Canuplin: The Phil’s ‘Little Tramp’

All his life, Canuplin idolized ‘The Little Tramp,’ as Hollywood’s Charlie Chaplin was known. His real name was Canuto Francia and the showbiz name Canuplin was a coinage from Canuto and Chaplin.

As a young boy in Tondo, he’d sneak out from school to watch Chaplin’s silent movies and then imitate his acts. His favorite pastimes made his hard life bearable.

Young Canuto’s mother died when he was barely 10 and his father remarried, forcing him to drop out of school and work in odd jobs like shoe shine boy and houseboy.

Lady Luck smiled at the young man when, dressed in ‘The Little Tramp’ costume, he won the district’s parade. He worked in bodabil doing Chaplin acts. The director, Lou Borromeo, billed him as ‘Charlie Chaplin of the Philippines.’ Those were heady days in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, performing with the likes of Patsy and Bayani Casimiro in Lyric Capitol and Life. His Chaplin-like antics — in apt costume, fumbling and bumbling, magic tricks falling flat on his face — went big the bodabil crowd.

After World War II, in the ’40s, he also tried the movies, among them Ibong Adarna, directed by Vicente Salumbides and topbilled by Fred Cortez. He also appeared onstage, in town fiestas, all over the Philippines. Canuplin provided his large family with a comfortable life.

In the late ’60s, his magic acts lost much of their attraction. Younger magicians with more dazzling acts entered the scene. Fewer and fewer invitations to do magic came. The pay was much less, at times he was even gypped of the few hundreds he was supposed to receive.

Canuplin took them in stride even it meant coming home with an empty pocket to his family in Tondo, where he lived in rundown apartment.

His last movie (1977) was Celso Ad Castillo’s Burlesk Queen, where Vilma Santos danced as she was bleeding. In between the sexy numbers, Canuplin did his magic acts. But the all-male audience was not interested. The camera showed Canuplin walking out slowly of the theater, his head bowed, sadness written all over his face.

As they say, the party’s over. — RKC