Directed by: Henry Lehrman

Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Henry Lehrman, Frank D. Williams, Gordon Griffith

Source/Adaptation: An original Keystone Film Company silent comedy, filmed during an actual children's pushmobile race in Venice, California.

STORY

There is a race underway in Venice, California, and a motion-picture cameraman is trying to capture the excitement. There is only one problem.

Charlie Chaplin keeps getting in the way.

Wearing the bowler hat, tiny moustache, tight coat, baggy trousers, oversized shoes and carrying the cane that would soon become recognized around the world, Chaplin plays an enormously determined spectator who simply cannot resist the camera. Every time the filmmakers try to photograph the race, Charlie wanders into the shot.

They move him.

He comes back.

They push him away.

He comes back again.

And the more irritated the filmmakers become, the more determined Charlie seems to be to make himself the star of their movie.

The premise could hardly be simpler, but what happened in Kid Auto Races at Venice became one of the great moments in motion-picture history. For the first time, movie audiences saw Charlie Chaplin in the screen persona that would become the Little Tramp.

There is something else remarkable happening here: Chaplin knows the camera is there. He looks directly into it, mugs for it, follows it and deliberately tries to steal its attention. More than a century later, watching Charlie battle the filmmakers for control of the frame feels wonderfully modern.

And surrounding him are real spectators watching the antics unfold.

They could not possibly have known it, but they were watching the birth of one of the most recognizable characters in the history of cinema.

AIN BACKSTAGE SECRETS & AINTOIDS
THE WORLD MEETS THE TRAMP

Kid Auto Races at Venice holds an extraordinary place in film history: it was the first released movie in which audiences saw Charlie Chaplin's famous Tramp character.

But there is an important twist to the story.

Chaplin had already worn the Tramp costume while filming Mabel's Strange Predicament. That film was photographed first but released later. Kid Auto Races at Venice reached theaters on February 7, 1914, two days before Mabel's Strange Predicament.

So this was not the first time Chaplin ever put on the costume.

It was the first time the moviegoing public saw it.

THE COSTUME THAT CHANGED MOVIES

The character was instantly distinctive: bowler hat, small moustache, tight coat, baggy trousers, enormous shoes and cane.

The contradictions were deliberate — clothing too large mixed with clothing too small, creating a silhouette audiences could recognize almost immediately.

That collection of mismatched clothes would become one of the most famous costumes ever created for the screen.

THIS WAS A REAL RACE

Those crowds aren't Hollywood extras.

The film was shot at an actual children's pushmobile racing event in Venice, California. Chaplin and director Henry Lehrman performed their comedy amid the real spectators gathered for the event.

That gives the movie something almost impossible to recreate: we can actually watch members of the public encountering this strange little character before the world knew who he was.

LOOK AT THE PEOPLE BEHIND CHARLIE

One of the great pleasures of watching Kid Auto Races at Venice today is ignoring Chaplin for a moment and watching the spectators.

Some stare.

Some smile.

Some laugh.

Some appear puzzled by what this peculiar man is doing.

They aren't watching a world-famous Charlie Chaplin.

They're watching a relatively new film performer fooling around in an odd costume at their local race.

They have no idea that they are standing inside movie history.

A MOVIE ABOUT MAKING A MOVIE

The central joke is wonderfully self-aware.

A cameraman is attempting to film the race while Charlie continually tries to get himself photographed. Meanwhile, another camera is filming the entire battle between Charlie and the movie crew.

In other words, the camera itself becomes part of the comedy.

Chaplin doesn't pretend it isn't there.

He wants it to notice him.

And more than a century later, it still does.

CHAPLIN WAS JUST GETTING STARTED

Chaplin had only recently begun making films for Mack Sennett's Keystone company.

His first released motion picture, Making a Living, appeared on February 2, 1914.

Just five days later, Kid Auto Races at Venice was released.

Within those five days, movie audiences went from meeting Charlie Chaplin to meeting the character that would make him one of the most recognizable human beings on Earth.

HENRY LEHRMAN WASN'T JUST THE DIRECTOR

Henry Lehrman directed the film — but he also appears on camera as the increasingly exasperated filmmaker trying to keep Charlie from ruining his shots.

That means the struggle between the troublesome spectator and the frustrated filmmaker is being performed by the movie's star and its actual director.

MADE ON THE FLY

The official Chaplin archive describes the film as improvised and reports that it was allegedly photographed in roughly forty-five minutes.

There was no elaborate studio construction required. A real public event, a camera, Chaplin, Lehrman and a simple comic idea were enough to create a piece of cinema history.

AINTOID: A SPLIT-REEL RELEASE

Kid Auto Races at Venice was a tiny production even by the standards of early cinema.

It was released as a split-reel film, meaning it shared a reel with another short subject. The Chaplin archive records that it originally appeared with an educational film called Olives and Their Oil.

Imagine going to see an educational short about olive oil — and unexpectedly meeting Charlie Chaplin's Tramp.

AINTOID: FINISHED FAST

The official Chaplin archive records that Kid Auto Races at Venice was finished and shipped on January 17, 1914.

It reached audiences on February 7.

The character introduced in those few minutes would remain associated with Chaplin for decades.

AINTOID: PRESERVED FOR AMERICAN FILM HISTORY

More than a century after it was made, Kid Auto Races at Venice received another extraordinary distinction.

In 2020, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, recognizing its cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.

The little comedy photographed at a children's race had officially become part of America's preserved motion-picture heritage.