# Charles "Chic" Sale

Charles Partlow "Chic" Sale (August 25, 1885 – November 7, 1936) was an American actor, author and vaudevillian. He specialized in playing older men and rural characters. Not long before he died suddenly from lobar pneumonia, at age 52, he observed that "25 years ago he was playing the part of an 80-year-old man, but that in his middle age he was doing young men's parts. If I live to be 70, I expect to be Shirley Temple's biggest rival.”

## Early years

Sale was born in Huron, South Dakota, and raised in Urbana, Illinois. He was a son of Frank and Lillie Belle (née Partlow) Sale, and the brother of actress and writer Virginia Sale-Wren.

## Career

In 1920, after a tour wherein he played "rural parts", he was engaged by Christie Studios on Gower Street in Los Angeles. According to Grace Kingsley in the Jan. 28 edition of the Los Angeles Times, page II11,
   It has now been revealed that Chic Sale, currently performing at the Orpheum this week, will return to town as a Christie star once his present tour concludes in the middle of next month. His first film will be a five-reel adaptation of Irvin S. Cobb's The Smart Aleck, followed by starring roles in other well-known stories suited to his talents.
The item goes on to mention that Charles Christie, business head of the Christie studio, entered into a contract with Exceptional Pictures to produce the Sale film, to be distributed through Robertson-Cole, and notes Sale's occasional appearances in the Ziegfeld Follies and the Shubert Winter Garden shows. The movie was eventually named His Nibs, and co-starred Colleen Moore. Chic played many of the parts himself, the film being a spoof of the sort of "hick", backwater characterizations that were his specialty.
In 1929, inspired by a carpenter named 'Lem Putt' from his hometown of Urbana, Sale wrote The Specialist, a play about an outhouse builder. Because copyright infringement was widespread in Vaudeville, Sale enlisted the aid of newspaper political cartoonist, Roy James, to adapt The Specialist into a book. Mr. James' illustrations brought Chic's humor to life and the book enjoyed great success. Sale spent the next several months responding to fan mail. He wrote two more books, The Champion Cornhusker Crashes the Movies and I'll Tell You Why .
Sale had a career in Hollywood, appearing in various comic roles until his death from pneumonia in 1936. In contrast to his comic roles, one of his loftier appearances came as President Abraham Lincoln in 1935. The Perfect Tribute was a short film dramatizing Lincoln's disappointment at the meager reaction to his Gettysburg Address. He encounters a dying and blind soldier who, not knowing he is addressing the President himself, tells Lincoln how inspiring the speech was.
Although an obscure figure today, Sale was a well-known popular culture figure during the 1930s, and was often the subject of jokes by comedians like Groucho Marx, usually in reference to The Specialist. Chic is also mentioned as an aside late in the Marx Brothers film, Animal Crackers, in a conversation between Ravelli (Chico Marx) and Captain Spaulding. For many years—even after his death—"Chic Sale" was used as a euphemism for an outhouse. He is known to have found this unflattering, calling it "a terrible thing to have happen".

## Filmography

Twenty films are listed at Turner Classic Movies:
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1921 | His Nibs | Theo. Bender (segment "His Nibs") / Wally Craw / Mr. Percifer / Elmer Bender / Peelee Gear Jr. / Miss Dessie Teed / The Boy | |
| 1924 | The New School Teacher | Prof. Timmons | |
| 1927 | They're coming to get me | | Short |
| 1931 | The Star Witness | Pvt. Summerill | |
| 1932 | The Expert | Grandpa John T. Minick | |
| 1932 | When a Feller Needs a Friend | Uncle Jonas Tucker | |
| 1932 | Stranger in Town | Ulysses Crickle | |
| 1932 | Men of America | Smokey Joe Miller | |
| 1933 | Lucky Dog | Arthur Wilson | |
| 1933 | Dangerous Crossroads | Locomotive Engineer | |
| 1933 | The Chief | Uncle Joe | |
| 1934 | Treasure Island | Ben Gunn | |
| 1935 | The Fighting Westerner | Deputy Tex Murdock | |
| 1935 | It's a Great Life | Grandpa Barclay | |
| 1936 | Man Hunt | Ed Hoggins | |
| 1936 | Important News | Scoop Stevens with James Stewart as Corn | Short |
| 1936 | The Gentleman from Louisiana | Deacon Devlin | |
| 1936 | The Man I Marry | Sheriff Clem Loudecker | |
| 1937 | You Only Live Once | Ethan | final film role |