| Summary: | Charles Joseph Parrott of Baltimore, Maryland started out in vaudeville during the rough and tumble days in the first decade of the 20th century. Exactly 100 years ago this year, this young man fresh off the stage, started working at the Christie Film Company. During the next decade he worked as a juvenile lead, a gag writer and a comedy director. When he changed his name to Charley Chase and found himself featured in the Hal Roach's short comedies, he became one of the great geniuses and stars of Hollywood's golden era of silent comedy. As renowned as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd at the time, Chase easily matched them laugh for laugh. The always-dapper Chase specialized in portraying the pleasant common man with very common skills placed in the most uncommon of circumstances. Chase's best performances at the Roach studio were directed by the legendary Leo McCarey (Make Way for Tomorrow, Duck Soup) and featured great character actors of the day including Bull Montana, Max Davidson and the lovely Katherine Grant.
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