A quote from Charlie Chaplin about his father

Charlie Chaplin Quote

“I was hardly aware of a father, and do not remember having him lived with us. He too was a vaudevillian, a quiet, brooding man with dark eyes. Mother said he looked like Napoleon. He had a light baritone voice and was considered a very fine artist. Even in those days he earned the considerable sum of forty pounds a week. The trouble was that he drank too much, which Mother said was the cause of their seperation.

It was difficult for vaudevillians not to drink in those days, for alcohol was sold in all theaters, and after a performer’s act he was expected to go to the theatre bar and drink with the customers. Some theaters made more profit from the bar than the box office, and a number of stars were paid large salaries not alone for their talent but because they spent most of their money at the theatre bar. Thus many an artist was ruined by drink – my father was one of them. He died of alcoholic excess at the age of thirty-seven.”