charlie chaplin started acting in shows when he was 8
the film was mabels strange predicament but the tramp character as it became known debuted to audiences in kid auto races at venice  shot later than mabels strange predicament but released two days earlier on 7 february 1914
 chaplin intended it to be a starmaking vehicle for edna purviance and did not appear in the picture himself other than in a brief uncredited cameo