When the movies were young (1925)

Somewhat Digressive 241 quickly. He really was getting sixty dollars. "All right,'5 said Mr. Kessel so quickly that Charles as quickly swallowed his Adam's apple, and regretted he hadn't said more. "But I don't think I care to change from the stage to the pictures." "Well, our contracts are for fifty-two weeks, no Sunday work, no intermissions between pictures; in vaudeville you get thirty-two weeks and you pay your own traveling expenses." Mr. Chaplin said he'd make up his mind and let Mr. Kessel know. So in about six weeks a letter came from Mr. Chaplin from Omaha saying he was ready to start. The contract was mailed December 19, 1913, and signed January 2, 1914. "Mabel's Predicament," a one-reeler, was Charlie Chaplin's first picture. "Dough and Dynamite" the first tworeeler. Mr. Chaplin's success was instantaneous. It also must have been tremendous, for the Keystone Company (Kessel and Bauman) within five months dared to do a comedy five reels in length. When the five-reel comedy was announced, there were many who thought that now surely the picture people were going cuckoo. No one believed an audience would stand for a five-reel comedy. They did. The picture was "Tillie's Punctured Romance," adapted from the Marie Dressier play, "Tillie's Nightmare." Marie Dressier was engaged for the picture and for fourteen weeks she received the unbelievable salary of one thousand dollars weekly and fifty per cent of the picture, which, released in June, 19 14, was one of the sensations of the picture world. All sorts of offers now began coming to Mr. Chaplin. Carl Laemmle was one who was keen to get Charlie under