Chaplin told to axe hat, walk and moustache
AS a piece of career advice, it seems comically misguided – and could have deprived the world of Charlie Chaplin.
Newly discovered correspondence shows that as a 23-year-old Chaplin was advised by Hollywood executives to change his name and hat, lose the funny walk – and even shave off his trademark moustache.
The instructions from film studio Universal in 1912 came in a letter to London-based comedian and impresario Charles Austin, who had recommended Chaplin as a new star to replace the increasingly ‘demanding’ Buster Keaton.
The studio wrote: ‘The moustache must go and Chaplin will have to change name. Too easily confused with another comic Charlie Chase. Also, Chaplin sounds Jewish.’
The memo added: ‘Do not allow Chaplin to walk comically. This may look alright on English Music Hall stages but for mass audience we must try to avoid offending people who are bow-legged or cripples.’
Nevertheless, the studio still paid for Chaplin to travel to Hollywood in January 1913 for a screen test. Universal’s verdict was: ‘Very bland style, no personality and too short. Please keep looking for comics.’
The letters were found in the archives of the Grand Order of Water Rats, the showbusiness charity of which Austin was chairman. It plans to display them at its museum in London’s Gray’s Inn Road.