The Little Tramp at 100

Charlie Chaplin 1st appeared as the tramp in a 1914 Keystone short, improvised in front of the crowd at a children’s go-cart race in Venice, California, & it’s startling to see how instantly recognizable he is from the start. Earlier this month the San Francisco Silent Film Festival held a wonderful one day event at the Castro Theatre commemorating the 100th anniversary, to the day, of Chaplin’s iconic character. There were 3 different programs of classic shorts & feature films, all with live music.

Jon Mirsalis accompanied 3 shorts from Chaplin’s Mutual period. His pleasant & relaxed playing provided a simple, child-like mood for the films. 16 musicians from the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra accompanied The Kid & The Gold Rush. The band included piano, strings, woodwinds, brass & percussion. Their apparently unamplified sound filled the Castro Theatre beautifully, & their playing for conductor Timothy Brock was warm & floaty. Mr. Brock also arranged the music from Chaplin’s own scores for the films.

Artistic Director Anita Monga welcomed the audience but balked while reading a quote from the program because the print was too small. Historian Jeffrey Vance introduced the 2 feature films & displeased the festival audience when he debunked the myth of Chaplin ending up a loser in a Chaplin look-alike contest in the 1920s. Mr. Vance also pointed out in the audience the last surviving divorce lawyer of Lita Grey, Chaplin’s 2nd wife.

At the showing of The Kid, Stephen Salmons conducted a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest, with 16 contestants of various ages and genders. The audience selected the winners by clapping, though it was unclear whether it was the length or the loudness of our applause that was the determining factor. We were also given fans with Chaplin’s face on them, which we held over our faces so that a photographer could capture a picture of a theater full of Chaplins.

The theater got more crowded with each show, & the lively festival audience applauded the famous gags in The Gold Rush. Children were few, though their laughter was loud & clear every time a character got hit on the head. A major plumbing failure created a long, slow line for the men’s room at the 4p show.

§ The Little Tramp at 100
A Charlie Chaplin Centennial Celebration
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
January 11, 2014 at the Castro Theatre

§ 1:00pm
Our Mutual Friend: Three Chaplin Shorts
Piano accompaniment by Jon Mirsalis

The Vagabond (1916)
2013 restoration with modern intertitles

Easy Street (1917)
2012 restoration

The Cure (1917)
2013 restoration

§ 4:00pm
Kid Auto Races at Venice, CA (1914)
Accompanied by Jon Mirsalis on piano

The Kid (1921)
Introduced by Jeffrey Vance
Accompanied by Timothy Brock conducting the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra
World premiere of Mr. Brock’s chamber arrangement of Chaplin’s score for the 1971 version

§ 7:30pm
The Gold Rush (1925)
Introduced by Jeffrey Vance
Accompanied by Timothy Brock conducting the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra
1993 reconstruction, accompanied by Mr. Brock’s chamber arrangement of Chaplin’s score for the 1942 version