Australian comic from the Forties. Pat Sullivan always claimed he created Felix.
(The landscape format comic almost became standard in OZ.)
A THUMBNAIL DIPPED IN TAR
News and Items
PAT SULLIVAN
'I MADE THE CAT AND THE CAT MADE ME!'
Australian comic from the Forties. Pat Sullivan always claimed he created
Felix.
(The landscape format comic almost became standard in OZ.)
The on going cat fight between Aussies
and Yanks on who created Felix the Cat
was reignited 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, There is conflicting evidence how or why Felix was given to the creation. 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. "
Clip from the ABC's Rewind
TV reporter Christopher Zinn
BE YOUR OWN DETECTIVE...
Another clue that supports Pat is the lettering in the balloons of Feline Follies, one can see from this sample it is a practical match to that of Sullivan. Doing a comparison of Sullivan's sketches with his hand lettering done while in Australia and Britain, Sullivan's letter formations matched.
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! 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. The lettering is thoughly embedded in the animation and represents
exstensive animation by Sullivan. In one scene words progressivly 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...
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 drawn on an envelope while he was in London (it has the Metropole Hotel London on the back). 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. More info to come...The Australian connection, why Pat Sullivan called his cat Felix.
All images and clip are offered as part of a review.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/rewind/txt/s1229985.htm
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 3Dimensional
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.
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