La Petite Gallery

MUTT and JEFF and Uncle Charlie Bowers.

I guess I am the only living
relative of Uncle Charlie.
At one time I had letters he
wrote me with cartoons all over
 the edges.
When he lived in Norwalk Conn.
Charlie used to read me the Funny
 papers. He raised my Dad, and had
 him do some of the Flipping of pages
 in the animated Cartoons.
My Aunt Winnie was so pretty, but had a nervous
breakdown. Anyway that's the story from Mamma.
They had no Children. Winnie and Kate were from
Sligo Ireland. Her Maiden name was Leyden.






 He worked on this

Out of the Inkwell too.

• 1916-1926: Wrote, produced, and directed 
• (without on-screen credit) about 300 Mutt and Jeff cartoons 
• for release by Fox and other companies.

Charley Bowers is one of the most forgotten of the forgotten silent 

comedians. Even prior to his starring career, his work was familiar 

to millions of movie fans,

 though they never saw his name or face on-screen. 

As director of hundreds of Mutt and Jeff animated cartoons from 1916-1926,

Bowers brought cartoonist Bud Fisher's tall-and-short "everyman" characters

to life. But Charley had the itch to perform, and in 1926 he began his 

lifelong  partnership with Harold L. Muller and launched his first series of

 "Whirlwind Comedies" for release by F.B.O. These were among the 

most creative, inventive films seen to that time. They made liberal use

of stop-motion animation, pixillation, amazing sets and props as well as

Bowers' wild imagination.  Bowers cheerfully sacrificed characterization 

for a great gag, and his plots often stopped dead in their tracks in order

 to pull off a bravura piece of animation. "Baffling" and

"mystifying" are two words that one comes across when reading the original

reviews. The only explanation for Bowers' commercial failure in the

face of almost universally rave reviews may be the fact that be was

simply ahead of his time.

Seen today, Bowers comedies still have the

power to knock audiences in the aisles.

Only a few shorts survive (most are in archives, particularly Quebec's) 

and it is well worth the effort to seek out these forgotten gems. In recent years a small coterie 

of silent comedy fans have begun the first

serious efforts to produce a career and biographical picture of Bowers.

The results can be seen below, but much work remains to be done.

From the Tom Stathes collection in New York to our screen, here's another unique and exciting entry in our animation series highlights the work  the Bray Studios, Charles Bowers, Max Fleischer, Eliot Fette Noyes, Barbara Nelsick and many others. Two full reels of animated antics, we bring you over 60 minutes of some of the most subversive cartoons from the silent to sound era. 










Throughout their life, Mutt and Jeff ventured into other mediums, including comic books and film. They even found themselves on the front cover of Famous Funnies #1, printed by DC Comics. With Raoul Barre and Charles Bowers, Fisher produced more than 300 shorts, making Mutt and Jeff the second longest running theatrical animated film series
Posted by Yvonne @ La Petite Gallery
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