Lot Essay
Accompanying photocopied letter of authenticity from Hollywood producer and costumier Ted Tetrick outlines the provenance of Charlie Chaplin's hat and cane. Ted Tetrick, was associated with Charlie Chaplin from 1938, working at the Chaplin studio ...in charge of the costume and production design departments. Originally there were several canes and hats used in Chaplin films. [This hat and cane] were...part of the costume department since the studio's early days. They were among Charlie's favourite sets, which he never considered giving away. This hat and cane [and a later set sold in these rooms on December 17th, 1993 were originally saved by Alfred Reeves and following Reeves' death] were taken away from the studio along with other Chaplin memorabilia, by Chaplin's half-brother, Wheeler Dryden, sometime in 1952, during the studio's closing and liquidation. Wheeler Dryden acted as manager of the studio after the death of long time manager Alf Reeves, in 1946...
The bowler hat and cane were Charlie Chaplin's trademarks and indispensable props to his famous guise ....The tramp costume which was to be little modified in its twenty-two year career, was apparently created spontaneously, without premeditation. The legend is that it was concocted one rainy afternoon in the communal male dressing room at Keystone, where Chaplin borrowed Fatty Arbuckle's voluminous trousers, tiny Charles Avery's jacket, Ford Sterling's size fourteen shoes which he was obliged to wear on the wrong feet to keep them from falling off, a too-small derby belonging to Arbuckle's father-in-law, and a moustache intended for Mack Swain's use, which he trimmed to toothbrush size. This neat and colourful version of the genesis of the tramp seems to have originated in the Keystone Studio, and was certainly never endorsed by Chaplin...His idea was to create an ensemble of contrasts -- tiny hat and huge shoes, baggy pants and pinched jacket...Whatever its origins, the costume and make-up created that day in early February 1914 were inspired. Chaplin recalled how the costume induced the character, so that 'by the time I walked on to the stage he was fully born'. We know from the films that this was not strictly true; the character was to take a year or more to evolve its full dimensions and even then...it would evolve during the whole of his career...From the first, though, certain traits were obvious; the derby, the cane, the bow-tie and close-trimmed moustache indicated brave but ineffectual pretensions to the dignity of the 'petit bourgeoisoie'.
The bowler hat and cane were Charlie Chaplin's trademarks and indispensable props to his famous guise ....The tramp costume which was to be little modified in its twenty-two year career, was apparently created spontaneously, without premeditation. The legend is that it was concocted one rainy afternoon in the communal male dressing room at Keystone, where Chaplin borrowed Fatty Arbuckle's voluminous trousers, tiny Charles Avery's jacket, Ford Sterling's size fourteen shoes which he was obliged to wear on the wrong feet to keep them from falling off, a too-small derby belonging to Arbuckle's father-in-law, and a moustache intended for Mack Swain's use, which he trimmed to toothbrush size. This neat and colourful version of the genesis of the tramp seems to have originated in the Keystone Studio, and was certainly never endorsed by Chaplin...His idea was to create an ensemble of contrasts -- tiny hat and huge shoes, baggy pants and pinched jacket...Whatever its origins, the costume and make-up created that day in early February 1914 were inspired. Chaplin recalled how the costume induced the character, so that 'by the time I walked on to the stage he was fully born'. We know from the films that this was not strictly true; the character was to take a year or more to evolve its full dimensions and even then...it would evolve during the whole of his career...From the first, though, certain traits were obvious; the derby, the cane, the bow-tie and close-trimmed moustache indicated brave but ineffectual pretensions to the dignity of the 'petit bourgeoisoie'.