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

Felix's earliest origins remain disputed. Australian Г©migrГ© movie entrepreneur Pat Sullivan and American animator Otto Messmer have both claimed to be his creator, and evidence backs up both claims. What is certain is that the cat emerged from Sullivan's studio, and cartoons featuring the character enjoyed unprecedented success and popularity in the 1920s. Paramount Pictures distributed the earliest films, and Margaret J. Winkler became distributor in 1922. Sullivan did most of the marketing for the character.

Felix exploded into American popular culture and enjoyed great success overseas as well. He soon became an icon of American popular culture and enjoyed great success overseas as well. He got his own comic strip (drawn by Messmer), and his image soon adorned all sorts of merchandise. Jazz singers such as Paul Whiteman sang about him, and Felix even became the first image ever broadcast by any television transmitter. Nevertheless, the success was shortlived. The arrival of talking cartoons, particularly those of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, eclipsed the silent offerings of Sullivan and Messmer. A few talking Felix shorts produced by Sullivan's brother failed to win back audiences.

Television would prove the cat's savior. Felix cartoons began airing on American TV beginning in 1953. Meanwhile, Joe Oriolo, the new artist behind the Felix comic strip, gained the rights to feature Felix in a new series specifically for television. Oriolo introduced new characters, such as Poindexter and Rock Bottom, and he gave Felix a "Magic Bag of Tricks", which could shift into myriad shapes based on Felix's needs. Oriolo continues as Felix's caretaker today, and the cat has since starred in other television programs and in a feature film.

Creation

On November 9, 1919, Master Tom, a character resembling Felix, debuted in a Paramount Pictures short entitled "Feline Follies". Produced by the animation studio owned by Pat Sullivan, 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 feline, 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.

The question of who exactly created Felix remains disputed by animation historians. Sullivan stated in numerous newspaper interviews that he 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. The surviving copyright synopsis for "Thomas Kat" suggests significant differences between Thomas and Felix, however: Whereas the later Felix magically transforms his tail into tools and other objects, Thomas is a non-anthropomorphized cat who loses his tail in a fight with a rooster, never to recover it.

Sullivan was the studio proprietor and — as is the case with almost all film entrepreneurs — acquired the copyright to any creative work of his subordinates. After his death, his estate inherited ownership of the character.

It was not until many years after Sullivan's death that Sullivan employees credited Messmer with Felix's creation. 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 is already there (Messmer found solid shapes easier to animate). The fur color of the earlier Thomas Kat has not been definitively established.

Regardless of who created Felix, 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.

This creation conflict is well-known throughout the animation community. For instance, one episode of The Simpsons makes light of the dispute.

Unprecedented popularity

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 peak 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-mГўchГ© Felix doll for a 1928 experiment via W2XBS New York in Van Cortlandt Park. The doll was chosen for its tonal contrast and its ability to withstand the intense lights needed. It 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 1925 adaptation of Krazy Kat all seemed to have been directly patterned after Felix.

Felix's 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, an exclamation mark or pencil the next, serves to emphasize that anything can happen in his world.

Felix as mascot

Given the character's unprecedented popularity and the fact that his name was partially 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, 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 continuing 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 has yet to burn down.

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 a break 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 disastrous. 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, his girlfriend Kitty, and a foil named Skiddoo the Mouse, 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 never reached fruition. 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 could not even 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 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 is a literally earth-shattering shout of his own name. These characters were performed by voice actor Jack Mercer.

Oriolo's plots revolve around the unsuccessful attempts of the antagonists to steal Felix's Magic Bag, though in an unusual twist, these antagonists are 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 1991 Felix starred in his first (and only) feature film, Felix the Cat: The Movie, in which he, the Professor and Poindexter visit an alternate reality. The film was a box-office failure. In 1996, Felix appeared on television again, in an off-beat series called The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. Baby Felix followed in 2000.

References

• Canemaker, John (1991): Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat. Pantheon, New York.
• Crafton, Donald (1993): Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1898-1928. University of Chicago Press.
• Gerstein, David (1996): Nine Lives to Live. Fantagraphics Books.
• Maltin, Leonard (1987): Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. Penguin Books.
• Solomon, Charles (1994): The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings. Outlet Books Company.

See Also

• Animation Before Hollywood: The Silent Period
• Winsor McCay
• Koko the Clown
• Aesop's Film Fables
• Krazy Kat
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

External Links

• The Official Felix the Cat Website
• David Gerstein's Classic Felix the Cat Page
• Toon Tracker's Felix the Cat Page
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Felix the Cat
• Felix: The Black and White Catalogue
• Review of Bosko Video's "Presenting Felix the Cat" DVD by Brian Cruz
• 1936 Van Beuren presentation of "The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg" at the Internet Archive

• Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2004, "Felix the Cat" Concerns the dispute over who created the character.de:Felix the Cat

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