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26
Cigale, and the Folies Bergeres, he had seen some of Max Linder's; films and had been enormously impressed by Linder's use of comedy technique. Now, on this first American tour, though he had not felt any desire to enter films himself, he was fascinated by the making of films when he came into contact with some of the pioneers who were groping their way towards a fuller realization of the new form of entertainment.
Curiously enough, his own first film appearance was made just before he set out on his second, and fateful, tour of the States and Canada. He was at the time touring the Channel Islands, in August* 1912; and it was in Jersey that a news cameraman, filming a carnival procession, included Chaplin in his shot of the crowd looking on.
Two months later, he was on his way to America. While others of the company gossiped and gambled, flirted and played other deck games, Charlie mooched around by himself, leaning over the rails and staring into space or wrapping himself up in a remote corner to read or dream. The other members of the company were used to it, as they were used to his occasional wild bursts of noisy gaiety. He was a trouper, and he had his points even if he was inclined to go off by himself too much.
Perhaps this time his desire for solitude came from a realization of changes pending, for later he described how he felt when the boat docked. "I shall never forget the extraordinary emotion I felt when the boat drew alongside the docks of New York. There we stood, fourteen young Englishmen. And I'm sure I was moved more than any of the others. I realized intuitively that I was going to achieve my destiny in America. I had so profound an inward assurance of this that I had to tell the others, with all the overemphasis and conceit of callow youth. Raising my arm in salute to New York, I yelled "I give you fair warning, America! I'm coming to conquer you ! "
Charlie was always good at histrionics, and this gesture must have amused his companions, and satisfied Charlie's sense of drama, though even he was not aware that his utterance was prophetic.
The story of Chaplin's discovery by Mack Sennett — if indeed it was Mack Sennett and not his director, Adam Kessel — has achieved its legendary trimmings. There is however a persistent thread linking the several versions and it does seem more than probable that Chaplin owed his entry into films to the intransigeance of Ford Sterling, at that time Sennett's leading man. Sterling, aware of the shortage of film comedians and the increasing popularity of comic films, made frequent demands for bigger and better contracts with fabulous; salaries attached to them. Sennett, growing progressively more tired