Original subtitles

Hello, my friends. Welcome back to Storyline English.

Today, I want to tell you about a boy who had nothing.

No money, no home, sometimes no food.

But this boy became one of the most famous people in the world.

His name was Charlie Chaplin.

How did he do it?

Stay with me, and if you enjoy stories like this,

It was a cold evening in London, 1895.

A small boy sat on the street corner.

His name was Charlie Chaplin.

He was only six years old.

He was hungry. He was cold.

His clothes were old and dirty.

Charlie looked at people walking by.

They did not look at him.

Nobody stopped.

Nobody helped.

Charlie's life was very hard from the beginning.

His father left the family when Charlie was very young.

His mother, Hannah, tried to take care of Charlie and his brother, Sidney.

She was a singer.

She sang in small theaters.

But she did not earn much money.

Sometimes she could not work at all.

She became sick.

Her voice stopped working.

Without her voice, she could not sing.

Without singing, there was no money.

The family became very poor.

They moved from house to house.

Sometimes they had no house at all.

They slept on the streets.

Charlie was always hungry.

He wore the same clothes every day.

Other children laughed at him.

He felt ashamed.

He felt alone.

When Charlie was seven, something terrible happened.

His mother became very sick.

She could not think clearly anymore.

The government took her to a hospital for sick people.

Charlie and Sydney had no parents now.

They were sent to a workhouse.

A workhouse was a place for poor children.

It was not a nice place.

The children worked hard every day.

They cleaned floors.

They washed clothes.

They got very little food.

The rooms were cold.

The beds were hard.

Charlie hated it there.

But even in this dark time, something special happened.

Charlie discovered something inside himself.

He could make people laugh.

When the other boys were sad, Charlie made funny faces.

He walked in a silly way.

He told jokes.

The boys laughed.

For a moment they forgot their hunger.

They forgot their sadness.

Charlie felt something new.

He felt important.

He felt alive.

It was a sunny morning in London, 1903.

Charlie was now 14 years old.

He walked into a small theater.

The theater was looking for young actors.

Charlie was nervous.

His hands were shaking.

But he wanted this job very much.

He needed this job.

The theater manager looked at Charlie.

Can you act? he asked.

Can you make people laugh?

Charlie did not answer with words.

He started to move.

He walked like an old man.

Then he walked like a drunk man.

Then he pretended to fall.

The manager laughed.

You're good, boy.

You can start tomorrow.

This was Charlie's first real job in theater.

He was part of a comedy group.

They traveled around England. They performed in small towns and big cities.

Charlie learned everything about performing.

He learned how to move his body.

He learned how to use his face.

He learned that sometimes no words are needed.

Sometimes the body speaks better than the mouth.

The audiences loved Charlie.

He was small and thin, but on stage he was powerful.

He could make a whole room laugh without saying a single word.

He moved like water.

He was fast.

He was smooth.

People had never seen anything like him.

But life was still difficult.

Charlie earned very little money.

The group traveled in old trains.

They slept in cheap hotels.

Sometimes they performed three shows in one day.

Charlie was always tired.

But he never complained.

He knew this was his chance.

This was his way out of poverty.

Years passed.

Charlie got better and better.

He joined bigger theater companies.

He played bigger roles.

More people knew his name.

Then, in 1910, something happened that changed everything.

It was a gray morning in September 1910.

Charlie stood on a big ship.

The ship was leaving England.

It was going to America.

Charlie looked at the ocean.

He felt scared and excited at the same time.

An American theater company invited Charlie to perform in New York.

This was a huge opportunity.

America was the land of dreams.

America was where you could become somebody.

Charlie did not know what would happen.

But he knew he had to try.

When Charlie arrived in New York, everything was different.

The buildings were taller.

The streets were wider.

The people moved faster.

Everything was bigger, louder, brighter.

Charlie felt small again, like that little boy on the London streets.

But he did not give up.

He performed with a theater company across America.

They went to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and many other cities.

American audiences loved Charlie.

They laughed at his movements. They loved his energy.

They loved how he could tell a whole story without words.

Then, in 1913, something amazing happened.

A man from a movie company saw Charlie perform.

His name was Mac Sennett.

He made comedy films.

He saw something special in Charlie.

After the show, he came to Charlie.

I make movies, Mac said.

I want you to be in my films.

I will pay you $150 every week.

Charlie could not believe it.

$150 every week.

That was more money than he ever dreamed of.

But there was one problem.

Charlie had never made a movie before.

He knew nothing about cameras or film.

Would he be good enough?

Charlie thought for one minute.

Then he said yes.

It was a cold day in January 1914 in Los Angeles, California.

Charlie walked into Keystone Studios for the first time.

This was where they made movies.

He saw cameras, lights and actors everywhere.

Everyone was busy.

Everyone knew what to do.

Charlie felt lost.

His first films were not very good.

Charlie did not understand how to act for the camera.

In theater, you act big.

You move big so people in the back can see you.

But in movies, the camera is close.

You must act smaller, more natural.

Charlie had to learn everything again.

At first, the director told Charlie what to do.

Stand here.

Move there.

Do this.

But Charlie did not like that.

He wanted to create his own character.

He wanted to do something different.

Then, one day, the director told Charlie, We need to film in thirty

Go find a costume. Find something funny.

Charlie went to the dressing room.

He looked at all the clothes.

He picked a small jacket.

It was too small for him.

He picked big pants.

They were too big.

He found big shoes.

He found a small hat.

He found a cane.

He put on a small mustache.

Charlie looked in the mirror.

Something magical happened.

A new person looked back at him.

This person was poor but proud.

This person was small but brave.

This person was sad but funny.

This person...

had a good heart.

Charlie walked onto the set.

Everyone stopped and looked.

Then they started laughing.

The character was perfect.

This was the birth of the tramp.

This was the character that would make Charlie Chaplin famous around the world.

The tramp became Charlie's most famous character.

In every film, the Tramp was poor.

He wore the same old clothes.

He had no money.

But he always tried to do the right thing.

He helped people.

He fell in love.

He fought against bullies.

He made people laugh, but he also made them cry.

People everywhere loved the Tramp.

They saw themselves in him.

Everyone knew what it felt like to be small.

Everyone knew what it felt like to struggle.

But the tramp never gave up.

He always kept walking, even when life was hard.

That gave people hope.

It was a warm evening in 1915 in Los Angeles.

Charlie sat in his small apartment.

He read a letter.

The letter was from a big movie studio.

They wanted Charlie to make films for them.

They offered him $1 ,250 every week, plus a bonus.

Charlie read the number again.

$1 ,250 every week.

Just one year ago, he was earning $150 a week, and he thought that was amazing.

Now this.

Charlie signed the contract.

He made more films.

Each film was better than the last.

Charlie learned fast.

He was not just an actor anymore.

He started to direct his films too.

He controlled everything.

He chose the stories.

He chose the actors.

He chose how to film each scene.

He was becoming an artist.

His films became more popular.

People lined up outside theaters to watch them.

Children loved him. Adults loved him. Rich people and poor people all laughed

his films.

Charlie Chaplin became the most famous movie star in the world.

But Charlie wanted more than just laughs.

He wanted his films to have meaning.

He wanted to touch people's hearts.

So he started to add emotion to his comedy.

In his films, the tramp was still funny.

But now he was also human.

He felt joy.

He felt pain.

He felt love.

He felt loss.

In 1921, Charlie made a film called The Kid.

It was about the tramp who finds a poor child and takes care of him.

The film was funny, but it was also very emotional.

People cried when they watched it.

It was one of the first films to make people laugh and cry at the same time.

The film was a huge success.

Charlie was now more than a star.

He was a legend.

But success brought new problems.

It was a bright morning in 1919 in Hollywood, California.

Charlie sat at a big table.

Three other men sat with him.

Their names were Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D .W. Griffith.

They were all famous movie stars and directors.

They made an important decision that day.

They created their own movie studio.

They called it United Artists.

This was revolutionary.

Before this, big studios controlled everything.

They controlled the actors. They controlled the money. They controlled

films.

But now, Charlie and his partners were free.

They could make any film they wanted.

They could take their time. They could spend more money.

They could make art, not just entertainment.

For Charlie, this was a dream come true.

He could finally make the films he always wanted to make.

And he did.

In 1925, he made The Gold Rush.

It took him over a year to make this one film.

In the film, the tramp goes to Alaska looking for gold.

He faces cold, hunger, and danger.

There is one famous scene.

The tramp is so hungry that he cooks his shoe and eats it like a delicious meal.

People laughed, but they also felt his pain.

The film was beautiful.

It was funny.

It was sad.

It was perfect.

The Gold Rush became one of the greatest films ever made.

Then, in 1931, Charlie made City Lights.

This was a special time.

Other movies now had sound.

Actors talked.

They sang.

But Charlie did not want sound in his film.

He believed that the body and the face could tell the story better than words.

He was right.

City Lights had no talking, but it made people cry more than any talking film.

By now, Charlie was not just rich.

He was one of the richest people in entertainment.

He owned his own studio.

He controlled his own work.

He had complete freedom.

The poor boy from London Streets now had everything.

But the world was changing, and new troubles were coming.

It was a cold afternoon in 1940 in Hollywood.

Charlie was working on a new film.

This film was different. This film was political.

It was about a dictator who looked like Adolf Hitler.

The film was called The Great Dictator.

This was a dangerous film to make.

America was not at war yet.

Many powerful people did not want Charlie to make this film. They said it

too political.

They said it would cause problems.

But Charlie did not stop.

He believed this film was important.

In the film, Charlie played two characters.

One was a Jewish barber, very similar to the tramp.

The other was a cruel dictator.

At the end of the film, the barber gives a powerful speech about freedom.

kindness, and humanity.

When the film came out in 1940, it was a huge success.

People loved it.

But it also made Charlie many enemies.

Some people said Charlie was a communist.

They said he was dangerous.

They said he was against America.

This was the beginning of hard times for Charlie.

The US government started watching him. They investigated him.

They wanted to find something wrong.

The newspapers wrote bad things about him.

Some people called him a traitor.

In 1952, Charlie left America to visit Europe.

While he was away, the American government cancelled his visa.

They said he could not return to America unless he answered questions about his

political beliefs.

Charlie was shocked.

He lived in America for 40 years.

He made his greatest films there.

He became famous there.

Now they did not want him?

Charlie was hurt. He was angry.

He decided he would not return.

He moved to Switzerland with his family.

He said, I don't need America.

America needs me.

For twenty years, Charlie could not go back to America.

He continued making films in Europe.

But it was not the same.

He missed Hollywood.

He missed his friends.

He missed the place where he became Charlie Chaplin.

It was a special night in April 1972 in Los Angeles.

The Academy Awards ceremony was happening.

Something unusual was planned.

After 20 years, Charlie Chaplin returned to America.

He came to receive a special award for his lifetime work in film.

Charlie was now 83 years old.

He walked slowly onto the stage.

He was small and thin.

His hair was white, but his eyes were still bright.

When people saw him, they stood up. The whole room stood up.

They clapped.

They clapped for a long time.

Some people cried.

charlie stood there and looked at everyone he smiled he said only a few

thank you thank you so much that night was healing

america remembered why they loved charlie chaplin they remembered the joy

gave them they remembered the tramp they remembered the laughter they forgot the

politics they forgot the anger

Charlie returned to Switzerland.

He spent his last years there with his wife Una and their children.

He was happy.

He was peaceful.

He had a big family.

He had love.

He had memories of an incredible life.

On Christmas Day 1977,

Charlie Chaplin died.

He was 88 years old.

The world mourned.

Newspapers everywhere wrote about his death.

People shared their favorite Chaplin moments.

They watched his films again.

Charlie Chaplin left behind something precious.

He left behind films that still make people laugh and cry.

He left behind The Tramp, a character that everyone in the world knows.

He left behind proof that one person, even a poor boy from London streets,

Charlie Chaplin's story teaches us something important.

Life can be very hard. You can start with nothing.

You can face terrible problems.

But if you work hard, if you never give up, if you follow your passion, you can

create something beautiful.

You can touch millions of hearts.

You can become immortal through your art.

From the streets of London to the stages of America, from silent films to

eternal fame,

Charlie Chaplin walked a long road.

He walked it with dignity.

He walked it with humor.

He walked it like the tramp.

Always moving forward.

Always hoping.

Always human.

Thank you for listening to this story.

If you enjoyed it, please like this video.

And tell me in the comments, which historical story do you want to hear

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See you in the next story, my friends.