The 100 years of Chaplin in Movies Starts Now

Charlie Chaplin arrives on the lot of Keystone pictures 100 years ago this month. He hangs around for weeks until they finally use him in a movie. He was paid $150/week. Less than two years later, he would make $10,000/wk or $670,000/yr and become the most famous man on earth.

He was 25 when he made his first movie for Keystone, Making a Living, but not in his famous Tramp costume. The public would have to wait until a little 10 minute spur of the moment flick called, Kids Auto Races, where the tramp was first tried out on an unsuspecting public.

It was just Charlie and two cameramen and no one in the crowd knew they were seeing history in the making.