Master Charlie Chaplin

Everyday Life
Victorian music hall song, written by Harry Boden, with music composed and sung by Charlie Chaplin's father, Charles Chaplin senior.

"In everyday life many marvels around fill us with a feeling of wonder profound. Often the heart aches and tears dim the eye as sad scenes in passing thro' life we espy. Poor wretches huddled on bridges at night, beggars who plaintively beg just a mite. These make us wonder! How can such things be in our Christian England so great and so free? Then see the swell in his carriage dash by; little he cares for the poverty nigh. He gives them nothing to save them from strife. These are the characters taken from everyday life."

How ironic that Charlie Chaplin's father sang this song knowing his own young son was in such poverty, one of the countless hungry waifs wandering the streets of London. That's why nobody curls up to sleep on a doorstop with such easy familiarity as Charlie Chaplin's 'Little Tramp.' Charlie learned his art the hard way on the tough streets of Lambeth with a never-ending hunt for food, dodging policemen, outwitting bullies and falling in love with pretty girls; all features of Charlie's silent films.

So why did millions of people love the cheeky 'Little Tramp' in his threadbare suit and dusty old boots? We can thank Charlie's mother, Hannah, for she always taught her sons to be distinguished; which explains the famous hat, cane and gloves - hallmarks of a gentleman - soaked into Charlie's mind as he observed them on the streets of his childhood days...