made his name a watchword among showmen the world over. Nowhere outside his magnificent Egyptian theatre in Hollywood is at- tempted the spectacular stage presentations that presage each great film production he introduces to the public. To him and his illustrious father, the late D. J. Grau- man, goes the credit of originating the elaborate and scintillating preludes to the masterpieces of film art found worth of presenta- tion in his most beautiful of play- houses. Los Angeles had the good fortune to be chosen by the Graumans, senior and junior, as the location of endeavor, and a trinity of downtown cinema palaces as well as the m a g n i fi c ient Egyptian attest to their achievements. The Egyptian by its architectual beauty of original design as a playhouse and the magnificence and completeness of its appointments has spread the fame of sid grauman Grauman through- out the world. Few world tourists visit Los Angeles without including on their itinerary an inspection of this most beautiful of theatres. Curiously enough in connection with the present at- traction, Sid Grauman himself, as a lad in knee trousers, felt the urge of adventure when the Alaskan dash, the basis of the story of "The Gold Rush," occurred. He stowed away on an Alaskan-bound steamer, and, after enduring the hardships that fall to the lot of those who go as a supercargo, landed safely in Nome, where he became a newsboy to earn a livelihood. He obtained the agency for San Francisco newspapers and when an inbound steamer brought a consignment of papers, hiked on foot around a ten-mile zone about Nome to earn his first stake, a thousand dollars. The news- papers brought $1.50 a copy and purchasers were eager to get them at the price. It was from his actual experience in the snow-swept Northland that Grauman conceived the scintillating spec- tacles that greet you in his elaborate prolouge to "The Gold Rush."