American Icons: The Tramp
This is silent film’s most memorable character.
Charlie Chaplinwas a music-hall comedian when he started shooting pictures at the Keystone Studios in Los Angeles in 1914, right at the dawn of silent film. With just a pair of baggy pants, a derby hat, mustache, floppy shoes, and his own physical genius, Charlie Chaplin created silent film’s most memorable character: the Tramp. The persona would allow Chaplin to couch serious satire — with targets ranging from capitalism to Fascism — in comedy that’s still funny today. The Tramp hardly made it out of the silent film age, but as WNYC’sSara Fishkoexplains, he’s never left the world’s imagination.
(Originally aired: November 24, 2006)
Video:Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) — the Tramp’s first appearance
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