Billie Reeves Makes His Film Debut

Charlie Chaplin achieved popularity on stage playing a drunk theater patron in the Karno troupe's classic "Mumming Birds" sketch.  The sketch was well established by the time that Chaplin stepped into the role, which had been originated by Billie Reeves when the sketch debuted in 1904.  It was due in no small part to Reeves' performance that the sketch became an immediate sensation.  The actors who succeeded Reeves in the role would have no doubt felt pressure to follow Reeves' example in order to assure the sketch's continued success.  Under the circumstances, it is conceivable for Reeves to have served as an early role model to Chaplin.

I considered Reeves' possible influence on Chaplin as I was looking through 1915 issues of The Moving Picture World and came across ads, notices and reviews for three short films starring Reeves.  The films, Counting Out the Count, The Substitute and The Clubman, happen to be the first three films made by the comedian.  Counting Out the Count, in which Reeves poses as a count at a society function, sounds much like a later film by Chaplin called The Count (1916).  The Substitute finds Reeves up to acrobatic tricks.  The comedian dons roller skates at a restaurant and, as he rolls across the floor, he collides with waiters, topples patrons, and becomes hopelessly entangled with other skaters.  No doubt remains from the plot description provided by The Moving Picture World that the film was a forerunner to Chaplin's The Rink (1916).  The plot of Reeves' The Clubman is described as follows:

He is the ridiculously inebriated man about town who is summoned home by his wife during the course of a wild night at his club.  He zig-zags homeward.  Billy's tour of inspection of his rooms leaves in its wake the desolation of an earthquake.  He is hard on the furniture and bric-a-brac.  He wanders to the music room and becomes entangled in a tiger-skin rug.  The thing coils itself around his leg and Billy's foot somehow gets between its jaws.  His wife, awakened by her husband's frenzied howls, hurries downstairs to encounter Billy deliriously endeavoring to escape the beast.  He finally succeeds and so frightens his wife with it that she scampers upstairs.  After battling with a pillow and becoming almost stifled by the clouds of feathers which rise from the scene, Billy silences the innocent chirp of the canary by eating him and, exhausted, falls into deep sleep.

This is the same basic plot that Chaplin later used in One A.M. (1916).  Chaplin, in his inebriated state, also does battle with a tiger-skin rug and other inanimate objects around his house.  These various actions make the films comparable though, admittedly, Reeves' battle with a pillow is less ambitious than Chaplin's battle with an entire bed.

It is possible that a tramp posing as a count, a bungler creating havoc on roller skates and a drunken man stumbling through his home were skit premises shared by many comedians in the English Music Hall.  Still, it was Reeves who brought these ideas in full form to the silver screen and it suggests that perhaps Chaplin looked to Reeves, in every sense a forebear, for inspiration at this early stage in his career.

In either case, it is a shame that prints of Reeves' films are rare and the comedian is largely unknown even to silent film comedy fans.  He deserves to be known just for the fact that he may have had the original Shemp haircut.  Just read the description of his hair style as described by Kalton C. Lahue and Sam Gill in Clown Princes and Court Jesters: "His long hair, parted in the middle and combed down around his ears, gave Billy a rather shaggy appearance, especially when he was excited."

In closing, here is a photo of Reeves in tramp garb.