Directed by: Henry Lehrman

Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Henry Lehrman, Virginia Kirtley, Alice Davenport, Chester Conklin, Minta Durfee

Written by: Reed Heustis

Produced by: Mack Sennett

Production: Keystone Film Company

PAGE OR STAGE: Making a Living was not adapted from a novel, play or other published work. It was created directly for the screen as a Keystone one-reel comedy, with the scenario credited to Reed Heustis.

STORY

Before the bowler hat.

Before the little toothbrush mustache.

Before the oversized shoes, the tight coat and that unmistakable walk.

Before the Little Tramp became one of the most recognizable characters in the history of motion pictures...

There was Making a Living.

Charlie Chaplin makes his motion-picture debut as a scheming, smooth-talking swindler — a very different character from the lovable Tramp who would soon make him famous around the world. Sporting a top hat, frock coat, monocle and long drooping mustache, Charlie looks almost startlingly different from the screen icon audiences know today.

And this Charlie is definitely no innocent.

He begins by encountering a man on the street and convincing him to part with some money. Soon Charlie turns his attention to romance, attempting to charm a young woman whose mother appears receptive to his intentions.

Unfortunately, Charlie has competition.

His rival is a newspaper reporter, played by the film's director, Henry Lehrman. The two men clash over the young woman, and their rivalry soon follows them into the newspaper business.

Charlie discovers that the newspaper is looking for reporters and decides that journalism might be his newest opportunity for making a living.

Then his rival stumbles across a sensational story.

An automobile has crashed spectacularly, and the reporter photographs the wreck and the efforts to rescue its unfortunate victim. It's exactly the kind of scoop a newspaperman dreams about.

Charlie sees an opportunity.

Instead of finding his own story, he steals the reporter's camera and races to the newspaper office, where he passes the photographs and information off as his own.

For a moment, it appears Charlie's shameless scheme may actually work.

But his furious rival isn't about to surrender his scoop without a fight.

The confrontation explodes into the kind of frantic physical comedy that would become synonymous with Keystone. Fists fly, police become involved and Charlie and his adversary tear through the streets until their battle carries them directly into the path of a moving streetcar.

It's fast.

It's rough.

It's chaotic.

And buried inside this little one-reel comedy is something extraordinary:

The beginning of Charlie Chaplin's film career.

The character isn't yet the Tramp. The filmmaking style isn't yet recognizably the Chaplin style. Charlie doesn't even have creative control over his own performance.

But he's there.

And within days, everything would begin to change.

AIN BACKSTAGE SECRETS & AINTOIDS
THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGINS

Making a Living marks Charlie Chaplin's first appearance in a motion picture.

Chaplin had arrived at Mack Sennett's Keystone company after establishing himself onstage with Fred Karno's celebrated comedy troupe. Keystone put its new performer to work in January 1914.

The film was released on February 2, 1914.

One of the most extraordinary careers in motion-picture history had officially begun.

NO LITTLE TRAMP — YET

Anyone expecting to see the familiar Chaplin immediately may be surprised.

There is no bowler hat.

No familiar toothbrush mustache.

No oversized shoes.

Instead, Chaplin plays what the official Chaplin archive describes as a “dubious dandy,” dressed in a top hat and frock coat with a monocle and drooping mustache.

The Little Tramp was still waiting in the wings.

THE TRAMP WAS ONLY DAYS AWAY

Audiences didn't have to wait long.

Making a Living opened on February 2, 1914.

Just five days later, on February 7, audiences saw Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal., the first released film featuring Chaplin in the costume that would become famous around the world.

Interestingly, Chaplin had already filmed Mabel's Strange Predicament wearing the Tramp costume, but that picture wasn't released until February 9.

So Making a Living gives us something especially fascinating: Chaplin immediately before the Tramp exploded onto movie screens.

CHAPLIN HATED WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS COMEDY

Chaplin was deeply unhappy when he saw the completed film.

He believed some of his best comedy had disappeared in the editing room.

According to Chaplin's own later account, Henry Lehrman deliberately removed some of his strongest comic material because Lehrman thought the newcomer “knew too much.”

Whatever Lehrman's motivations, Chaplin never forgot the experience.

For an artist who would eventually demand extraordinary control over writing, directing, performing, editing and even composing music for his pictures, Making a Living provides an intriguing glimpse of what happened when Charlie Chaplin didn't control the finished product.

THE CRITICS NOTICED HIM ANYWAY

Chaplin may have hated the finished film.

The critics noticed him.

Moving Picture World, one of the important film trade publications of the era, singled out the unknown newcomer for praise and called attention to his natural comic ability.

Imagine that moment.

There was no Chaplin legend yet.

No The Kid.

No The Gold Rush.

No City Lights.

No Modern Times.

Just an unfamiliar English comedian appearing in his first little Keystone picture — and somebody watching could already tell there was something special about him.

FROM FRED KARNO TO KEYSTONE

Chaplin didn't arrive in Hollywood as an inexperienced performer.

He had spent years on the British stage and became a featured performer with Fred Karno's comedy company, one of the great training grounds for physical comedians.

Chaplin brought pieces of that stage experience into Making a Living. The official Chaplin archive notes that both the character and elements of the costume recalled his Karno years, and Chaplin incorporated comic business learned during his stage career.

Hollywood didn't create Charlie Chaplin.

Hollywood gave him a camera.

AINTOID: FOUR DAYS THAT CHANGED FILM HISTORY

The official Chaplin archive records that Making a Living was filmed from January 5 through January 9, 1914.

It was finished and shipped on January 14.

Released February 2.

Think about that.

A little one-reel comedy produced in a matter of days introduced a performer whose screen career would help define the first century of cinema.

Nobody standing on that Keystone set could possibly have known what had just begun.

AINTOID: MACK SENNETT WAS THE MAN BEHIND KEYSTONE

Producer Mack Sennett was one of the central architects of early screen comedy.

His Keystone company became famous for frantic slapstick, chases, physical gags and the legendary Keystone Cops.

Chaplin would spend 1914 working at Keystone, rapidly learning the mechanics of filmmaking while developing the screen personality that would soon separate him from virtually every comedian around him.

AINTOID: ONE REEL — ONE LEGEND BEGINS

Making a Living was a one-reel comedy.

That meant audiences weren't sitting down for a feature-length Charlie Chaplin movie. This was short-form entertainment made for movie programs in an era when the language and business of cinema were still being invented.

Yet more than a century later, people continue watching this particular reel for one overwhelming reason:

It contains the first screen appearance of Charlie Chaplin.

AINTOID: CHESTER CONKLIN WAS THERE AT THE BEGINNING

Look closely and you'll find another familiar Keystone face: Chester Conklin.

Conklin became one of the era's recognizable comedy performers and would work with Chaplin numerous times. His association with Chaplin stretches from these primitive Keystone shorts into Chaplin's later career.

THE GREAT STREETCAR FINALE

The final chase gives us pure early Keystone insanity.

Charlie and his rival continue fighting until a moving streetcar catches them on its front end and carries the battling pair away.

It isn't the sophisticated mixture of comedy, pathos and character Chaplin would eventually perfect.

This is Keystone.

Move fast.

Fight.

Run.

Chase.

And don't stop the camera.

AINTOID: CHARLIE HADN'T EVEN DIRECTED A MOVIE YET

This is another reason Making a Living is so valuable when watching Chaplin chronologically.

Henry Lehrman was directing.

Chaplin was the performer.

That arrangement wouldn't last.

During his extraordinary first year in movies, Chaplin began directing his own pictures and increasingly shaping his material himself.

Watching the 1914 films in sequence means we're not merely watching Chaplin perform.

We're watching a filmmaker being born.

FROM MAKING A LIVING TO IMMORTALITY

There is something wonderfully appropriate about the title now.

Charlie Chaplin came to Keystone trying to do exactly what the film says:

make a living.

Instead, he began creating a body of work that would outlive the studios, exhibitors, theaters and almost everyone who participated in those first frantic days of filmmaking.

The dandy with the monocle wouldn't last.

The Tramp would.

And cinema would never be quite the same again.