Helena Smith Dayton (often hyphened as Helena Smith-Dayton) (1883–1960) was an American film maker, painter and sculptor working in New York City who used fledgling

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

and

clay animation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay. Tra ...

techniques in the 1910s and 1920s, one of the earliest animators (and the first American woman) to experiment with clay animation. Her "clay cartoons" were humorous in nature, and Dayton was featured in the "Humorist Salons" in New York City. She spent the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in Paris managing an

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

canteen for soldiers. She was a published author, ranging in genre from journalism to plays to a guide to New York City.

Career

Art and animation

Dayton began sculpting around 1914 while living in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

in New York City. She described how she began to sculpt while she worked as a writer: "I was sitting at my typewriter, when my fingers began to itch for something to mould." She bought art clay and began to sculpt it. "From then on, I tried to fashion people as I saw them, the humorous always being uppermost in my thoughts." Her "grotesque" figurines graced magazine covers and accompanied her humorous short stories in magazines such as ''Puck'' and ''Cartoons Magazine''. A humorist, she specialized in creating clay models of prominent citizens. She described her work as "gigglesome bits of statuary." She copyrighted some of her creations and they were marketed as "Caricatypes". The figurines, averaging 7 1/2 inches in height, cost 75 cent each. Girls dressed as Dayton's caricatypes would appear in the ''

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Ai ...

'' ''of 1916'' with lines written by Dayton. She began experimenting with "clay cartoons" in 1916. The February 1917 issue of''Popular Science Monthly'' included an article about the motion-picture novelty of "animated sculpture". Illustrations included photographs of Dayton with her clay figures, a picture from the animated sculpture play ''Battle of the Suds'', a part of a film strip showing circa ten frames of three dancing chorus girls and another of a man and a snake. The journalist found the effect "startingly (sic) realistic and highly amusing" and believed that "the rather jerky action serves only to enhance the amusing result". Later in the year, Dayton admitted: “The difficult thing at first was to determine just how much to move an arm or a head, to avoid an appearance of jerkiness. I used to make the changes too great, but am learning to overcome that now.” Dayton created 16 poses for her sculpted figures for each foot of film, with up to 30 figurines moving in a scene. Dayton managed to animate about 100 feet of film per day and planned to release one film per month. The first documented public screening of some of her animated shorts took place on March 25, 1917 at the Strand Theater in New York City. Later in 1917, she released her adaptation of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's '' Romeo and Juliet''. Before the animated portion of the film, the introduction featured a shot of Dayton sculpting the clay figures. She contributed the short film ''Pride Goeth Before a Fall'', featuring “dances and other stunts”, to the second issue of Pathe’s ''Argus Pictorial'' "screen magazine" released on 25 November 1917. The third edition of the program, released on 16 December, closed with a film featuring her clay figures around the banquet bord. Her forays in sculpture and animation had contributed greatly to her income by this point: her bank account contained $12,000 in 1917, the equivalent of $256,000 in 2018 dollars. Though newspapers and magazines in her day covered her work extensively and in detail, it is unclear whether Dayton produced any films after 1917. This may be due to the onset of World War I, during which she worked abroad as part of the war effort, putting her artistic work on hold. None of her films have yet been located, but impressions of her animation can be gathered from the stills and descriptions printed in magazines. After working as a canteen director for the YMCA in Paris during World War I, she created sculpted figures depicting scenes in France. These were featured in an exhibition by the

Society of Illustrators The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. History Founding The Society of Illustrators was founded on ...

(of which she was a member) in 1922 in New York City. Later in life, she took up painting. She exhibited her paintings in 1943 at the Montross Gallery. One ''New York Times'' art critic praised her work, calling her portraits in this exhibition "unflattering and sound, with a mining for individual character."

Writing

Before she was an animator, Dayton worked as a reporter in Hartford, Connecticut. Dayton co-authored two guidebooks with Louise Bascom Barratt: ''A Book of Entertainments and Theatricals'' (1923) and ''New York in Seven Days'' (1926). Later in her career, she took up playwriting. She frequently collaborated with Louise Bascom Barratt. With Barratt in 1926, she co-wrote ''The Sweet Buy and Buy'', which was performed on stage in 1927 (produced by

James Gleason James Austin Gleason (May 23, 1882 – April 12, 1959) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter born in New York City. Gleason often portrayed "tough-talking, world-weary guys with a secret heart-of-gold." Life and career Gleason w ...

and Earle Boothe) and published as a book. With Barratt again, she co-wrote ''Hot Water''; it opened in 1929 at

Lucille La Verne Lucille La Verne (November 7, 1872 – March 4, 1945) was an American actress known for her appearances in early sound films, as well as for her triumphs on the American stage. She is most widely remembered as the voices of the Old Witch in the 19 ...

's theater in New York City, with La Verne in the leading role. In 1931, ''Casanova's Son,'' also co-written with Barratt, debuted in New York City.

Personal life

Dayton was married to Fred Erving Dayton, a writer and publisher. Sometime between 1920 and 1925, Helena Smith Dayton signed ''

The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door (1920–25) separated the back office from the main area of Frank Shay's Bookshop in Greenwich Village from 1920 until 1925, where it served as an autograph book for nearly two hundred and fifty authors, arti ...

'' at Frank Shay's Bookshop on Christopher Street. The door served as an autograph book for nearly 250 bohemians and is now held by the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

. Dayton's signature can be found on front panel 1.

Filmography

:1917? ''Battle of the Suds'' :1917-03-25 ''Animated Sculpture'' (program of shorts), Strand Theater, New York :1917-11? ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1.000 ft reel) :1917-11-25 ''Pride Goeth Before a Fall'' in ''Argus Pictorial No. 2'' :1917-12-16 ''Argus Pictorial No. 3'' (featuring one short with figures around a banquet bord)

References

External links

"East Wallop's Hardy Annuals"
a story by Dayton in ''Cartoons'' magazine vol. 12 no. 2, August 1917 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dayton, Helena Smith American animated film directors 1883 births 1960 deaths Artists from Hartford, Connecticut Animators from Connecticut Stop motion animators Clay animators 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters American women painters American women film directors American women animators American women sculptors 20th-century American sculptors 19th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists 19th-century American women artists Sculptors from Connecticut Women film pioneers