Wednesday, January 7, 2015

'Cardo', Spanish Chaplin imitator

Excellent footage circa 1918 of a very funny fellow can be found here.  A great clown and acrobat, performing on the street and with other actors.




Leonard Doogood




















(ca. 1893-1973) Charlie Chaplin impersonator, filmmaker, artist, inventor, journalist

Leonard Joseph Doogood started out his entertainment career as an Adelaide-based Charlie Chaplin impersonator. In 1916 he made a cameo Chaplin appearance in a short film about Penfold’s vineyard, and the following year toured a Chaplin act around regional South Australia (billed as Leonard Doogood and Dot). He wrote and directed Algie’s Romance for the South Australian Feature Film Co in 1918 before being offered a contract in New Zealand in 1921 to make several pseudo-Chaplin films and to promote the real comedian’s actual films (this included live performances during screenings). Doogood also impersonated Chaplin in Vanbrugh-Boucicault’s hit production of the comedy Aren’t We All (1924), before turning to journalism in the mid-1920s.