In France during the early years of cinema, the first real film stars were comics such as Max Linder, Fatty Arbuckle, and Charlie Chaplin. Capitalising on this personal popularity, the film distributors produced publicity posters focusing on the actors themselves rather than on the actual film. These French publicity posters were called "affiche passe-partout". This tradition continued until the 1940s, with publicity posters produced for stars such as Greta Garbo and Rita Hayworth.
Auguste Leymarie's original sketch for this Chaplin passe-partout is held in the collections of the National Library of France in Paris; it is a truly wonderful image of the Little Tramp.

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