Frank D. Williams
Frank D. Williams with his Aunt Em
I was contacted recently by a relative through marriage of Keystone cameraman Frank D. Williams, who had seen his credit in this website. She really didn't know a lot about her grand-uncle's movie career, but she did have a family story to share about the creation of the Tramp costume:
"Uncle Frank was sitting around talking with
Mack Sennett, Roscoe Arbuckle
and Charlie Chaplin. The guys were fooling around and while Mack was out of
the room, they dressed Charlie in some clothes of Roscoe's that were
obviously too large. They handed him a cane and one of them found a hat
that was as small as the clothes were too large. Charlie then began to
swagger around the room in a parody of an inebriated man. Mack came back
into the room and broke into laughter upon seeing Charlie. He immediately
insisted upon filming Charlie dressed as he was and thus, the character of
'The Little Tramp' was originated."
Yet another version of the Tramp creation legend. She asked for more details about William's movie days and I sent her this clipping from Brent Walker's amazing book "Mack Sennett's Fun Factory":
Now it's easy to confirm that Frank was indeed the cinematographer for Kid Auto Races in Venice California. Here are two well known publicity shots for the film:
