Kid Auto Races at Venice

The film that introduced the world to Charlie Chaplin's Tramp character. Chaplin plays a spectator at a children's soapbox derby in Venice, California, who keeps wandering into the frame of a newsreel camera, annoying the filmmaker and the crowd. The Tramp's costume—bowler hat, tight jacket, baggy pants, cane, and mustache—appears here for the first time, though the character's personality was still rough and improvisational. The film was shot in a single day at an actual soapbox derby, with Chaplin improvising his gags amid real crowds who didn't know they were watching cinema history. The film is in the public domain.