Winsor McCay, America’s Greatest Cartoonist, And Gertie (1970)

Director	Winsor McCay
Producer	Blackhawk Films (restoration)
Contributors	Winsor McCay, George McManus, Roy McCardell
Length	22 min
B&W/Color	b&w
UO Library Catalog description:	Winsor McCay, America’s greatest cartoonist, and Gertie (1909): Based on the vaudeville novelty, with McCay supplying onstage commentary and sound effects, this version uses live action and animation. Gertie the dinosaur (1914?): Gertie the dinosaur eats trees, interacts with McCay, and surveys her surroundings. Origially released as various versions of combination live action and animated motion picture shorts circa 1909-1914.
Call #	FILM Ma164
Genre	animation
Rare	yes
Online	yes; Internet Archive (Gertie)
Copyright status	public domain
Physical condition	good
Oregon-related	no

Notes:

This is actually in Super-8, not 16mm. 300+ libraries own the DVD Winsor McCay: The Master Edition, which collects his work. It may seem slightly egotistical to direct a film whose title dubs you “America’s Greatest Cartoonist,” but as both the creator of Little Nemo and a major pioneer of film animation, he was probably just being honest; he drew each frame of the film on paper, as cel animation had not been invented yet. The Gertie vaudeville tour involved lectures, live cartooning, and then a showing of the film in which McCay would interact with the dinosaur in a manner similar to a lion tamer. At the end, he disappeared behind a screen as an animated version of himself entered the film and rode away on Gertie’s head. Originally released 1914.