His Musical Career

Chaplin, 1914, Keystone: he and a partner (Mack Swain) are to deliver a piano to 666 Prospect and repossess one from 999. They mix the addresses. Directed by Chaplin. The piano on the stairs is the ancestor of every piano gag that followed, including The Music Box. It is a one-reeler about labor as slapstick, and the customer as a man who has not asked for this.