Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal. (1914)
“In picturing this event an odd character discovered that motion pictures were being taken and it became impossible to keep him away from the camera.” It’s strangely appropriate that this should be the first intertitle of the first film to be released that featured Charlie Chaplin’s immortal character: The Tramp. From his very first appearance, primitive though it is, he is undeniably engaging, though there is nothing in Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal. to suggest the character was endearing enough to be a long-term fixture, let along the icon he became. Considering Chaplin himself would go on to appear in a staggering 35 films over the next 12 months for Keystone, it seems it was just as impossible to keep him away from the camera. But this is the place it all started for The Little Tramp. Well over a century has now passed since the Keystone comedies producer Mack Sennett decided to make a short film with director Henry Lehrman and new actor Charles Chaplin at the Kid Auto Races o