Charley Bowers and "It's a Bird" (1930)

~ Howdy, Folks!

Charles R. Bowers (June 7, 1877 or 1887 – November 26, 1946) was an American cartoonist and slapstick comedian during the silent film and early "talkie" era. His early career was as a cartoonist and animator on the Mutt and Jeff series of cartoons for the Barré Studio. His slapstick comedies, a few of which have survived, are an amazing mixture of live action and animation created with the "Bowers Process." Complex Rube Goldberg gadgets also appear in many of his surreal comedies.

Check out the link below for some unbelievable stop-motion animation in "It's a Bird" (1930)

Thanks for sharing! That bit when he ate the trombone was pretty funny. And how they animated that car was impressive.

A terrific short - thanks for posting! I guess the the car was 'grown' in the same manner the bird ate the metal parts, but shot in reverse.

Bowers seems quite a character - actor, performer, artist, tall-story-teller. practical joker, trickster - but very much the entertainer. Animator Isadore Klein wrote a reminiscence of working for Bowers on the Mutt & Jeff series which appeared in Cartoonist Profiles and was scanned and posted by Michael Sporn on his blog. I wish he had had more to say about the "plastic puppet" animation, but he was working in another building and didn't know any of the people working with Bowers on that side. On the Mutt & Jeff films it is noteworthy that Bowers provided complete stories for his animators - rather than leaving the animators to make up their own sequences, as became common in other East Coast studios.

The Stripper's Guide has a good profile on Bowers, and the I. Klein article from Cartoonist Profiles (1975) is a very good read - here are the links to Michael Sporn's blog: Bowers 1, Bowers 2, Bowers 3.

~ Hey, Peter!

Thanks for the info on Bowers. I read the I. Klein article many years ago when it appeared originally in an issue of Funnyworld. A great magazine. I had a set of the complete run, unfortunately all lost in a house fire. I'll check out the post on Michael Sporn's blog, which always has good animation stuff. Can't say enough good things about Allan Holtz's and his Stripper's Guide. Love that site. I'm a huge fan of George Herriman and Krazy Kat and Allan has filled in a lot of blanks in that story.