On the 4th of March 1975 Charles Spencer Chaplin was knighted, he was 85. Wiki claims that the honour had first been proposed in 1931, and again in 1956, when it was vetoed after a Foreign Office report expressed concerns about Chaplin’s communist views and his moral behaviour in marrying two 16 year girls; it was felt that honouring him would damage both the reputation of the British honours system and relations with the United States.
Charlie was born on 16 April 1889, in Walworth, London. His parents were both entertainers. His father, Charles Spencer Chaplin Sr and Hannah Harriet Hill, both singers and actors, were married at St John the Evangelist, Walworth in June 1885. The couple had separated by the time Charlie was three. The 1891 census shows Hannah living in three rooms at 94 Barlow Street, Walworth with her two children: Sydney S.H, aged 6, and Charles, aged 2. Apparently Charlie’s mother moved around a great deal in and around Kennington Road, Lambeth. His father was an alcoholic and had little contact with his son, though Charlie lived with him and his mistress, Louise, briefly while their mentally ill mother was in asylum in Coulsdon. Louise sent Charlie to Archbishop Temples Boys School. Charles Chaplin Senior died in 1901, and Charlie was then, more or less on his own – and didn’t he do well!
Reading about Charles’s early life fascinated me – both my grandfather and step-father went to Archbishop Temples, albeit much later than Charlie. In 1891, my great-grandparents were living in Grimsby. By early 1893 they had moved to London – to 95, Barlow Street to be exact. I wonder whether Hannah, Sydney and Charlie were still living at 94 then?
I never found Chaplin funny, nor did any of my family. Perhaps, humour has more to do with Nurture than Nature?
Boadicea's Chariot 
Boa, silent slapstick is definitely an acquired taste, involving cruelty as well as pathos. No doubt shrinks have had a field day with Charlie’s psyche: deprived childhood, working by age 12, ‘Lolita’ relationships etc. If you have access to the 1901 census you can check on 94 and 95 Barlow St.
Sorry, meant 1891 census. 😦
Personally, I am with Captain Edmund Blackadder as to the humour of Charlie Chaplin!
Hee Hee FEEG,
“Please, please, please, please…
Stop.”
Whoops, clicked the Submit button too soon!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Star_(Blackadder)
I had always presumed it was a male / female divide with regard to the humour of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy… due to the fact my brother would be in stitches and my sister and I would watch bemused at his reaction, not laughing.
I have the complete works of Laurel and Hardy in a DVD collection at Oldmovie Towers and showed one to my two young Grandsons (7 and 5) a few months ago and within minutes they were laughing out loud. I think slapstick appeals to Children as well as to the child in all of us, It can look cruel but they enjoy for the repition, always a big thing with the young, (read it again Grandad, or do it again Grandad when I perform a little trick). I think it’s great that the humour travels so well down the years.
I went to an exhibition at MOMI years ago, probably 1989 at a guess as that would be the centenary of his birth, about Chaplin, and was transfixed by the clips of his films. No, I had never found them funny, but suddenly I could see how great they were, much more about harsh realities than humour. I think he was a sombre character, and about the lightest mode he had was wistful. The Great Dictator is sharp and sarcastic.
It’s very odd isn’t it. I really never found his films in the slightest bit funny. Perhaps I should revisit them sometime.
Interesting family connection though, Boadicea.
I have only seen about 3 of Chaplin’s films. I remember I thoroughly enjoyed two of them, but I think it was the Great Dictator which did not appeal. Laurel and Hardy are hysterical. I think it helps to watch them at home with a couple of friends and a drink or two. But the timing and theatre really is brilliant. Chaplin and Stan Laurel arrived in the US at about the same time and started out together, but then Chaplin went off to Hollywood and was already a star by the time Laurel arrived. At least, I think that is what I read.
Janus – yes I do have access to the census returns, which is how I picked up that the Chaplin family were living in three rooms and my family were in Grimsby. I know that my grandparents were in Barlow Street in 1893 because one of their children died there and another was born there that year. How would the 1891 census help me with where the Chaplins were in 1893?
I’m beginning to wonder about this ‘deprived childhood’ bit. Since the school leaving age was raised to 12 in 1899, it is hardly surprising that Chaplin was working at that age, so was every other child of twelve then- and he wasn’t down the pits but working on the stage, as is shown by the 1901 Census.
The 1891 census was the first to ask about accommodation – and three rooms for three people was spacious for that time – far more common were families of five/six in two rooms. I attached a photograph of Barlow Street, which was taken in 1963 before the area was demolished. It was hardly a slum area, or it would have been demolished earlier.
Archbishop Temple’s School was founded in 1661. According to my mother, her father had won a scholarship to go to the school some ten years after Chaplin. It was, I rather think, not a school that any Tom, Dick or Harry could attend.
Some years ago my mother read Michael Caine’s biography of his ‘hard childhood’ in the Walworth area and snorted “He wasn’t deprived – there were plenty far, far worse off than him!”
Odd Sipu – it was watching a film about the making of The Great Dictator and then watching the film itself that made me respect Chaplin.
Perhaps I need to revisit them… 🙂