Felix the Cat

Felix the Cat is a cartoon character. The black body, white eyes and giant grin of the animated cat, coupled with the surrealism of the situations in which his cartoons placed him, combined to make him one of the most recognizable cartoon characters in the world. Felix was the first cartoon character to attain a level of popularity sufficient to draw movie audiences based solely on his one-of-a-kind star power.

The "wonderful, wonderful cat" was also the "very first television star" — the first image ever broadcast by any television transmitter.

Contents

1 "Feline Follies" 2 Creation Disputed 3 "He's Some Cat!" 3.1 Felix the Mascot 4 From Silent to Sound 5 The Cat's Comeback 6 References 7 See Also 8 External Links

"Feline Follies"

On November 9, 1919, Master Tom, a character resembling Felix, debuted in a Paramount Pictures short entitled "Feline Follies". Produced by the animation studio of Pat Sullivan, an Australian émigré film producer, the cartoon was directed by cartoonist and animator Otto Messmer. It was a success, and Paramount ordered more shorts starring Tom. Paramount producer John King renamed the cat "Felix", after the Latin words felis (cat) and felix (luck). In 1924, animator Bill Nolan redesigned the fledgling character, making him both rounder and cuter. Felix's new looks, coupled with Messmer's mastery of character animation, would soon rocket Felix to international fame.

Creation Disputed

It remains a matter of dispute whether Felix was created by Pat Sullivan or Otto Messmer. Sullivan stated in numerous newspaper interviews that it was he who created Felix and did the key drawings for the character. Sullivan's word would at first seem to be backed up by his March 18, 1917 release of a cartoon short entitled "The Tail of Thomas Kat", more than two years prior to "Feline Follies". An Australian ABC-TV documentary screened in 2004 stated outright that this "Thomas Kat" was an even earlier Felix prototype.

It must be pointed out, however, that the surviving copyright synopsis for "Thomas Kat" lends little credence to the idea of Thomas' being a Felix prototype: whereas the later Felix magically transforms his tail into tools and other objects, Thomas is a nonhumanized cat who loses his tail in a fight with a rooster, never to recover it.

As to the veracity of Sullivan's 1920s claims to have created Felix, it must be noted that Sullivan was the studio boss, and his subordinates' jobs might have been at stake had they publicly questioned the boss' legitimacy. After Sullivan's death, his estate in Australia took over ownership of the character. They too could have taken legal action against anyone else claiming to have created the cat.

As a result, it was not until many years after Sullivan's death that Sullivan employees credited Messmer with Felix's creation. Specifically, they claimed that Felix was based on an animated Charlie Chaplin that Messmer had animated for Sullivan's studio earlier on. The black, grinning cat of "Feline Follies", who certainly dances like Chaplin, would seem to lend credence to this theory. The nascent creature is blockier and has a longer nose than the later Felix, but the familiar black body was already there. The fur color of the earlier Thomas Kat has not been definitively established.

Regardless of whose creation Felix really was, however, Pat Sullivan marketed the cat relentlessly. Meanwhile, the uncredited Messmer continued to produce a prodigious volume of Felix cartoons. He even began a comic strip in 1923 distributed by King Features Syndicate.

There was also an epsiode of the Simpson that mocked the conflict with the creation of Felix.

"He's Some Cat!"

When distribution from Paramount expired in 1922, Sullivan began distributing his cartoons through Margaret J. Winkler. Under Winkler, Felix's popularity soared to new heights.

By 1923, the cat was at the height of his film career. "Felix in Hollywood", a short released during this year, plays upon Felix's popularity, as he becomes acquainted with such fellow celebrities as Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Cecil B. DeMille, Charlie Chaplin, Ben Turpin, and even censor Will H. Hays. His image could be seen on clocks, Christmas ornaments, and as the first giant balloon ever made for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Felix also became the subject of several popular songs of the day. Even Paul Whiteman, the king of jazz himself did a bit on the frisky feline.

In addition, Felix was the first image ever broadcast by television, when RCA chose a papier-mâché Felix doll for a 1928 experiment via W2XBS New York in Van Cortlandt Park. The image was chosen for its tonal contrast and its ability to withstand the intense lights needed. The doll was placed on a rotating phonograph turntable and photographed for approximately two hours each day. After a one-time payoff to Sullivan, the doll remained on the turntable for nearly a decade as RCA fine-tuned the picture's definition.

Felix's great success also spawned a host of imitators. The appearances and personalities of other 1920s feline stars such as Julius of Walt Disney's Alice Comedies, Waffles of Paul Terry's Aesop's Film Fables, and Bill Nolan's adaptation of Krazy Kat all seemed to have been directly patterned after Felix.

The cartoons were a hit with the critics as well. They have been cited as wonderfully imaginative examples of surrealism in filmmaking. Felix has been said to represent a child's sense of wonder, creating the fantastic when it is not there, and taking it in stride when it is. His famous pace—hands behind his back, head down, deep in thought—became a trademark that was analyzed and re-analyzed by critics around the world. Felix's expressive tail, which could be a shovel one moment, or an exclamation mark or pencil the next, serves to emphasize that anything can happen in his world.

Felix the Mascot

Given the character's unprecedented popularity and the fact that his name was derived from the Latin word for "luck", some rather notable individuals and organizations adopted Felix as a mascot. The first of these was a Los Angeles Chevrolet dealer and friend of Pat Sullivan named Winslow B. Felix who first opened his showroom in 1921. The three-sided neon sign of Felix Chevrolet (http://www.laokay.com/lathumb/laphoto/Felix27.jpg) with its giant, smiling images of the character is today one of LA's best-known landmarks, standing watch over both Figueroa Street and the Harbor Freeway. Others who adopted Felix included the 1922 New York Yankees and aviator Charles Lindbergh, who took a Felix doll with him on his historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

This popularity persisted. In the late 1920s, the U.S. Navy's Bombing Squadron Two (VB-2B) adopted a unit insignia consisting of Felix happily carrying a bomb with a burning fuse. They retained the insignia through the 1930s when they became a fighter squadron under the designations VF-6B and, later, VF-3. Early in World War II, a US Navy fighter squadron currently designated VF-31 replaced its winged meat cleaver logo with the same insignia, after the original Felix squadron had been disbanded. The carrier-based night fighter squadron, nicknamed the "Tomcatters," remained active under various designations through the present day and Felix still appears on both the squadron's cloth jacket patches and aircraft, still carrying his bomb with its fuse that still hasn't burned down. The squadron, having adopted the insignia, heritage, and traditions of the original Felix squadron, now claims to be the second oldest fighter squadron in the Navy.

From Silent to Sound

With the advent of The Jazz Singer in 1927, Educational Pictures, who distributed the Felix shorts at the time urged Pat Sullivan to make the leap to "talkie" cartoons but Sullivan refused. Further disputes led to the breaking up between Educational and Sullivan. Only when Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie made cinematic history as the first talking cartoon with a synchronized soundtrack did Sullivan see the possibilities of sound. He managed to secure a contract with Copley Pictures to produce new sound Felix cartoons. The results were disasterous. More than ever, it seemed as though Disney's mouse was drawing audiences away from Sullivan's silent star. Not even the addition of new characters such as Felix's nephews Inky and Winky could regain the franchise's audience, and Copley eventually cancelled their contract. Sullivan announced plans to start a new studio in California but such ideas were never fulfilled. Things went from bad to worse when Sullivan's wife, Marjorie died in March, 1932. After this, Sullivan completely fell apart. He slumped into an alcoholic depression, his health rapidly declined and his memory began to fade. He couldn't cash checks to Otto Messmer because his signature was reduced to a mere scribble. He died in 1933, leaving his studio in shambles.

Sullivan's brother licensed Felix to the Van Beuren Studios in 1936 with the intention of producing Felix shorts both in color and with sound. The studio did away with Felix's established personality and made him just another funny animal character of the type popular in the day. The new shorts were unsuccessful, and after only three outings Van Beuren discontinued the series.

The Cat's Comeback

In 1953, Felix's earlier shorts entered syndication on television, now with musical soundtracks. Messmer retired from drawing the Felix comic strip in 1954 and his assistant Joe Oriolo (creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost) took over. Oriolo struck a deal with Felix's new owner, Pat Sullivan's nephew, to begin a new series of Felix cartoons on television. Oriolo went on to star Felix in 260 television cartoons distributed by Trans-Lux starting in 1958. Like the Van Beuren studio before, Oriolo gave Felix a more domesticated and pedestrian personality geared more toward children and introduced now-familiar elements such as Felix's Magic Bag of Tricks, a satchel that could assume the shape and characteristics of anything Felix wanted. The program is also remembered for its distinctive theme song (http://felixthecat.com/multimedia/mp3s/Felix%20the%20Cat%20theme(old).mp3) written by Winston Sharples:

Felix the Cat,

The wonderful, wonderful cat!

Whenever he gets in a fix

He reaches into his bag of tricks!

The show did away with Felix's previous supporting cast and introduced many new characters. These include the sinister, mustachioed Professor; his intelligent but bookish nephew Poindexter (with an IQ of 222); the Professor's bulldog-faced, bumbling sidekick Rock Bottom; an evil, cylindrical robot and "King of the Moon" named The Master Cylinder; and a small, unassuming and friendly Eskimo named Vavoom, whose only vocalization was a literally earth-shattering shout of his own name. These characters were performed by voice actor Jack Mercer.

Oriolo's plots revolved around the unsuccessful attempts of the antagonists to steal Felix's Magic Bag, though in an unusual twist, these antagonists were occasionally depicted as Felix's friends as well. The cartoons (and those of Oriolo's son, Don) proved popular but critics have dismissed them as paling in comparison to the earlier works by Messmer, especially since Oriolo aimed the cartoons at children. Limited animation (required due to budgetary restraints) and simplistic storylines did nothing to diminish the series' popularity. Nevertheless, Don Oriolo continues to market the cat today. In 1996, Felix appeared on television again in an off-beat series called The Twisted Adventures of Felix the Cat.

References

• John Canemaker, Felix, The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat, 1991, Pantheon, New York.
• Donald Crafton; Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1898-1928, 1993 University of Chicago Press.
• David Gerstein, Nine Lives to Live, 1996, Fantagraphics Books.
• Leonard Maltin, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, 1987, Penguin Books.

See Also

• Animation Before Hollywood: The Silent Period
• Winsor McCay
• Koko the Clown
• Krazy Kat
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

External Links

• The Official Felix the Cat Website (http://felixthecat.com/index.htm)
• David Gerstein's Classic Felix the Cat Page (http://felix.goldenagecartoons.com/)
• Toon Tracker's Felix the Cat Page (http://www.toontracker.com/felix/felix.htm)
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Felix the Cat (http://www.toonopedia.com/felix.htm)
• Felix: The Black and White Catalogue (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/felixthecatalog.tim/intro.htm)
• Review of Bosko Video's "Presenting Felix the Cat" DVD (http://www.toonzone.net/brian/video/dvd/presenting_felix.html) by Brian Cruz

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