Anson Dyer

(1876-1962)

Ernest John Anson Dyer was born in Brighton on 18 July 1876, fifth of ten children. They were not a wealthy family: his father, James Dyer pulled a Bath chair (a Victorian invalid carriage available for hire at seaside resorts) and his mother, Elizabeth, supplemented the family income as a charlady.

James died in 1890 at the age of 56. His wife turned to taking in washing (her first job as a girl had been assisting her aunt as a laundress) and Ernest left school at fourteen to work as an errand boy. He had a talent for art, and attended Brighton School of Art, probably in the evenings. He was subsequently hired by C E Kempe, an artist who lived just outside Brighton and ran a studio in Marylebone, London, designing and manufacturing stained-glass windows for churches.

Charles Eamer Kempe had been inspired by the Oxford Movement while at university and considered becoming a clergyman. Hampered by a stammer he turned instead to ecclesiastical architecture, training under George Bodley and learning from William Morris.

Kempe had added the "e" to his family name Kemp to make it more distinctive. It may have been this that inspired Ernest Dyer to hyphenate his surname as Anson-Dyer. He used this as his signature, but his surname remained Dyer on all official documents. The only exception I am aware of is in the entries on Electoral Rolls in the 1950s, which would have been submitted by Dyer's son-in-law.

In 1898 Dyer married Ethel Cook, the daughter of a Brighton builder, and they settled in Chelsea. A daughter, Audrey, was born in 1900. They bought a house in West Ealing in 1907 and a second daughter, Ethel, was born in 1909.

When war broke out in 1914 Dyer was 38, a married man with two children, and not particularly fit. The call to arms was on a voluntary basis only, and Dyer was not an obvious candidate for the forces. He did, however, feel that the time had come for a change of career.

Dicky Dee's Cartoons

Stained glass design had been a steady job but it had not satisfied his aspirations. It would seem from his later work that he was a frustrated performer and lover of the music hall. His aptitude for humerous drawing suggests it was already an accomplishment — perhaps just for his own amusement but it is possible he had submitted cartoon work for publication. If he had done so it would presumably have been under another name — it is tempting to think this could have been "Dicky Dyer" or "Dicky Dee" but there is no evidence to support such speculation.

It appears that Dyer approached film companies in the hope of becoming a screen actor. He was, it seems, turned down on the grounds he was too tall, but producer J B McDowell of the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company was interested in his drawing ability. Several production companies were making 'lightning artist' films as a format to present propaganda cartoons. These were proving very popular and may have had government sponsorship. McDowell was keen to produce such a series and hired Dyer to create the films, to be titled Dicky Dee's Cartoons.

Many 'lightning artist' propaganda films were just static cartoons being created onscreen by the artist, but for Neptune Films Lancelot Speed pioneered cut-out animation in his Bully Boy series, which started in October 1914. This was the technique that Anson Dyer would adopt. In an article published in World Film News magazine, 1937, He gave a brief history of animation technique that began as follows:

In 1915 the hand of the cartoonist always appeared on the screen. It merely drew lightning caricatures of politicians and well-known people or comic animals.

Most of these drawings were outlined first of all in a faint blue, which did not register on the film. This gave accuracy and speed to the cartoonist during the actual shooting. The speed worked out at about ⅛ inch per frame.

From this method a new technique evolved, called "ghost drawing." The cartoonist's hand disappeared, and the pictures evolved on their own. This was the simple technique of one-turn one picture, ⅛ inch being added to the drawing between shots.

This effect was improved by showing a hand drawing on one side of the screen, while another figure evolved all by itself on the other side. Meanwhile, exact replicas of the characters had been made, so that when the cartoonist's hand passed across the screen, his original drawing was removed, and the replica was placed there instead. The replica figures could now be animated and carry on the plot.

In this way the public was nursed into accepting an animated cartoon without seeing the artist's hand at work.

The animated figures just mentioned were "cut-outs"—that is, they were flat profiles cut out and elaborately jointed. It took about eight hours to walk a figure across the screen, and one slip would ruin an entire shot.

The extreme sensitivity of photography to blue light (and relative insensitivity to red light) was well-known and the blue pencil had been in use for writing instructions and drawing guidelines on artwork for reproduction in print for over sixty years.

An eighth of an inch per frame equals two inches a second, a realistic (almost leisurely) speed more often used when several lines were drawing on at one time. Single lines were usually drawn on faster at a quarter of an inch or even half an inch a frame, depending on the size of the drawing, which could be between two to three feet wide.

The jointing of cut-outs, often with cotton thread, was widely adopted — it made repositioning a figure quicker and simpler, without loose pieces sliding about. But Lancelot Speed seems to have prefered keeping the pieces loose, as it allowed for greater flexibility in action — the apparent rotation of shoulder and hip joints, for example, and in general a greater degree of elasticity.

Besides Speed's Bully Boy films Anson Dyer would also have seen the first handful of films in the John Bull's Animated Sketch Book series that debuted in April 1915. Made by Dudley Buxton for the Cartoon Film Company, they played more to low comedy than Speed's work and it was probably these that influenced Dyer's approach.

There is some controversy as to whether the correct title is Dicky Dee's Cartoons or just Dicky Dee Cartoons, but the press advertisement promoting the first film, besides being headed DICKY DEE'S CARTOONS, has an illustration based on the films' title card where a rather distorted apostrophy-S can be seen following the name Dicky Dee on the bird's beak.

In his book The B&C Kinematograph Company and British Cinema Gerry Turvey Describes Dicky Dee's Cartoons as follows:

The subject matter was patriotic and hostile to Germany, and had its parallels in the ridicule offered in the wartime comic papers. In the first release, a bather whose clothes are stolen is given a uniform as replacement by a recruiting sergeant, whilst in the second, a Zeppelin raid is dramatised and the Kaiser satirized.

The first film was released on 18 October 1915. The Kinematograph Weekly's preview (21 October) of the second film gives more details:

No. 2 of the series includes:— (a) the peace monger, (b) the Zeppelin raid, (c) a puzzle portrait. The Zeppelin raid is a little drama in itself enacted on the tiles at midnight, while the puzzle portrait is a very cleverly executed sketch of Charles Chaplin, which after a few deft strokes of the pen resolves itself into a speaking likeness of Mr Lloyd George. Released Nov. 25th, length 578 ft.

There do not appear to be any surviving prints of the first two films, but the BFI holds a copy of Dicky Dee's Cartoons No. 3 [click to watch]. Released on 6 January 1916, it consists of only two elements: the animated nightmare of a boy who dreams a huge German chef forces him to eat an entire Christmas pudding, then tells him it was really a bomb that is due to explode; and a straight forward patriotic 'lightning artist' item in which a drawing of the sphinx is transformed into portraits of Lord Kitchener and Admiral Jellicoe.

John Bull's Animated Sketch Book

The compatibility of Dyer's work with John Bull's Animated Sketch Book was not missed by Dudley Buxton and his producer J A Clozenberg. Buxton was turning out footage at a rate that enabled the company to release a film a month. With a second animator working on the series they might be able to reach the distributors' preference of a new release every two weeks. They approached Dyer who gladly signed up with the Cartoon Film Company.

Dyer's first entry, John Bull's Animated Sketch Book No. 8, was released on 27 December 1915. The Dundee Courier (28 December 1915) wrote:

No. 8 of John Bull's Animated Sketch Book is a series of lightning cartoons from the pen of Anson Dyer, and contain[sic] a host of good things. "Bill and His All-lies" is well thought out, while "Relations" makes a fine picture. The animated cartoons are always popular.

Anson Dyer continued to alternate episodes with Dudley Buxton, providing the even numbers to Buxton's odd. He was not as sophisticated a draughtsman or animator as Buxton (during pauses Dyer tends to just waggle things for the sake of motion whereas Buxton's minor actions are deliberate and observational), but these are distinctions that would not have been apparent to cinema audiences: both artists were providing skillful and entertaining films. Clozenberg started to promote the series with full-column advertisements in the trade paper Kinematograph Weekly a month ahead of each release, featuring the name of the animator and an illustration from the film, and stressing the popularity of the series.

The Kinematograph Weekly (24 August 1916) said of John Bull's Animated Sketch Book No. 18:

It is even better than its predecessors, more amusing, and certainly more clever. The disgusted German and his dog, Fritz (over the battle of Jutland), the dog eating the the bread ticket, leads up naturally to the "eight shies a penny" pitch, with the crowned heads of the Central Powers instead of cocoa-nuts. They are, of course, soon bowled over by the sailor boys, who spend their pennies freely. One clever sketch depicts the adventures of "The box that took the wrong turning," a clever parody of the Melville play. The matches all fall out of the box, wander about as if hoping to get back home, and then form up into a portrait of "Bill," followed by one of "his only rival," Mephistopheles. A really attractive Anson Dyer cartoon, its length is 600 ft., and it will be released on October 2nd.

Click this link to watch John Bull's Animated Sketch Book No.18 on BFI Player. The "crowned heads of the Central Powers" are, from left to right, Sultan Mehmed of the Ottoman Empire, Prince "Little Willie" Wilhelm of Germany, Kaiser "Bill" Wilhelm of Grmany, Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austro-Hungary and Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria.

The matchbox skit is actually titled "Why Matched were Taxed" or the Box that took the "Wrong Turning". In 1871 Robert Lowe, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Gladstone's Liberal Government, proposed a tax on matches, an idea he got from America, and being fond of Latin tags and rather poor jokes he had ex luce lucellum (out of light, a little profit) printed on the stamps prepared in readiness for attaching to matchboxes on the passing of the Bill. The East End match manufacturers Bryant & Mays organised a march of protest by its workers, many of whom were women, and argued that the tax would be an unfair burden on the poor. The police clashed with the marchers in a heavy-handed manner that provided satirical opportunities for the cartoonists of the day. Queen Victoria wrote to Gladstone condemning the proposal and the Tax Bill was withdrawn. Lowe's match tax remained a subject for humorous mockery for many years. Matches were, of course, known as "lucifers" and that is Dyer's idea in using them for the porttaits.

As the reviewer notes, the subtitle references The Girl who took the Wrong Turning, a 1906 play by Walter Melville, one of a series of melodramas written and staged by the Melville brothers featuring strong, emancipated female characters. They reflected the rise of feminism, but were more about popular exploitation than social issues.

Of John Bull's Animated Sketch Book No. 20 the Kinematograph Weekly (19 October 1916) wrote:

The cartoon by Anson Dyer is very cleverly done, and depicts among other scenes at the Front an impression of what the "Tanks" are like. What the artist has conceived about these indomitable ironsides is very laughable, especially his idea of their steam-navvy jaws eating up the sides of the trenches, and the gun nozzles out of the eye sockets. There is also a skit on a Boche who goes mushrooming, only to find that the coveted vegetables are the heads of entrenched "tommies" wearing their new helmets. The cartoon, which is 600 feet in length will be released on November 6th. It had a fine reception at the trade show.

The first "landship" was tested in September 1915. It was not a great success. Improvements had already been planned and a new version was ready by December. This had the big "boxy" shape that inspired those who worked on it to refer to it as a tank. The project was shrouded in secrecy and "water tank" was used as the codename. Tanks were first put to use nine months later, during the Battle of the Somme, on the 15th of September 1916. Photographs were not permitted, so newspapers had to make up their own artist's impressions. Cartoonists had fun speculating on the appearance of these new monsters. The "new helmets" were the Brodie steel helmets, designed in response to the danger from shrapnel and distributed to all troops from the summer of 1916. Previously the rank and file had worn cloth caps.

The trade showing of Dyer's final entry in the series, John Bull's Animated Sketch Book No. 20, was described by the Kinematograph Weekly (14 December 1916) as:

being greeted with much applause. It deals with the recent Zeppelin raids, which are depicted in a manner that caused hearty applause. We were shown the Zeppelins in full flight, their overhauling by our airmen, and total wreckage, and several really amusing situations, including the trial and condemnation of Kaiser Bill. The clever subject concludes with animated pictures of Lieutenants Sowrey and Brandon encircled with the D.S.O.

2nd Lieutenants Frederick Sowrey and Alfred de Bath Brandon were both pilots who had fought and shot down Zeppelins. They were awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 4 October 1916.

Kine Komedy Kartoons

In the summer of 1916 Anson Dyer and Dudley Buxton were approached by Frank Zeitlin to join his proposed animation studio Kine Komedy Kartoons. It would seem that Zeitlin's aim was to build a studio not just to produce wartime propaganda but to compete with the US imported cartoons after the war was over. Apparently Clozenberg was unable or unwilling to match Zeitlin's offer, and Dyer and Buxton agreed to join Zeitlin when their contract with Clozenberg expired at the end of the year. In the mean time Zeitlin hired artist-entertainer Ernest H Mills to make dramatic propaganda 'lightning artist' films.

Anson Dyer's first animation for Kine Komedy Kartoons seems to be represented by an extract held by the British Film Instute entitled Peter's Picture Poems. The title does not appear in the trade press, either in advertising or release information. It is possible that the title just refers to the segment and is part of another film entirely, or perhaps it was never released.

His first documented release, on 30 July 1917, was The Kaiser's Record, described in The Bioscope 12 July as:

Anson Dyer's clever series of satirical cartoons, in which the witty if disreputable bird from the Kaiser's helmet attempts to solace his august master by records from a gramophone. The bird, unfortunately, shows little discretion in his musical selections, and the results are full of a humour which does not appeal to the Kaiser, though it cannot fail to delight a British audience. "We don't want to fight, but by Jingo, if we do!" shows pictures of our army in the field, our navy at sea, and a supply of guns and munitions which is calculated to strike awe into any alien enemy. A particularly happy touch is "The Kiel Row," showing the usual occupation of the German Navy, with Von Tirpitz "Asleep in the Deep," at the bottom of the sea, safely moored to an anchor. The bird at last is sent disguised as the Dove of Peace, as an emissary to Downing Street, but the only official prepared to receive him is the charwoman, with a bucket of cold water, to the air "All dressed up and nowhere to go."

Dyer's insolent bird, originating from the Dicky Dee cartoons and regularly featured as the Kaiser's helmet crest in his John Bull's Sketchbook contributions, here gets the lead role. At 830 ft this is one of the longer KKK films, which at this point averaged 750 ft. They would later reduce to around 500 ft, reflecting the distributors' preference for half-reel (500 ft) shorts.

I can find no synopsis of Dyer's next film,Food for Thought, subtitled Bread and Taters, but it is variously described as:

A clever and humerous cartoon
[Pontypridd Observer, 29 September 1917]

A most instructive cartoon
[Folkestone Express, 1 September 1917]

An amusing series of animated cartoons
[Belfast News-Letter, 4 September 1917]

The Kinematograph Weekly, in a report from Hull, commented:

There is quite a call for cartoons at the present time, and those reach the most popularity which have a good moral to inculcate. At the Majestic this week there is a very curious and clever one, its title "Food for Thought," which supplies many valuable hints in regard to the food supply question.

Walturdaw contracted to release Kine Komedy Kartoons' films for 1918 and strongly promoted the first releases in the trade press. The title of Dyer's Old King Coal is thus well-known, but its subject matter is less clear. Old King Coal and Ernest Mills' The Nelson Touch were included in Walturdaw's trade show for the US feature The Little Pirate on 28 November 1917. The Kinematograph Weekly (6 December 1917) reported:

...the Cartoons are "real good". Dyer's are concerned with that burning question "coals," and include not only some clever drawings, but pictured plays upon words. Puns are perhaps not the highest form of humour, but they "touch the spot" here.

The Bioscope of the same date wrote:

Anson Dyer gets a lot of fun out of animated cardboard figures. His cat is a conception, and insists on laughs, and the old cat (the housewife) certainly makes the cat laugh; and when James, her husband,is smothered in the coal cellar everybody laughs. This is quite a good comic cartoon, with clever punning subtitles.

In an earlier piece promoting Walturdaw's acquisition of the Kine Komedy Kartoons the Bioscope (15 November 1917) had noted:

The ingenuity is remarkable, as in the scene where a lump of coal breaks into minute fragments which resolve themselves into quite remarkable likenesses of various personages of supreme interest at the present time.

Agitated Adverts, released some time around the end of February !918, consists of the scenarios imagined by a gentleman reading the small ads in a newspaper (click on title to watch video) and was popular enough to warrant a sequel, More Agitated Adverts.

In an item annoucing his contract with Victor Hicks, Frank Zeitlin is quoted as mentioning that:

The K.K.K.'s latest film, "The British Through German Eyes," by Anson Dyer, has proved a big success
[Kinematograph Weekly, 2 May 1918]

but I have not been able to find any reviews or synopses.

Dyer's last film for release by Walturdaw, A Child's Dream of Peace was presumably made in the summer of 1918, but being a retelling of the Christmas story it was held back for realease in December. Walturdaw advertised it, at the end of August, as "A Sweet Little Xmas Production":

It is Christmas Eve, a little girl is put to bed by her mother, after hanging up her stocking ready for the visit of Santa Claus. When her prayers are said, the mother relates the old story of the child born in the manger. Then comes sleep and the dream.
Santa Claus comes with gifts which include a picture-book of Christmas, the pages of which show the story in the simple manner, appealing to the child's imagination.
The artist has caught the child idea of Christmas in every scene, The journey of the wise men from the East, guided by the star is a masterpiece of shading and lighting effect.
[The Bioscope, 29 August 1918]

In October a review in The Kinematograph Weekly added:

It is dignified in treatment and artistic in conception, really not a cartoon in the strict sense of the word. It is a feature which, by virtue of its length, may easily be sandwiched into any Christmas program. It should attract old and young .
[Kinematograph Weekly, 10 October 1918]

The advertisement gives the film's length as 700 ft, but on release this appears to have been reduced to 600. Although the synopsis suggests the format of a live-action introduction, it seems that the entire film is drawn.

It was becoming clear that Kine Komedy Kartoons was not making money. The films were popular, but much more expensive than American imports and Zeitlin was finding it near to impossible to persuade distributors to pay what he needed. With the completion of the films for Walturdaw he was unable to find a suitable deal for the next year, and it may be that he could not pay his animators. Certainly Ernest Mills made no further films that year, and Anson Dyer produced animation for at least two other companies.

For Gaumont Graphic he made a short War Bonds appeal entitled Weapons, with a Cartoon by Anson-Dyer included on the title card. A hand draws pen and ink, and a notice writes itself on, reading "Drill instructions. For those who will Not be using a rifle. 1. Take the pen Boldly. 2. Write Freely. 3. Practice Regularly." A hand then writes a cheque for War Bonds, signing it "B. A. Patriot." The "W" of "Weapons" becomes the Kaiser's moustache, and as he cries the word becomes "Weep on." The film ends with Dyer's signature.

It appears Dyer also provided animated sequences for Maurice Elvey's historical drama Nelson: The Story of England's Immortal Naval Hero, finally released in 1919, but I have found no mention of what these consisted of .

It is likely that these films were made at KKK's premises, since Zeitlin wanted to hang on to his artists, but Dyer may have been paid directly, without KKK producing. In October Ashley Exclusive released Foch—The Man, a portrait of the French general now supreme commander of the allied forces. In Mills' absence this film was made by Dyer, with a lighter touch than the films that Mills had created. The review in The Kinematograph Weekly (24 October 1918)called it a topical sketch, and read:

This is a semi-humerous action wash drawing which should prove a great draw in these days when the name of Marshal Foch is on the lips of people the world over.
Starting with a pen picture of the soldier's birthplace set amid the snow-capped mountains of the Básque Pyrenees, the illustration goes on to give incidents which have helped to make the name of Foch a household word. His habits and sayings are typified briefly, and his methods shown. All through there is a vein of humour which appeals to the patriotic sense and of the kind which the public—especially at this victorious hour—will appreciate. This short sketch of Foch is just the sort of thing required as a follow-on to heavy drama, and should prove invaluable to exhibitors.

Zeitlin's partner felt that there was no point in carrying on, and made arrangements to leave the partnership. but Zeitlin was not prepared to give up, with the War coming to an end and the challenge of establishing a British studio to match the US product now a real prospect. He decided to press ahead with four new series on spec, figuring he needed something to show to prospective distributors. Dudley Buxton agreed to work up a series based on the exploits of a pair of ex-servicemen, the Cheerio Chums. Anson Dyer agreed to a series based on the highly popular Uncle Remus stories featuring Brer Rabbit. Pure speculation, but I could imagine that Zeitlin might have promised that if he could not get a distributor the films would become the property of the animators, to sell as they could.

When Zeitlin had original hired Dyer and Buxton away fron the Cartoon Film Company, producer J A Clozenberg had acquired the rights to the published cartoons of Bruce Bairnsfather, and subsequently Louis Raemaekers, producing 'lightning artist' reproductions of these cartoons, which while crediting the original artists were actually animated by Jack Dodsworth. Now, to pad out his series proposal, Zeitlin borrowed this idea, securing the film rights to the newspaper cartoons of Poy and the Zig Zags at the Zoo illustrations of J A Shepherd, the latter cartoons to be animated by E H Mills.

Zeitlin advertised the proposed new series in December 1918, inviting distributors to bid for the rights. By March 1919 he had secured a deal with the Phillips Film Company, who would distribute a package of twelve films (three of each series) under the banner of Phillips Philm Phables.

The 16 January 1919 issue of The Bioscope carried a special supplement reporting on the Annual General Meeting, Conference and Dinner of the Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association, held the previous week. The lengthy collection of serious articles, including the only slightly edited Annual Report for 1918, ended on a lighter note with a gossipy list of unanswered questions headed Conference Queries. Three of these were:

*               *               *
     What was the subject of the animated conversation between Mr. Anson Dyer and a certain influential exhibitor?
*               *               *
     Did it concern "A Child's Dream of Peace"?
*               *               *
     And is Mr. Dyer now convinced that good work does pay in the Film Trade?
*               *               *

I have no idea who the "influential exhibitor" might have been: it does suggest, however, Dyer's thoughts of leaving KKK.

The Bioscope (17 March 1919), reviewing Phillips Philm Phables, reported:

Anson Dyer's three pictures are devoted to some of the famous Uncle Remus stories, which he retells with the liveliest humour, ingenuity and imagination. His beautifully-drawn and very clever animated pictures are assisted by pithily-written titles in the form of couplets, the second lines of which are gradually spelt out. The plots of Brer Fox and the counter-plots of Brer Rabbit are visualised in the happiest spirit, and the mechanical effects with which the films are crowded are remarkable for their skill and inventiveness. The stories are most effectively told and the draughtsmanship is of the highest artistic merit. Unlike many cartoonists, Mr. Dyer gets his humorous effects by the development of natural characteristics, and not by mere exaggeration, which is so often the resort of poor draughtsmanship. These Uncle Remus pictures will simply fascinate children, and they should also delight adults, for they are full of genuine charm and wit.

There seem to be no subsequent reviews of the series, or any individual titles mentioned. It is possible that since Dyer had announced his intention of quitting when he had completed his contracted three episodes Zeitlin had no reason to feed the trade press with promotion for these films. They appear to have been well received, and Dyer himself seems proud of them, showing a poster of Brer Rabbit ("Still Running") in the background of a caricature of himself at work circa 1920.

Hepworth Picture Plays

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Filmography

Links to Other Sites

BFI Player - Dicky Dee's Cartoons No. 3: video of the last of Dicky Dee's Cartoons, released 13 December 1915.

BFI Player - "BILL" and his All-lies: extract from John Bull's Animated Sketch Book No. 8, released 28 December 1915, Anson Dyer's first film in the series. Near the end of the clip the image of the Kaiser is replaced by an articulated cut-out in preparation for future animation, but the clip ends before the animation takes place. The image of "Sister" and "Brothers" that opens the clip is presumably the end of the 'lightning artist' sketch entitled "Relations".

BFI Player - John Bull's Animated Sketch Book No.18: video of Anson Dyer's sixth film in the series, released 2 October 1916.

BFI Player - Peter's Picture Poems: video of a segment from an Anson Dyer film for Kine Komedy Kartoons, c. 1917, possibly not released.

BFI Player - Agitated Adverts: video of Anson Dyer's film for Kine Komedy Kartoons, released (perhaps late February) 1918.

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