Charlie Chaplin won a special Academy Award for The Circus, a silent romantic comedy he wrote, directed, and starred in as his Little Tramp character.

Audiences loved how the film came out, but its production was full of disasters and personal trauma. Chaplin put it aside for years, but he added a musical soundtrack in the 1960s. That version will remain copyrighted, but we can run the 1928 silent version of The Circus as we like once it joins the public domain in 24 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown