Announcing a New Series of 13 Alice Comedies -- May 22, 2024

Film Daily, 19-May-1924

This ad announces "13 One-Reel 'Alice Kid Comedies. A Combination  Cartoon and Live Character Series -- A Distinct Novelty." The Alice Comedies featured a live action little girl interacting with animated animals. They were produced by Walt Disney.

Film Daily, 11-May-1924

Margaret Winkler was a woman who distributed films. This was a rare thing. The movies she handled were most shorts and many were animated. She distributed Pat Sullivan's Felix the Cat cartoons, which were very popular. This ad announces that she will also distribute "a New Series of 13 Alice Comedies. Kid Comedies with Cartoons Co-Ordinated Into the Action. A Distinct Novelty."

Film Daily, 11-May-1924

This item describes how Felix had become a fad in Britain, but it seems to have been cut off at the end. We will never learn the conclusion to "Englishmen have no..."

Alice Comedies -- April 22, 2024

Film Daily, 16-April-1924

100 years ago this month, the first ads for the Disney Brothers' Alice Comedies started to appear.  The Alice Comedies featured a live action little girl interacting with animated animals. I like this tiger. 

Motion Picture News, 19-April-1924

Margaret Winkler was a woman who distributed films. This was a rare thing. The movies she handled were most shorts and many were animated. She distributed the Felix the Cat cartoons, which were very popular. In a speech to the Film Club of Boston, she mentioned that she had picked up "a series of combination cartoon and live character subjects known as 'Alice Comedies' which are being made for her in Hollywood by Walt Disney."

Motion Picture News, 19-April-1924

This ad calls the Alice Comedies "The Short Subject Sensation of the Year." That might have been optimistic. 

Motion Picture News, 26-April-1924

"Alice's Day at Sea" was the first Alice Comedy. Virginia Davis played Alice. "This novel idea is very unique and entertaining enough to satisfy any sort of an audience." 

Krazy Kat in "Felix Saves the Day" -- April 2, 2024

Baltimore Sun, 20-April-1924

The elaborate ad for J Gordon Edwards' The Shepherd King is interesting, but the cartoon caught my eye.  I don't know how many Krazy Kat animated cartoons were produced over the years, but there were a heck of a lot. "Krazy Kat in 'Felix Saves the Day'" is an interesting item. It sounds as if someone got his cats mixed up. 

The Two Big-Little Features -- January 30, 2023

Film Daily Yearbook, 1922

Margaret Winkler was a pioneer producer and distributor of animated cartoons. She distributed the Fleischer Brothers' Out of the Inkwell, Pat Sullivan's Felix the Cat, and Walt Disney's Alice in Cartoonland series. In 1924, she married Charles Mintz and turned the business over to him. He is mostly remembered today for taking Oswald the Lucky Rabbit away from Disney.

Krazy Kat Cartoons -- January 15, 2014

When I was a kid, a local television station would show Krazy Kat cartoons, which had been made in the 1960s.  Krazy Kat was female.  I found this confusing a few years later when I started reading books with old comic strips.  George Herriman always referred to the Kat as "he."  I didn't see earlier animated versions until much later.  They tended to completely ignore Herriman's style, especially with their backgrounds. 

This ad, from the 11-May-1927 Film Daily was for a series released by Paramount, through Charles B Mintz, who is famous today for taking Oswald the Lucky Rabbit away from Walt Disney.  Animator Bill Nolan's Krazy Kat was an imitation of Felix the Cat.  Nolan had worked at Pat Sullivan's studio, where Felix was produced.