Charlie Chaplin in 1915

Hello my friends. I know pretty much everyone who reads my blog loves Charlie Chaplin like I do. He is one of filmdom's finest comedians and his best films remain just as fresh and funny today. In today's time many of us associate him with combining slapstick and pathos, yet this was hardly a part of his films in 1915. These movies were simply slapstick comedy with gags and nothing more. Yet he was extremely popular at this time and his short films were considered the finest comedy movies of the era. They may seem crude and primitive to us today, but this is because in our minds (even if we try not to) we put the films in comparison with the movies he made when he reached the height of his artistic powers. Back then though Charlie Chaplin was something new and exciting as well as quite different than anything that had previously been done in film comedy. Why audiences were so attracted to these films is because underneath the crudeness, they saw the start of something new and exciting. It had not been fully formed or realized at this point but it was still noticeable to moviegoers, even if they couldn't define what it was they felt. This brief article in Film Fun Magazine in 1915 gives us a glimpse of how Charlie Chaplin was accepted by moviegoers in 1915. If you are having any trouble reading the following page click on it and use your touch screen to zoom in. 




Now as a bonus here are some Charlie Chaplin films from 1915.















-Michael J. Ruhland 

 

Grandpa Goes to the Movies

I love looking through old issues of Film Fun Magazine. True there are other old movie magazines that are much better for doing actual research into the making and release of classic films, but few are as fun to read as Film Fun. As the title suggests this magazine is simply a lighthearted and silly magazine that talks about movies. Below is a page from a 1919 issue humorously addressing an old man's reaction to this new fangled form of entertainment. Sorry it is a little blurry but if you zoom in it is still very readable.

-Michael J. Ruhland

A Charlie Chaplin Comic

The following is a comic strip that appeared in a 1919 issue of Film Fun magazine.

-Michael J. Ruhland 

Making the Movies Dry

The following is an article from April 1919 from Film Fun magazine about the effect Prohibition could possibly have on the movies. This article can seem naïve to us today as we know that movies made during prohibition were filled with alcohol drinking.

-Michael J. Ruhland