Here is the biography of Otto Messmer:
Otto Messmer was born on August 16, 1892, in Union City, New Jersey, which was then known as West Hoboken. He showed an aptitude for drawing at a young age and was encouraged by his teachers to pursue a career in art. After graduating, Messmer took a correspondence course in art and attended the Thomas School of Art in New York City.
Initially, Messmer worked as an illustrator for an advertising agency, but he never lost his passion for drawing. His brother took him to a vaudeville act that showcased the films of pioneering animator Winsor McCay, and Messmer knew he had found his calling. He began drawing his own comic strips and submitting them to newspapers, and he also applied to several animation studios in New York for work as a set painter.
Producer Jack Cohn at Universal saw Messmer's comic strips and hired him as an animator. Messmer devised a character called "Motor Mat," a daredevil race driver, and brought it to Cohn. Cohn showed it to well-known animators Pat Sullivan and Henry "Hy" Mayer, who were impressed with it and asked Messmer to work with them.
Messmer went on to work with Hy Mayer, helping him animate the series "The Travels of Teddy," based on the exploits of Theodore Roosevelt. After completing that project, Messmer worked with Pat Sullivan, but their collaboration was cut short when Sullivan was arrested and convicted of rape in 1917.
Messmer was drafted into the army and fought in World War I, returning to the US in 1919. After the war, Sullivan was released from prison, and the two went back to making animated films. They received an order from Paramount Screen Magazine to create a cartoon character, and Messmer created a sassy, all-black cat called Felix. The character was a huge success, and Paramount ordered a series of Felix's adventures.
In 1921, Paramount decided to close down its Screen Magazine division, and Sullivan managed to get back the rights to Felix. He then went to Warner Bros. to try to get a distribution deal, but the studio wasn't interested. However, M.J. Winkler, the secretary to Harry Warner, was interested and eventually signed a production/distribution deal for the Felix the Cat series.
The first entry under the deal was "Felix Saves the Day" (1922),and the series went on to become an even bigger hit than it was under Paramount. The Messmer/Winkler Felix cartoons were praised for their imagination, humor, puns, and intelligence.
Felix became a huge hit with the public, and the character was turned into a comic strip, which ran until 1943. The strip was popular, but never achieved the same status as the cartoons. Felix's popularity began to wane with the coming of sound, and Sullivan's attempts to incorporate sound effects into new Felix films were met with criticism.
Television revived Felix's career, and new cartoons were created especially for that medium. Felix was accompanied by his bulldog Rock Bottom, the eccentric Professor, his nephew Poindexter, and his "Magic Bag of Tricks."
Otto Messmer died on October 28, 1983, at the age of 91, in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
