Charlie Chaplin would become the world’s biggest star, but the first emergence of the Little Tramp played second fiddle to…go-karts. The iconic character debuted in 1914’s “At The Kid Auto Races in Venice”. It was filmed on-location at an actual road race held in Venice, California that year, among a crowd who showed up to watch some auto racing and instead became extras in film history. A year after the film, Chaplin would have never been able to walk those streets unnoticed. A year after that, he would’ve needed bodyguards.

The Victor Military Band was a virtual revolving door of  about a dozen musicians led by Edward T. King, and were the first to record W.C. Handy’s classic “St. Louis Blues”.

Watch the whole film, all six minutes of it, right now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j2K3A1S5ak