Monday, September 19, 2016

Felix Revolts



(Drawn largely from IMdb)
Cartoonist Otto Messmer was born West Hoboken (now Union City), New Jersey, on Aug. 16, 1892. Early on, he showed an aptitude for drawing. He attended the Thomas School of Art in New York City. He found a job with an advertising agency. From 1937 to 1973, Messmer worked for Douglas Leigh, creating many of the massive animated electrical signs that lit up Times Square in New York City.

Influenced by Winsor McCay's animation he began drawing his own comic strips and submitting them to newspapers. He applied to several animation studies in New York for work as a set painter. Producer Jack Cohn at Universal saw his work and hired him as an animator. Cohn introduced Messmer to Pat Sulivan and they wound up with a contract to create a new cartoon character. Messmer made the character a sassy, all-black cat and called the cartoon "Feline Follies". It was quite successful and Paramount ordered an entire series of the cat's adventures. Felix was a huge hit with the public, which took him to heart.

Felix' popularity began to be eclipsed by Mickey Mouse because Paramount didn't jump on to sound cartoons fast enough.

Otto Messmer died on October 28, 1983, in Fort Lee, New Jersey, at 91 years of age.

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,
David Byler a.k.a. Canovals
19. rujan 2016

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

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