Bohemian Writers and the Resurrection of the Little Tramp

Abstract

Three Bohemian artists, beginning with James Agee, are promoted as beginning the resurgence of Chaplin’s Little Tramp persona. James Agee is labeled the individual responsible for turning the tide, or at least, providing Chaplin’s restoration phenomenon a much-needed boost, mostly through his essay in the September 3, 1949 issue of Life magazine entitled “Comedy’s Greatest Era.” Peter D. Martin and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti were partners in the City Lights Pocket Bookshop in San Francisco, named after Chaplin’s 1931 film. Martin opened the store, then immediately launched his pop culture magazine, also named City Lights, within which he published his own impassioned plea for Chaplin’s re-ascendancy. Ferlinghetti, however, went one step further and adopted Chaplin’s Little Tramp character as his doppelgänger, a figure for the poet.