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1917 CHARLIE CHAPLIN IN THE MOVIES No. 316Complete 20-Page Edition – M. A. Donohue & Co. – Essanay – Early E. C. Segar / Popeye Connection
Offered here is an exceptionally scarce original 1917 Charlie Chaplin in the Movies, No. 316, published by M. A. Donohue & Co., Chicago, by arrangement with the Essanay Company.
This is the complete 20-page version of this oversized oblong comic-strip painting/coloring book. The title was issued in more than one pagination: bibliographical records document both a 20-page version and an expanded 32-page version. Heritage sales likewise identifies the 20-page edition, measuring approximately 9.75 x 15.75 inches, and specifically catalogs it as containing E. C. Segar art.
This is much more than an antique Charlie Chaplin coloring book. It is an important early crossover artifact connecting silent cinema, Charlie Chaplin, newspaper comics, children\'s activity books, celebrity merchandising, and the formative career of E. C. Segar, who would later create Popeye.
Publication Information
Title: Charlie Chaplin in the Movies
Number: 316
Date: 1917
Publisher: M. A. Donohue & Co., Chicago
Copyright: J. Keeley
Licensed: By arrangement with Essanay Company
Format: Oversized oblong illustrated wrappers / stapled comic and painting book
Pagination: 20 pages – complete 20-page edition
The individual comic strips carry earlier 1915 and 1916 J. Keeley / Essanay copyright notices, reflecting the newspaper-strip material that was subsequently collected into this 1917 publication.
Historical Importance
Charlie Chaplin in the Movies belongs to the extremely early period when newspaper comics, motion pictures and celebrity merchandising were beginning to intersect.
The underlying feature, Charlie Chaplin\'s Comic Capers, debuted in March 1915 and ran through 1917. It was an early example of an American comic strip built around the popularity of a motion-picture celebrity. The feature was produced through the Keeley syndication operation and appeared in the Chicago Herald.
The comic depicts Chaplin\'s famous screen persona in a succession of short slapstick adventures involving policemen, trains, restaurants, animals, courtship, fighting, practical jokes, accidents and other visual situations ideally suited to the physical comedy associated with silent film.
The individual strips are presented in horizontal sequential panels, many surrounded by borders suggestive of motion-picture film, making the format particularly appropriate to its movie-star subject.
Today the book is of interest not only to Chaplin collectors but also to collectors of Platinum Age comics and pre-Golden Age comic publications.
Charlie Chaplin Biography
Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889–1977) was one of the defining figures of early motion pictures and one of the most internationally recognizable entertainers of the 20th century.
Born in London, Chaplin came from a theatrical family and endured considerable poverty during childhood. After establishing himself as a stage performer, he traveled to America and entered motion pictures with Keystone in 1914.
It was during these early films that the familiar Chaplin screen persona developed—the bowler hat, toothbrush mustache, cane, tight coat, oversized trousers and enormous shoes that became internationally associated with the Little Tramp.
Chaplin moved to Essanay at the end of 1914 and made his Essanay films during 1915. His Essanay period was crucial to his development from a popular slapstick performer into an increasingly sophisticated filmmaker and screen personality.
His enormous popularity generated an extraordinary range of Chaplin merchandise, including toys, dolls, sheet music, postcards and comic publications. Charlie Chaplin\'s Comic Capers emerged directly from this phenomenon.
The explicit “By arrangement with Essanay Company” statement appearing on the present publication provides a direct connection to this early period of licensed Chaplin merchandising.
Chaplin subsequently became an independent producer, director, writer, composer and actor responsible for such classics as The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times and The Great Dictator.
E. C. Segar – The Future Creator of Popeye
One of the most historically significant aspects of this book is its association with Elzie Crisler Segar (1894–1938).
Long before Popeye existed, the young Segar obtained his first professional cartooning assignment working on Charlie Chaplin\'s Comic Capers.
The feature had begun under another young cartoonist, Stuart Wallace Carothers, and passed through other hands following Carothers\'s death. Segar took over the feature in early 1916. His first Chaplin strip appeared on February 29, 1916; the daily feature continued into July, while Segar\'s Sunday Chaplin material continued longer.
Segar was only 21 years old and still at the beginning of his career. The Chaplin assignment is regarded as his first professional newspaper-cartooning job.
Segar subsequently created Thimble Theatre in 1919.
Ten years later, in January 1929, he introduced a rough, one-eyed sailor who was originally intended as a relatively minor character:
Popeye.
Popeye became so popular that he effectively took over Thimble Theatre and became one of the most recognizable comic characters ever created.
That makes Segar\'s Chaplin work fascinating to comic historians: it represents the work of the future creator of Popeye more than a decade before Popeye\'s debut.
Heritage sales\' catalog record for this exact 20-page No. 316 edition specifically credits E. C. Segar art.
Stuart Wallace Carothers – Original Comic Capers Artist
Charlie Chaplin\'s Comic Capers was originally created by the very young Chicago cartoonist Stuart Wallace Carothers in 1915.
Carothers established the basic newspaper-comic interpretation of Chaplin\'s screen character and produced the feature during its first year. His career was tragically brief: Carothers died in 1915, still only in his early twenties.
Following his death, the strip passed through the hands of cartoonists identified as Warren and Ramsey before eventually being assigned to Segar.
Because this 1917 Donohue volume collects material originating during the earlier years of the feature, bibliographical descriptions of Charlie Chaplin in the Movies attribute the cartoon material to Carothers and Segar. A specialist ABAA/ILAB bookseller catalogs the exact title accordingly as “[CAROTHERS, Stuart & SEGAR, Elzie (Cartoonists)].”
This listing does not claim that every individual strip in the book was drawn by Segar. The feature had several artists during its short life. Rather, this volume is a documented anthology of the Comic Capers material and the 20-page edition is specifically cataloged by Heritage as containing Segar art.
James Keeley and the Comic Strip
The strips repeatedly carry the statement:
“Copyright, 1915 [or 1916], by J. Keeley. By arrangement with Essanay Co.”
James Keeley was an important Chicago newspaper figure associated with the Chicago Herald. The Chaplin comic was produced through the Keeley-Handy Syndicate and published in the Chicago Herald, exploiting the enormous contemporary popularity of Chaplin\'s screen character.
The licensing arrangement with Essanay makes the publication particularly interesting as an example of the very early commercial relationship between motion-picture celebrities and newspaper comics.
M. A. Donohue & Co.
M. A. Donohue & Co. of Chicago was a prolific American publisher particularly associated with inexpensive popular literature and children\'s books.
Donohue repackaged Charlie Chaplin\'s Comic Capers material into oversized illustrated books during the 1910s, creating an unusual hybrid: part newspaper-comic collection and part children\'s painting book.
A bibliographical description of Charlie Chaplin in the Movies identifies it as a first edition published in Chicago in 1917 by M. A. Donohue & Co., J. Keeley and Essanay, and notes that the title was produced in both 20-page and 32-page versions. AbeBooks
The present example is the complete 20-page version.
“Instructions for the Little Artist”
One of the best surviving features of this copy is the original:
“INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LITTLE ARTIST”
page.
Rather than simply being a comic-strip collection, Donohue deliberately designed the publication so children could paint/color the comic panels themselves.
The instructions explain how to prepare and clean brushes, mix paints and combine the primary colors yellow, red and blue to produce additional colors.
This is particularly important when considering the coloring present throughout this example.
Several strips have been partially colored by an early owner, while others remain largely or completely uncolored.
The coloring represents the book being used for its originally intended purpose.
Although collectors generally prefer untouched examples, this is not random later coloring applied to a conventional comic book—the publisher specifically instructed the original owner to paint the illustrations.
It provides a fascinating surviving example of how these books were actually enjoyed by children more than a century ago.
Condition
Complete 20-page edition.
Original illustrated front and rear wrappers are present.
The front cover retains its wonderful period illustration of the Chaplin character in bowler hat, cane, oversized shoes and familiar comic pose.
The rear cover features an especially striking stylized Chaplin portrait surrounded by a dramatic radiating/lightning-bolt design.
This example shows substantial but understandable wear from more than a century of survival and its original use as a children\'s activity book.
There is general age toning; edge and corner wear; scattered edge chipping; small tears and creases; handling wear; and deterioration along portions of the oversized sheet edges. The spine/binding area has old tape reinforcement/repair.
Interior pages are toned and exhibit varying degrees of original-owner painting/coloring. Some sequences have considerable color applied while other portions remain largely untouched.
Despite the wear, the book remains an unusually substantial surviving example with both graphic covers, the instructional material and the complete 20-page contents present.
Please examine all photographs closely for the most accurate representation of condition.
Collector Significance
This is a remarkable crossover collectible combining Charlie Chaplin, Essanay silent-film history, Charlie Chaplin\'s Comic Capers, E. C. Segar\'s pre-Popeye career, Stuart Carothers, Platinum Age comics, early celebrity merchandising, children\'s activity books and early American motion-picture culture.
The book was published in 1917—more than two decades before the generally recognized beginning of the Golden Age of American comic books.
Most importantly for comic collectors, Heritage sales specifically identifies the 20-page edition of Charlie Chaplin in the Movies No. 316 as containing E. C. Segar artwork, connecting this fragile children\'s publication with the earliest professional period of the man who would later create Popeye.
A scarce survivor from the infancy of both celebrity comics and Hollywood merchandising, and a particularly interesting artifact from the formative careers of two giants of 20th-century popular culture: Charlie Chaplin and E. C. Segar.
