The on going cat fight between Aussies and Yanks on who created
Felix the Cat was re-ignited with Judy Nelson's The New South Wales Library
'Reclaiming Felix the Cat' Exhibition 2005. Otto Messmer, Invariably described as Sullivan's partner or mere meek employee when it suits, came forward about a seemingly factitious forty four years after Sullivan's death claiming it was he who had created the Sullivan Studio's famous cat.

JUDY NELSON, CURATOR, NSW STATE LIBRARY brought to light that Pat Sullivan had registered a half reel of film called The Tail of Thomas the Kat for copyright in March 1917 . The next appearance of a Thomas vis -a-vis Master Tom was in Feline Follies, that is when Messmer claimed he created Felix then called Tom, In fact it looked like Sullivan was reprising his earlier creation soon to be called Felix. The name of Felix was given to Tom on the cat's fourth film, American film historians claim just what caused Sullivan to change the name of his animated cat is not well documented. While the Latin word for happy is 'felix' (and what could be better than a happy cat?) that does not seem to be behind the change. Further investigations in Australian newspapers from 1936 came up with the answer and the answer was obvious, more about that later. In an interview in The Melbourne Argus December 1st 1925 Sullivan said 'I shall never forget the first film of Felix I made, it took me six months to do, and was a gigantic failure. I was, of course, utterly inexperienced in a new and highly technical art. The result of it was that I had a nervous breakdown, and was in hospital for 5 weeks. "


Reload to replay- Clip from the ABC's Rewind

TV reporter Christopher Zinn

Otto Messmer claimed...
OTTO MESSMER: "Sullivan's studio was very busy, and Paramount, they were falling behind their schedule and they needed one extra to fill in. And Sullivan, being very busy, said, "If you want to do it on the side, you can do any little thing to satisfy them." So I figured a cat would be about the simplest. Make him all black, you know - you wouldn't need to worry about outlines. And one gag after the other, you know? Cute. And they all got laughs. So Paramount liked it so they ordered a series."
If that's the case why does the lettering match Sullivan's and not Otto's? It is like finding DNA evidence that Pat Sullivan was inspired, writing the animation and calling the shots not Messmer. Messmer had claimed emphatically he quickly produced the entire four-minute animation all by himself, on a freelance basis,working at home. Crucial details get lost to memory it seems.
Busy indeed, all by himself indeed, see for yourself, not too busy for Pat Sullivan to letter the whole bloody animation! Sullivan's lettering makes a joke of Messmer's claim. You were not quick enough, Otto!

Exactly the same...Sullivan's letters match throughout the animation of Feline Follies. Why would Messmer claim he produced Feline Follies all by himself but for the purpose of isolating Sullivan from his creation.He did not know that the Sullivan Studio's cat had been created a few years before which is farcical, same adventures of cat, same name, No, "Hey,Otto,Great minds think alike!" The lettering is thoroughly embedded in the animation and represents extensive animation by Sullivan. In one scene words progressively fill a balloon one after the other to form a sentence.

 

Above Pat Sullivan's letter formations.

Here is an example of Otto Messmer's lettering around that time,
one can tell his work in later times by the quirky Ts. Okay, kids spot the difference...
n?

 

Pat Sullivan and wife arrives in Melbourne Australia via the Narkunda1st December 1925.
Drawings he did while in Australia and Britain were used to match his lettering with Feline Follies.

In fact Sullivan was drawing Felix at different parts of his cat's development when asked by fans . The short Felix (catholic) drawn on a light blue envelope while he was in London (it has the Metropole Hotel, London W.C.2 on the back flap). The 'goodbye Sydney' is the longer older version and another version from the reclaiming Felix exhibition and his newspaper photo. My guess is that he was drawing to a request . The lettering matches up of course with Feline Follies. Pat a competent animator was very familiar with his own creation. Disney when asked by Princess Margaret who was visiting America could not draw Mickey Mouse.

All images and clip are offered as part of a review.

Australian Cartoonists' Association archivist Lindsay Foyle has written the story of Pat Sullivan in Inkspot the ACA magazine.Here is why Sullivan called his cat Felix ..." Writing in The Sydney Mail on July 1, 1936 Australian cartoonist, Kerwin Maegraith - a friend of Sullivan's - quoted him saying it came from Australia Felix the name of a Henry Handel Richardson book. Richardson, who in reality was Ethel Florence Lindesay Robertson, had been working on the book in Australia in 1912 and had completed it in London in 1915. It was published in 1917 with quite respectable sales.

The term had first been used by Major Thomas Mitchell, when describing land he explored in central Victoria in 1836. It was also used in Richard Howitt, Impressions of Australia Felix in 1845 and in the name of Australia Felix Monthly Magazine in 1849.

Maegraith also quoted Sullivan saying he drew Felix in solid black after the boxer Peter Felix who had fought for the NSW heavyweight championship the year Sullivan left Sydney. He always appeared in black, frightened children and apparently left an impression, as heavyweight boxers can." http://cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/felix-peter.htm (Sullivan had a great interest in boxing, when he arrived in New York he boxed for prize money)There are two versions by Messmer on how Felix got his name on Otto Messmers official site it says Messmer returned From the American army during World War 1 and rejoined Sullivan with a great idea for a new character named Felix The Cat. Here we have the gang that can't shoot straight, besides claiming of the cat at the wrong time and blissfully unaware of Sullivan's lettering throughout Feline Follies, this is a direct contradiction and must challenge the veracity of other claims in John Canemaker's Felix book, for Messmer is quoted again as saying the name Felix was coined by Mr King of Paramount Magazine...he suggested the name of Felix, which we kicked around a bit and decided this was it. Think about it, why would a distributor be naming the Sullivan studio's cat? They did not know of the strong resonance the name had with Pat Sullivan, that was the best Otto could come up with.

Mitchell called the country 'Felix' happy, lucky. Sullivan called his Aussie moggie 'Felix', a 1950s comic book of explorer Major Mitchell's exploration of Victoria.

The Otto Messmer claim can't be proved but there is undenialble evidence Pat Sullivan created Felix.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/rewind/txt/s1229985.htm

Felix the Animated Cat The Story of Pat Sullivan
By Lindsay Foyle

LINK

 

Buckle up,Ned.

The Tait brothers 1906 feature length film and our first blockbuster 'The story of the Kelly Gang'. Australia lays claim to producing the world's first feature length films, Starting with the Salvation Army's Limelight Studio's 'The Soldiers of the Cross' at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Australia http://www.abc.net.au/tv/rewind/txt/s1230009.htm , which had the world's first feature film industry, made twenty feature films before Hollywood got started. Other innovations in the film media from Aussie, the painted glass matte for backgrounds,* inventor Ron Jones"rolling loop" film movement that made Imax possible, the Frazier lens that gave complete depth of focus from the foreground to the background.(a feat deemed impossible by physicists before Jim Frazier's invention.) As well as the time and money saved on feature films the invention is used on nearly every second commercial made in the US. It also gives that 3-Dimensional feel to modern movies.

* An excellent example of the use of the painted glass matte is in The Empire Strikes Back when Luke Skywalker has a duel with Darth Vader and finds Darth is a delinquent dad. The background of multiple window lights was a painted glass matte, Today all that is digitally added without using digits to paint on glass.

News page2 coming soon