25-446: Charles Bear Mintz (November 5, 1889 – December 30, 1939) was an American film producer and distributor who assumed control over Margaret J. Winkler 's Winkler Pictures after marrying her in 1924. The couple had two children, Katherine and William. Between 1925 and 1939, Mintz produced over 370 cartoon shorts. Charles B. Mintz was born in York, Pennsylvania son of Wolf Mintz, owner of
50-563: A contract as an animator with Paramount Studios in March 1920, one of the subjects specified in his curriculum vitae was a black cat named Felix who had first appeared in Paramount Magazine as a character named "Master Tom" in a cartoon series named Feline Follies , tending to support Sullivan's claim definitively. Firsthand accounts were recorded in print, notably a recollection from 1953 by Australian writer Hugh McCrae , who
75-579: A grocery store. As a child Mintz possessed a great skill in photography. Mintz Attended a York High School. Mintz later enrolled in the Brooklyn Law School and graduated. Charles Mintz was unhappy with the production costs on Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks 's Alice Comedies , and asked the two to develop a new character. The result was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit , the first animated character for Universal Pictures . In February 1926, when
100-518: A strong bias against African Americans. According to Rudy Zamora , when he and Eddie Salter tested for positions at the Sullivan studio, they were bested by a young African American boy. Zamora recalled that animator Dana Parker "took the black boy [aside] and told him that they’ll call him when they needed him, [as they were] not hiring anyone that day. But they kept Eddie and I. That was lousy. Then they would have hired this black guy and myself. Ed
125-461: A while without its biggest star. Winkler viewed a pilot reel, called Alice's Wonderland (1923), submitted by then neophyte animator Walt Disney, the first entry in the Alice Comedies series. Winkler was intrigued with the idea of a live-action girl in a cartoon world, and signed Disney to a year-long contract despite the fact that Laugh-O-Gram Studio , the studio that made the cartoon,
150-457: The 1930s for Columbia Pictures: Scrappy (1930-1947) was his biggest success which continued production after Mintz died, and Color Rhapsody which began in 1934 and continued until 1947. Fables began in 1939 and continued until 1942. In 1939, Mintz became indebted to Columbia, which resulted in him selling the studio to Columbia Pictures . After a heart attack, Mintz died on December 30, 1939. Screen Gems remained open until 1946. The name
175-534: The Messmer claim not credible. Messmer came forward decades after Pat Sullivan's death, claimed Felix was his creation and placed the place of creation of the lucrative character in his own house, away from his boss's office. He excluded Pat Sullivan completely, and yet the lettering throughout the creation matches Pat Sullivan's hand. It is also telling that a cartoon kitten says "MUM" in Feline Follies , with
200-633: The Oswald contract to Walter Lantz . Mintz then focused on the Krazy Kat series, which was the output of a Winkler-distributed property. The Winkler Studio became known as the Mintz Studio after he took over in 1929. From 1930 to 1931 Mintz produced 12 Toby the Pup cartoons for RKO. In 1933, Mintz's studio (Winkler Pictures) became known as Screen Gems . Mintz produced two theatrical cartoon series in
225-540: The business, turning her company over to her husband who renamed it Winkler Productions in 1926. The couple had two children, Katherine and William. The company was eventually renamed Screen Gems . Winkler died on June 21, 1990, in Mamaroneck, New York . She was 95 years old. Pat Sullivan (film producer) Patrick Peter Sullivan (22 February 1885 – 15 February 1933) was an Australian cartoonist, pioneer animator, and film producer best known for producing
250-444: The character proved more successful than expected, Mintz secretly made a contract with Disney animators. The only one who did not accept the distributor's contract was Ub Iwerks, aware of the deception, since Mintz stole Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from Disney and moved the production of the Oswald cartoons to his new Winkler Studio, along with Margaret Winkler's brother, George. The following year, Universal took Oswald from Mintz and awarded
275-707: The first Felix the Cat silent cartoons. Sullivan was born in Paddington, New South Wales , the second son of Patrick Sullivan, an immigrant from Ireland and his Sydney-born wife Margaret, née Hayes. Around 1909, Sullivan left Australia and spent a few months in London , England, before moving to the United States around 1910. He worked as assistant to newspaper cartoonist William Marriner and drew four strips of his own. When Marriner died in 1914, Sullivan joined
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#1732772976158300-422: The new animated cartoon studio set up by Raoul Barré . In 1915, Sullivan was fired by Barre for general incompetence. In 1916, William Randolph Hearst , the newspaper magnate, set up a studio to produce animated cartoons based on his paper's strips and hired Barre's best animators. Sullivan decided to start his own studio and made a series called 'Sammy Johnsin' based on a Marriner strip on which he had worked. This
325-470: The screen. Sullivan relented in 1933, and announced that Felix would return in sound, but died that year before production began. By the early 1930s, Sullivan's alcoholism had completely consumed him. According to artist George Cannata , Sulivan would often fire employees in a drunken haze, not remembering the next day, when they would return to work as if nothing had happened. According to Shamus Culhane , Sullivan artist Al Eugster recalled that Sullivan
350-464: Was "[t]he most consistent man in the business—consistent in that he was never sober". According to Otto Messmer, Sullivan drank all day long and was never in a sound enough state of mind to contribute creatively to the cartoons he produced. In later years, much of Sullivan's staff was interviewed and claimed Messmer deserved all credit for the Felix character's creation and development, arguing that Sullivan
375-480: Was a good thing, because at the end of the same year the Fleischer brothers, flush with success as a result of Winkler's work, left her to form their own distribution company, Red Seal Pictures. However much Sullivan helped Winkler's business, he and Winkler were constantly fighting. In September 1923, the renewal of his contract came up, and his unrealistic demands meant M.J. Winkler Pictures might have to survive for
400-532: Was apparently the "straw that broke the camel's back" for Sullivan, who signed with rival distributor E. W. Hammons of Educational Pictures in 1925. Winkler was the first female member of the Motion Picture Producer's Guild. To disguise her gender, she would sign letters "M.J. Winkler." In 1924, she married Charles B. Mintz , a film distributor who had been working for her since 1922. Soon after she had her first child and retired from
425-430: Was followed by a series of shorts starring The Tramp . As Mickey Mouse was gaining popularity among theatre audiences through sound cartoons by late 1928, Sullivan, after years of refusing to convert Felix to sound, finally agreed to use sound in Felix's cartoons. Unfortunately, Sullivan did not carefully prepare this process and put sound in cartoons that the studio had already completed. By 1930, Felix had faded from
450-509: Was impressed with Winkler's talents. In 1921, Winkler founded M.J. Winkler Pictures (later Screen Gems ) and signed a contract with Pat Sullivan Productions to produce Felix the Cat cartoons. The following year she signed another contract to distribute for Fleischer Studios on the Out of the Inkwell series. This established her reputation as the top distributor in the cartoon world. It
475-447: Was later used for Columbia's television division, among other things. Walt Disney mentioned in an interview that Mintz cultivated his standards for high-quality cartoon movies, and he kept emphasizing them even after their contract ended. Mintz was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Short Subject. His first nomination was in 1935 for Holiday Land , and he was nominated again in 1938 for The Little Match Girl . Charles Mintz
500-475: Was now bankrupt. Disney subsequently formed a new studio, Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio , which was the first cartoon studio in Hollywood and eventually changed its name to Walt Disney Productions . Disney was helped by the tutelage of Winkler, who insisted on editing all of the "Alice Comedies" episodes herself. One of her suggestions was the addition of a suspiciously Felix-like character called Julius. This
525-418: Was portrayed in the feature film Walt Before Mickey by Conor Dubin. Margaret J. Winkler Margaret J. Winkler Mintz (April 22, 1895 – June 21, 1990) was a key figure in silent animation history , having a crucial role to play in the histories of Max and Dave Fleischer , Pat Sullivan , Otto Messmer , and Walt Disney . She was the first woman to produce and distribute animated films. Winkler
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#1732772976158550-486: Was sharing an apartment with Pat Sullivan just before Felix was created. 'It comes properly as a postscript that in New York McCrae shared a flat with Pat Sullivan, the famed creator of "Felix, the Cat." When a film about Felix was being planned, Sullivan suggested that McCrae should do the drawings while he (Sullivan) supplied the ideas. McCrae refused and has regretted it ever since.' Australian cartoonists find
575-504: Was the subject of the feature film Walt Before Mickey . Hungarian-born of German descent, Winkler began her career as the personal secretary of Harry Warner , one of the founders of Warner Brothers . Through most of the silent era, Warner Brothers was strictly a film distributor, and Harry Warner was the man who made the deals. In 1917, Warner Brothers began distributing cartoons of Mutt and Jeff in New York and New Jersey. Warner
600-436: Was third." When Zamora complained about this to Parker, he was told, "The old man (Sullivan) didn’t want any black guys." It is a matter of some dispute whether Felix was created by Sullivan or his top animator Otto Messmer . Some animation historians accepted Messmer's claim, as he was the principal animator on the Felix series. However, Sullivan was drawing cartoons for Paramount Magazine by 1919 and later when he signed
625-524: Was too sick to contribute or even really run the studio. Sullivan died on 15 February 1933 in New York City at age 47 from health problems brought on by alcoholism and pneumonia . (At the time, newspapers attributed his death to only pneumonia.) In 1917, Sullivan was convicted of rape in the second degree of a 14-year-old girl. He spent 9 months and 3 days in prison, during which time his studio went on hiatus. Sullivan reportedly carried
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