... who don't even know that they are the cast. You could do this sort of thing back before there were too many lawyers and too many laws. This is the first time that Chaplin dons the "Little Tramp" persona with his bowler, cane, tight coat, and baggy pants, although it was his second film.
He merely gets in the way of the crowd and the cameramen trying to film said Kid Auto Races at Venice, actually the Junior Vanderbilt Cup race. There is no evidence this race was held prior to or after 1914. Some carts had engines, some did not.
The point is, all of these spectators and relatives are very interested in the outcome of the race, as are the cameramen trying to photograph the event. And this obnoxious fellow keeps stumbling into the street, blocking their view, getting into the line of sight of the cameras, and spectators and cameramen keep pushing him out only to have him stumble back into the street and in the way.
Eventually some of the spectators are actually watching this clown and laughing at him rather than being annoyed. That was the magic of Chaplin even from the beginning. Notice that there are some cops around and that they have no guns, even in a semi-urban setting like this. Also note that they don't interfere with Chaplin. Did the director let the cops in on the joke, maybe give them a few bucks to let them make their movie and then leave? Maybe.
When you watch this, understand that until just a short time before, movies were just "actualities" - the filming of ordinary events such as people going to and from work and the tearing down of a building. Just the year before Chaplin had been a performer in music halls. His relationship to motion pictures was brand new.
This was shot in February 1914, six months before WWI begins and three years before America enters that war. Not quite two years after the sinking of the Titanic, just to give some perspective.
