December 21, 1914

Tillie’s Punctured Romance (December 21, 1914)

First ever feature-length Hollywood comedy released today! Tickets are 20 cents at The Palace!

Stars Chaplin, Mabel Normand, and stage actress Marie Dressler in the titular role as “Tillie, the pride of Yokeltown and the apple of her papa’s eye.” Chaplin is a city slicker/petty criminal, rather than the Tramp character he has been playing lately.

The Tulsa Daily World has this to say about the film:

“‘Tillie’s Punctured Romance,’ the six-reel Keystone masterpiece which comes to the Palace Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, December 27, 28, and 29, is without question the greatest comedy production ever staged. The picture finishes a four-day run in Oklahoma City tonight, and reports come from that place that patrons are not only seeing the film once, but are coming back two or three times. Mere words fade into insignificance in an attempted explanation of the many situations that start you laughing and keep you laughing from the first scene to the last. Marie Dressler fits into the Keystone comedy perfectly, and Charles Chaplin, playing opposite the great star of the legitimate stage suffers not a whit by comparison. His marvelous right footed skid is just as funny in the last reel as in the first. Mabel Normand plays her part to perfection ,as do all the cast, which is quite large. ‘Tillie’s Punctured Romance’ is going to be the talk of Tulsa next week. Everyone wants to see it. Moral: Come early and avoid the rush.”

December 7, 1914

From page 3 of The Seattle Star, December 4, 1914:

Yeah, on this day in 1914, all of the above were considered headline-worthy news. Fun to see what kinds of stories were appearing alongside the Chaplin notices and reviews. I’m posting the entire text of “Should Girl Accept Her Employer’s Attentions” below because it offers a playful little glimpse of gender/workplace inequality in 1914. It has nothing to do with Chaplin (yet, anyway – Lita Grey, AKA Mrs. Chaplin #2, is in 1914, only six years old, and several years away from meeting her future employer/husband).

Should a girl accept the attention of her employer?

“Never,” asserts this miss, who has some real experience along this line. Read here letter, girls, and profit by her advice.

Dear Miss Grey: I am very much interested in the question as to whether girls should receive attentions from their employers. Incidentally, I have a confession to make, and hope it will help other girls who may read it.

I am from the East. While there I worked in a hotel which was at a very popular summer resort in Michigan. The proprietor invited me to go motoring before I was in his employ a week. But as there were always a number of others along, I thought nothing of it, that is, from a moral standpoint.

I was only a kid, considered good looking, and I felt highly flattered to think that my boss took so much interest in me.

One Sunday we went to Winona Beach. While in bathing I met a girl who also knew my employer. She asked me to come to her locker, as she wished to speak to me. Well, she told me some things I could scarcely believe.

This same man who was showing me such a grand time had sent her to business college, and she became a stenographer. He was kind to her, too – pretended to take a great interest in her, and got her anything she wished for.

She was an innocent girl, and trusted him. He was worldly, and determined to add one more to his list, and he did. Then the same old story. He soon grew tired of her. Was that all? No, indeed. Such stories need no newspaper to publish them. And everywhere she sought employment in that city her employers expected the same of her.

I thought perhaps this girl was telling me this through jealousy. I determined to get the truth. I asked my employer about her. He just laughed. But I found out later it was true. I didn’t ‘fall’ for his game, however, and received notice that my services were no longer required.

Stay on the safe side, girls, by never accepting such attentions. ONE WHO KNOWS.”

And here is His Prehistoric Past (December 7, 1914), our film of the day:

Presenting Charles Chaplin as a caveman with a bowler hat:

December 5, 1914

Getting Acquainted (December 5, 1914)

November 9, 1914

Musical Tramp (November 7, 1914)

His Trysting Place (November 9, 1914)

October 29, 1914

Those Love Pangs (October 10, 1914)

Dough and Dynamite (October 26, 1914)

According to the Norwich Bulletin:

“Everyone in Norwich is going around with a smile on their faces these days and if you ask them the reason they ill tell you to go to the Davis and see the Keystone comedy in two reels called Dough and Dynamite with Charlie Chaplin and Chester Condon. This picture is without a doubt the funniest picture ever seen here. Charlie Surpasses all his previous efforts in this picture and the whole two thousand feet of film there isn’t one moment that you can let up on the laughter, the other night the laughter was so loud that the theatre orchestra could not hear what they were playing.”

Gentlemen of Nerve (October 29, 1914)

September 14, 1914

The New Janitor (September 14, 1914)

 

September 6, 1914

If you should find yourself in Washington DC today, here’s what’s in theaters! If you can solve the puzzle, you might even win a free ticket.

Notice that Chaplin is now not only getting top billing, but the title of the film isn’t even listed. The one being advertised here is likely The Rounders, which will be released tomorrow (see the film below). A collaboration with Fatty Arbuckle – and also written by Chaplin – in which the two play a pair of rich drunks. Though Chaplin, himself, doesn’t drink in real life, he’ll go on to play a rich drunkard in a number of films (the best – in my opinion – being 1916’s One A.M., which I’ll post below).

August 31, 1914

The Property Man (August 1, 1914)

The Face on the Bar Room Floor (August 10, 1914)

Recreation (August 13, 1914)

The Masquerader (August 27, 1914)

His New Profession (August 31, 1914)

July 11, 1914

From The Washington Herald, July 11, 1914, comes some crucial background on Chaplin:

“Charles Chaplin, starring in Keystone comedies, is an Englishman converted to America. He admires Americans, and is a devoted reader of fiction dealing with American life. One of his chief amusements and sources of character study is sitting in cafes or railway stations watching the crowds. Here he comes upon any number of new types which he delights in working up for the screen.”

“It was Mr. Chaplin’s inimitable acting in (Fred) Karno’s “Night in an English Music Hall” which first attracted the attention of Mack Sennett, the great Keystone head. Without uttering a word, Mr. Chaplin played the part of “a drunk,” getting the business over so cleverly by pantomime that Mr. Sennett made him a proposition on the spot. Several other motion picture companies also put in their bids, but Keystone came out ahead.”

Article:

Plus three more films!

Mabel’s Busy Day (June 13, 1914)

Mabel’s Married Life (June 20, 1914)

Laughing Gas (July 9, 1914)

June 21, 1914

Excerpt from The Daily Missoulian, June 21, 1914

Charles Chaplin, “Funny Boy”!