Unbelievable!!! I thought his name sounded familiar, I thought I had seen him before, but I would have never known him if he hadn't told me himself! And I'd seen him on the screen a hundred times -for Heaven's sake, I'd even seen him in person at the Keystone studio that first day! My, but he was another man in real life! Without the make-up and moustache, dressed as a normal man and adding colours and voice to the outfit, how could anybody recognise him?

What was funniest of all was that the whole bunch at the party had seen him onscreen a lot too and nobody had identified him either. Maybe because I had introduced him to them just as "Charlie" and left out the main name. I'm sure their mind wouldn't be as slow-to-catch-on as mine if they have had the entire identity provided. It was quite a comic scene the next day when I told the girls who my new friend was.

They didn't believe it. In fact, I found it hard to believe too, and at first I thought he was teasing me. But he had invited me to the studio the next day and I was eager to watch him work. As soon as I saw him in action there was no doubt about it: yes, this was the Charlie Chaplin. In his make-up and tramp costume he looked more like himself, but still seeing him "in colours" was confusing. Anyway, his pantomime before the camera was unmistakable.

His working methods were different from what I'd seen at Keystone, but I had already noticed he had his own style even that day under Sennett's direction. He didn't base his plot around the fights and the chase, which made me like him way better than other comics. I tried my best to stay out of his way and let him work, but the poor guy was so discontented I had to stick around and try to cheer him up.

You would think a comedian should be in a smiley mood all the time but this one was just the contrary. At least at that moment. He had just started to work with the Essanay and the new studio (as well as his contract) seemed to displease him. In fact, even I, that knew nothing whatsoever about movies, could tell there was something annoying about that place. It was more like an office: people working in a mechanical way that didn't favour artistic inspiration.

I wish somebody had been rolling a home movie while he got everything ready. It was such a comedy in itself to witness him at work: the mistakes and accidents on the set and his brief fits of temper were even funnier than the result on the screen! He walked around the set giving directions and instructions and his large shoes would stumble on something or hit somebody's feet if he passed too close. His cane jammed into a part of the set, pulling him off balance, or got caught on some of the other actors, bringing them both to the floor, and Charlie had little patience with these mishaps.

He was so irritated he threw the cane on the floor or kicked things out of his way and even worse if that happened during a take, for it wasted several feet of good film. He would shout "CUT!" in genuine exasperation and shot the entire scene again until it was perfect. Meanwhile, I was giggling uncontrollably witnessing the metamorphosis that took place as the little fellow passed from being the funny tramp to the impatient director, all in 2 seconds, as soon as an accident occurred.

While I watched the team work I thought it was strange to note the difference between the character and the man. On the screen the little fellow was always comic and cheerful -but the guy before my eyes was tense and moody; he took his work so terribly seriously one could hardly believe it was comedy what they were doing in there.

But it was a real treat to watch him improvise and, when the movie was going well and he was pleased with the gags, he couldn't be nicer. I kept silent as a mouse to avoid disturbing him if he finished the scene growling that this and that didn't turn out well and they'd have to redo it. But when the take was successful I clapped and cheered and he tipped his hat in the tramp fashion as mockery thanks for my enthusiastic congratulation.

I had never seen anyone so obsessed with his work: he got totally despaired if he thought he was wasting time. When the crew had a break I joined Charlie for a cup of tea and tried to be funny and lift his spirit. I had thought working on comedy should be a fun work; I couldn't stand to see him so stressed about it.

I joked about an extra girl (that would be moi) being available if he needed a hand with the movie; and who knows, I added, perhaps I might even just give him an idea or two.

It was only a joke, but, to my great surprise, he shoved me into the dressing room and told me to get my make up on. By the twinkle in his eye I could tell he was joking too, but this was too precious a chance to be wasted. I had never actually considered playing an extra in his film, but since I was here, I wouldn't turn around on such a tempting offer.

When lunch was over and the staff back on the set, I was ready to go. I asked him about the story and he said there was none. He simply told the cast what to do and showed them each how they had to play the scene. The rest was up to improvisation until something funny came up.

At the theatre, in my act, I used to be very spontaneous with my pantomime bits, but now the camera made me feel so strange I didn't feel a bit creative. It was like playing for a thing and not for a public. So my performance was so anemic I didn't shine at all. I was merely that: an extra!

Nevertheless it was the experience of my life to work with him. When he said "I want you to do this" and showed me my part I had the annoying impression that he did it way better than me, even being my character.

It was his first film for the Essanay and the plot was about a movie studio or something like that, with a bunch of people shooting a scene. I had to stand in line with other extra girls and bow as the rich lady came down the stairs. In the middle of all this, Charlie, who worked as an assistant prop man or something, would burst in and spoil the scene annoying the director and from there the comic situations started.

When the day's work was over we agreed to have dinner together, since neither of us had any other plans for the evening. I knew that would mean missing my rehearsal with the girls and running late for the show, only to burst in the dressing room with barely enough time to slip in my stage costume and throw some powder on my face, but I didn't care. Forget the boring show! I preferred a new company.

Charlie was just as cute off the screen as he was on. During dinner it was again amusing to compare real life Chaplin with the tramp character. A naughty side of me came up to the surface and I couldn't resist flirting with him and he turned out to be just as naughty as I'd always seen him in his comedy. But putting two clowns like us together we couldn't stop joking and laughing the whole time. Pity we didn't have public for that performance. Anyway, I was relieved to see he'd finally taken his mind away from the picture and he seemed more relaxed now.

Now it was me the movie-obsessed one and I complained about my acting being the least brilliant of my entire life. He joked about putting me under a steady contract since he didn't have a leading lady yet. And I swear if I hadn't been so tied up with the theatre at the time I would have started a very serious business conversation just then!

When it comes to people if I like someone I like them right away so I was already getting extremely fond of him and even fearing his personality and talent might be dangerous for my butter heart that was still vulnerable and began to warm up after how much he had impressed me. Besides the more I looked at him he seemed to me more handsome by the minute. But it seemed to take him a little longer to open up to new friends and, even though he kept up with my flirtatious jokes and seemed in a pretty bright mood, I found him somewhat introspective and distant yet.

I guess it was the business to blame that absorbed all his attention; or perhaps it was my fault, because, coquette as I was that evening, I didn't really encourage him to cross the line of sparkling and confident friendship. Of course, it's never been my style to encourage anyone that way. No doubt I had that if I had been as obvious as Lisset in my interest demonstrations he would have made plans to include breakfast in our dinner date. And perhaps he was, but some guys seem to have an instinct to know what girls are a no-no and I seem to have "HANDS OFF!!!" tattooed on my forehead.

But to be sincere, I was feeling terribly attracted to him and measuring the possibilities of a very brief and superficial romance before we parted, since I was too realistic to hope for anything more. It was funny the fact that he reminded me of Bobby a little bit: blue eyes, black hair, he was Aries too, and even left-handed like my last flame... But beyond that there was something about him that made me like him terribly and I took the determination of not letting myself fall for him. It could only end in tragedy -for me.

One thing we did have in common was loneliness. One could hardly believe that someone so popular could have so very few friends. But at the time his social life was just as disappointing as mine. So, during that second week of our stay in Chicago, I visited the studio every day to distract him during breaks when he became too upset and amuse myself with the live show, lending a hand here and there sometimes and hoping to catch another chance to play an extra in the movie, but he worked with few characters so I didn't get a new role.

Eventually my stay in the city came to an end and I went to see him before I left. Charlie was improvising, still for the same film, new gags in a soldier uniform -for what I could understand from the story I think the director had promoted him from prop man to understudy for the leading actor. As usual, I tried to stay out of his way, so he didn't see me during takes.

Perhaps the funniest part was after the work was over, when he buried into the projection room to see what had been done that day, frowning and whining, making strange noises and weird faces, moaning about this gag or that, perfectly unsatisfied and complaining again and again to the staff of the studio that he hated to see the screen test in negative film. I had never seen a negative before and I agreed it was hideous.

He seemed so unhappy with his new job I guess the only reason he worked with them was because they offered him good money, but it seemed then his pay was the main thing that tried his patience and temper: apparently the check was late and that really had him tense. At the end of the day he would go to the office and ask where "the boss" was, but the guy was always out of town and Charlie got really angry.

In that mood my attempt to cheer him up became a straining task and it took more and more effort from my part to erase the frown from his face. I tried to stay out of his way most of the time but after almost an hour of lurking by the set I finally caught up the nerve to approach him when the camera crew took a break. I couldn't take to see him like that: he made everybody laugh and he hardly smiled himself. No way! I suggested he came to see our act that night -in his state of mind any diversion should do him good.

At that moment a sudden light crossed his eyes, turning their anxious frustrated look into a nice glowing expression. He gave me the most genuine smile I had seen so far in his face and his voice became soft and mellow as he mentioned that he had hardly noticed -or appreciated- until that moment how sweet I was for trying to lift his spirit, even being him so grumpy and impossible. He even thanked me for being around all the time as he patted my hand in the most friendly charming way.

This sudden change of mood was a complete surprise. The last thing I had expected at that moment was a compliment from him. In fact, I was actually ready to hear a rather sharp hiss or rough reply in a sort of "Oh, shut up!" kind of response after spending the entire day saying "Cheer up, Charlie. It will be okay" and here instead of getting on his nerves, it turned out that my attempt to encourage him was working.

While I waited for him to get out of his stage make-up I couldn't help feeling that I was starting to conquer him and that thought got me so giddy that by the time he came to take me to the theatre I couldn't stop grinning, in spite of all my efforts, and had to invent the excuse that I was thinking of a very funny joke and, for that reason, I kept giggling. Which, by the way, got the conversation in the direction of jokes, keeping us both laughing during the whole walk. When he was not fretting about his movies he was the most delightful company there could be.

On stage that night I was determined to impress him, but that was little strain, for that night I was in such spirits that I actually beamed in my act, singing with energy, dancing with the brightest smile and doing my funniest gags even better.

I knew that this new happiness would be quite brief, since we would leave the city pretty soon and, after seeing how busy he was, I thought there was little chance that he would write often afterwards. But right now we were there, we were friends and his presence got the best of me.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws