"Nothing is permanent in this wicked
world - not even our troubles."
He made
millions laugh, but Charlie Chaplin’s London childhood was nothing to laugh at.
"To gauge the morals of our family by commonplace standards would be as
erroneous as putting a thermometer in boiling water," he recalled. Born to
music hall performers, Chaplin rarely saw his father, an alcoholic who was
estranged from his family.
Though he
had lovely memories of riding with his mother Hannah "on top of a
horse-bus trying to touch passing lilac trees,” she had little ability to
provide for her children. Her voice failed her. She could no longer perform.
Unable to
care for Charlie and his brother, she took them to a workhouse when he was six.
He stayed there for 18 long and miserable months. Then he was sent to another
home for destitute children. At bed time he and 20 other little boys knelt in
the center of their ward in their nightshirts and sang hymns.
“Help of the Helpless”
"Abide
with me. Fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens. Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the Helpless, O, abide with
me," he remembered singing.
"I
felt utterly rejected. I did not understand the hymn," Chaplin remembered.
"The tune and the twilight increased my sadness."
Worse was
to come. Hannah was committed to an asylum, her madness possibly brought on by
syphilis. Not yet eight years old, he was sent to live with his father. And he
was rarely in the hovel he shared with his new wife. She was also a drunk. She
hated the boys. After forcing them to sleep in the street, the police visited
the squalid home.
Luckily, as
if in a movie, Hannah regained her sanity and was able to care for the boys for
a few more years, until finally succumbing to insanity and spending the last 23
years of her life confined in an asylum.
The
Clog-Dancer
She did,
however, encourage her nine-year-old Charlie to try the stage. Soon he joined a
traveling clog-dancing troupe. This led to bit roles in plays and then to comedic
roles in vaudeville. Tours to America followed as did a meeting with famed silent
film director Mack Sennett.
"Put
on a comedy make-up," Sennett barked at the newcomer. "Anything will
do."
Thus, on
the spur of the moment, Chaplin threw on baggy pants, floppy shoes, a too tight
coat, and a derby hat a size too small. He pasted on a brushy moustache and
twirled a cane, and the look was complete. He had become…the Tramp, one of the
first world-famous movie characters.
"This
fellow is many sided," said Chaplin. "A gentleman, a poet, a dreamer,
a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure."
Transcending
his terrible childhood trials, Chaplin knew how to bring joy to millions.
"Laughter," he said, "is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for
pain."
MORAL: When the darkness deepens, laugh at your misfortunes.
If that doesn't work, try clogging.
If that doesn't work, try clogging.
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