Sydney Chaplin

Keystone

As Charlie was negotiating his Keystone contract in Hollywood, he suggested that Syd should join the studio. Syd and his wife Minnie Chaplin arrived in California in October 1914.

Syd made a few appearances with the Keystone stock company in supporting roles before starring as a new character, Reggie Gussle. Gussle was a brash, mustachioed, happy-go-lucky fellow who enjoyed flirting with women and sneaking drinks, but was usually under the watchful eye of his large, ominous wife (Phyllis Allen). Syd Chaplin was less frantic than the other Keystone comedians, who usually ran around the scene with exaggerated gestures. Syd's antics were slower but quite energetic. His expressive face was also featured in numerous close-ups, unusual for Keystone stars. His improvisational approach sometimes resulted in scenes running very long -- in one case, so long that the finished scenes were divided into two separate comedies, Gussle's Backward Way and Gussle Tied to Trouble.^[2] The Gussle comedies caught on very quickly, and within the year these one-reel, 10-minute comedies were doubled in length. Syd Chaplin made 12 Gussle subjects, and then starred in an extended-length featurette, A Submarine Pirate in 1915. Second to Tillie's Punctured Romance, this was the most financially successful comedy Keystone ever made. Writing in The Smart Set magazine in 1916, critic George Jean Nathan stated that Charlie Chaplin was "not nearly so good a comique as his brother."^[3]

Charlie's business affairs

Following this success, Syd decided to leave the screen to negotiate Charlie a better contract. After getting him a $500,000 contract with Mutual on February 27, 1916, he got him his first million-dollar ($1.25 million) contract on June 17, 1917 with First National Pictures.^[4] Soon he was handling the majority of Charlie's business affairs, in addition to further contract negotiations. Their sheet music business failed, but they were successful with a merchandising one.

Sydney also appeared in a few of Charlie's films during the First National era, such as Pay Day and The Pilgrim. Sydney achieved his own million-dollar contract from Famous Players–Lasky in 1919, but a series of problems resulted in his making only one, failed, film, King, Queen, Joker (1921). He disappeared from the screen once again.

Aviation

During this period, Syd Chaplin's most important contribution may be in the field of aviation. In May 1919, he, along with pilot Emory Herman Rogers Jr.,^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} developed and launched the first privately owned domestic American airline, the Syd Chaplin Airline Company,^[11] based in Santa Monica, California. Although the corporation lasted only a year, in that time it established many "firsts." Syd and partners had the first airplane showroom for their Curtiss airplanes. It offered observation flights for $10 and round-trip flights to San Diego for $150.^[7]

On 4 July 1919, the Syd Chaplin Aircraft Corporation began flights to Santa Catalina Island.^[12]

Sydney Chaplin Aerodrome (Chaplin Airfield) was south of Wilshire and west of Crescent (now bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue, and San Vincente Boulevard).^[13][8][14]

Emery H. Rogers^[15] conducted the first roundtrip Los Angeles to San Francisco flight in one 24-hour period. Charlie Chaplin took his first airplane flight in one of Syd's planes, as did many other notable figures of the period. Syd Chaplin got out of the aviation business after governments began to pass legislation regulating pilot licensing and the taxation of planes and flights.

Roger's Field

On December 29, 1920, Amelia Earhart was booked for a passenger flight, at the-now Emory Roger's Roger's Field which included Chaplin Airfield and DeMille Field No. 2.^{[14][16][7][17][18]} The cost was $10 for a 10 minute flight with Frank Hawks (later gaining fame as an air racer), giving her a ride that would forever change Earhart's life.^[18]

Return to acting

He returned to acting, and later films include The Perfect Flapper (1924) with Colleen Moore, and Charley's Aunt (1925). He made five features for Warner Bros. Pictures, including The Man on the Box (1925), Oh, What a Nurse! (1926), The Missing Link (1927), and The Fortune Hunter (1927).

Warner Brothers' The Better 'Ole (1926) is perhaps Syd's best-known film today because of his characterisation of Old Bill, adapted from a World War I character created by cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather. Also, this was the second Warner Bros. film to have a Vitaphone soundtrack. This film is believed by many to have the first spoken word of dialogue in film, "coffee", although other historians disagree.^{[19][page needed]}

Syd Chaplin returned to England, where he made his first film for British International Pictures (BIP), A Little Bit of Fluff (1928). This proved to be his final film. In 1929, as he was to begin work on a second film for the studio, Mumming Birds, he was accused of sexual assault by actress Molly Wright.^[20] BIP settled out of court, which appeared to concede the truth of Wright's claims.^[20] Following the scandal, Chaplin left England again and moved to Europe, leaving a string of unpaid tax demands.^[20] By 1930 he was declared bankrupt.^[20]