It is one of the most famous moments in cinematic history: the instant when Charlie Chaplin, playing a sadsack hobo, becomes The Tramp. Walking down a country road, heartbroken, Chaplin picks up his legs and spirits, waddling into the future.

Chaplin actually debuted the comic hobo one hundred years ago in 1914, as WNYC noted. But it's in the 1915 movie The Tramp that he completed his transformation. Within the year, he was nationally famous.

Working on a project for the Oakland Museum of California, I found out that Chaplin had filmed this moment not in Los Angeles, but outside the still-tiny town of Niles, California, which is technically part of Fremont.

Niles is the last Bay-side stop of highway 84, which runs from the Pacific right through Silicon Valley and over the Bay on the Dumbarton Bridge. There, a group of film buffs, archivists, and historians have been reconstructing Chaplin's time with the Chicago-based Essanay Film Manufacturing Company.

Led by David Kiehn, these locals opened The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum on the town's main drag, down from the motorcycle bar and up from the antique shops.

Essanay opened a cowboy-branch office in Niles to make movies with Broncho Billy Anderson, who became a model for future cowboy stars.