TV Signoffs.com - Classic Cartoon Page (Updated Weekly)

Every Monday, God willing, TV-Signoffs.com is featuring at least four classic animated shorts on this page, all dating from the 1920s through the 1960s. There will be some familiar old favorites as well as some genuine rarities. Many years ago these cartoons were all over the Tube, but have virtually vanished from the airwaves today. I will keep an archive of eight weeks' worth of previous updates of this page.

As with all the video files on this site, you will need at least a basic Brodaband Internet connection (DSL/cable/WiFi), unless you are a dial-up user with an extraordinary amount of patience!

	FELINE FOLLIES (1919) Pat Sullivan/Paramount The silent debut cartoon of Felix the Cat, created by animator Otto Messmer (1892-1983) for Pat Sullivan's cartoon studio. The cat's monicker in this film is "Master Tom", however. The character was an immediate hit with film fans, and a series was immediately spawned. By the third film in the series, the cat was christened "Felix". By 1922, the animated black cat was as big an international star as flesh-and-blood performers Chaplin, Pickford, and Fairbanks
FELIX IN HOLLYWOOD (1923) Pat Sullivan/Winkler Pictures Felix goes to the Cinema Capital of the World in hopes of crashing into the movies. In the process he runs into the likes of Gloria Swanson, Ben Turpin, Charlie Chaplin, William S. Hart and even Movie Czar Will H. Hays. He succeeds in getting a long-term contract from Cecil B. DeMille after rescuing Douglas Fairbanks Sr. from "The Three Muskeeters".
	FELIX FINDS OUT (1924) Pat Sullivan/Winkler Pictures Another great Felix silent of the Prohibition era. In this one, Felix assists his master, little Willie Brown, with his school assignments. For his homework, Willie has to write a piece on "What Makes The Moon Shine?", and Felix goes out into the night to find the answer.
APRIL MAZE (1930) Pat Sullivan/Copley Pictures Late in 1929, after holding out for some time, Pat Sullivan finally caves to "Talkie Mania" and begins making Felix cartoons with sound. The "new" series was not successful and was ended the following year, for the films were essentially silent cartoons with a simple music track with a few sound effects added to it. There was no real attempt to make true synchronized sound cartoons, as most all of Sullivan's rivals were doing by this time. This entry is one of the few exceptions, and a rather charming one at that.
	THE GOOSE THAT LAID THE GOLDEN EGGS (1936) Van Beuren Studio After a six-year absence from the screen, Felix returns to star in a short-lived series of Technicolor cartoons for the Van Beuren studio. Unfortunately, he is reduced to another Mickey Mouse-type funny animal, complete with Mickey-esque voice, typical of many early-and-mid-1930s cartoon characters. In a scene with a cannon on a dock, we do get a little glimpse of the character that Felix was a decade earlier.

NOTE: The video files featured on this website are taken from my VHS home recordings of over-the-air and cable video captures, and from clips contributed by others. The quality varies from clip to clip, due to TV reception and recording issues. None of the clips that are featured here have been authorized by the various television stations, networks or any other entity.