2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Tramp, the character created by Charlie Chaplin... In this centenary year, the Istanbul Toy Museum bought at an auction in the USA the Tramp toy that was Charlie Chaplin’s personal possession, which the artist can be seen playing with in photographs, and brought it to Türkiye.
The Istanbul Toy Museum has added to its exhibits another of the most valuable and unique toys in the history of toys. Constantly developing its collection since it was founded in 2005, the toy museum has become the owner of the one-of-a-kind toy of the Tramp, the character played by the famous film actor Charlie Chaplin, which was made for the artist and given to him as a gift.
The year 2014 is celebrated as the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Tramp. First appearing before audiences in the film “Kid Auto Races at Venice”, in which Charlie Chaplin starred in 1914, the Tramp quickly became famous and, as the years went by, took first place on the list of the immortals of cinema history. The Tramp doll, produced at the Schoenhut factory in the USA, was specially designed for the artist and given to him as a gift. In the 1920s, Charlie Chaplin put this much-loved Tramp toy up for sale for a charitable cause. At an auction held to raise money for building a nursery school, the Tramp doll was bought by Charlie Chaplin’s friend William Morris for 500 dollars, a fortune at the time.
After the deaths of Emma and William Morris, their heirs allowed the Tramp doll to be displayed at the Saranac Lake library to encourage a love of reading. The books borrowed by visitors who came to see Charlie Chaplin’s toy became a source of income for the library.
Having served first the building of a nursery school and then the habit of reading, the Tramp doll was given to a charity in the 1970s and found a new owner at an auction held there. In December 2013, the toy began to wait for a new owner at an auction held in Texas..
Of course, Charlie Chaplin did not know Sunay Akın, but we are sure he would have been very happy to hear that his toy, which he had to part with to build a nursery school, and which had been sold for a charitable cause and used to encourage a love of books, went to the museum that Sunay Akın founded in his country to strengthen and protect the love of play and toys.
The poet, writer, actor and museum founder Sunay Akın asked his close friend Ekmel Anda, who lives in New York, to follow the auction and buy the Tramp doll on his behalf, whatever the price. And so, in the 100th year of his birth, the Tramp’s toy arrived after a flight at the toy museum in Istanbul’s Göztepe district!
Speaking about the Tramp doll being brought to Istanbul, Sunay Akın said: ”For years I have not only been explaining the importance of museums in the history of democracy, but also trying to give my country concrete examples of it. Museums are the memory of a society. A country that cannot grasp the value of museums is like a person with Alzheimer’s: it neither knows where it has come from nor can it see where it is going. By bringing this special toy of Charlie Chaplin to our museum in the 100th year of the Tramp’s birth, we have once again turned the stage lights of the art world onto Istanbul. In his films, the Tramp always stood on the side of peace, of the wronged, of labour, love and brotherhood. How happy we are that the Tramp is now with us too. As the Istanbul Toy Museum, we are now even stronger in becoming an information society and in the values we are trying to bring to our country!”