Mickey and Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto...all instantly recognizable as landmark characters developed and marketed by Disney through his cartoons and television programs. But there are others who are older, less well known, forgotten by most Americans...
Julius the Cat
Walt Disney was not always Walt Disney. He started out in his home state of Missouri. In Kansas City he founded his very own animation production company...Laugh-O-Gram. There was some local interest, but by and large, the whole thing failed. Before folding, Walt had produced 11 short animation films. These Laugh-O-Grams are quaint relics of the early years of film animation. Far from being polished, they show almost an amateur quality, but are formative examples of what Disney and his product would become. It is here that Disney employed Ub Iwerks, who was a better animator than Walt, a loyal friend, and likely the man that created Mickey Mouse. The second film created at Laugh-O-Gram, the first real cartoon produced by Walt Disney, was Little Red Riding Hood in 1922. It was his first attempt to use animation to tell a story through film, and the first appearance of Walt Disney's oldest animated character...
Over ten Laugh-O-Gram cartoons, there is a cat that gets into a bunch of mischief and hijinks. Although un-named, this cartoon character would eventually come to be named Julius. He appears consistently in most of the Laugh-O-Gram animated shorts, and goes on to co-star in the Alice's Wonderland series. When Walt's company met it's end in Kansas City he relocated to Southern California, the capital of the film industry. He did not find success in Hollywood. None of the movie studios were interested in hiring him to direct of produce. His initial success came out of New York, in the form of Margaret Winkler. Known as M.J. Winkler, in part to conceal she was a woman in a male dominated industry, was at the time the largest distributer of animated features in the United States. Disney had contacted Winkler prior to leaving Missouri for the west coast, to see if she would be interested in a new series he had developed and had filmed a pilot episode prior to Laugh-O-Gram going out of business. There was only one print of Alice's Wonderland, and Disney, with much wrangling finally got it to New York City where Margaret could screen it. She liked what she saw, and agreed to distribute the series, putting Walt Disney back in business on October 16th, 1923.
As an artist, Walt was average. He could draw and ink, but his work was sub-par when compared with other contemporary animation artists. His Alice series was passable, it had some market value, but Walt's artistic acumen needed improvement. Margaret let him know that he needed to practice, improve, and up his game She suggested that he look at and copy some her more successful cartoon artists. When it comes to Julius, this becomes very evident. the Julius of 1922 does not resemble the cat developed as the Alice's Wonderland series progressed...
Winkler Pictures was the distributor for Felix the Cat as well. Pat Sullivan was the animation artist behind Felix, and Margaret had a very contentious relationship with Sullivan...she despised him. When Sullivan and Margaret Winkler eventually split, she told Disney to copy Felix, for his own series. Julius was so close to Felix in appearance and animated actions, it called into question a multitude of infringement issues...
Felix the Cat was the gold standard in the early days of American film animation. The character was popular and set the standard for cartoon entertainment. Nevertheless, Julius is the first animated Disney character. While he didn't have a name until much later, and changed throughout the progression of animated features, this character stands as Walt Disney's first recognizable success...
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As a side note, before Julius was Julius, he was named "Mike" for one episode in the Alice series....and just when you thought it was safe to call Julius a copycat, well, I'm not sure Felix is the only thing Walt Disney copied...
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