Considered by many the greatest comedian of all time, Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. was born on April 16, 1889. in London. The second child of English music hall entertainers Charles and Hannah Chaplin, he made his first appearance on stage at age 5. His father's alcoholism and mother's mental instability led Chaplin to forge a close relationship with his older brother, Sidney, in order to survive.

Theirs was a Dickensian childhood. They spent time in a workhouse in south London before moving to the Central London District School for paupers. However, both of them proved to have considerable natural stage talent, and they gravitated to the music hall while still very young. These early years of desperate poverty were a great influence on Chaplin's characters as he matured as an actor, writer and director. Major themes in his films often revisited the scenes of this childhood deprivation.

Chaplin first came to the United States with the Fred Karno music hall troupe in 1910. Karno, a pioneer of what came to be known as slapstick comedy, usually is credited with the invention of the pie-in-the-face gag. Chaplin went back to England in 1912, but after five months there, he returned to the States for a second tour.

IN LATE 1913, film producer Mack Sennett hired him for his studio, the Keystone Film Co. Chaplin's first film appearance in Making a Living, a one-reel comedy released in 1914, was a success. But it was his next film, Kid Auto Races At Venice (1914), that changed his career. It marked the first time he was seen on-screen dressed as the "Little Tramp" character for which he became famous -- wearing baggy pants that he borrowed from comic film star Fatty Arbuckle; oversized shoes that belonged to comedian Ford Sterling; a tiny jacket lent by Keystone Kop Charles Avery; and a bowler hat that belonged to Arbuckle's father-in-law. He trimmed a false mustache -- borrowed from Mack Swain, the leader of the Keystone Kops comedy team -- and he trimmed it down to toothbrush size. In 1914 alone, Chaplin made 35 one-reel comedies, establishing this character as one of the most popular figures in the history of motion pictures.

In 1918, Charlie Chaplin, by then an accomplished comic actor and one of the first stars to emerge from Hollywood, assumed control of his own productions at First National Pictures. He built his own studio and ambitiously expanded his work to feature length. During his years at First National, 1918-1923, he created a body of work that remains beloved to this day, including the classic The Kid .

IN 1918, THE year after the United States entered World War I, he made a major contribution, at great personal sacrifice, to the war effort as a spokesman for Liberty bonds, in a lengthy national tour that included stops in Charlotte, N.C., Columbia, S.C., Augusta and Macon.

Before arriving in Augusta, the comedian had just completed a visit to Charlotte and Columbia. When Chaplin arrived in Columbia, thousands of people crowded the streets to see him pass from the Jefferson Hotel to the Columbia Theatre. He was preceded by a military band from Camp Jackson.

After his noon arrival by train in Augusta, he went directly to the Albion Hotel in the 700 block of Broad Street. (Destroyed by fire three years after Chaplin's visit to Augusta, the Albion Hotel was rebuilt and renamed the Richmond Hotel. Today, it is known as the Richmond Summit.)

From the Albion, he crossed Broad Street to Augusta's Wells Theatre (now known as the Imperial), taking the stage at 2:30 p.m. Chaplin announced to the overflow crowd he had not come to be funny, but that he was there to sell Liberty bonds. "If he didn't mean to be funny, he was in spite of himself," according to The Augusta Chronicle . "In some of his stunts, especially as he was directing the band, he almost made the audience believe they were at the movie, paying their nickel." Those in the large and expectant audience who planned to purchase bonds were asked to bring checks with them that were made payable to Chaplin who endorsed the checks with a flourish on stage. In due course, the cashed checks were returned to the bond purchasers, autographed, which made great souvenirs.

AT 4 P.M., CHAPLIN left the Wells and made an appearance at the base hospital to visit soldiers recovering from injuries. He gave a 10-minute talk to ward masters and enlisted men before being escorted by members of the Bohemian Club through the wards, distributing cigarettes.

After his visit with the convalescing soldiers and the appearance at the Wells, he was the guest of honor at a birthday dinner, hosted by Judge Henry Hammond at the Augusta Country Club. The day of his Augusta visit was Chaplin's 29th birthday. At the end of an exhausting day, he returned briefly to the Albion Hotel before departing with his entourage for Union Station and a 9:15 p.m. train to Macon.

His visit to Macon was followed by an even more successful appearance in Atlanta where, according to the Chronicle, "the takings ran just to $502,350" an extraordinary sum. In today's dollars that figure would be $5.7 million.

The day the Little Tramp came to town -- a special day in Augusta's history -- was April 16, 1918, exactly 90 years ago today.

(The writers are members of the Imperial Theatre's Board of Directors.)