Animation In The United States During The Silent Era
   HOME
*





Animation In The United States During The Silent Era
Animated films in the United States date back to at least 1906 when Vitagraph released ''Humorous Phases of Funny Faces''.Jeff Lenburg 1991 The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons Although early animations were rudimentary, they rapidly became more sophisticated with such classics as ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' in 1914, Felix the Cat, and Koko the Clown. Originally a novelty, some early animated silents depicted magic acts or were strongly influenced by the comic strip. Later, they were distributed along with newsreels. Early animation films, like their live-action silent cousins, would come with a musical score to be played by an organist or even an orchestra in larger theatres. History British-American filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was possibly the first to use animation techniques in the US for film versions of his "lightning artist" routine. ''The Enchanted Drawing'' (1900) utilized the stop trick to make drawings appear to change magically. In ''Humorous Phases of Funny Faces'' ( ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Animated Films
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation (which may have the look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets, or clay figures. A cartoon is an animated film, usually a short film, featuring an exaggerated visual style. The style takes inspiration from comic strips, often featuring anthropomorphic animals, superheroes, or the adventures of human protagonists. Especially with animals that form a natural predator/prey relationship (e.g. cats and mice, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Émile Cohl
Émile Eugène Jean Louis Cohl (; né Courtet; 4 January 1857 – 20 January 1938) was a French caricaturist of the largely forgotten Incoherents, Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "The Oldest Parisian". Biography Émile's father, Elie, was a rubber salesman, and his mother, Emilie Laure, a linen seamstress. The rubber factory Elie worked for had many ups and downs, causing the family to move from one home in Paris to another. Early years Émile saw little of his father during his childhood, and lived with his ailing mother until her death in 1863. In 1864, at the age of 7, he was enrolled at the Ecole professionnelle de Pantin, a boarding school known as the Institute Vaudron after its founder. There his artistic talents were discovered and encouraged. The next year, a cold kept him confined in his father's apartment, where he began stamp collecting, a hobby that would become his sole source of income several time ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Gregory La Cava
Gregory La Cava (March 10, 1892 – March 1, 1952) was an American film director of Italian descent best known for his films of the 1930s, including ''My Man Godfrey'' and ''Stage Door'', which earned him nominations for Academy Award for Best Director. Career La Cava was born in Towanda, Pennsylvania. His father was a shoemaker, and the family moved to Rochester, New York. La Cava reported for the ''Rochester Evening News'' and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a member of the Art Students League of New York, Art Students' League. Animator Around 1913, he started doing odd jobs at the studio of Raoul Barré. By 1915, he was an animator on the ''Animated Grouch Chasers'' series. Towards the end of 1915, William Randolph Hearst decided to create an animation studio to promote the comic strips printed in his newspapers. He called the new company International Film Service, and he hired La Cava to run it (for double what he was making with Barré). La Cava's first ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Frank Moser (artist)
Frank Moser (1886–1964) was an American artist, illustrator and film director who co-founded Terrytoons, the animation studio. Between 1916 and 1937 he directed 202 films. He died in Dobbs Ferry Hospital at the age of 78. Life Moser was born at Oketo, Kansas, and studied art at the Art Students League and National Academy of Design there. He was a cartoonist for the Des Moines Register and Leader where he drew editorial cartoons, and a regular feature called "In the Short Pants League" before going to New York City in 1916. In 1929 he and Paul Terry (cartoonist), Paul Terry established 'Moser & Terry' to create Terrytoons Terrytoons was an American animation studio in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in name only). Terrytoons was founded by P .... Moser was Terrytoons' most prolific animator, often responsible for nearly half of footage on each cartoon. H ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mutt And Jeff Animated Filmography
In 1916, Bud Fisher licensed the production of Mutt and Jeff for animation with pioneers Charles Bowers and Raoul Barré of the Barré Studio. This resulted in 292 animated Mutt and Jeff shorts, making it the longest-running theatrical animated short series of the silent era, second to Krazy Kat in terms of years. Series ran from 1916-1923 and 1925-1926. A few shorts of the second run were re-shot in 1934 by the Modern Film Sales Corporation with the Kromocolor process and reissued with sound effects and music tracks from the usage of the Brunswick Sound System. The following is a list of animated films in the series separated by years. 1916 *Jeff's Toothache *Mutt And Jeff In The Submarine *Domestic Difficulties *A Restless Night *The Indestructible Hats *Cramps *The Dog Pound *The Hock Shop *The Promoters *Two for Five *Wall Street 1917 *The Submarine Chasers *A Chemical Calamity *A Day In Camp *A Dog's Life *Cows And Caws *In The Theatrical Business *Preparedness *Revenge Is Swee ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Barré Studio
Barré Studio was among the first film studios dedicated to animation and founded by Raoul Barré and William Nolan in 1914. The studio pioneered some early animation processes, including mechanical perforation of cels and animating special effects on glass. The studio began with advertising films (among the first animated films used to sell something), then got a series with Edison called the ''Animated Grouch Chaser''. The series was mostly live-action with a few animated inserts. The studio also put out the ''Phables'' and ''The Boob Weekly'' cartoons. Animators included Frank Moser, Gregory La Cava, George Stallings, Tom Norton and Pat Sullivan, all of whom got their starts here. Rube Goldberg was the writer for ''The Boob Weekly''. In 1916, William Randolph Hearst founded International Film Service, and hired all of Barré's animators to work for him, including Bill Nolan. Soon afterward, Barré was contacted by Charles Bowers, who had been animating ''Mutt and Jeff'' ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Bill Nolan (animator)
William Charles Nolan (June 10, 1894 – December 6, 1954) was an American animated cartoon writer, animator, director, and artist. He is best known for creating and perfecting the rubber hose style of animation and for streamlining Felix the Cat. Career Nolan first began his career in 1913 as a newspaper cartoonist, then worked for Raoul Barre and Kings Features until 1918. Then, in 1924 to 1926, he animated and designed Felix the Cat. He then moved to Winkler to animate on Krazy Kat again. Nolan went to the Walter Lantz Studio from 1929 until 1935, where he animated and briefly voiced Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Nolan also worked at MGM on ''The Captain and the Kids'' series based on the comic strip ''The Katzenjammer Kids''. He then worked with Fleischer Studios where he worked on Popeye and Gulliver's Travels. During WWII, Nolan was in the US Navy drawing technical manuals with Timm Aircraft. In 1949, after the war, he formed Willam-Nicholas Productions with Nick Nicholas. He ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Edison Studios
Edison Studios was an American film production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (1911–1918), until the studio's closing in 1918. Of that number, 54 were feature length, and the remainder were shorts. All of the company's films have fallen into the public domain because they were released before 1925. History The first production facility was Edison's Black Maria studio, in West Orange, New Jersey, built in the winter of 1892–93. The second facility, a glass-enclosed rooftop studio built at 41 East 21st Street in Manhattan's entertainment district, opened in 1901. In 1907, Edison had new facilities built, on Decatur Avenue and Oliver Place, in the Bedford Park neighborhood of the Bronx. Thomas Edison himself played no direct part in the making of his studios' films, beyond being the owner a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Raoul Barré
Vital Achille Raoul Barré (January 29, 1874 – May 21, 1932) was a Canadian and American cartoonist, animator of the silent film era, and painter. Initially known as a political cartoonist, he originated the French Canadian comic strip, then crossed over into animated film and started his own studio, a pioneering effort. As a painter, he is considered an Impressionist, evoking atmosphere and light with visible, choppy strokes of paint, whose paintings are in the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Personal history and career Barré was born in Montreal, Quebec, the only artistic child (out of twelve) of a wine merchants and importers. He studied art at the Académie Julian, starting in 1896, and remained there for two years also known as a political cartoonist—he was a loud critic of the unjust trials of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. One of Barré's opponents in the war of words and cartoons was Émile Cohl, writing anonymously. On returning to Canada in 1898, he gave birth to ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Movie Theaters
A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a building that contains auditoria for viewing films (also called movies) for entertainment. Most, but not all, movie theaters are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing a ticket. The film is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium while the dialogue, sounds, and music are played through a number of wall-mounted speakers. Since the 1970s, subwoofers have been used for low-pitched sounds. Since the 2010s, the majority of movie theaters have been equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film print on a heavy reel. A great variety of films are shown at cinemas, ranging from animated films to blo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The Sinking Of The Lusitania
''The Sinking of the Lusitania'' (1918) is an American silent animated short film by cartoonist Winsor McCay. It is a work of propaganda re-creating the never-photographed 1915 sinking of the British liner RMS ''Lusitania''. At twelve minutes it has been called the longest work of animation at the time of its release. The film is the earliest surviving animated documentary and serious, dramatic work of animation. The National Film Registry selected it for preservation in 2017. In 1915, a German submarine torpedoed and sank the RMS ''Lusitania''; 128 Americans were among the 1,198 dead. The event outraged McCay, but the newspapers of his employer William Randolph Hearst downplayed the event, as Hearst was opposed to the U.S. joining World War I. McCay was required to illustrate anti-war and anti-British editorial cartoons for Hearst's papers. In 1916, McCay rebelled against his employer's stance and began work on the patriotic ''Sinking of the Lusitania'' on his own time wi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Little Nemo (1911 Film)
''Winsor McCay: The Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics'', more commonly known as ''Little Nemo'', is a 1911 silent film, silent animation, animated short film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. One of the earliest animated films, it was McCay's first, and featured characters from McCay's comic strip ''Little Nemo in Slumberland''. Its expressive character animation distinguished the film from the experiments of History of animation, earlier animators. Inspired by flip books his son brought home, McCay came to see the potential of the animated film medium. He claimed to be the first to make such films, though James Stuart Blackton and Émile Cohl were among those who preceded him. The short's four thousand drawings on rice paper were shot at Vitagraph Studios under Blackton's supervision. Most of the film's running time is made up of a live-action sequence in which McCay bets his colleagues that he can make drawings that move. He wins the bet with four ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]