The Tramp, the Jew, and the Kid
2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 8; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/17460654.2010.498169
ISSN1746-0662
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
ResumoAbstract This essay explores in particular and historical detail a well‐worn truism of Chaplin criticism: that there was a special affinity between Chaplin and Dickens. That affinity turns out, it argues, to have important implications for Chaplin's self‐fashioning both as a performer, in film, especially in his first full‐length feature and most personal film, The Kid, and as an autobiographer, in print, not only in My Autobiography but (to some degree) in the disputed and dubious 1916 Anon. (attrib., Chaplin, C. and Wilder Lane, R. 1916. Charlie Chaplin's own story, Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill. [Google Scholar] work Charlie Chaplin's Own Story. His identification with Dickens, especially the Dickens of Oliver Twist, was deep‐rooted and enabling; it is expressed particularly in his creative relationship to his child self, in his encounter with stereotype, prejudice, and stage 'Jewishness', and in his understanding of performance as a kind of self‐making. Besides Dickens himself, several 'Dickensian' actors will prove major players in this story, including 'Dickensian' 'impersonator' Bransby Williams and, above all, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, whose performance as Fagin electrified the young, stage‐struck Chaplin in or just after 1905. Their roles will elucidate, to some degree, Chaplin's inheritance from the 'legitimate' theatre of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Keywords: ChaplinJewsanti‐Semitismblack‐facecostumemake‐upstage conventionsmusic hallDickensOliver TwistThe Kid Acknowledgements The text of Chaplin's 'birthday speech' and 'memories' (Chaplin 1915 Chaplin, C. 1915. Memories of my childhood. Answers, [Google Scholar], 1955 Chaplin, C. [1955] 1989. "Dickens's 143rd birthday speech". In Charlie Chaplin: A centenary celebration, Edited by: Haining, Peter. London: W. Foulsham & Co.. [Google Scholar]) was kindly supplied by Sydney Gottlieb. Notes 1. Chaplin disliked the Sennett chase, for example, because '[i]t dissipates one's personality; little as I knew about movies, I knew that nothing transcended personality' (Chaplin 1964 Chaplin, C. 1964. My autobiography, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 141–2; see also 116, 308, 472). 2. Early Birds was the first sketch in which Chaplin saw the Karno company (Chaplin 1964, 73; Robinson 1985 Robinson, D. 1985. Chaplin: His life and art, New York: McGraw‐Hill. [Google Scholar], 42, 74). The Carol‐inspired sketch was Jimmy the Fearless, or the Boy 'Ero (Robinson 1985 Robinson, D. 1985. Chaplin: His life and art, New York: McGraw‐Hill. [Google Scholar], 84); the Pickwickian turn was a part of A Night in a London Club (ibid., 90). 3. The famous sequence in Hitchcock's first sound feature, in which the only clearly audible word in a local gossip's report of the murder is 'knife' (the murder weapon), recalls a hallucinatory episode in Chapter 48 of Oliver Twist, 'The Flight of Sikes', during which a travelling salesman's patter is reduced, in the guilty murderer's mind, to the word 'bloodstains.' (The travelling salesman makes a return appearance in Sabotage.) 4. Eisenstein 1944 Eisenstein, S. [1944] 1949. "Dickens, Griffith, and the film today". In Film form: Essays in film theory, Edited by: Leda, Jay. 195–256. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.. [Google Scholar], 201. On the conceptual importance of Dickens for cinema, and his imaginative apprehension of pre‐cinematic technologies, see Smith 2003 Smith, G. 2003. Dickens and the dream of cinema, Manchester: Manchester University Press. [Google Scholar]. 5. Contemporary plagiarisms, like the cheap rip‐off Oliver Twiss (by 'Bos'), and pirate stage adaptations, multiplied the criminal scenes and characters, revelled with unfettered glee in passwords and criminal back‐chat, and inserted songs, like the 'Lament' of the Artful Dodger, sung with éclat from the 1860s by the famous – and necessarily short – comedian J.L. Toole. 6. Fagin is 'deeply absorbed in the interesting pages of the Hue‐and‐Cry' (Dickens 1837 Dickens, C. [1837–39] 1982. Oliver Twist, Edited by: Tillotson, Kathleen. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]–39, 92); as part of Oliver's training, he is made to study the Newgate Calendar (ibid., 124). Charlie studies a copy of the Police Gazette in the bath, in the 1922 short Pay Day; he is glimpsed in the same occupation earlier in The Kid. 7. Robinson describes the published book as 258 pages in length – the length of the typed manuscript – and Bobbs Merrill as based in New York; Geduld describes her as a 'novelist' (vii). She filed her last reports as a journalist from Vietnam, aged almost 80 (see The Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane, ed. Amy Mattson Lauters, University of Missouri, 2007), but is best remembered now as editor of her mother's classic 'Little House' books for children. In consideration of the dubious status of this text, it will be given in references as CCOS, rather than attributed to Chaplin. 8. Rose Wilder Lane is not credited as writer or interviewer in the Bulletin. 9. It was not true, as Chaplin's New York lawyer claimed, that 'Mr. Chaplin … has never authorized or consented to the use of his name … in connection with this work' (Robinson 1985 Robinson, D. 1985. Chaplin: His life and art, New York: McGraw‐Hill. [Google Scholar], 182). 10. Some of the inaccuracies in CCOS are repeated in Harry C. Carr's four‐part Photoplay serial of July–October 1915, 'Charlie Chaplin's Story: As Narrated by Mr. Chaplin Himself'. (I am grateful to Sydney Gottlieb for sharing with me the text of this piece, and several others.) The tag '… Story' or '…'s Own Story' was familiar from nineteenth‐century celebrity biographies, for example those of Daniel Boone and Buffalo Bill. 11. Robinson does not comment further on this proposition 12. John McCabe calls CCOS 'melodramatic fiction concocted by his ghost writer', but nevertheless makes 'very judicious use' of it in his biography, hoping that 'common sense and Stan [Laurel]'s marginalia' on his personal copy of the book, given to McCabe, 'have … steered me away from dubious matter' (McCabe 1978 McCabe, J. 1978. Charlie Chaplin, New York: Doubleday. [Google Scholar], x). 13. On the name Hawkins as a conflation of 'Hawkes' (Sidney's father) and 'Chaplin' (Snr.), see Geduld 1985 Geduld, H., ed. 1985. Charlie Chaplin's own story, Indiana, IN: Bloomington. [Google Scholar], 163. 14. Some of the action also takes place in Barnet, were Oliver first encounters the Artful Dodger (CCOS, 17). Besides sharing his morals, Snooper is addicted to the same semi‐literary, aspirate‐challenged slang as the Dodger: 'When I glom you the leather [snatch the purse] you hupset the heggs at 'er feet', etc. (ibid., 38). 15. 'In which I feel very small and desolate; encounter once more the terrible wrath of Mr. Hawkins; and flee from it into the unknown perils of a great and fearful world' (CCOS, 15). Chapter titles are given in third person in the 1915 serialization, but in first person in the 1916 book: an extra Dickensian touch. The 'friendly waiter' of David Copperfield (who eats the boy's food for him) makes an appearance in Chapter 8 (CCOS, 41–2). 16. Geduld 'tried and failed … to turn up any reliable information' on Charles A. Taylor's From Rags to Riches (CCOS, xv); in interview in The Theatre in September 1915, however, Chaplin reiterates 'I began my career as a clog dancer. … Then I appeared in a play called "Rags to Riches"' ('How I Made My Success', n.p.; text provided by Sydney Gottlieb) 17. 'Martian beetle': reminiscence in speech to Dickens Fellowship, 1955 (Haining 1989 Haining, P., ed. 1989. Charlie Chaplin: A centenary celebration, London: W. Foulsham & Co.. [Google Scholar], 120). See Chaplin 1964 Chaplin, C. 1964. My autobiography, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 48; compare CCOS, 4–7. The 'Jack Jones' story is repeated by Carr (1915 Chaplin, C. 1915. Memories of my childhood. Answers, [Google Scholar]). 18. On Chaplin's dissociation from self in 1916, a theme on which CCOS expands, see, for example, his account of his 'melancholy' visit to New York: 'I stood with the crowd in Times Square as the news flashed on the electric sign that ran around the Times Building …: "Chaplin signs with Mutual at $670,000 a year." I stood and read it objectively as though it were about someone else' (Chaplin 1964 Chaplin, C. 1964. My autobiography, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 178–9). There may also have been an element of entertainment compulsion in the fabrications of CCOS. 19. Coogan was another 'little fellow', in the true terminology of Tramphood, with 'an engaging personality'. 20. MOMA press release #109, 'Museum Honours British Director David Lean' (British Film Industry microfiche: David Lean). 21. See, for example, Furneaux 2009 Furneaux, H. 2009. Queer Dickens: Erotics, families, masculinities, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 141–70. 22. Shylock was played as a clown until the mid‐eighteenth century, Gross reports. In 1741, he was reinterpreted by Macklin as a ferocious tragic opponent, a performance that was 'one of the great triumphs' and 'fixed points' of the eighteenth‐century theatre (Gross 1992 Gross, J. 1992. Shylock: A legend and its legacy, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 113). Kean, the next great Shylock, restored humanity and dignity to the role. Macready, Dickens's close friend, first appeared in the part in 1823. 23. 'There are Jewish references and Jewish characters in Webster, Marston, Fletcher and most of the other Jacobeans' (Gross 1992 Gross, J. 1992. Shylock: A legend and its legacy, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 106–7). The characters were always villains, usually usurers (a criminal profession until 1571), and frequently associated with the skin trade. 24. On stereotype and creativity, in the case of the parallel character of Shylock, see Gross 1992 Gross, J. 1992. Shylock: A legend and its legacy, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 27. 25. 'Imaginative understanding': the phrase of critic C.H. Herford in a widely used textbook of the 1920s (qtd. in Gross 1992 Gross, J. 1992. Shylock: A legend and its legacy, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 176). 26. See Rogin 1996 Rogin, M. 1996. Blackface, white noise: Jewish immigrants in the Hollywood melting pot, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [Google Scholar]; Lott 1993 Lott, E. 1993. Love and theft: Blackface minstrelsy and the American working class, New York: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar] (especially 25–9); Lhamon 2003 Lhamon, W.T., ed. 2003. Jump Jim Crow: Lost plays, lyrics, and street prose of the first Atlantic popular culture, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]. 27. See Bolton 1987 Bolton, H. Philip. 1987. Dickens dramatized, London: Mansell. [Google Scholar]. 28. '[His] legerdemain … , making up before a rowdy Glasgow audience and transforming himself into these fascinating characters, opened up another aspect of the theatre. He also ignited my curiosity about literature' (Chaplin 1964 Chaplin, C. 1964. My autobiography, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 48–9). 29. Williams took a spell doing 'Imitations of Popular Actors' before beginning his career as a 'Dickensian' actor in 1896 (Williams 1909 Williams, B. 1909. An actor's story, London: Chapman & Hall. [Google Scholar], 52). By 1909, 'sixteen men and one woman' made a living 'impersonat[ing] Dickens characters' (ibid., 74). It was Williams who put on record the Dickensian derivation of Karno's Early Birds (92). 30. 'I never studied acting, but as a boy I was fortunate in living in an era of great actors' (Chaplin 1964 Chaplin, C. 1964. My autobiography, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 259). 31. Unidentified obituary, Theatre Museum (London) Tree Collection, Museum Card no. 93, by R.B. Marriott (1978). 32. 'The Jew that Dickens drew' plays on a jingle, credited to Alexander Pope, describing Macklin's 1741 performance: 'This is the Jew/ That Shakespeare drew' (Gross 1992 Gross, J. 1992. Shylock: A legend and its legacy, New York: Simon and Schuster. [Google Scholar], 121). 33. Haining reports that this piece 'was in all probability written with the assistance of his secretary, Elsie Codd' (Haining 1989 Haining, P., ed. 1989. Charlie Chaplin: A centenary celebration, London: W. Foulsham & Co.. [Google Scholar], 17). 34. Chaplin met Collier when she 'was engaged to play Lady Macbeth with Sir Herbert for the Triangle Film Company' in 1916. Collier's recollections of Chaplin are distinctly aware of thespian distinction: 'He was a strange, morbid, romantic creature. … He remembered all the plays and every actor he had seen in England. … He worshipped the theatre' (Collier 1929 Collier, C. 1929. Harlequinade: The story of my life, London: John Lane – Bodley Head. [Google Scholar], 242–4). 35. Gerith Von Ulm records: 'Sir Beerbohm [sic] was immediately attracted to Charlie, pronounced him a "very intelligent young chap." As for Charlie, this … esteem from a knight of England, a great actor, was as a decoration of merit. It gave him confidence in himself which adulation from the American public had failed to achieve. He expanded; he bloomed' (Von Ulm 1940 Von Ulm, G. 1940. Charlie Chaplin: King of tragedy, Caldwell, ID: Caxton. [Google Scholar], 84). Tree founded RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) in 1904, and was knighted in 1909. 36. Unidentified obituary, Theatre Museum (London) Tree Collection. 37. Tree's theatrical sense was not limited by snobbery. One unusually detailed entry in his diary, for Sunday 15 February 1880, records his dining with 'a man named Connolly who [sic] I had seen & admired in a little music‐hall at Dublin'. He 'amused us intensely by his comicalities', 'gave description (wordless) of a pawn‐broker receiving a man's coat, showing the value of detail in business. At Dublin he kept the audience in a roar for about 10 minutes in this way without saying a word & I thought him the cleverest low‐comedian I had ever seen' (1880 diary, Bristol University Department of Theatre Tree Collection). 38. Review cutting in Theatre Museum (London) Tree Collection. 39. 'This, surely, is the supreme alchemy of the artistic imagination. … The great theatre is packed with his slaves' (Douglas 1905 Douglas, J. [1905.]. "A night with Fagin". Publicity leaflet. Reprinted from the Morning Leader November 20 [Google Scholar], n.p.). See also the Daily Telegraph, 11 July 1905 (cutting in Theatre Museum Tree Collection): 'if ever there was part pre‐destined to enter into Mr. Tree's repertoire it is assuredly that of the crafty and malicious old Jew, … the portrait is one of remarkable power, penetrative insight, and extraordinary magnetism'. 40. 1914 diary, Bristol University Department of Theatre Tree Collection. 41. 'Fagin music' (including specified 'Fag. Horns' and 'Fag. Cellos') was cued to enhance particularly creepy moments of 'the Jew's' business, or atmospheric entrances and revelations (Daily Telegraph, 11 July 1905, cutting in Theatre Museum Tree Collection). Tree's wife wrote of his Fagin: 'The most haunting and typical picture … that recurs to one's memory is his sitting on Oliver's dirty pallet, patting him with tender hands to sleep, and singing with ghoulish expression a little song of Herbert's own composing, "Hush‐a‐bye, Oliver – Olly, hush‐a‐by‐a‐ye; hush‐a‐by‐bye, Mister Fagin is here!"' (Beerbohm 1920 Beerbohm, M., ed. 1920. Herbert Beerbohm Tree: Some memories of his art, London: Hutchinson. [Google Scholar], 135–6). 42. The irrepressible Bransby Williams wrote to the amateur 'Dickensian' actor Eric Jones Evans in 1936: 'Just a line to enclose you an old wig & beard I used as Fagin. Very dirty. … Notice the lake & brown in cheeks is your hollows in a hurry – also an old spring moustache – this must be shaped & pressed close up. Anyhow they're not much but [they're] yours' (Bristol University Theatre Department Jones Collection). 43. On Alexander Korda's 1937 suggestion that Chaplin 'do a Hitler story based on mistaken identity, Hitler having the same moustache as the tramp', see My Autobiography 391–2. On Chaplin's active and sophisticated advocacy for Jews during the Hitler era, see also 404–5. 'Had I known of the actual horrors of the German concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator' (392–3). 44. 1914 diary (Bristol University Department of Theatre Tree Collection). 45. Pearson records that Tree and Chaplin performed for a Red Cross benefit in April 1916 (Pearson 1956 Pearson, H. 1956. Beerbohm Tree: His life and laughter, London: Methuen. [Google Scholar], 228). Peter Haining reports that this 'single stage performance of Oliver Twist was given at the Mason Opera House, Los Angles', 'in aid of a fund for Los Angeles News Boys'; he also reports that the performance occurred on 10 February 1916 (Haining 1989 Haining, P., ed. 1989. Charlie Chaplin: A centenary celebration, London: W. Foulsham & Co.. [Google Scholar], 228). The New York Times records Tree as playing only Shakespearean roles at the 24 April New York benefit (25 April 1916: 9); Chaplin is listed as a fellow performer, with Constance Collier, in an anticipatory report on the "newsies" benefit of January 9 (the correct date of performance) in the Los Angeles Times on 8 January 1916: II3, but is not reported as having performed the following day (10 January 1916: 18), while Tree is reported as having done a 'turn' as Shylock. Tree's diary for 1916 includes the intriguing items 'Benefit for the French Red Cross. Shrine Auditorium' (Friday, July 14; Los Angeles) and 'Lunch Dodger' (Tuesday, October 3; New York).
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