Sign in or register
for additional privileges

Birth of An Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation

Nicholas Sammond, Author

You appear to be using an older verion of Internet Explorer. For the best experience please upgrade your IE version or switch to a another web browser.

Performance, Page 44

Early trick photography/animation reveled in the conceit of seemingly inanimate objects coming to life. A year after he made Dream of Rarebit Fiend, a live film based on the popular McCay comic strip, Edison director Edwin S. Porter made The Teddy Bears (1907), a comic retelling of how President Theodore Roosevelt got his nickname. The short film features a stop-action teddy bear sequence that takes place somewhere beyond a crack in a wall. Like a vaudeville act in the midst of a play, this dancing teddy bear scene is narratively and spatially dislocated from the film’s plot, an animated interlude. 

Even John Randolph Bray, who with his wife Margaret played a key role in rationalizing American animation, opened his first cartoon, The Artist’s Dream (1912-13), with the gag of a sketch coming to life. Indeed, Bray credits the lightning-sketch with getting him into cartoons.
Comment on this page
 

Discussion of "Performance, Page 44"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...

Previous page on path Performance, page 6 of 25 Next page on path

Related:  Race, Page 247Space, Page 178Space, Page 197Labor, Page 97Space, Page 162Performance, Page 42Space, Page 143Performance, Page 35Introduction, Page 1Performance, Page 77Race, Page 229Labor, Page 110Space, Page 152Space, Page 175Labor, Page 88Race, Page 225Performance, Page 43Race, Page 253Performance, Page 45Conclusion, Page 291Labor, Page 123Conclusion, Page 298Performance, Page 52Performance, Page 54Space, Page 141Space, Page 146Conclusion, Page 302Introduction, Page 21Introduction, Page 9Introduction, Page 2Labor, Page 132Labor, Page 115Conclusion, Page 278Space, Page 150Performance, Page 41Race, Page 221Performance, Page 78Performance, Page 47Conclusion, Page 289Conclusion, Page 290Performance, Page 62Labor, Page 119Performance, Page 50Performance, Page 46Performance, Page 56Conclusion, Page 303Introduction, Page 30Space, Page 177Space, Page 148Race, Page 254Labor, Page 112Introduction, Page 20Performance, Page 34Space, Page 191Performance, Page 74Labor, Page 96Race, Page 224Race, Page 230Space, Page 170Conclusion, Page 284Labor, Page 113Space, Page 155Space, Page 181Performance, Page 82Race, Page 232Labor, Page 109Conclusion, Page 275Labor, Page 122Space, Page 183Conclusion, Page 273Introduction, Page 14Performance, Page 60Performance, Page 84Space, Page 192Introduction, Page 29Race, Page 220Space, Page 193Introduction, Page 4Race, Page 231Space, Page 172Space, Page 187Race, Page 206Space, Page 163Race, Page 213Space, Page 138Labor, Page 98Space, Page 182Space, Page 190Performance, Page 70Race, Page 239Introduction, Page 6Space, Page 194Introduction, Page 15Introduction, Page 23Performance, Page 72Labor, Page 129Labor, Page 133Introduction, Page 16