Book review: The Charlie Chaplin Archives presents a detailed look at the work of a revolutionary
How the silent film star shaped the fledgling movie industry
edited by Paul Duncan
Taschen
It’s a little more than a century now since the appearance of the first short silent films starring The Tramp, Charlie Chaplin’s most enduring creation. According to this lavish book, which chronicles in exhaustive (and at times exhausting) detail the creative process behind Chaplin’s art, The Tramp seemed to come unbidden from Chaplin’s unconscious when he was asked to quickly create a “comedy makeup” by Mack Sennett at Keystone studios in 1913.
From a dressing room backstage, Chaplin grabbed trousers and shoes that were too big, a jacket and bowler hat that were too small, and a cane. Chaplin said he instantly knew this character, even though he’d never thought of him before, and by the time he stepped onstage in front of Sennett’s camera he was already twirling the cane and walking with his feet splayed. Thus was born the character that made Chaplin the world’s first global superstar.