Jerry - Welsh silent movie pooch makes U.S. debut - at 78
Forget Goofy, Mickey and even Felix the Cat. For the only silent movie cartoon star from Wales - moody mutt Jerry the Troublesome Tyke - is about to hit New York!Jerry, who starred in 40 short silent films for Pathe in Britain between 1925 and 1927, makes his US debut - almost 80 years after his birth in Cardiff. He was once seen as "Britain's answer to Felix" - the indomitable US feline who took American (and British) audiences by storm, proving hugely popular at the box office for almost a decade in the silent era.
Now Jerry, the creation of a then Cardiff projectionist Sid Griffiths, makes his Big Apple debut at screenings by the Museum of Modern Art. He appears thanks to staff at The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, who rescued him from obscurity. Three of his films, A Sticky Business (c1926) A Flash Affair (1926) and In and Out of Wembley (1925), will be shown on June 13 and 19 (accompanying Sunset Boulevard star Gloria Swanson in the silent comedy feature Stage Struck). They're part of a prestigious Festival of Restoration run by MoMA's film archive and should fascinate audiences with their blend of live - action and animation, as Jerry is often seen on screen in conflict with Sid.
"Jerry is strange and fascinating. He's far from the usual cute cartoon creature of the teens and 20's," says Wales' Archive Research Officer and film critic, Dave Berry. "He's very funny but also impatient, and very modern - he wants everything NOW. He's often downright nasty and not above theft or sticking a punch on other dogs or animals at the least - imagined - provocation."
The reappearance of Jerry - now adopted as a mascot and magazine logo by the current Welsh Animation Group - follows the Aberystwyth-based Welsh Archive's discovery that all 40 of the canine's films had survived at Pathe's former UK headquarters, then at Pinewood. The NSSAW arranged to restore the films in a joint scheme with the company.
To complete Jerry's resurrection, BBC Wales, in a separate initiative, commissioned special scores from composer John Rea and have already screened three of the digitised versions on BBC2W, with the mutt's antics accompanied by musicians from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Fourteen digitised Jerrys have been completed by the 'Beeb'.
The series of Jerry the Troublesome Tyke films - co-directed by Griffiths with photographer AJ (Bert) Bilby, another former Cardiff projectionist - were shown in Pathe Pictorial screen magazines fortnightly in the 1920's. The films' popularity meant that another animator, Brian White, soon joined the team to help meet the hectic fortnightly schedule - and that more Jerry movies were made than films of any other British cartoon animal or creature in the silent era.
Last year Jerry 'shorts' were screened at the world's leading silent film festival, at Sacile in Italy, and some of the pooch's movies are at the Cambridge Film Festival in July.
Notes:
- MoMA's normal facilities are closed for a refurbishment programme due for completion in 2005.
- The cartoons will be screened as part of MoMA's 'To Save and Project: The Second MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation'. 3 of the 40 Jerry cartoons that have recently been re-discovered will be shown on 13 and 19 June alongside Sunset Boulevard star Gloria Swanson in the silent comedy feature Stage Struck. The films will appear to live piano accompaniment by Ben Model and John Spurney. For further information: http://www.moma.org/visit_moma/momafilm/save_2003.html.
- This is only the latest of several international appearances for the early Welsh cartoon canine - he has already appeared at the World's largest silent film Festival in Sacile, Italy and he will be stopping off at the Cambridge Film Festival on the way home from the US!