Every time I run into my next-door neighbor with
his dog, Tango, I think of doing this newsletter.
Somewhere on the Discover Chaplin
website it says that the tango was Charlie’s
favorite dance step and since reading that, I’ve
wanted to dig more into that claim and flesh it
out a little bit. We all know that Charlie Chaplin
is reputed for his grace and balleticness, which
is not surprising, really, when you consider that
clog dancing was one of his earliest sources of
remuneration. So, he’s often mentioned in the
same breath with styles of dance like ballet,
which he commemorates in the dream sequence of
Sunnyside (1919) and in the whole of
Limelight (1952), for instance, or the
waltz, for which he commands some attention (albeit
comic attention) in important scenes in The
Count (1917) and, of course, in The Gold
Rush (1925). But what of the tango? Countless
aspects of Charlie’s life have been captured on
film, of course, in newsreels, in cameos—such
as in Turner Classic Movies’ recent airing of
Souls for Sale (1923)—and in his own
many films, but I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure
of seeing him dance seriously in any of them and
certainly not dancing the tango. This may not
seem like a big deal, except that the reports
of his performances make it so.
 You
may be saying to yourself, yes, but she’s
forgotten Tango Tangles, released
by Keystone Studios on March 9, 1914.
True, the name suggests that we, the viewers,
may be treated to some sort of tango-related
antics in this film, but, in fact, the
“tangles” usurps the “tango” in importance
here. As Thierry Georges Mathieu writes
in Revue no. 4 of his La
Naissance de Charlot series, “These
last tango scenes are the only ones in
the entire movie …which it ironically
takes its name from. The title seems to
have been chosen for commercial purposes,
more so to attract an easy audience looking
for new thrills rather than dealing, whether
favourably or not, with this popular dance
which was controversial at the time.”
(21).
But what exactly is a tango and how would
we know whether or not it was being exhibited
in Tango Tangles anyway? I like
ballroomdancers.com’s
simple definition, because I think
it says a lot. The tango is a dance in
2/4 time, originally from Argentina, and
is “characterized by catlike walking action
and staccato head movements.” Sounds like
the perfect dance step for a consummate
pantomimist! In fact, the tango had only
entered the United States and its consciousness
a few years before this film. The 1920
book, Handbook of Ball-Room Dancing,
by Paymaster-Commander A. M. Cree, RN.,
of all people, notes that “In 1912--13,
when the ‘Tango’ first came among us,
expositions were given on nearly every
music-hall, with the result that a few
self-styled experts were rushing up and
down drawing-rooms, executing vigorous
half-moons, scissors, and introduced mattchiche
steps into their 
gyrations, with the result that the dance
was immediately voted ‘taboo.’”(8-9).
Dancers Irene and Vernon Castle, who often
demonstrated their talents on the Broadway
stage are given credit by some for the
step’s introduction here; others claim
it was New York City dance instructor
Maurice Mouvet who brought it back from
his Paris vacation. Whatever circumstances
surround its introduction, however, the
tango’s exotic and intoxicating allure
failed to be squelched even by the advent
of World War I, a fact that probably predicted
its continuing popularity today.
Chaplin
himself began to be known for his tango
prowess in the early 1930s.  The press
coverage of his European tour included
a flurry of articles on his skill, especially
after he had met up with May Reeves, a
self-proclaimed acrobatic dancer, on the
French Riviera in June 1931. The San
Diego Blade reported on June 30th
that
wearing the French Legion of Honor
in his coat lapel, Charlie Chaplin and
his Austrian brunette find, Mary [sic]
Reeves, showed the interested spectators
at the Casino how the tango should be
tangoed. . . . Every night for weeks
he has been dining at a little table
for two in the center of the outer rim
of the dance floor of the Juan-Les-Pins
Casino and facing the two orchestras
and the stage between them. “I prefer
tangoing to any other form of dancing,”
he told a reporter. “It is the most
graceful dance of all and Spanish and
Argentine music has more expression
than all jazz in the world.”
From May’s own account in Charlie
Chaplin intime (1935), it appears
that the tango entered into their conversation
within the first few minutes after their
initial meeting:
“Can you tango?”
“The tango is my trade. […]
“Come into the next room; we’ll dance.”
(Constance Brown Kuriyama translation
19)
Although May claims in this memoir
that Charlie suggested to her that “In
America they have no idea what a tango
is” (20), still, Charlie had found a
graceful partner for his avocation in
Georgia Hale, his leading lady in The
Gold Rush. Her first experience
with Charlie outside the studio occurred
in the company of soon-to-be-director
Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast at the dining
room of the Grant Hotel in Los Angeles,
just after The Gold Rush had
wrapped production. Her account of it
in Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-ups
(1995) is both poignant and telling: 
“His favourite dance was the tango.
He requested the band to play . . .
“La Cumparsita.” Not even Valentino
could have out-danced Mr. Chaplin this
evening. He was inspired and danced
like a native Argentine performer. His
contra-shoulder movements made his Gaucho
steps dramatic. He bent his knees and
straightened them, making the exhibition
sensuous and cleverly punctuated. It
was thrilling and yet he was so easy
to follow, so subtle and firm was his
‘lead.’” (92)
 But
as with most things Chaplin, this isn’t
the whole story. Charlie’s interest and
expertise in the tango was reflected back
to him in an unusual way. At the height
of the initial tango craze in North America
in the 1920s, tangos with Little Tramp
themes were coming out of Argentina. The
two examples of sheet music I have of
these tangos are elaborately adorned with
folk art renditions of the Little
Tramp in one of his film manifestations—as
he is in A Dog’s Life (1918)
for the tango “La Perra de Chaplin” (the
female dog of Chaplin) and as he is in
The Idle Class for the tango
“El Atorrante* (Carlitos)” (the tramp
[Charlie]). Perhaps if Charlie knew about
these particular tangos and their attendant
Little Tramp art, it would have solidified
his passion for the dance even more. Who
knows? But actually, the fact that as
the overused phrase tells us, “it takes
two to tango” is more interesting to think
about in terms of Charlie Chaplin, a reputed
lone and often irascible figure off-camera
and a lone and alienated one on, who shows
in this choice of preferred dance-step
evidence that contradicts both of these
characterizations once again.
*Note that “el Atorrante” is specifically
an Argentine word.
Reader Comments
I thoroughly enjoyed browsing through the
Discover Chaplin website, you've done a great job. I was especially pleased
when I came across the archived "Tango Entanglement" newsletter, V.3 #2.
I am Bob Skiba, a dance historian and I direct a dance company in Philadelphia called
"Mixed Pickles." We perform American
social dances from the colonial period through the 1930s, with a delightful set of ragtime
era dances. I refer to Chaplin every time we present dances of that period. There is much
evidence that his characteristic "turned out" walk was modeled on the ragtime dance step
called the "duck waddle." Whether that's true or not, contemporary audiences would have
recognized the similarity. Do take a look at "Tillie's Punctured Romance" with the incredible
Marie Dressler. After she inherits her uncle's money she gives an elegant "soiree" at her
new mansion. At the high point of the party hired exhibition dancers descend a staircase and
perform a graceful ragtime onstep or waltz (it's hard to tell what meter the bandleader is conducting in).
Exhibition dancers were extremely popular and fashionable additions at private and public events.
When they are done, Maries gives Charlie a "We can do better than THAT!" look, runs upstairs and
changes into her "dancing frock," then the two of them do a hilarious burlesque of the exhibition dancers.
It's worth a look if you're interested in Chaplin's relation to ragtime and later jazz dance.
Thanks so much. Bob Skiba Philadelphia, PA
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