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Winsor McCay (1871 - 1934) Date of Birth: 26 September 1871 BIOGRAPHY Zenas Winsor McKay was born in 1867 though no-one seems to be quite sure exactly where - some sources suggest somewhere in Canada (though they remain rather vague on this point), while others point to Spring Lake in Michigan, which is where he certainly grew up. His unusual name came from his father's employer and as soon as he was old enough he abandoned it in favour of simply Winsor and his father would drop the K from the family surname. Drawing was an early passion for McCay and by the age of 13 he was selling photographic reproductions of a sketch of a shipwreck that he'd done on the school blackboard. He displayed an amazing eye for detail and a memory that seemed to absorb everything. But his talents went unnoticed by his family - at the age of 19, McCay's father sent him off to business 100 miles away in Detroit, and inevitably he didn't shine academically, barely attending lessons and hating them when he did. One of the great escapes from the drudgery that McCay indulged in was frequent visits to a local dime museum, Wonderland, a strange blend of circus, amusement park and vaudeville hall. Fascinated by the exhibits and acts on offer, McCay took to sketching them and was soon hired by the owners to draw portraits of the customers for 25¢ each. Encouraged by the reactions to the drawings, McCay put the money to good use by taking drawing lessons from a local teacher who was one of the first to recognise the quality of his work. In 1889, McCay moved to Chicago where he worked for a while as a printer's apprentice and shared rooms with artist Jules Guerin. He didn't stay for long, however, and in 1891 he moved on to Cincinnati and landed a job at another dime museum doing more portraits. He seemed more settled in Cincinnati and settled down, getting married and fathering two children. To support them, he took work painting signs and eventually landed a paying gig as an illustrator for a local newspaper. It was while working for the local rag that McCay developed his skills with a pen, a tool he'd largely ignored up to this point. In 1899, McCay started to find work as an comic strip illustrator at the popular humour magazine, Life. His first really big break came in 1903 when he was invited to take a job at the New York Herald. Suddenly, McCay hit his creative stride - for eight years he created some of the best-loved newspaper comic strips in America, including Little Sammy Sneeze (which appeared every Sunday from 24 July 1904 to 9 December 1906), Dream of the Rarebit Fiend (10 September 1904 to 11 June 1911 (signed as "Silas" as it was for a rival newspaper), The Story of Hungry Henrietta (8 January to 16 July 1905), A Pilgrim's Progress (26 June 1905 to 18 December 1910) and his undoubted masterpiece Little Nemo in Slumberland (15 October 1905 to 23 July 1911). Nemo was an instant hit and McCay's apparently insatiable need to draw and entertain led him to the stage. At the time, one of the most popular vaudeville acts was the "chalk-talk artist", a raconteur who would illustrated his patter with drawings made on a chalk board. On 11 June 1906, McCay made his debut as a "chalk-talk artist" and proved as popular on the stage as he was in print. McCay was soon in great demand, touring up and down the East Coast while putting together as many as three cartoon strips where and when he could, mostly it seems in dressing rooms and hotel rooms after his shows. Little Nemo was such a success that in 1908, it was turned into a Broadway show. McCay's energy was astounding - not merely content with being a success in print and on the stage, he turned his attentions to a new outlet for his creativity, the still young medium of film. He was one of the first artists to realise that his still images could be transformed into moving pictures and, although he didn't invent animation, he certainly did a lot more than most to refine it and turn it into the art form that we recognise today. His first attempt at a film would be based on his most popular creation. Little Nemo (1911) was, by any standards, an incredible feat. McCay had had no prior experience of film-making and he hand crafted each one of the film's 4000 cels himself - bear in mind that this was happening while he was still creating his comic strips and performing on stage! The resulting film was used as part of the stage act and was seen in regular cinemas too. It transformed his already popular show and he quickly set to work making a slightly longer film, How a Mosquito Operates (1912). But it wasn't all going McCay's way. He wanted to tour Europe, but his request for soime time off was rejected by the management at the Herald. Angered by their intransigence, McCay waited until his contract was due for renewal and promptly packed up his pens and brushes and headed over to The American (part of the newspaper group run by Randolph Hearst) in July of 1911. It seemed like a smart move, but in fact it was mistake - Hearst was looking for an artist who would just do what he was told, but McCay was starting to lose interest in the strips and wanted to spend more time on his film career. Hearst realised that his star artist wasn't giving his full attention to the strips and relegated him to drawing one-off editorial illustrations. Not that McCay really had the time for the strips anyway - he was planning his next film, one that would add a whole new dimension to the animated film. Gertie the Dinosaur wowed audiences and critics alike with its live theatre element - McCay would project the film onto a screen and perform alongside the titular star, a slow-witted but loveable dinosaur who - to the amazement of contemporary viewers - he seemed to join for the climax when he stepped behind the screen and live-action footage of himself, perfectly integrated with the animation, appeared on the screen. A specially shot opening sequence of McCay talking to Gertie was made for the film's wider release which didn't quite have the same impact but which still amazed everyone who saw it. Ironically, just as he was enjoying his greatest success on screen, McCay found his live stage work drying up after Hearst started making it clear to theatre bookers that he would prefer them not to employ his star artist. Reluctantly, in 1914, McCay signed a deal with Hearst not to appear outside of New York City. It was more than McCay could bear. He was told that in order to keep his job he needed to be in the office every day and that he had to turn in whatever editorial cartoons Hearst demanded. It was an uncomfortable time for McCay - war was brewing in Europe and while Hearst and editor Arthur Brisbane suggested in the paper that the States should try to understand Germany's situation, McCay was less forgiving. The turning point for many Americans on World War I was the sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania in May of 1915. It had been felt that the Lusitania was immune to enemy attack due to its ability to rapidly accelerate better than any other ship of its day and it was felt that it could safely outrun any enemy attack. But on 1 May 1915, she set sail from New York with a complement of food and passengers (and possibly even munitions disguised as cheese boxes and bales of fur) bound for Britain and six days later was ambushed by a German submarine and was sunk just twenty minutes after the first torpedoes slammed into her hull. Of the 1,201 people on board - many of them Americans - just 764 were found alive. The attack caused outrage in the States and led to a sever worsening of relations between the USA and Germany. McCay seemed to have been particularly affected by the tragedy and in 1918, he created his last major work, The Sinking of the Lusitania - it remains one of the most amazing and affecting animated films ever made. Although McCay would continue to make films after Lusitania, nothing would ever again come close to the sheer power and haunting beauty of the visuals he created for this, his film masterpiece. Animated with a breathtaking realism and an almost documentary attention to detail, it seems to have been a big influence on James Cameron, whose blockbuster Titanic (1997) would feature many shots similar to McCay's. In 1924 McCay left Hearst and returned to the recently renamed Herald Tribune and set about reviving Little Nemo. Sadly, public tastes had changed and the reborn hero of Slumberland failed to ignite 20s readerships as it had readers two decades previously. In fact the character's stock had fallen so low that McCay was allowed to buy all rights in him for just $1. In 1926, McCay joined his formed boss Arthur Brisbane at the American
newspaper, where he spent eight years drawing editorial cartoons. He
died in 1934, leaving behind a fantastic library of beautifully detailed
cartoons, some of the most indelible comic strip heroes of their day
and a legacy of fine, innovative film animation that created the basis
for an entire industry. He's one of the most important figures in American
animation and his films - though few in number - should be required
viewing for any student of the form. GENRE FILMOGRAPHY 1906 1911 Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics (director, performer (himself)) 1912 1914 1918 The Sinking of the Lusitania (producer, script, director, animator) 1921 The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (director) Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: Bug Vaudeville (producer, script, comic strip (Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend), director, animator) Dreams
of the Rarebit Fiend: The Flying House (producer, script,
comic strip (Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend), director, animator) Dreams
of the Rarebit Fiend: The Pet (producer, script, comic
strip (Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend), director, animator) Flip's Circus (producer, script, director, animator) Gertie on Tour (producer, director Winsor McCay: Animation Legend (script, director) 1922 1990 1992 NON-GENRE FILMOGRAPHY 1924
Last Updated: 1 January, 2009
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