Charlie Chaplin (1951)

cc 20 Alf Reeves managed Karno's touring second company. In 1918 he became business manager for Chaplin when the latter launched out as an independent movie producer. Other Karno notables followed Chaplin into the movies: Billy Reeves (star of Karno's first company and brother of Alf), Billie Ritchie, Jimmy Aubrey ("The Terrible Turk"), Stan Laurel (Chaplin's understudy on the tour), Billy Armstrong, Albert Austin, and others. There are many apocryphal stories concerning Chaplin's entry into films. The facts are less colorful. The first phase, perhaps, was a discussion Chaplin once had with Reeves about buying a camera to record his acts. He then had the naive belief that movies were shot all at one time, without changes of angles, cutting, etc. In August 1912, during a trip home, Chaplin watched an English newsreel being made of the Carnival of Flowers on the island of Jersey off the English coast. Chaplin's attention was drawn by the crowd around the camera and the laughter and mock applause it was directing at an obtrusive official who kept moving into the camera foreground and striking a pose. For Chaplin the crowd's reaction struck a prophetic note, setting him to further thought and discussion of movies with his brother Sid. Virtually everyone associated with Chaplin in his early film days claims credit for discovering or developing him. The Sullivan and Considine Circuit on the Pacific coast, which was included in his tour, often brought him to Los Angeles. At the Empress Theatre in Spring Street he was seen by the movie people and was well known to them long before he joined their ranks. Mack Sennett was among his admirers. During the middle of 1913, Ford Sterling, Sennett's chief Keystone comedy star, was threatening to quit unless he got more money. Consequently, when Chaplin was suggested to