Neon Felix sign was erected over Felix Chevrolet in Los Angeles in 1957. Photo courtesy L.A. Places.
By 1925, a cartoon cat had become more popular than his fellow silent film stars, and his expertise had been enlisted to convince audiences of consumers to buy Mazda lamps for use in their automobiles.
Trademarked on December 29, 1909, the Mazda name would label millions of lamps – manufactured by various companies – as containing General Electric’s advanced incandescent lighting technology. A year before, Edison’s labs had pioneered the use of sintered tungsten filaments in its bulbs, and this had resulted in lamps that were brighter, whiter, more durable and more energy-efficient.
Along with the standardization of socket sizes that licensing required, these were all good things for purchasers of early automobiles who would be using their vehicles on roads that were often ribbed, rutted, and at night, frequently unlighted.
To sell the Mazda name – perhaps the first “product” in history that was, as G.E.’s Publicity Department phrased it, “not a thing but a service,” a variety of extremely effective tools were developed. From advertisements in newspapers, to calendars with lush, enchanting pictures, Mazda’s marketing came to be embraced by consumers and lauded by scholars.
Still image from A Cat and a Kit. Courtesy Schenectady Museum of Innovation Science.
Enter the famous black and white feline, with peaked ears, big eyes and shape-shifting tail. Felix the Cat first stepped onto the page in Feline Follies in 1919 in Pat Sullivan’s studios under the pen of cartoonist Otto Messmer. Patterned on live silent film star Charlie Chaplin, the resourceful, indomitable cat had viewers of his cartoons everywhere falling in love with him.
No doubt Felix’s fame, as much as his ability to saunter away from deadly situations that, were they filmed using live actors, might have struck viewers a little too close to their fears, made him a logical choice to demonstrate the dangers of not using Mazda-marked lamps in their automobiles.
This 10-minute long cartoon embedded below, A Cat and a Kit, is classic Felix the Cat. Late for his nighttime wedding, Felix hops into his speedster (a BearCAT?) and gets ready to take off, but his headlamp beams loll around, flicker and go out. This is the first of many difficulties his non-Mazda lamps give him on his zany journey to the altar.
General Electric “What is it?” advertisement circa 1920.
Along the way, some motifs common to other Mazda advertisements pop up, like oncoming motorists seeing his padiddle and wondering “What is it?” a motorcycle or “one-eyed car.” An especially entertaining gag starts at 5:45 and involves him using his prehensile tail to pull down some moonshine to light his way. You can imagine what happens next in this era of Prohibition when a policeman pulls him over!
Living up to his name’s Latin meaning of “Lucky,” Felix the Cat would, over the course of 90 plus years and a few comebacks, go on to star in hundreds of cartoons, a few features, thousands of strips, and several books.
Papier mache Felix the Cat doll is the first image broadcast on TV.
His would be the first image to appear on television in 1928 on W2XBS in New York, and he would accompany Charles Lindbergh on his famous 1927 non-stop, New York-to-Paris flight. Later, he would, with lit bomb in hand, emblazon the aircraft of America’s second-oldest Navy Fighter Attack squadron, and he’d even come to “oversee” a Chevrolet car dealership in Los Angeles, owned by another Felix, Felix Winslow.
What was it about Felix that sold motorists lamps, and what is it that keeps us – especially hot rodders – endeared to him?
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