His own papers' readers were increasingly pro-war in the aftermath of the Lusitania. Newspapers owned by McCay's employer William Randolph Hearst downplayed the tragedy, as Hearst was opposed to the US entering the war. On May 7, 1915,ĭuring a voyage from New York, the British liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed 128 Americans were among the 1,198 who lost their lives. Warning that it would target British civilian ships. The Germans employed submarines in the North Atlanticĭuring World War I, and in April 1915 the German government issued a McCay followed this with a film that became an interactive part of his vaudeville shows: in Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), McCay commanded his animated dinosaur with a whip on stage. His next film, How a Mosquito Operates (1912), naturalistically shows a giant mosquito draw blood from a sleeping man until it burst. His first animated film, Little Nemo (1911), was composed of four thousand drawings on rice paper. Inspired by the flip books his son brought home, McCay said he "came to see the possibility of making moving pictures" of his cartoons. German submarines torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania in 1915 the incident contributed to the US entry into World War I. In 1906, McCay began performing on the vaudeville circuit, doing chalk talks-performances during which he drew in front of a live audience. His greatest comic strip success was the children's fantasy comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, which he began in 1905. He began working as a newspaper illustrator full-time in 1898, and in 1903 began drawing comic strips. He earned a living as a young man drawing portraits and posters in dime museums, and attracted large crowds with his ability to draw quickly in public. Winsor McCay ( c. 1869–1934) produced prodigiously detailed and accurate drawings since early in life. An intertitle declares: "The man who fired the shot was decorated for it by the Kaiser! And yet they tell us not to hate the Hun." Background The liner vanishes from sight, and the film closes with a mother struggling to keep her baby above the waves. The liner tilts from one side to the other and passengers areĪ second torpedo rocks the Lusitania, which sinks slowly into the deep as more passengers fall off its edges, and the ship submerges amid scenes of drowning bodies. Passengers scramble to lower lifeboats, some of which capsize in theĬonfusion. Which billows smoke that builds until it envelops the screen. After some time, a German submarine cuts through the waters and fires two torpedo's at the Lusitania, The liner passes the Statue of Liberty and leaves New York Harbor. Working with a group of anonymous assistants on "the first record of the Intertitlesīoast of McCay as "the originator and inventor of Animated Cartoons",Īnd of the 25,000 drawings needed to complete the film. The film opens with a live-action prologue in which McCay busies himself studying a picture of the Lusitania as a model for his film-in-progress. Put increased pressure on McCay to devote his time to editorial Was not as commercially successful as his earlier efforts, and Hearst His subsequent animation output suffered setbacks, as the film McCay and his assistants spent twenty-two months making theįilm. McCay drew these earlier films were drawn on rice paper, onto which backgrounds had to be laboriously traced The Sinking of the Lusitania was the first film McCay made using the new, more efficient cel The film followed McCay's earlier successes in animation: Little Nemo (1911), How a Mosquito Operates (1912), and Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). In 1916, McCay rebelled against hisĮmployer's stance and began work on the patriotic Sinking of the Lusitania on his own time with his own money. McCay was required to illustrate anti-war and anti-British editorialĬartoons for Hearst's papers. The event outraged McCay, but the newspapers of his employer William Randolph Hearst downplayed the event, as Hearst was opposed to the US joining World War I. In 1915 a German submarine torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania 128 Americans were among the 1,198 dead. The film is the earliest surviving animated documentary and serious, dramatic work of animation. It is a work of propaganda re-creating the never-photographed 1915 sinking of the British liner RMS Lusitania.Īt twelve minutes it has been called the longest work of animation at The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918 Film) (1918) is a silent animated short film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay.
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