“One hundred and fifty dollars,” said Mr. Chaplin quickly. He really was getting sixty dollars. “All right,” said Mr. Kessel so quickly that Charles as quickly swallowed his Adam’s apple, and regretted he hadn’t said more.
“But I don’t think I care to change from the stage to the pictures.”
“Well, our contracts are for fifty-two weeks, no Sunday work, no intermissions between pictures; in vaudeville you get thirty-two weeks and you pay your own traveling expenses.”
Mr. Chaplin said he’d make up his mind and let Mr. Kessel know.
So in about six weeks a letter came from Mr. Chaplin from Omaha saying he was ready to start. The contract was mailed December 19, 1913, and signed January 2, 1914.
“Mabel’s Predicament,” a one-reeler, was Charlie Chaplin’s first picture. “Dough and Dynamite” the first two-reeler. Mr. Chaplin’s success was instantaneous. It also must have been tremendous, for the Keystone Company (Kessel and Bauman) within five months dared to do a comedy five reels in length. When the five-reel comedy was announced, there were many who thought that now surely the picture people were going cuckoo. No one believed an audience would stand for a five-reel comedy.
They did. The picture was “Tillie’s Punctured Romance,” adapted from the Marie Dressier play, “Tillie’s Nightmare.” Marie Dressier was engaged for the picture and for fourteen weeks she received the unbelievable salary of one thousand dollars weekly and fifty per cent of the picture, which, released in June, 1914, was one of the sensations of the picture world.
All sorts of offers now began coming to Mr. Chaplin. Carl Laemmle was one who was keen to get Charlie under contract; he kept himself informed of Mr. Chaplin’s activities even to the social side of his life so that he would know when and where best to set the bait.
Out at Sunset Inn, a place by the ocean where movie people then made merry, Charlie Chaplin was to be one of a party. Mr. Laemmle being wised up to it, gave a party of his own the same night, a most expensive and grand party. Well, he would have Charlie’s ear for a moment anyhow, and one never could tell.
The party in full swing, Mr. Laemmle invited Mr. Chaplin over to his table, and after a few social preliminaries said, “Let’s talk business; I want you to come and work for me.” But Mr. Chaplin, always a clever business man, answered, “I’m enjoying myself—I don’t want to talk business to-night, I’m on a party.”