TIJUANA.- Look what we found online: A video shot by members of the Canadian Rotary Club, where it shows Charlie Chaplin enjoying a literal horse race in the long forgotten Agua Caliente Racetrack.

Apparently, this video was almost never recovered and quite extraordinary (even though it has been on YouTube for over two years), uploaded by user Hermesacat, who is a relative of one of the people you see in the recording. The video features Canadians from Ontario and members of Rotary International visiting Tijuana in 1935.

VIDEO:

Charlie Chaplin in Tijuana, 1935

The user tell us a bit about the video:

"This video consists of short 1930s film clips taken from a longer compilation of home movies shot mainly by one of my relatives, an uncle by marriage, whose camera it was."

"That uncle & his brother in law (my grandfather), plus my grandfather's brother (my uncle by blood) appear in this video along with a large group of other Canadian Rotarians (members of the Rotary Club, a.k.a. Rotary International, a service club), probably all from southwestern Ontario. Their Rotarian hats they wear have metal maple leaves on their left sides ID-ing wearers as Canadian Rotarians. They took a trip by train in Spring 1935 to the southwestern U.S. & Mexico. The trip's purpose was reportedly "to develop business ties, & have some fun." It looks like fun was a prime priority. The train trip was organized by The Border Chamber of Commerce, Windsor, Ontario."

This how he was able to get hold of these images. He describes what we see in the video, although apparently he didn't knew it at first:

"The first segment is film shot at Agua Caliente racetrack, Tijuana, Mexico, at least according to the author of a book on that racetrack who viewed the Youtube footage. But my cousin who edited these clips identified the racetrack as Santa Anita racetrack near Los Angeles."

Of course, any Tijuana native will immediately assure you that the video was filmed in the city, given that we can observe the Cerro Colorado hill and the rest of Tijuana's surrounding mountains way in the background:

"So, the annotation you see on the clip identifying it as Santa Anita may be wrong. Thanks go to youtuber, MC squared phrygian (David J. Beltran), author "The Agua Caliente Story" for what may be the correct information regarding the footage."

Now that we have clarified how this video was produced, and that it is in fact filmed in Tijuana, the user tell us about Chaplin visiting Agua Caliente:

"Charlie Chaplin appears for an 18 second cameo at the 0:39 minute mark. The Rotarians met Charlie at the racetrack & persuaded him to wear one of their special Rotarian hats they were all wearing with a checkerboard pattern design on the sides. Chaplin evidently was a good sport and let himself be filmed wearing the Rotarians' hat as he smiled and chatted (we need a lip reader to decipher what he says here)."

What happened later on, is just a suspicion. Hermescat points out that apparently Chaplin was watching the horserace from an exclusive booth, with a man by his side. As you watch the video you can see how they take the train back East, going trough El Florido, Valle Redondo and even go near Tecate.

Everyone talks about the "great celebrities" that visit Tijuana in the golden casino, horseraces and hotels era, but very few can mention someone aside from Al Capone. Now, you can rest assured that another film legend set foot in Tijuana; Charlie Chaplin.

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jose.sanchez@sandiegored.com

zyanya.figueroa@sandiegored.com