4-6 | charliechaplinbio

"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles."

– Charlie Chaplin

1906

My mother’s illness came back again, and this time, it seems that it will be permanent. I’m not the little kid I was before, so I know that she won’t be coming back. Sometimes I wish I was him though, since it was less painful. Ignorance really is a bliss sometimes, but it is seems that we don’t appreciate it enough. Not that everything that happened was bad. Actually a lot of amazingly fantastic things happened to me, so much that I still have trouble believing it. I was selected to play in a play named a Romance of Cockayne ! It was a failure, but even so it was a lot of fun and helped me get to know a lot of interesting people. After that, I didn’t give up and thanks to Mr. Saintsbury (the producer of a Romance of Cockyane), I got the role of Billy the pageboy in a Sherlock Holmes play, which was like a dream come true for me. It was a whole new experience since I’d never been on a tour before. We went from city to city, all over lovely Britain and I got to see the world from a wider perspective. The audience seemed to enjoy our performance as well, so it was a lot of fun for everyone. Right now, I am in London. I know it is shocking but I’m not here on a tour. It seems that they really liked my performance so; they called me here to play with Mr. Gilette-he is the original Sherlock Holmes. There are very nice people; they never fail to help me out when I’m in trouble (I mostly get lost in the city). The theatre is huge as well, not at all like the other ones I performed in. My life right now is just like a dream; I have to pinch myself sometimes, just to be sure it is real.

1898

This is the great Charlie Chaplin speaking from his tour with the Eight Lancashire Lads! This good lad is in his way to fame, hopefully. Dad found me this job. Apparently some friend of his was looking for someone who could join, so he recommended me. It is fun to go from place to place, sing and dance, but I realized this is not the thing I actually want to do. I want to make people laugh. I can’t say that I ‘ve seen people laugh that much, but I realized that those rare moments where a person laughs to their hearts content genuinely are the most precious of all. I want to be the one who creates those precious little moments. Mom always said that I had a gift; I want to use it for people’s happiness, even if it lasts for a short time because it is rare for a person to be truly happy. I had to learn that from the hard way.

1910

Uhhh… I feel exhausted. It definitely is tiring, the show business I mean. It has been like 4 years since I wrote something down, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it at all. I should probably thank Sidney for that though. If he didn’t help me out 2 years ago, the years would be painfully long and full of starvation. Truth is, I wasn’t doing so well since my last job in the play Casey’s Circus. I couldn’t find a single job, and it was a very stressful time of my life. Thankfully, Sydney was one of the key roles of Freddie’s comedy company and got me into a 2 week trial (oh, yeah. Sydney became a performer as well). Freddie told me later on that he didn’t actually have very high hopes for me when he first saw me. He says that I looked much too shy to do any good in the theatre. But-of course- I exceeded his expectations and turned out to be the best actor he ever had. Just kidding, I wish I was, but I really did exceed his expectations and soon our contract was signed. I’m not trying to brag, but now I am one of the leading actors in Karno’s (the company) which is totally splendid. Currently I’m working on a new sketch called Jimmy the Fearless. It is really exciting since I have the lead role. I hope it will be a success. It’d be great if it was.