CHAPLIN (CHARLIE) Playbill for 'Sherlock Holmes', Wolverhampton, Whitehead Bros, Theatrical Prin...

CHAPLIN (CHARLIE) Playbill for 'Sherlock Holmes', by William Gillette and A. Conan Doyle, Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, 14 September 1903, one page, discolouration and marks, some tears and creasing, frayed at edges, loss of blank margin near initial 'S' of title, 745 x 250mm., Wolverhampton, Whitehead Bros, Theatrical Printers, [1903] Footnotes: RARE PLAYBILL FROM CHAPLIN'S EARLY ACTING DAYS - one of the earliest survivals of his name in print. Charlie Chaplin was just 14 years old when he took the part of Dr Watson's pageboy, Billy, in Sherlock Holmes, a 'hitherto unpublished Episode in the career of the great Detective'. It premiered in 1899 in London with William Gillette in the lead role and enjoyed a UK tour from 1902 to 1905 with H. A. Stainsbury as Sherlock Holmes, '...a living replica of the illustrations in the Strand Magazine...' (Charles Chaplin, My Autobiography, 1964, p.81). After the death of his father in 1901, the family struggled to make ends meet and Charles and his brother Sydney took to the music hall stage as actors and comedians, with Charlie part of a clog dancing group called 'The Eight Lancashire Lads'. Chaplin writes how he got the role after signing up to Blackmore's theatrical agency and was offered what seemed an enormous salary of two pounds ten shillings a week '...No longer was I a nondescript of the slums; now I was a personage of the theatre...' (Chaplin, p.77). Although his first part through Blackmore's was as Sammy the newspaper boy in Jim which ran for just two weeks, it was Frohman's production of Sherlock Holmes which truly marked the beginning of his professional career. In his autobiography he vividly describes the tough and lonely life with a touring company whilst his actress mother was in a mental asylum, but he continued in the role when Frohman sold the rights to a smaller company. He soon left the company, however, to join William Gillette in The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes, his West End debut, which led to his association with Fred Karno and fame and fortune in America. The Grand Theatre Wolverhampton opened in 1894. Designed by the prestigious theatre architect Charles J. Phipps it held an audience of over two thousand. '...During the opening years of the twentieth century, the Grand played host to icons of stage, screen and the political arena, both established and yet to leave their mark on the world. One such character was Charlie Chaplin, who made the most of his role as a pageboy... through a series of elaborate practical jokes at the expense of the cast and crew! The great Victorian actor Sir Henry Irving appeared in four plays during 1903, and future Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed a male-only audience as president of the Board of Trade in 1909, though his speech was interrupted by an enthusiastic group of suffragettes...' (Wolverhampton Grand website). We have traced no other copy of this playbill, beyond a partial reproduction on the theatre's web site. Provenance: Max Reinhardt (1915-2002); his daughter and god-daughter of Charles Chaplin, Veronica Reinhardt (b.1964), the present owner. Proceeds from the sale will benefit MaxLiteracy (www.maxliteracy.org), a charity and educational initiative set up in memory of Max Reinhardt and his authors to stimulate literacy through the visual arts in partnership with museums, galleries, schools and writers. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing