Nick Drainey tells the story of Scotland’s “Charlie Chaplin”, Billie Ritchie
Nick Drainey uncovers the fascinating life of Billie Ritchie, Scotland’s answer to Charlie Chaplin.
FROM the music halls of Glasgow to the silver screen of Hollywood, the rise of silent film star Billie Ritchie was meteoric. But the glittering career was over in a flash and 100 years after his death his story is largely forgotten – unlike that of Charlie Chaplin.
In many ways Billie was the spitting image of
Charlie Chaplin, both in looks and his comedic style of acting.
Despite claims by some he was trying to imitate the more famous star, many believe Billie should be remembered as Scotland’s first transatlantic film star.
Dr Trevor Griffiths, a reader in history at the University of Edinburgh and an authoritative voice on silent film, said Billie’s career followed an almost identical pattern to Chaplin’s.
“He was on the music hall stage for a number of years and then signed with major manager Fred Karno.
“He toured Europe, then went with a Karno troupe to the United States in 1905.
“There was a sketch that Karno had written called ‘Mumming Birds – In America’. It went out as ‘A Night In An English Music Hall’, and in that Billie plays a character known as the Drunk.
“Five years later, also working for Karno, Chaplin goes over to the States to appear in ‘Mumming Birds’ as the Drunk; he is virtually following in Billie’s footsteps.”
But it was Chaplin who got into films first, going to Keystone Studios in 1914 to make films under director Henry Lehrman, who then set up his own company called LKO, Lehrman’s Knockouts.
“He fixed on Billie
Ritchie, who had a reputation across the United States as a very good physical comedian.
“That took him to Hollywood, and from late 1914 Billie was working in films for the same director who had earlier worked with Chaplin.
“You can see how Lehrman was thinking: ‘Chaplin is popular, let’s make something akin to a Chaplin film.’
“This is always the question: was he a Chaplin imitator? I don’t think he set out to be.
“It was probably Lehrman who pushed that on to him.”
But what began was a period of great success for Billie on both sides of the Atlantic.
“His first film, ‘Love And Surgery’, arrived in Britain in early 1915 so he was just behind Chaplin,” Dr
Griffiths, who will be speaking (online) at this year’s Silent Film Festival hosted by the Bo’ness Hippodrome, says.
“Usually his films involved him in love triangles, competing against someone else for the love of a young woman.”
The really big years for Billie were 1915 and
1916, and there was a huge publicity campaign.
“They put up a huge poster of Billie’s figure which took up the whole side of a building in New York.
“He was literally the biggest thing on Broadway in 1915.”
Then it all fizzled out. Lehrman moved to Fox and Billie followed him.
For some reason, his film appearances died away – from 53 films in two years to the end of 1916, then only 15 more to the end of 1920.
“Whether it was ill health – he died of stomach cancer – it’s not very clear,” Dr Griffiths says, “but when he died in 1921, his better days were some distance in the past.”
Dr Griffiths, however, is in no doubt about the importance of Scotland’s first film star.
“He was part of that early boom in cinema that established it as the mass entertainment of the time.
As well as Dr Griffiths, the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival will feature John Bengston’s Silent
Hollywood Walking Tour, including film locations in Hollywood where Billie Ritchie’s films were shot.