Chocks away for Chaplin!
QUESTION I’ve seen a photo of a plane with Chaplin emblazoned on the fuselage. Did the movie star own an airline?
No, BUT his brother did. Syd Chaplin, the elder half-brother of Charlie, owned the first domestic airline in America.
He was a key figure in the Little Tramp’s life. It was Syd who first got the acting bug: he joined Fred Karno’s music hall troupe in 1906 and introduced his brother two years later.
In 1914, Syd followed Charlie to Hollywood. For many years, he was his brother’s manager and appeared as the straight man in his films.
Later, he struck out on his own as an actor. His best-regarded film was the silent version of Brandon Thomas’s farce Charley’s Aunt, where he played Sir Fancourt ‘Babbs’ Babberley.
He also got involved in a number of business ventures, which usually ended in glorious failure. Perhaps Syd’s most important contribution to history was in the field of aviation.
In May 1919, along with pilot Lt Emery J. Rogers, he formed the first privately owned domestic American airline, the Syd Chaplin Airline Company, based in Santa Monica, California. Chaplin Airfield was on leased property that is now bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard.
The airline advertised that it ‘maintained a fleet of newest Curtiss one and twopassenger aeroplanes, large shops with complete equipment and hangars for our own ships as well as those belonging to business firms and individuals’.
The company amassed 200 Curtiss planes for sale in the first aeroplane showroom and three seaplanes for holiday flights. Syd also set up one of the first flying schools.
The company offered observation flights for $10 and round-trip flights to San Diego for $150, at a time when the average annual wage was $1,200. It also offered seaplane trips to Avalon, a popular resort on Catalina Island, near Los Angeles.
Syd’s short attention span, some poor business decisions, high costs and competition from Cecil B. DeMille’s Mercury Aviation airline saw him sell out to his partner, who renamed the airfield Rogers Field. Chaplin came to regret this move. Rogers Field was the largest airfield in the West and kept operating for ten years before the land was sold for development for millions. Syd wasn’t one to bear a grudge. He retired in the Thirties, spending the rest of his life between Nice in France and Montreux in Switzerland.
Shaun Webster, Portsmouth.
QUESTION Why do so many towns and cities have a Cheapside?
WE ASSoCIATE the word ‘cheap’ with the purchasing of goods at low cost, or even an indication of low- quality, as in ‘cheap and nasty’.
The word is derived from the old English chepe or ceap, meaning to barter, or a market where goods were bartered.
This terminology was soon applied to the place where medieval markets were held, normally market towns which had been granted a Royal Charter to hold them on a regular basis — weekly, monthly or, for large fairs, once a year.
The advantage of holding a market by charter for the town was that it empowered the local authorities to regulate the prices and quality of goods on sale, check weights and measures were as the law prescribed and levy taxes.
Towns with the word Chipping in their names, such as Chipping Campden, Chipping Norton and Chipping Sodbury in the Cotswolds, are also derived from this word for market.
Another example linked to the old word for barter is Chepstow, with its magnificent Norman castle, in Monmouthshire.
The castle was established in 1067 by William Fitzosbern, who assumed the title Earl of Wessex after the death of Harold II at the Battle of Hastings.
An account in the Domesday Book of 1086 states: ‘Earl William built the castellum (castle) of Estrighoiel and in his time it was worth no more than 40 shillings from the ships passing up into the forest (of Dean). But in the time of Earl Roger, his son, the villa (town) paid £16.’ This account shows how much money and taxes the market generated for the Norman lords.
The castle and town, which was also known as Striguil, are on the River Wye, on the Welsh side of the border with England. It later assumed the Englishsounding name of Chepstow.
The word ‘stow’, meaning ‘place’, has the same etymology as ‘stoke’ (place or settlement), which can be found in place names such as Stow-on-the-Wold.
Lyn Pask, Blackwood, Gwent.
QUESTION Border Collies are fantastic sheep dogs. Do farmers herd their flocks with any other breeds?
THE earlier answer overlooked the Welsh Corgi, which has long been used as a herding/droving dog, mainly with cattle, and still is on some Welsh farms.
My Pembroke Corgi, untrained in herding and acting purely on instinct, helped me to bring 11 horses that had escaped from their field back home through two fields and a river. She was bright enough to work out which was the lead horse, concentrated on driving him and rounded up the rest to make them follow. I couldn’t have done it without her.
Some proud owners would say that the Welsh Corgi is far more intelligent than the Border Collie.
Mrs June Green, Bagshot, Surrey.