Cantar vagabondo. Charlie Chaplin, il cinema muto e la canzone

The production of songs about beloved film stars was one of the earliest commercial ways of exploiting cinema. Such songs were aimed at amateur musicians, but they were also used in shows and performances. They are consequently important sources of knowledge about the audience and context of early cinema. Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp was the character that this repertoire celebrated the most. The many songs about him usually focus on one of three main topics: his funny walk, his capacity to use comical attitudes to induce laughter and his seductivity abilities, especially for female members of the audience. This article describes how the Tramp is portrayed in such songs. It outlines the image of this character as it was constructed by the interaction between the market and the audience in the 1910s. The analysis suggests that the songwriters used the Tramp as an almost abstract icon to both attract buyers and to talk about the general experience of going to the cinema. It is the latter, which reveals itself to be the real “attraction” at the core of those songs.