THE GOLDEN AGE OF ANIMATION 1900 -1940

Showings

Cinema Arts Centre - Cinema 2 Tue, Jan 31, 2017 7:30 PM

Description

THE GOLDEN AGE OF ANIMATION 1900 -1940

Educational Lecture by
Bill Shelley of Shelley Archives Inc.
Tuesday, January 31 at 7:30 pm
Members $10 | Public $15
Includes Reception


Join us for a fun-filled, historic retrospect of rare and almost lost cartoons, many of which have not been seen since their theatrical release during the teens and twenties.

Cartoons have always delighted audiences young and old for more than a century. Although Walt Disney was a pioneer, many other animators made amazing innovations before and after him. Many early cartoons relied on popular newspaper comic strips for their characters. But animators also created original characters for the screen. The sound era brought singing to cartoons, with musical extravaganzas, some starring characters like Betty Boop and jazz star Cab Calloway, and others using Busby Berkeleytype kaleidoscope-like sequences. Classical music, ragtime, and jazz were prominently used.
The sources are rare film prints from 35 mm, 16 mm, 9.5 mm, and 8 mm. Sadly, due to studio bankruptcies during the Depression (1930’s), many early studios melted down their films negatives for the silver content. As a result, many early cartoons are only known by their existing abbreviated toy projector prints. This program will try to restore some of these gems to audience consciousness.
This program will also include works by
J. Stuart Blackton, Winsor Mackay (Gertie the Dinosaur), Emile Cohl, (The Automatic Moving Company), Otto Messmer (Felix the Cat), Paul Terry (Farmer Alfalfa), Walter Lantz, Charles Bowers, Ub Iwerks, Fritz Freling, Walt Disney, Willis O’Brian and many more. Approx. 120 minutes