Charlie Chaplin Cane - All Chaplin Films until 1940
Custom made in the UK
Charlie Chaplin has long been one of my favorite figures. Both as a creator and as his Tramp character, he has brought me endless joy. One Halloween, I decided to dress up as the Tramp. I got a cheap bamboo cane and clothes as close as I could manage and strutted around town, and people were delighted.
Some months later, I got a call from a local talent agency. They had heard that I did a good Chaplin impersonation and needed a Chaplin for a 20s-themed charity benefit. I have no idea who pointed them to me, but I was going to get paid to pretend to be Charlie Chaplin!
Now, I thought that I would be mingling and posing for pictures and the like. And I was. But after I arrived, I was informed that I would have to do a skit. I went on after an Al Jolson impersonator who was doing a rendition of "Mammy." Luckily, this is a town full of rich old white people, so I don't think there were any black people in attendance to be offended by a man in blackface at the end of the 20th century.
So it came to be my turn and I did a little bit of the bread roll dance which got no reaction... Clearly these people weren't really familiar with Chaplin's work and only knew him as an icon. So I had to resort to some solo slapstick (which is HARD). It worked, and people were laughing quite a bit. Remember when I said that I had a cheap bamboo cane? Well, at the end of my bit, I intended to hit the classic Chaplin pose with the bent cane. But when I did, the handle end snapped, the rest of the cane, which had been bent under pressure shot straight up into the air, I had the quick sense to do a pratfall when the cane broke, and the flying cane ended up landing perfectly on my back, as I rested my chin in my hand and strummed my fingers in a why-is-it-always-me manner. The crowd went NUTS, praising my accident as genius. I had the sense not to correct them.
At this point I had zero knowledge of the prop replicator community. But I was never happy with the accuracy of the cane. It was the best I could come up with at the time, but I always felt that if you were going to dress as someone, it should be as accurate as humanly possible. So, with a broken cane, I decided that the next Chaplin cane I bought was going to be RIGHT.
It wasn't until several years later that I came back around to Chaplin. I found a news story about one of Chaplin's canes being auctioned and the description ID'd it as Whangee Cane, as well as giving the dimensions. Doing a search, I found a gentleman in the UK who make custom walking sticks and who often used Whangee. I contacted him and had a cane made to the proper size and shape (the handle is not a full crook, I was determined to get that feature right). What I ended up with was a beautiful cane, perfect for Chaplin use, but with a metal point and horn crook end for durability. He was a craftsman and would not sell a cane without these, because it would not last. I can get behind that kind of pride in your work and I have never once felt anything but total admiration for this cane.
I regret to say that I have not been able to find this gentleman's site again, nor anyone else who seems to make canes like this one. Luckily, this one should last me the rest of my days.