Charlie Chaplin Contributions

In the 1931 film “City Lights”, Charlie Chaplin “opens our eyes”, so to speak, about how society values trivial elements of people over the deeper person by using blindness. In this film, Chaplin brilliantly mixes lighthearted comedy with deep and complex ideas about problems with society. Chaplin uses music, gags, and a genuine love connection to portray this point in multiple ways throughout the movie. Chaplin also took the bold step of not making a talking movie, even though they were available at the time, making the details in the pictures and sounds he was creating that much more important. What makes “City Lights” so special, and different from other comedies, is Chaplin’s natural blend of comedic scenes with tense and serious scenes. Chaplin weaved together a masterpiece that culminates in the end with the lady seeing who she fell in love with, which is also the moment Chaplin slaps the viewer in the face with the realization that the priorities in society are misguided and that the important things cannot be seen with the eye.

Charlie Chaplin’s (1931) City Lights, is one of the last silent films to be released in America, that was successful, as the age of the ‘talkie’ was beginning. He was one of the few great silent film stars to successfully continue his career. Chaplin uses a lot of symbolism of life in this film, using flowers, blindness, money and of course the Tramp.

After that he then moved to California where he began his company with his brother Roy Disney. In the partnership Roy focused on the business aspects while Walt focused on the creative aspects. The business began when they took out a small loan,

Louis Armstrong's diversity and adaptability is widely recognized as one of the most influential aspect in jazz music. Louis Armstrong's musical influence is still the fundamental base for modern jazz today. "Louis Armstrong is jazz. He represents what the music is all about.” — Wynton Marsalis perfectly sums up his contributions. His diversity sets him apart from other jazz artists because he managed to stay relevant throughout different musical eras like, the ENOJ era, The Swing Era, Blues etc., until the end of his career. The accomplishments he has achieved throughout his life and the hardships he has gone through has shaped his persona, contributing to how he will become as an artist. His instrumental style, singing, career throughout musical eras, accomplishments, and etc., contribute to how adaptable and diverse he is.

Charles Christopher Parker Jr. was born on August 29, 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas to Charles and Addie Parker. Charlie led a lonely childhood which resulted from his parents separation in 1927 when Charlie was just 7 years old. His father was never around much following the separation. Their house however was just a short walk from Kansas City's entertainment district which attracted Charlie while growing up. This was to be where Charlie would find his place in the world.

People said he should send me to mgm and he did Immediately I traveled for college and then I went back to New York and I got an interview with mgm.

Born on September 20th, 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland, Upton Sinclair led an interesting life. As a child he grew up in poverty under the parenting of an alcoholic father and very conservative mother. He attended and graduated from the City University of New York at the age of 18, and went on to become a writer, his subject being the social issues of society. His novels, although quite serious, did not do so well. Sinclair became strongly interested in socialism around the age of 21, which led to a rather amazing opportunity given his position in life as a failed writer.

She then looked at a newspaper ad and found a job that she thought she would like. Shortly after she found out that she was hired. Eventually, she had decided that she would take a six-week course at NYU to find out a little more about film editing. Soon after she had met Martin Scorsese who then asked her to help with an editing problem. In 1960 her official film career had begun when there was a limited number of women working within that career. She was asked to help edit a documentary for WQED in Pittsburgh and a short film for Paul Mc Cartney. She was also used as a supervisor and a consulting on many other films. After the films that she had edited she was being called by a numerous amount of directors asking if she would be able to help them with their complex movies that they were beginning to make. Many of the directors that had hired her would consider her one of the great contributors to the art of filmmaking. This was a great accomplishment for Thelma Schoonmaker because there were very few women in this profession who were recognized by the directors that she had been working with. She had eventually become apart of the union with the help of Martin Scorsese because he needed her help with cutting a film that he had just directed. Shortly after that, her career with Martin Scorsese

Astaire suffered a career setback in 1932. His sister Adele left dancing to marry. Soon after he decided to go to Hollywood to try to get into a film. Once there,

Luckily Orson Welles was taken in by a man named Maurice Bernstein, who fostered his passion for theatre. Despite his challenging upbringing Orson Welles still became one of the most, if not the most important face of our modern media. At only nineteen years old Orson Welles was already at the forefront

First, Williams gave us a historical understanding of what life was like during African slave- trade (18th-19th Century). White slave owners’ often sold and bought slaves; separating them from their African families. In the reading Williams provided journal inserts written by white slave owners, depicting slave trade exchange. Chaplin was a young slave owner that inherited his father’s “Tomblee plantation” he had seventy slaves. Chaplin was young and he led an extravagant lifestyle, consequently he was forced to sell some of his slaves. According to Chaplin “I never thought nothing would be driven to this very unpleasant extremity. Nothing can be mortifying for a man to select Negros to be sold (Williams, 2012).” Chaplin regretted selling

In 1923, Walt headed to Hollywood to make it big. He started out making advertisements for publishing and merchandising. He then began creating characters, some of them named Minnie, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Walt Disney decided to create his own animation studio which he called Laugh-O-Grams where he created his first animated film with the help of one of his brothers. They called this short film Steamboat Willie. Steamboat Willie was the first animated cartoon with sound to ever be created. Walt eventually married Lillian Bounds in 1925 and he bought his parent a home but the house he bought for them had a Carbon Monoxide leak and it killed his

Both Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin have a very disparate audience and appeal to different types of people. Charlie Chaplin's comedy is well suited for anyone who enjoys lively, cheerful and slapstick comedy. This is the majority of people, therefore Chaplin would have had a much larger audience. In a time period where there was war and the great depression, people would have probably gravitated towards Chaplin more than Keaton. Chaplin's “Little Tramp” image was far more recognized than Keaton's image.

When he turned fourteen, he got a break when he was asked to act in a legitimate stage show as “Billy” in “Sherlock Holmes”. Following that gig, at the age of eighteen, he started a career as a comedian in vaudeville (“Charles Chaplin” 100). In 1912 the troupe traveled to New York, where he was a featured player with the Fred Karno Repertoire Company. Mack Sennet, founder of Keystone Studios, saw him perform one night and decided to take him on at the Keystone Studio and offered Charlie a motion picture contract. Chaplin agreed to appear before the cameras at the termination of his vaudeville commitments in November of 1913 (“Biography of Charlie Chaplin”). He did not know it, but this would be the beginning of his legendary career.

The film remains Chaplin's one of the greatest achievements and it remains one of his popular film. (Back story source- Wikipedia)