Arthur Melbourne-Cooper and the Matches Appeal dispute

Matches Appeal

A short while ago I wrote my first post for the Norwich Film Festival's blog, focusing on Arthur Melbourne-Cooper and the dispute over whether Matches Appeal and his other animated matchstick shorts were made in 1899 and 1915. I picked Cooper as a subject because the information about him available online is somewhat scanty - and contentious too, as this anonymous edit to his Wikipedia article demonstrates.

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper's A Dream of Toyland, which can be viewed online here.

The single best source for information on Arthur Melbourne-Cooper is Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mull’s 2009 book They Thought it was a Marvel. This is one of the most remarkable books on animation I've read: the authors succeeded in penning a volume of over five hundred pages on a man whose combined extant filmography clocks in at under half an hour. This is a testament both to the scholarship of de Vries and Mull and to the genius of Melbourne-Cooper, whose films are still able to charm and fascinate today.

Animations of Christmas past and present

Well, as you'll have noticed, Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat. To ring in the festive season, here are some Christmastime shorts old and new to enjoy before you all go off to wassail the orchards.

To start with here's one made by Falmouth-based Christian Topf Design as a gift to its clients in 2007. Very limited in terms of animation, the clip is basically a moving illustration, and rather charming in its way:

Next, here's a 1988 short by Sheila Graber, Toys Will be Toys:

And here we have a characteristically warped festive outing from Cyriak Harris:

Moving swiftly on to something rather more traditional, here's a stop-motion Nativity story made by year 6 six pupils from the Hempstead Junior School in Gillingham:

And now, Walter R. Booth's 1901 trickfilm Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost, the earliest surviving film adaptation of Charles Dickens' work. More information can be found on Screenonline.

And finally, an eight-minute BFI documentary about a form of pre-film animation, the magic lantern show. Not strictly pertaining to Christmas (although A Christmas Carol turns up again), it nonetheless seems somewhat appropriate for the season:

Christmas through the ages

It's time to take a break from blogging for the festivities, but before I go here's a smattering of short films old and new celebrating Christmas.

First, here's an 1898 trickfilm titled simply Santa Claus.

Here's a GPO short made in 1951, titled Christmas is Coming. Its rather mundane subject - what date to post parcels by during Christmastime - is turned into something special by Lotte Reiniger's animation.

Time for something rather more offbeat: a Weebl and Bob celebration of Christmas 2008.

Christmas Round the World, from 1978, is one of Sheila Graber's earlier films.

Here's Graham Ralph's 2000 short So Many Santas, featuring unscripted interviews with a range of department store Father Christmases.

Next is a one-and-a-half minute Christmas greeting that was shown to cinema viewers in 1946, featuring a short bit of stop-motion.

And finally, parts one and two of a Creature Comforts Christmas special; unfortunately, the Aardman YouTube channel doesn't allow embedding.

And to all a good night...

Following up on Gifford: the 1910s

The second in a series of posts using Denis Gifford's book British Animated Films, 1895-1985: A Filmography to provide a decade-by-decade analysis of British animation's history.

Disclaimer: Although wide-ranging Gifford's book is not perfect. He missed out several films and sometimes provided incorrect dates or crew information. I have done my best to correct any errors which I have found myself repeating in these posts.

By the end of the last decade there were three directors working in British animation: stop-motion animator Arthur Melbourne Cooper, trickfilm director Walter R. Booth and silhouette animation pioneer Charles Armstrong. The 1910 films listed by Gifford are Armstrong's The Clown and his Donkey, Booth's The Toymaker's Dream, and a film from a newcomer - Cecil M. Hepworth's Embroidery Extraordinary, a trickfilm featuring an animated needle and cotton.

More new directors began cropping up in 1911. Stuart Kinder made A Merry Christmas to All Our Friends ("Animated letters from the title phrase as a greeting from the cinema manager to his patrons"), while J.H. Martin directed a complex-sounding film entitled The Little Artists. Gifford quotes a contemporary synopsis from Bioscope:

Two children are shown, one holding a teddy bear, while the other girl sketches on a blackboard, and then the latter is replaced by a frame of canvas to which a thread is attached, which by its own volition forms a star, and in closer view is then seen to take various other shapes - a child's photograph, a lighthouse, Humpty Dumpty before his fall, the Man in the Moon, a picture of a rabbit, and portraits of King George V and his consort, the thread finally tracing the legend 'Au Revoir' with which the film concludes.

The year also saw the release of Booth's Animated Putty, Cooper's Road Hogs in Toyland, and three films by Armstrong (the cinema message Ta-Ta! Come Again, the political satire Mr. Asquith and the Clown, and an advert entitled The Best Cigarette is a Jones).

British animation steadily increased in production early in this decade: Gifford lists three films for 1910, seven for 1911, and thirteen for 1912. In 1912 Booth and Cooper were still active, and there was a new director in F. Martin Thornton. He directed two films that year, In Gollywog Land and Santa Claus (the latter co-directed by R.H. Callum); Gifford identifies In Golliwog Land as the first animated film in colour. The synopses are intriguing:

The gollywog manages to dodge the apples but when the sough covers the basin, six little wogs break through. Then the gollywog gives a conjuring act with flowers, and later goes for a ride in his auto-boot, runs into a rival motorist, and has to amputate his leg. First aid with a vengeance! (taken from Bioscope)

live action/animated toy sequences. Elsie goes to sleep on Christmas Eve and dreams that Father Christmas arrives down the chimney and transforms her into a Tingaling, a fairy. They travel by reindeer sledge to his home at the North Pole where busy little gnomes are making toys for the children, and Santa enlists the aid of Father Neptune to help a sea captain return to his family. (Gifford's own synopsis)

Both films contain animation by Walter R. Booth and Edgar Rogers. 1912 also saw the release of Sports in Moggyland, a stop-motion film whose director is not known. "[I]t is quite impossible after seeing them to believe that these puppets are not endowed with an intelligence which enables them to fully appreciate and enjoy the antics they engage in," reads the Bioscope review. 1913 saw Thornton's assistant Edgar Rogers direct a film himself (The Nightmare of the Gladeye Twins; like Santa Claus it takes place in the dreams of a girl named Elsie, and may be a sequel to that film) but is chiefly notable for the first six films in Max J. Martin's Pathé Cartoons series. This is the first British animated series - unless, of course, you want to make a case for the Elsie films constituting a series...

Harry Furniss in 1912.

And so we come to 1914. Gifford, in the introduction to his book, says that British animation had a boost during World War I thanks to a demand for propaganda cartoons. The first such film listed in the book is Peace and War Pencillings by Harry Furniss, a throwback to the days of filmed lightning cartoonists; the film portrays cartoonist Furniss drawing a peaceful London scene which is disrupted when the dome of the National Gallery turns into the face of Kaiser Wilhelm.

Still from Lancelot Speed's Bully Boy No. 1, which combines live-action lightning cartooning with animation.

After this came War Cartoons by Dudley Tempest; something called Cine War Cartoons No. 1, of which little is known beyond the fact that it was released by R. Prieur; a second Furniss offering, titled simply War Cartoons; War Cartoons by Sidney Aldridge; The Voice of the Empire ("The longest cartoon to date, a full 1,000 foot reel running some 15 minutes" says Gifford; no director is credited); F. Baragwanath's The Kaiser's Nightmare; the first four entries in Lancelot Speed's Bully Boy series (Bully Boy No. 1, French's Contemptible Little Army, Sleepless and Sea Dreams); the five-part Wireless from the War Series, whose director is not named; Charles Urban's The Kineto War Map Series, which would last for 15 films, ending in 1916; Dudley Tempest's British War Sketches, Christmas War Sketches and Merry War Jottings; War Skits by Sidney Aldridge; Dudley Buxton's Proverbs and War Topics (AKA War Cartoons Series 1), War Cartoon Series 2 and War Cartoons Series 3; and finally Studdy's War Studies No. 1, from future Bonzo creator George E. Studdy. It is not entirely clear from the book's synopses how many of these contain true animation and how many are, like the earliest films listed in the book, simply live action films of cartoonists drawing still images.

Not all of the 1914 films were propaganda. Amongst the other offerings of the year were Isn't it Wonderful? (Charles Armstrong's return to animation after an apparent two-year break); films by new directors F. Gandolphi and Louis Nikola; more work from Stuart Kinder and Cecil M. Hepworth; more films from R. Prieur that lack directorial credits; Transformation, which Gifford uncertainly attributes to F. Percy Smith; and the remaining thirty-one films in the Pathé Cartoons series.

The remaining years of the war would see the continuation of Studdy's War Studies and Lancelot Speed's Bully Boy series, which were joined by other topical series: Anson Dyer and Dudley Buxton's John Bull's Animated Sketchbook; Topical Sketch, from the pseudonymous "Say"; Dicky Dee's Cartoons, by Anson Dyer again; Alick Ritchie's Frightful Sketches; Britainnia's Budget, brought to us by Ernest H. Mills of Kine Komedy Kartoons; Raemakers' Cartoons, Jack Dodsworth's films based on Louis Raemakers' illustrations; and Leslie Holland's John Bull Cartoons.

Other films from this period include non-series work from Speed, Buxton, Mills and others; Bruce Bairnsfather's autobiographical Bairnsfather Cartoons; Leonard Summers' Humours of... series (Humours of a Library, Humours of Football and Humours of Advertising); several propaganda films by E.P. Kinsella and Horace Morgan; The Golfing Cat and The Hunter and the Dog, two films by George Pearson made in collaboration with cat-loving illustrator Louis Wain; and some early work by Sidney Aldridge and Victor Hicks.

Slim and Pim.

By this time the American industry had began to create animated series with recurring stars, such as Colonel Heeza Liar and Mutt & Jeff. Towards the end of the war the UK had joined in with a similarly character-based series: Leslie Dawson's Adventures of Slim and Pim, starring two heroes whom Gifford describes as "England's somewhat feeble answer to Mutt and Jeff". In addition, newspaper cartoonist Tom Webster (who had made his animation debut with 1917's The History of a German Recruit) directed two 1918 cartoons starring an animated Charlie Chaplin.

Spick and Span with their creator Victor Hicks

Series films of one variety or another were the order of the day in the final year of the decade: 1919 gave us Dudley Buxton's three-part Cheerio Chums series (about the exploits of ex-servicemen finding work after the war); three Uncle Remus cartoons, directed by Anson Dyer; three Zig-Zags at the Zoo shorts, directed by Ernest H. Mills and based on J.A. Shepherd's illustrations; the three-part Poy Cartoon series, based on the work of caricaturist Percy "Poy" Fearon; and A Geni and a Genius by Victor Hicks, a two-part adventure starring Charlie Chaplin. All of these came from the prolific Kine Komedy Kartoons.

Hicks also made a short called Spick and Span, with two characters who apparently never appeared in any later shorts (Gifford confuses this with A Geni and a Genius in his book) and something called Twice Nightly, which I'm afraid I know nothing about.

The heroes of the Cheerio Chums series.

Two other companies released animated films that year. Lancelot Speed's Speed Cartoons returned to propaganda, apparently for the last time, with Britain's Honour. Bioscope describes the film:

In addition to the heroes who have fought, worked and died in the cause of humanity, we are shown the victims of child labour, bad housing, disease, and other evils, the dragon that preys on humanity and that can only be vanquished by justice, truth, and right, aided by science rightly applied.

Oh'Phelia.

The third company is Hepworth Picture Plays, which released four Shakespeare parodies by Anson Dyer: The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, 'Amlet and Oh'Phelia. Dyer is the only animator who began work in this decade to have a biography on Screenonline (his Oh'Phelia is covered as well, as is his 1920 film Othello) and will, it seems, be remembered as the key figure of this decade.

A caricature of Anson Dyer, probably a self-portrait. The characters in the top right are, I'm assuming, from his Uncle Remus series.

The 1910s saw animation across the world rise in status from a novel offshoot of filmmaking to an industry. Looking at British output we can see a leap from the three films of 1910 to the multiple animated series being distributed in 1919.

In 1919 the American industry created Felix the Cat, almost certainly the earliest cartoon star to still be a part of popular culture; the next decade saw the debut of Mickey Mouse. How did British animators react to the changes around them? That will be the subject of the next post in this series.

Other posts in this series:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

Following up on Gifford: before 1910

The first in a series of posts using Denis Gifford's book British Animated Films, 1895-1985: A Filmography to provide a decade-by-decade analysis of British animation's history.

Disclaimer: Although wide-ranging Gifford's book is not perfect. He missed out several films and sometimes provided incorrect dates or crew information. I have done my best to correct any errors which I have found myself repeating in these posts.

Gifford's book begins in the nineteenth century, although the first five cartoon films that he lists are not animations but live action films of cartoonists drawing caricatures. Four of them star Tom Merry (drawing Kaiser Wilhelm, Bismarck, Lord Salisbury and William Gladstone); the fifth is titled Little Stanley: Lightning Cartoonist and is described by Gifford as a "One-minute film of a young boy cartoonist drawing a 'Lightning Sketch' in crayon". The five films were made between 1895 and 1898.

True animation enters the filmography in 1899 with Arthur Melbourne Cooper's Matches: An Appeal. As Gifford notes, "The date of this film is controversial, as recent research sets it as produced in the Great War of 1914. This may, however, be a reissue as the setting of this film is identical with Animated Matches (1908)."

There are no films listed for 1900 but in 1901 we see the arrival of Walter R. Booth's films: The Devil in the Studio (which "introduced both hand-drawing techniques that pointed the way to animated cartoons, and a taste for the fantastical that showed the influence of Georges Méliès", says Luke McKernan's Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Directors), The Famous Illusions of De Kolta and Artistic Creation, along with Dolly's Toys, whose director is unknown. "The plot is so similar to many later films made by Arthur Cooper that it could be his first production" says Gifford of this film about a little girl falling asleep and dreaming of her toys coming to life, which was released by R.W. Paul's Animatographe. "Cooper was working for Birt Acres at this time, and Paul released many of Acres' productions. Alternatively, it could be another of Walter R. Booth's regular trick films made at Paul's Animatographe Studio." I notice that online sources generally credit Cooper as the director.

There are no films listed for 1902 and six listed for the years from 1903 to 1907, while 1908 has a total of five films. All of these films were directed by the same two filmmakers, with Booth making Political Favourites (a return to live-action films of lightning cartoons being drawn), The Hand of the Artist, Comedy Cartoons, The Sorcerer's Scissors, The Lightning Postcard Artist and The Prehistoric Man while Arthur Cooper brought us The Enchanted Toymaker, The Fairy Godmother, Dreams of Toyland, In the Land of Nod and Animated Matches.

Dreams of Toyland, which can be viewed online here. This print opens with the title In the Land of Nod - a title shared by one of Cooper's other films.

While Cooper worked in stop motion, Booth tended towards the trick films, a form associated most closely with Georges Méliès. The trick film can be seen as a halfway point between a stage conjuring act and a special effects film (both Méliès and Booth worked as stage magicians before turning to filmmaking); a favourite trick was to show one person or object seemingly transforming into another by switching them between shots - a technique which, of course, serves as the basis of stop-motion animation. In Artistic Creation the main character draws a picture of a woman's head, which is turned using a jump cut into the live-action head of an actress; a further special effect allows the artist to take the head off the paper and places it aside. He then draws the rest of the woman's body piece-by-piece, each bit turning first into a dummy part and then into part of the actress. Booth worked on a number of trick films that are not included in Gifford's book; The '?' Motorist is a particular triumph, almost on a par with Méliès' famed A Trip to the Moon.

Walter Booth's 1906 trick film The '?' Motorist

And so we come to 1909, for which Gifford lists four films. Animated Cotton and Sooty Sketches were made by Booth, but the other two - The Sporting Mice and Votes for Women: A Caricature - are from a new face, Charles Armstrong. Amongst the few substantial mentions of him that I can find online is this Guardian article, in which film historian David Parkinson acknowledges him as a possible inventor of silhouette animation. Here are contemporary review of the two films, reprinted in Gifford's book:

The Sporting Mice
A distinct and remarkable novelty consisting of the evolutions of performing mice and the contortions of a grotesque physiognomy, the whole being executed in living silhouette. A few of the many acts are juggling with a mouse on his elastic proboscis, a mouse walking on stilts, performing a record hoop trick, climbing a ladder held and swayed by another mouse, and performing various mystifying acrobatic turns. (Bioscope 27 May 1909)

Votes for Women: A Caricature
One of this firm's noted series of silhouettes. A most grotesque film - a woman suffragette - Q.E.D. - all moonshine! (Bioscope 17 June 1909)

Other posts in this series:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

Following up on Bendazzi, part 1 (1899-1929)

Giannalberto Bendazzi's book Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation is a classic of animation scholarship. It covers a vast range of subjects, the history of British animation amongst them. However, given the sheer scope of the book, it is inevitable that its commentary on most of the lesser-known films that it brings up is somewhat thin.

And so, with this series of blog posts I'll be turning to Bendazzi's coverage of British animation and seeing what can be found online about the filmmakers that he mentions.

In its section on British animation from 1899-1929, Cartoons discusses the following animators and their films. Where possible I have linked to pages of interest to anyone who wants to find out more:

Arthur Melbourne Cooper
Matches: An Appeal
Noah's Ark (1906)
Dreams of Toyland
Cinderella (1912)
Wooden Athletes
The Toymaker's Dream

Walter R. Booth (referred to as Walter P. Booth by Bendazzi)
The Hand of the Artist (1906)
The Sorcerer's Scissors

Charles Armstrong (referred to as Samuel Armstrong by Bendazzi)
The Clown and his Donkey

Harry Furniss
Peace and War Pencillings
Winchelsea and its Environs (1914)

Dudley Tempest
War Cartoons

Lancelot Speed
Bully Boy
Sea Dreams
The "U" Tube
Pip, Squeak and Wilfred

Dudley Buxton
War Cartoons: Ever Been Had? (1917)
John Bull's Animated Sketchbook (with Anson Dyer)
Kiddigraphs (With Anson Dyer)
Memoirs of Miffy
Bucky's Burlesques

Anson Dyer
The Story of the Flag

George Ernest Studdy
Bonzo (started 1920)

Joe Noble
Sammy and Sausage

Sid Griffiths
Jerry the Troublesome Tyke

Tom Webster
Tishy the X-Legged Horse

Bendazzi concludes the section by telling us that, like its live action counterpart, British animation of this period was mostly exhibited only in the UK and had little or no influence on animators elsewhere. Oh well.

Part 1 - 2 - 3 - 4