Click the Little Nemo
stamp to play a video clip in WMV format
(or right-click and "save target as" to download) from one of the earliest, and
still all-time greatest, pieces of
animation: Little Nemo in Slumberland (1911), by the incomparable animator and cartoonist,
Winsor
McCay. Each frame of the film was hand-colored by McCay. Please try to take into
consideration the derogatory stereotypes
that were accepted by many people in that era, and
forgive
McCay for his depiction of the character Impy. Come to think of it, Flip
might be a cultural caricature, too. For the total state-of-the-art 1911
multimedia experience, listen to the song That Haunting
Melody, written by George
M. Cohan and sung by an earnest Al Jolson, sixteen years before he appeared in The
Jazz Singer. Another song from 1911 not only written by George M.
Cohan,
but performed by Cohan as well, is
Life's a Funny Proposition After
All, which positively gushes forth with a plaintive "Oh, the Humanity!" sentimentality.
Click on the picture of McCay's most famous animated cartoon character,
Gertie
the Dinosaur (1914), to watch a video clip of Gertie strutting her stuff.
Then listen to
recordings from 1914 of the still-familiar songs,
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny and
It's a Long Way to Tipperary. Is
Tipperary farther away than Virginny?