I Had No Idea What I Was Missing

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I have been walking like this my entire life and thought nothing of it.  Now I find out this is the Felix pace, head down and deep in thought.
And everyone said I would never amount to anything!





We have much in common.  As does Pat Sullivan, who first drew Felix and drank himself insensible every day of his adult life.  Dead by 47.  Some say the chief animator, Otto Mesmer, came up with Felix but it is probable that Mr. Sullivan originated it.
Pat Sullivan was a convicted child rapist and did time for it while others were out fighting the Hun.





Felix was the first cartoon star, but Sullivan's refusal to use sound doomed him.  Here he is rushing toward oblivion.  All cartoons after Felix, Koko the Clown excepted, were rip-offs of Felix.  Even Mickey, who was just a pared down version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.  Disney lost control of Oswald and Ub Iwerks came up with a superior version.  Here is Woo's Whoopie, 1930-

https://youtu.be/sxailD4Ofq4

 



Clever.





I grew up watching this incarnation of Felix in the 1960's.  I still know this tune by heart-

https://youtu.be/h2YJduDyFA4




I mentioned yesterday that Felix was the first Macy's Day Parade balloon that we have a picture of.  NBC used a statue of Felix to calibrate the new invention, television.





As primitive as can be, and it would stump me even to turn this stuff on.

https://youtu.be/wJqeufU_BQU





Felix is now owned by Dreamworks.  He is by no means forgotten, and he will be back!

(Oh, yeah.  Lindbergh took a Felix doll with him on his transatlantic flight.  Another feline first). Now, if only Felix had a rabbit in his show, how great would that be?





Ask, and you shall receive.


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