Charles Chaplin's Tryst with Spain

Abstract

Chaplin's little tramp is indestructible; instantly recognizable, he still exercises a magnetic appeal, whether we see him looking down wistfully from a wall of Dudley Moore's room in the film Arthur (1981) or, in a television advertisement based on Modern Times, saving himself from lunatic machines and bankruptcy by a visit to the showroom of a famous computer company. In Spain the 'Chaplin of Tenerife' currently follows the example of such American imitators as Billie Ritchie, Billie West and 'Charles Aplin' as he capitalizes on the enormous popularity enjoyed by the comic in Spain for over sixty years. Chaplin's appeal was particularly strong in Spain during the twenty years preceding the Civil War. In 1925 readers and audiences would have had no difficulty in identifying in Ramon del Valle-Inclan's play Las galas del difunto [ The Dead Man's Weeds] the pert character who sports 'A cane and bowler hat, and boots with crickets in their soles'. Valle-Inclan's restraint in not naming this character was exceptional; between 1916, when the comic paper Chariot appeared in Barcelona, and 1935, when the 'tragicomedy' Papa Chariot was written, the name 'Charlot', borrowed from France, was constantly to be heard and read in the titles of poems, stories and essays that celebrated him and his art.' The mark left by Chaplin in Spain must also be sought in the magazine and newspaper articles that recorded his loves, moods and marriages with prurient and, at times, prudish curiosity. He was, of course, good copy; the marriages, broken engagements and