International projectionist (Nov-Dec 1933)

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The most important claim in this patent, however, related to the use of a translucent background over the character drawing. It will be noted that this is a departure from the tedious process of drawing each cartoon complete with a background and character, as was heretofore done. With this patent, Bray introduced the idea of making one background serve for all the action occurring in that scene (Fig. 7). He printed his background from a zinc plate on thin translucent sheets of paper, which he laid over the character drawing for photographing. This system did not permit good quality and was used only for the first few pictures, after which he adopted a system similar to the Earl Hurd method. Bray further eliminated unnecessary drawing by introducing the "stationary" drawing, which comprises the use of separate sheets of celluloid when a part of the character is motionless while other parts are moving. One drawing is made for the motionless part, while the action of only the moving part of the character is drawn out. First Bray Cartoon Cartoon history may be said to date from the announcement, on June 12, 1913, of the first Bray cartoon, The Artist's Dream (Fig. 8). This, while not the first of the animated cartoons, was the forerunner of the cartoon vogue. Previous to that, cartoons were largely considered a novelty, or photographic trick. They had been used at the end of newsreels, or vaudeville acts, and were shown more or less apologetically. Now, audiences seeing The Artist's Dream were left in a mood bordering on the hysterical, from laughter, and de manded more cartoons. The central character of this cartoon was a dachshund, with the long "wheel base" and the short legs. This dog, which resembles so much an animated sausage, experienced difficulties with a flea, which interrupted the dog in obtaining his sausages for dinner. Another Bray cartoon, Col. Heeza Liar, which was the "Mickey Mouse" of that day, was by far the most popular of the early cartoons. The first of the series, Col. Heeza Liar in Africa, was released by Pathe in December, 1913. They were discontinued after about five years, and again resumed in 1922 as an Out of the Inkwell combination. Walt Lantz, who draws the Universal Oswald, drew the later series, which consisted of a combination of the conventional motion picture into which was introduced Col. Heeza Liar. Bray has the distinction of having made a hand-colored cartoon in 1917; it attracted much attention, but was impracticable because of the high cost of coloring each frame. Birth of Modern Technic Earl Hurd introduced the modern technic of making cartoons. On December 19, 1914, he filed an application for a patent which, on June 15, 1915, was granted as No. 878,091. In this patent, he claimed the use of a transparent medium bearing the moving parts of the cartoon over an opaque background. Hurd was the first to use celluloid for his action drawings, which he laid over a background as is done today. It will be remembered that Bray, in his first efforts, drew his backgrounds on a transluscent medium, which he laid over his characters for photographing, and wherever the back ground interfered or covered the character, that part of the background was removed. Earl Hurd's first cartoons were the Bobby Bump series. Bray and Hurd combined their patents and formed the Bray-Hurd Company early in 1917. Another early worker was Sidney Smith, who made Old Doc Yak for the Selig Polyscope Company. The first of this series was released on July 8, 1913. Wallace Carlson, who made Dreamy Dubb, and later the Caminated News which was an Out of the Inkwell combination, was prominent at that time. Paul Terry drew Farmer Al Falfa. Leslie Fenton drew the Hodge Podge series which were released at the end of the Pathe newsreels. Max Fleischer was the first to make the Out of the Inkwell type of drawing. This is a photographed picture to which is added a cartoon character by photographing a series of opaque cartoons drawn on celluloid placed over previously photographed conventional motion pictures. Fleischer's first series was Koko, the Clown, released by Paramount in 1917. During this period Leon Searle made what was known as "cutouts." They were jointed characters cut out of paper and animated across a background. Their animation was rather jerky, as were the marionettes made about the same time by Tony Sarg. The Sarg marionettes were figures illuminated from the rear, thus producing a silhouette effect. Raoul Barre, who began making the Edison cartoons, introduced the "slash" system, whereby the motionless parts of the characters were drawn once, and the animated parts of the characters torn away. These moving parts were then drawn on another sheet so as to