“Pretty never helped a man like a mule,” warned friends of the beauteous young artist Rose O’Neill when she took a fancy to handsome, aristocratic Virginian, Grey Latham.

Rose O’Neill, after a three-year stint as a child actress, had dazzled judges in art contests from the age of 14, and became a professional illustrator when her precocious drawings so astonished adjudicators that they made her sit in front of them and produce work by her own hand before they would give her first prize.

In 1893, she moved to New York City and lived in a convent. Back then, a girl’s virtue not only counted for something, its reputation was fragile. Nuns accompanied the stunner O’Neill on visits to publishing houses where editors were captivated by the art of the teenaged girl. She worked for numerous major clients and produced over 700 illustrations and cartoons for a series of famous publications, including the legendary magazine Puck. Her income and reknown bloomed like a rose.

However practical considerations were not a concern for O’Neill. She took up with Grey Latham, who visited her while she was guarded by nuns in New York. He also traveled to her family’s country home. Smitten by the handsome Latham, Rose made him the model for the gorgeous men in many an illustration.

Latham was a beaux of the old school, the son of a Confederate officer turned chemist and professor. He did not take well to work, and neither did his decorative brothers Otway and Percy, both of whom were clever and well-liked, but were raised to believe that gentlemen did not labor.

Their father, Major Woodville Latham, had survived the fall of the Confederacy. He was tough-minded and ambitious. From an old Southern family, he was born into wealth and privilege. But as the fortunes of the day changed, Latham had to seek new business ventures to keep him and his family living in the style to which they had been born.

One year after Rose O’Neill first went to New York City to seek her fortune as an illustrator and cartoonist, the Lathams and a school chum sauntered down the avenue of the big city where they stumbled across the new wonder of the age: the Kinetoscope.

The tiny peepshow screen featured a popular performer of the day doing gymnastic routines. Grey Latham saw dollar signs.

“There, that’s a business to get into,” he declared. “I’ll tell you what! Everybody’s crazy about prize fights, and all we have to do is to get Edison to photograph a fight for this machine and we can take it out and make a fortune on it.”

Otway and Grey Latham, Samuel J. Tilden, Jr., and Enoch Rector formed the Kinetoscope Exhibition Company, and formed an alliance with Edison, giving them a contract that would restrict their Kinetoscope efforts to fight exhibitions while Edison’s other scientists tried to develop their own films and technologies.

The technical limitations of the Kinetoscope were daunting, especially considering the length of a prize fight. The Kinetoscope could only hold a negative of 50 feet, too short to record an entire fight.

Rector was able to come up with new Kinetoscope technology that allowed them to flim longer and longer segments of the fight. They then set up the kinetoscopes in a parlor to which patrons could come and view segments of the fight on a series of scopes screens.

The results were sensational. They had created the longest film to date, and the Lathams, once bordering on shabby genteel, were the dandies of the town. Police had to control the crowds wanting a look at the modern marvel.

However, it wasn’t long before the public lost their taste for peep shows and prize fights. As business trickled off, they began to seek new ways of making movies and showing them.

“You see, if we could project that picture on a sheet, like the stereoptican slides, there’d be a fortune in it. Can we do it?” asked Otway Latham.

“You can project anything on a screen that you can see with the naked eye and which can be photographed,” replied Woodville Latham.

The Lathams and their small company – together with Edison company employees – came up with the technology to not only project motion picture film onto a screen, but they created one of the most important tiny bits of common sense tech ever: the Latham Loop.

The Latham Loop is that loop of slack film that winds around the projector wheels. That small loop keeps the film from catching and tearing itself up. This enables the projector to run long strips of film.

The result: the Latham’s filmed another fight, and on May 20, 1895, the world saw the first film projection on a screen.

There were squabbles and lawsuits over who did what, with Edison and his company claiming much of the credit. The court battles went on for 13 years, and the Lathams were crushed.

However, when Rose O’Neill met Grey, he was the toast of New York. They wed in 1896.

Hard working O’Neill was the main breadwinner and a celebrity in her own right. There was even a popular song that is supposed to be about her: the Rose of Washington Square. The lyrics, and a very old recording of the song are available here.

Grey Latham was a beautiful beaux, but a lazy rat. Content to rest on his laurels, he was also content to rest on hers, and was not above squandering her money. His film ambitions notwithstanding, he was not considered a responsible man by many who knew him.

Grey made several movies as a director and is listed as Gray Latham at IMDB.Side-Walks of New York (1897), Bullfight (1896), Drill of the Engineer Corps (1896), are the only listings of his work at the site, though there were a few other attempts at film making. They are not works of art, but are very important to the history of art, among the first motion picture films for the screen ever made.

Latham loved to gamble, loved the high life, and exploited his talented and successful wife.

Apparently, this established the pattern for filmakers screwing over cartoonists that has continued to this day.

Latham plundered Rose’s earnings, and she finally left him, only to return later. But the pretty man mulishly refused to change his ugly ways, and Rose, on more than one occasion, found herself arriving at her publisher’s office to pick up her payment, only to discover that her decorative louse of a husband had beaten her to it, leaving her so broke she could not even afford cab fare home.

Finally, in 1901, Rose O’Neill had enough. She dumped pretty Grey Latham.

Mistreating Rose O’Neill was the dumbest of all Grey Latham’s dumb moves, because not only was she about to become one of the world’s most famous women, she was about to become filthy rich as well.

After another unsuccessful marriage, this time to her dour Puck editor, O’Neill retreated to her family home in rural Bonniebrooke where she came up with a series of drawings featuring cute, pudgy, cupid-like characters called…well…Kewpies.

The Kewpies became a worldwide phenomenon as a cartoon strip and as merchandising. O’Neill herself carved the first Kewpie statue, and her earnings from the Kewpies came to about $1.5 million dollars, making her the highest paid woman illustrator in the world. At a time when the average US income was around $500 per year, O’Neill’s earnings would be worth about $35 million dollars now. Income tax was dead low, so her dollars went far.

Grey Latham, who had used O’Niell’s money to finance his film ambitions and lifestyle didn’t get a penny of the real fortune that was to come.

Perhaps that is why, one year later, the still very young Latham was dead. So was his brother Otway. Brokenhearted Major Woodville followed his sons in 1911, but lives forever in cinema history.

As for O’Neill, her generosity was legendary, and her multiple homes were used as the salons of the rich and famous, including poet/philosopher Kahlil Gabran.

However, Kewpie money began to wane by the 1930’s. O’Neill had already taken a hit when her German kewpie-making factory was stilled by WWI. O’Neill, who loved her new, affluent lifestyle ran low on cash.

Her timing for her new artistic venture was lousy. Trying to recreate the Kewpie Phenom, she came up with a new character called HoHo, a cute, laughing little Asian Buddha.

Just in time for Pearl Harbor.

No wonder she began having strokes.

O’Neill was dead broke in her beloved estate Bonniebrooke by 1944, having written her incomplete memoirs that are especially incomplete on the subject of the natty but ratty Latham.

The story of Rose O’Neill and Grey Latham…film and comics, together – and squabbling – from day 1.

c

FOLLOW UP POST HERE: HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEWPIES!

This post originally appeared on the old blog, but has been updated and images have been added, some from my personal collection of the work of Rose O’Neill. Photo of the Latham family from the Picture Showman blog, an excellent cinema history resource where you can learn more about the Lathan loop.

Thanks for stopping by.

The copyright office has a new program for online copyright registration, with online forms, uploading of digital files, and credit card payments.

All copyright registration packages must go through a screening process to check for Anthrax and explosives. Registration takes a lot longer than it used to. This screening process sometimes results in damage to submitted works.

The copyright office does not actually store most of the works sent to them for registration, which should be an interesting problem if ( more like when ) the noxious Orphan Works Bill passes. So you may want to save yourself some postage and the cost of the books and register online.

If you have ever been unfortunate enough to witness a message board discussion about copyright or trademark, not only does the false information circulate faster than the accurate information, but you could save yourself a lot of time and trouble by not going to message boards to get your info. Go to the official copyright and trademark offices FAQs pages on line. Most of your questions about copyright and trademark can be answered there for free.

The copyright FAQ page is here.

For answers on trademarks and patents go here .

This was reposted from the old website, and I hate losing some of the great comments from readers. But here’s one I just couldn’t say goodbye to from Arlnee:

I just got through reading about this girl who is SUPER obsessed with a certain anime series and its main character in particular, so much so that she claims she “owns”it. Her proof is an autograph by the character’s ENGLISH DUB VOICE ACTOR under the words “(Anime character) belongs to (girl’s name)”.

I can’t count how many levels of pathetic I found this, either the idea that she could believe the voice actor had ANY rights over the character he’s voicing, or that she thought others might believe it. I’ve heard of similar stories through fandom through the years but none so egregious. And yes, apparently she is over 18. sigh

I’m afraid there are plenty of crazies out there with weird ideas about copyright and trademark, and we can’t do much about them. But, they confuse matters with their online nattering. There are also plenty of well meaning types out there who post disinformation and really, really don’t have a clue what they are talking about.

Make things easy on yourself and go directly to the official information resources.

Sorry to upload this again so soon, but there have been many searches for it and requests to get this back online.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Walter Keane was famous for his paintings of big-eyed, weeping children. The paintings look a good deal like manga art to me.

The Keane paintings became popular on the West Coast about the same time shoujo manga was taking off in Japan. I’ve often wondered if Keane Kids made their way across the Pacific and infected the shoujo manga scene, or vice versa.

Many early shoujo manga didn’t have the big eyes we now think of as a manga staple. The earliest magazines for young girls generally featured heavily illustrated prose which showed a Western art influence, and had photo covers.

Disney art was the biggest influence on the big-eyed manga look. Osamu Tezuka, the God of Comics, acknowledged this. Later, Disney was heavily “influenced” by Tezuka, most notably on the film The Lion King (but that’s another matter entirely.)

It’s probable that Western cartoon art influenced both manga and the Keane look simultaneously, resulting in a kawaii (cute) look with similar appeal for each culture.

Here’s an article from a book on the history of shoujo manga which mentions the development of Tezuka’s art and the influence of Disney. The top image is from an early anime, and the bottom from a Disney film.

After Tezuka’s Princess Knight, first published in the 1950’s, shoujo manga was dominated by the big-eye look. Princess Knight is considered by many to be the first true shoujo manga, and it established the look and feel of girl’s comics for decades to come.

While I was not able to find any sources that directly linked Keane to the development of manga, some contemporary artists, such as Reiko Sakurai, openly embrace the Keane appeal.

This essay on Miyazaki’s Nausicaa touches on the Keane look, mentions that it is “analogous” to manga, but does not call it an influence.

While it is easy to understand why kawaii images are popular with young children, the reason they are appealing to teens and adults is puzzling to some. The rise of uber-cute is, possibly, a rebellion against female empowerment, or even sexual development. Young teens embody the safety of childhood and the power of adult sexuality simultaneously.

Reassuring images of childlike females proliferate in manga, even when masquerading as a girl power construct.

The paradox of girl power is that girl power focuses on empowering femininity, but restricts itself to patriarchal constructs of what it means to be feminine. The primary restrictions of girl power in patriarchy are the body type favored within the girl power construct, the style of representation, including clothing styles that are appropriate for girl power practitioners, and the constant stereotyping of hyperfeminity and youth. Girl power suggests a means for personal empowerment and independence to the practitioner, especially in terms of personal pleasure. However, the nature of girl power prevents the practitioner from fully developing an independent nature. The girl power body itself is a site of negotiation between these contradictory values.

Craig McCracken, creator of Powerpuff Girls, is said to have been inspired by Keane kids when developing the look of the cartoon, which also seems to owe a lot to anime/manga.

When I was doing consulting work for Bandai, the marketing folks for Sailor Moon wondered why Cartoon Network execs told them that Sailor Moon could not be more popular. Bandai was informed the cute, cartoony, big-eyed girl character designs were unattractive to Americans. I just happened to have a copy of The Licensing Book (an industry magazine) with me, and on the back cover was a huge ad for Powerpuff Girls. It seemed obvious that a lousy time slot had a lot more to do with Sailor Moon ratings than big eyes.

While big-eyed weeping children hardly seem a source for female empowerment, the backstage saga of the Keane kids is a real life girl power tale, though perhaps more in a second wave feminism sense, as defined in the above article on Sailor Moon.

The famous divorce trial of Walter Keane and his wife revealed that the true artist behind the sad-eyed tots was actually Margaret Keane, who sued her husband for credit for her works.

At the trial, Margaret challenged her husband to sit in court and paint. He showed up with his arm in a sling, claiming he had a hurt shoulder and was unable to create. Margaret sat down and painted a Keane original before the judge and jury, which awarded her all rights to her work.

“It had been going on for two years by the time I found out he was telling people he was the artist. And by then, it was hard to change everything. Plus he said he’d learn to paint if I’d teach him, and I wanted to believe him.”

Back in the day, it was not uncommon for women creators to take male names or hide behind a male partner who took all credit. Mr. Keane was, by many accounts, a huckster who then battled Margaret Keane in court for a decade in an effort to seal the steal on her work.

Perhaps marriage to this man was the inspiration for the miserable kids in those paintings. After the divorce, many of the Keane kids wept no more. Her later works depict big-eyed, softly smiling faces. Here, a Keane kid looks happy to be dressed in a kimono.

Walter Keane, who, apparently, had no discernable talent, had to ride his wife’s coattails in order to achieve the recognition he could not earn for himself. Keane took credit for the work, in part, because he believed that it was his salesmanship which made the paintings popular. Be that as it may, he still didn’t paint them, and Margaret Keane continued to enjoy success decades after she dumped her husband.

I recall someone of this ilk saying, “If you want to get revenge on someone, steal their idea and exploit the crap out of it.” Perhaps resentment and envy toward his wife were as powerful as greed in Walter Keane’s case.

Walter Keane’s son (by another wife), photographer Sascha Keane, was, until recently, posting articles to his website giving his father full credit for the Keane paintings with barely a mention of Margaret Keane. However, the direct link from Sascha Keane’s website to the Walter Keane bio page no longer works. It’s still accessible from an external link. The Life magazine article linked there has a particularly galling quote:

Margaret, it is true, paints eyes a little like those for which her husband is famous. But hers are not so big and belong as unvaryingly to nubile girls as his belong to what appear to be war waifs.

You know, if the little woman paints it, it’s just not quite as good.

Interesting that so many female creators of my acquaintance have similar problems with men imposing themselves on their work. Even J.K. Rowling’s ex-husband tried to claim he was central to the creation of Harry Potter, and had personally edited the manuscript. In fact, they were married for less than two years, and she had yet to create Harry Potter.

This creativity assimilation happens to men too, but the social dynamics of the experience differ, one assumes. How many works of art throughout history were the works of women whose accomplishments were usurped entirely by men in times when divorce and redress in court were not available to these women?

The issue is not whether one likes the work of Margaret Keane: the issue is that the work is hers, and her own husband tried to steal all the credit for it.

Kate Hudson has been tapped to play the painter Margaret Keane in Big Eyes. Big Eyes will be directed by The People vs. Larry Flynt screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Thomas Haden Church will play her husband.

c

I am very sorry that I cannot find the correspondence that brought this to my attention, so please contact me again so I can credit you.

The Google/ Authors Guild case concerns Google’s attempt to scan all books and post them to the internet without first obtaining the permission of the copyright holder. While Google claims this act is their do-no-evil public service as internet uber-librarians, Google stood to earn millions of dollars from the exploitation of these works and had no intent to provide the creators or publishers of same with one penny from the use. While Google claims that only a small portion of any of the books is available for public perusal at any time, this is de facto copyright violation for commercial use.

When I have found these books scanned online via Google, huge sections of the books were available for use by the reader. Nifty for research purposes, but crappy of Google to take advantage of the content provider (author). Google’s empire made some 6 billion dollars last year alone.

(EDIT)While this article, which is written by someone who is clearly unhappy with the settlement, claims Google only made “snippets” of works available. I was able to read 20 pages of copyrighted texts at a time. Basically, entire chapters.

One commenter demanded to know had ANY of the annoyed authors ever made any money on their books after the advance?

Why, yes. I have. Thanks for asking. That’s how I have made almost every penny I have ever made on A Distant Soil.

The Authors Guild settlement will, supposedly, make a portion of the advertising funds raked in by Google payable to authors. How that is all going to work out remains a bit murky.

Further confusing the matter, children’s book illustrations are treated differently under the settlement terms than other book illustrations, which are excluded from the settlement.

This is the correspondence that recently came in the email, directed at all parties who registered to receive info about the claim and settlement outlined here.
(more…)

Must Read.

A few years ago, I wrote an article on my work schedule (reposted just a few weeks ago, click the Time Management tab), and the rather intense demands in it led some people to observe that my attitude showed a disturbing level of American go-get-it drive, a sad obsession with “being #1″, and a workaholic tendency.

Darn those crazy Americans! When are they ever going to learn to stop and smell the roses (I grow roses, by the way.)

Well, this very interesting article is yet another look at the simple fact behind success; PRACTICE is a greater indicator of success as an artist than innate talent, and the work habits of those artists who succeed show that those who work harder get better results. It’s not God-given talent, it’s drive and work ethic.

Scientists have investigated this question of expertise — specifically, skill at a level that seems unobtainable by normal, motivated individuals. In one study, researchers led by Florida State University professor K. Anders Ericsson studied musicians at a Berlin conservatory. Students were divided into three skill levels, including one the faculty had identified as having the best chance of becoming world-class soloists. The researchers had the students keep diaries of their schedules and looked at such information as when they started playing and their practice habits as children…

The results were clear-cut, with little room for any sort of inscrutable God-given talent. The elite musicians had simply practiced far more than the others. “That’s been replicated for all sorts of things — chess players and athletes, dart players,” says Ericsson. “The only striking difference between experts and amateurs is in this capability to deliberately practice.” The group even determined the number of hours musicians must play to compete at the highest professional level — about 10,000, the equivalent of practicing four hours a day, every day, for almost seven years. (more…)