studio through to the 1950s. Career Keystone As Charlie was negotiating his Keystone contract in Hollywood, he suggested Sydney be asked to join the company. Syd and his wife Minnie Chaplin arrived in California in October 1914. Syd made a few comedies there, including the "Gussle" comedies, and the comedy short A Submarine Pirate in 1915. Second to Tillie's Punctured Romance, this was the most financially successful comedy Keystone ever made. Charlie's business affairs Following this success, Sydney decided to leave the screen to negotiate Charlie a better contract. After getting him a $500,000 contract with Mutual on 27 February 1916, he got him his first million dollar ($1.25 million) contract on 17 June 1917 with First National Pictures. Soon he was handling the majority of Charlie's business affairs, in addition to further contract negotiation. Their sheet music business failed, but they were successful with a merchandising one. Sydney also appeared in a few films during the First National era, such as Pay Day and The Pilgrim. Sydney achieved his own million-dollar contract from Famous Players-Lasky in 1919, but a series of problems resulted in his making only one, failed, film, King, Queen, Joker (1921). He disappeared from the screen once again. Aviation During this period, Syd Chaplin's most important contribution may be in the field of aviation. In May 1919, he, along with pilot Emory Herman Rogers Jr., developed and launched the first privately owned domestic American airline, the Syd Chaplin Airline Company, based in Santa Monica, California. Although the corporation lasted only a year, in that time it established many "firsts." Syd and partners had the first airplane showroom for their Curtiss airplanes. It offered observation flights for $10 and round-trip flights to San Diego for $150. On 4 July 1919, the Syd Chaplin Aircraft Corporation began flights to Santa Catalina Island. Sydney Chaplin Aerodrome (Chaplin Airfield) was south of Wilshire and west of Crescent (now bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue, and San Vincente Boulevard). Emery H. Rogers conducted the first roundtrip Los Angeles to San Francisco flight in one 24-hour period. Charlie Chaplin took his first airplane flight in one of Syd's planes, as did many other notable figures of the period. Syd Chaplin got out of the aviation business after governments began to pass legislation regulating pilot licensing and the taxation of planes and flights. Roger's Field On December 29, 1920, Amelia Earhart was booked