In the months following the film's release, as it circulated across the United States, many city and small-town newspapers, like "The Sentinel-Record" in Hot Springs, Arkansas, judged the short to be a "laugh", as yet another one of Keystone's "always good and boisterous comedies"; and they encouraged their readers to see it. The local paper in Chickasha, Oklahoma characterized "Making a Living" as "truly a scream from start to finish", while in Bemidji, Minnesota, the Majestic Theatre promoted it as a "", adding "If you never laughed before you will certainly do so if you see this comedy." In those and other remarks about the film in 1914 and in newspaper advertisements promoting the comedy, Charlie Chaplin and his fellow performers are rarely mentioned by name, which at that time was not an uncommon practice outside the realm of film-industry publications, especially with regard to new performers in one-reelers. In June 1914, however, the Dittmann Theatre in Brownsville, Texas did mention in the town's newspaper that its screening of "Making a Living" included a "new comedian in the Keystone comedy", an entertainer the theatre identified as "Charles Chappel." Little did that theatre’s management or moviegoers in general know that by the end of the following year, Mr. Chappel would be an established national and international film celebrity and a growing cultural phenomenon.