The Day Charlie Chaplin and Aeronaut Tiny Broadwick came to Los Angeles Harbor by Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D.
The Day Charlie Chaplin and Aeronaut Tiny Broadwick came to Los Angeles Harbor
by Geraldine Knatz. Ph.D.
Is that Charlie Chaplin in Los Angeles Harbor? Yes! And he’s wearing a dress! He was there filming the first of three movies where he impersonated a woman. “A Busy Day” was shot amid the backdrop of the April 11, 1914 Harbor Day Celebration at the Port of Los Angeles. It was a busy day for the City of Los Angeles too. The City was celebrating the opening its first wharf at Pier A in Wilmington, just in time for the Panama Canal opening. Thirty thousand people attended the event. The agenda not only included an address by Los Angeles Mayor Henry Rose, but the Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Many of the spectators, however, were there to witness aerial feats by aviation pioneer Glenn Martin, not to listen to speeches. Martin would drop Tiny Broad wick, the first woman of parachuting, from a height of 1000 feet into the harbor. Nicknamed Tiny, for her diminutive size at just over 4 feet and 85 pounds, she was the first woman to ever parachute from an airplane.
A two-hour parade was planned but parade goers who came with vehicles decided to join in the festivities extending the parade by another two hours.
The entire 6 minute movie, however, was shot in just two hours. It was a simple plot: Husband and wife (Chaplin) watch a parade. Wife) notices husband’s attention to another woman. Wife gets jealous. Wife goes crazy, knocks over policeman and film-maker. Wife winds up taking a dunk in the harbor.
Tiny Broadwick with pilot Glenn Martin. Before she began parachuting with Glenn Martin, she would jump from a swing attached to a balloon.
While not worthy of an Oscar, it memorializes a significant event in Los Angeles history. The director Mack Sennett often used events as backdrops for his movies. A program for the event has been preserved, but only the film captures the excitement of the city’s parade of bands, officials and autos. In the background, one can glimpse WWI era ships in the harbor. Unfortunately Tiny’s feat is not recorded on the film.
The opening of the wharf in Wilmington was the culmination of a long running- battle between officials in city hall and the Los Angeles Harbor Commission. Although the city had wanted to open its larger pier in the outer harbor, conflict between city and harbor official delayed that opening. Surprising the big debate was over concrete! Should the City build the wharf and its warehouse of wood or concrete? To finish in time for the opening of the Panama Canal, the wharf and warehouse in Wilmington was constructed of wood.
Shed No. 1 on Pier A in Wilmington under construction, the only municipal warehouse available when the Panama Canal opened.
If you would like to watch A Busy Day, it is available for viewing:
For more stories about the history of the Port of Los Angeles, see Geraldine Knatz’s new book, Port of Los Angeles, Conflict, Commerce and the Fight for Control.
With years of research and more than 200 maps and images, Geraldine Knatz shapes an insightful story of the Port of Los Angeles, from its early entrepreneurs to the city’s business and political leadership, and the inevitable conflicts that arose between them. Knatz digs into the back stories of the key players in a hardcore, well-documented piece of storytelling at its best. Port of Los Angeles matches a topic—the history of Los Angeles Harbor—with someone of unquestionable authority to tackle the subject. Knatz worked nearly four decades at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, her last eight years as Executive Director at Los Angeles. In this remarkable book, her expertise shows. Port of Los Angeles reads like a script for another Chinatown, only this time it's about saltwater and controlling the waterfront, not drinking water and controlling the land. Knatz takes readers on a journey that will educate and inspire, and fills these pages with real-life intrigue, masterminds, and politics extraordinaire. Port of Los Angeles will leave the world's maritime aficionados spellbound and historians in awe. A must-read for anyone who treasures the history of Los Angeles. "The Port of Los Angeles made this city. This very well might be "The Study" of what made modern Los Angeles." —William Deverell, Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West