The Telegraph & Argus celebrates it 150th anniversary this year and in honour of the occasion we are printing a story from our archives every day for 150 days.

Today we look at the Yorkshire Observer Monday March 12, 1956: On Saturday evening at five o’clock the greatest comedian of the century got off a diesel train in Bradford Exchange Station and walked, unheralded and completely alone, into the Victoria Hotel, looking for somewhere to have a quiet meal. Upstairs however, a dinner-dance organised by the Bradford Union of Journalists was just beginning and as one journalist passed the door of the grill-room, he did a swift double take and Mr. Chaplin’s temporary period of obscurity was ended. Racing down the stairs to the dining room there was soon a flurry of photographers, all of whom were supposed to be off-duty. Talking quickly, in his light, precise voice, about his reasons for being in Bradford, he said; “I’ve been to Switzerland to see my wife and my children, and I have some time to spare before I start to make my new film in England, so I thought I’d just come up here to look around.” Describing it as a kind of sentimental pilgrimage, he noted that Bradford had greatly changed since his visit in the 1900’s, and he loved the new Town Hall bells with their pretty tunes. He then finished the night off by autographing and drawing on the back of a £5 note of his own, for charity.