Summary: Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month click here Visit the Radio America Store web site. Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Charlie Chaplin was born on April 16 1889, in East Street, Walworth, London. His parents, both entertainers in the Music Hall tradition, separated before he was three. The 1891 census shows his mother, Hannah, living with Charlie and his older brother in Barlow Street, Walworth. As a child he lived with his mother in various addresses in and around Kennington Road in Lambeth, such as 3 Pownall Terrace, Chester Street and 39 Methley Street. His father Charles Chaplin Senior, who was of Roma ancestry, was an alcoholic and had little contact with his son, though Chaplin and his brother briefly lived with him and his mistress, whose name was Louise, at 287 Kennington Road (which address is now ornamented with a plaque commemorating Chaplin's residence here) when his mother was on a bout of mental illness and was admitted to the Cane Hill Asylum at Coulsdon. Louise sent the young Chaplin to Kennington Road school. Chaplin's father died when Charlie was twelve, leaving him and his older half-brother, Sydney Chaplin, in the sole care of his mother. A serious condition in the larynx ended their mother’s career as a singer and her first crisis was when she was performing "La Cantina" at the Aldershot theatre, mainly frequented by rioters and soldiers, one of the worst places to perform. Lily was badly injured by the objects the audience mercilessly threw at her and she was booed off the stage. Backstage, she cried and argued with her manager. In the meantime, Chaplin went on stage alone and started singing a very well known tune at that time (Jack Jones). At the early age of five, he attracted a constant stream of coins that the very same difficult and ruthless audience hurled at the talented artist, born before their very eyes. Hannah Chaplin suffered from schizophrenia, and was again admitted to the Cane Hill Asylum. Chaplin had to be left in the workhouse at Lambeth, London, moving after several weeks to the Central London District School for paupers in Hanwell. The young Chaplin brothers forged a close relationship to survive. They gravitated to the Music Hall while still very young, and both proved to have considerable natural stage talent. Chaplin's early years of desperate poverty were a great influence on the characters and themes of his films and in later years he would re-visit the scenes of his childhood deprivation in Lambeth. Unknown to Charlie and Sydney until years later, they had a half-brother through their mother, Wheeler Dryden, who was raised abroad by his father. He was later reconciled with the family, and worked for Chaplin at his Hollywood studio. Chaplin's mother died in 1928 in Hollywood, seven years after being brought to the U.S. by her sons. Although baptised in the Church of England, Chaplin was an agnostic for most of his life. [2]
