Felix postcard

Our Friend Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today I write of another delightful addition in a long line of my real photo postcards of people posing with Felix. These were mostly taken in Great Britain (although Australia and New Zealand were in it too, although those appear to largely be of the tintype variety) and this one made the trip across the ocean to join the Pictorama archive.

Like virtually all of these cards this one is postally unused and nothing is written on the back. Although I am not in New York with my full collection at my disposal, I realized almost immediately that this Felix is likely the star in at least one if not more of my other photos.

First there was this most recent purchase, shown below (with a post that can be found here) and while it is possible, the ears are perkier in the prior post and possibly a big white tooth missing or not shown in the latest one. The window backgrounds are also very similar.

However, in an earlier post, this one is pretty much a cinch to be the identical fellow – missing or unshown tooth and all! In some ways it is surprising this doesn’t happen more often. After all there are only so many places taking these photos and presumably not that many Felix-es in play. (The post with the below photo can be found here.)

Images from Pams-Pictorama.com collection

While both these little girls are cute the older one with the hat steals the show – even from Felix. She is delighted to have a hold of Felix’s outsized and overly long arm (all the better for throwing around fellow subjects it seems) and she grins broadly. Her outfit is pitch perfect with that lovely straw hat, decorated with flowers, embroidered collar, short pleated skirt and right down to her white ankle socks and black Maryjanes. The younger sibling (we’ll assume) is in layers of pretty white cotton, complete with bonnet and matching Maryjanes, but she has just been place in front of Felix and shows no real interest.

Of course Kim, cats and I are spending a few weeks at the Jersey shore and having a true summer vacation experience. Tomorrow night we are slated to enjoy the local fireman’s fair (which I wrote about a long time ago here – it turns out that my childhood fireman’s fair is quite a well known one) which I have not attended in decades. While I am excited for some cotton candy or perhaps a candy apple and a ride or two, sadly it seems unlikely I will get to pose with Felix for a photo – the seaside not being what it used to be. More to come about that, perhaps, on Sunday however.

Felix’s Fancy

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Pams-Pictorama.com Post: If all goes as planned, while this is winging its way into your inbox I will be sweating profusely at an estate near Poughkeepsie with the denizens of a teen music camp affiliated with my work. Our summer academy is a wonderful competitive program and I have not visited since the summer of ’19. (We didn’t hold one in ’20 or ’21.) The kids perform at the Caramoor Festival near there on Saturday.

Held on a college campus, air conditioning is at a minimum so as I write this from East 86th Street I anticipate a hot few days up there. I will have been in residence since Friday, but I saw no reason for you all to do without your weekly Pictorama posts and penned today’s and yesterday’s in advance.

Spanish Courtyard at sunset, Caramoor Festival yesterday – gorgeous day for it. The kids did us proud.

Putting my work woes aside, let’s consider Felix as portrayed in these postcards. While I do not own many of this sizable series of postcards (the one I own, the especially jolly one below, and the post about it can be found here), these came along with the items in the mighty auction box I have been disgorging in recent weeks. (Thus far posts for the ones written thus far can be found here, here and here.)

Pams-Pictororama.com Collection.

These, like the other Felix finds featured thus far, are a product of the industrious Pathé Film Company which was tireless in its production of Felix premiums and memorabilia. At the top each of them reads, Felix The Film Cat, which appears exclusively in Pathé’s Eve-and Everybody’s Film Review. There aren’t dates on any of these cards.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

These cards have all been used, sent by and to different people, although only one bears a postal mark. I have put them in a loose, possible story order, but one could probably put these in any (or no particular) order. Felix has loved and lost, crying a puddle, his orange striped kitty girlfriend walks off with a blue fellow who may be gesturing back at our friend Felix. Alas, poor Felix! Will he find love again? (And this one on the back is simply to Billy from Grandma.)

Verso of the card above.

In this card Felix, a nice squared off early Felix with pointy ears and blocky feet, meets come hither Miss White Kitty. In this incarnation she is rendered realistically – there is a bit of visual disconnect as a result. In later life she sometimes too has more of a comic book appearance. They each wear a nice bow, his purple and hers red.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Verso of the card above it.

It reads, you can give one to Winnie if you don’t want 2 when you get home. its a very nice song about Felix just now I wonder if you know it. I do wonder what song she is referring to – there are many options.

A more updated Miss White Kitty, from 1964.

Up last is Felix, looking out toward the viewer, with one of his mischievous looks. As above, she is his perennial girlfriend, a fickle feline although Felix does his share of coming and going as well, especially when a large bunch of kittens are concerned. They have a bumpy relationship.

Pams-Pictorama.com

This card is the only one that was mailed although the stamp has been torn off. It reads, Dear Biddy, I hope you will like this P.C. of Felix. I sent Jack & Rodney one, not quite like this & Raymond one too. I am so pleased to hear you are having such a nice time, lucky little girl. Lots of love & kisses…[illegible]. It was addressed as follows, Miss Biddy Pyle,Blackheath, Powderham, Nr. Execter, Devon.

Wish me luck on my humid quest this weekend (photos on IG and FB for those of you who follow) and more to come next week – hopefully from an air conditioned perch.

PS – Yes, the Airbnb was was nice and indeed air conditioned. Right on a fresh water pond as shown below.

View from our Airbnb in Livingston, NY. We’re aways from the campus, but a lovely place.

The Troubles of Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This card seemed appropriate to our current contagion days. Postmarked 1924, the postcard may refer to bed bugs or the like as Mrs. Felix seems to be itching, or it could also be a cold as Felix looks a bit unwell. Felix does look miserable and somewhat guilty under her accusation either way. Theaters would be ripe for such transmission bugs bacterial, viral or the many legged kind, and of course it follows that Felix couldn’t resist going to the pictures. Very tongue in cheek that the very cartoon folks would be pointing this out, but of course they knew our sympathy is always with naughty Felix.

In the 1920’s, movie theaters were more working class establishments and had just started to give way to the movie palaces designed to look like legitimate theaters and attract middle and upper class patrons. (An article from Smithsonian Magazine I read this morning tells the tale of popcorn as a snack in theaters – disdained at first as too low class, it gained traction during the Depression when the inexpensive treat was attainable for audiences as well as additional high margin income for theaters.) 1924 is still on the early end of the decade however, and the allure of the picture shows was still battling with an image of it as barely better than frequenting a working class saloon or bar.

This card was produced by a British company called Bamforth which, although it sold these cards both in Britain and the United States, appears to have done so without license. And, unlike the color postcards of Felix in the same era, these are all entirely black and white and Felix has what I think of as his more dog-like off-model look.

Bamforth was a company originally born out of the production of magic lantern slides. In addition to short film ditties of the 1890’s until 1918, they had a line of postcard which focused on what were generally considered saucy topics of the day. The postcard portion of the company was eventually sold and still exists in some form today, having celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010. Their postcards, such as Felix fighting with his wireless radio, were so much of their time and place that sometimes we are left puzzling to figure out what they might refer to today. For example, there is one where he curses the demand notice for rate. (This seems to refer to a dunning tax notice.)

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Bamforth card, not in Pictorama collection

 

Another series of postcards printed by Florence House printers in Great Britain, shows Felix in a series of equally moral questionable scenes. I show one of those pulled off the internet below. I love the cigar and the overnight grip in this one. He is a naughty boy indeed.

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Florence House card not in Pictorama collection

 

In these years that are still leading up to the discovery and widespread use of antibiotics, Felix tells us to be mindful about drafts (in one card we spy him in the bathtub through a partially open door and he scolds, Shut that Door! You’ll have me laid up – and what will the picture shows do then without poor Felix?), and reminds us of what you might bring home from the pictures at night. Today he would don a mask and figure out a way to court the white girl kitty, despite keeping a six foot social distance.

 

Sis Sèmper Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Translated from the Latin, roughly, Always Felix. You may remember that aways back I purchased some hand colored images of Felix, shown below, which are similar in that they seem to have both a pre-printed yet hand-painted and drawn quality, leaving me wondering if the outline was somehow printed and then then black of Felix and the colors hand executed later. Both those cards and this one are on a lightweight paper – so although postcard size questionable that they were meant to stand up in the mail to begin with, this one has a torn top edge like it came from a book of some kind. I have seen additional versions of the cards below since I purchased my lot, although I have not acquired more. (Have to leave something out there for the other Felix collectors, right?) Today’s feature, and those below are all, not surprisingly, products of Great Britain and were purchased from sellers there.

Unlike those below, today’s drawing has an embossed quality to the outline of Felix – it was definitely printed, and although at first I thought the black was filled in by hand I am not so sure. The paper stock has wrinkled a bit around the printing area as the pressure and ink filled the paper. Nothing is written on the back.

 

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Obviously, my acquisition featured today was drawn with even more imagination than these other freehand beauties. A portly, gap toothed rendition, there is only something vaguely Felix-y about the pose, legs and tail. However, he has declared himself Felix and he is claimed by someone who has signed this work of art K. Behrens, 5-3-24. If off-model Felix is quite jaunty, giving us the thumbs up sign.

This Felix puts a smile on my face, which was probably the only real goal of K. Behrens in creating it. Still, there is something scratching away in my brain about this odd little tributary of homegrown and hand crafted Felix-iana. Perhaps just imagining a world where handmade Felix dolls and pictures were abundant – an Eden-like vision of a Felix filled world for the early 21st century Felix collector to contemplate.