David Barker

(1887-1946)

David Crothers Barker was an artist and cartoonist born in Kaniva, Victoria, Australia on 2 February 1987, son of accountant David Barker and his wife Helen, née Crothers. A sister, Ruth, was born the following year, but in 1889 their father died of tuberculosis. In 1892 Helen married draper Robert Begg and they had a son, Allison, in 1893 and another, Ewan, in 1903. Sadly, Robert died in 1904 from a leg amputation. Helen and the children moved to Sydney and David trained as an engraver. In November 1909, aged 22, he sailed to Canada, and crossed over into the United States where he eventually found work with a publishing company in Philadelphia.

After visiting New York he set sail for Paris, and then returned via London to Sydney in July 1912.

He enlisted in the army in April 1915, and served as a stretcher bearer at Gallipoli. He was then assigned to the British Army in Mesopotamia to work as a Cartographer under T E Lawrence. There he acted as art editor of, and created the cover for, the Anzac Book which contained the writings, illustrations, cartoons and poems of the survivors of the Gallipoli campaign and was published in 1916. In 1918, based in Cairo, he was art editor for the Anzac service magazine The Kia Ora Coo-ee, contributing many cartoons and cover illustrations.

Returning to Sydney after the War, Barker pursued a career as an artist, and in 1919 he married Doris May Parrett.

As well as exhibiting watercolours and etchings, he started to experiment with animation, and patented a rotoscope technique in 1921, where live-action film is projected onto a translucent screen to be traced off to create smooth animated actions. He later improved on this system by printing the frames of live-action films on registered photographic paper and using these as a basis for tracing the action of his animated character, often reshooting the photographs with the animation cels on top.

The artist and animator Harry Julius, (who's company Cartoon Filmads was Australia's leading animation company, specialising in advertising films) had patented (in Australia) the cutout animation system he used, in order to reduce competition. Keen to acquire Barker's rotoscope system Julius invited him to join the company as a producer. Cartoon Filmads had started as an extension of the press advertising company founded by Harry Julius and Sydney Ure-Smith in 1906, and Barker's understanding of advertising meant that his films were focused on putting across his clients' message as succinctly as possible. Cartoon Filmads made films for clients not only across Australia and New Zealand, but also in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Julius planned to open an office in London, and in August 1921 he registered (in Sydney) a new company, Cartoon Filmads (Britain) Limited,

"To operate under licence in Great Britain and Ireland (but not elsewhere) Barker's invention for an improved method of making animated cartoon film advertisements, and display in cinematograph and variety theatres by means of films, prepared by such a method, etc."

In November 1921 Barker and his wife sailed to London, meeting up with Albert Lake, managing director of Cartoon Filmads and a director of Cartoon Filmads (Britain), and Bert Leywood, a theatrical tour manager who had set up offices for Cartoon Filmads in various Asian countries while on tour. It must have been a difficult time for Doris: their first child, David, had died at three months old in February, and she was pregnant when they reached London. A son, George, was born in Marylebone in December. They subsequently settled in Hendon, and their second surviving son, Peter, was born there in December 1923. (Both boys lied about their age in 1939 in order to enlist.)

In April 1922, under 'New Companies', The Bioscope published the details of Cartoon Filmads (Britain) Limited, noting it had been registered in Sydney the previous August. New details reported were that Leywood was now one of the directors, and the registered office for Cartoon Filmads (Britain) Limited was Bank Buildings, 20 Kingsway WC2. On Saturday May 13, 1922, local papers across Britain carried a story in their (syndicated) film gossip columns promoting Cartoon Filmads, but after this the press fell silent. It would appear that a consortium of businessmen headed by Captain L T M Pennington were attempting to establish a presence in the advertising film market. They were in the process of taking over a company called Cinads, and forming another company to exploit the 'glimpsograph', a device for presenting advertising displays, and now were negotiating to acquire Cartoon Filmads (Britain) Limited.

On 6 July 1923 the company Adlets Ltd was registered, with Pennington as chairman and Leywood as managing director. Adlets Ltd was closely allied to Cinads Ltd: although they advertised separately they shared the same offices. Cinads Ltd had two telephone lines, one of which was also used by Adlets Ltd. Adlets had a studio at 58-61 Fetter Lane EC, where David Barker worked, assisted by Roland H Kemp. The difference between the two companies may have been that Cinads Ltd specialised in very short advertisements for local businesses – the movie equivalent of the advertising slide show, animated to the degree that the lettering wiped on in various ways, whereas Adlets was making longer and more expensive cartoon films for national manufacturers, which could have local dealers' names added for a small fee.

It is worth noting that none of the films by Barker that are available online show any noticeable signs of rotoscoping. Mr _ _ _ _ Goes Motoring and The Boy Who Wanted to Make Pictures were based on drawings by H M Bateman, so it would be easier just to go ahead and animate them than to set up and shoot live-action reference, and the Persil ads are very simple in their actions. It may well be that the process was used on other films that have not survived.

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia has an interesting film by Barker which they date about 1925. Titled Snippy is an Artful Dodger it features a little cartoon man, Snippy, who runs around a live-action garden dodging the pursuit of a small boy, Snooks. The technique used involves the printing of enlarged frames from the live-action negative (possibly using Barker's rotoscope, although other studios did it by using the animation camera as a projector) which are then shot under the camera frame by frame with the animation added. There seems to be no change in quality between the sections of a scene that includes animation and the sections that don't, suggesting that the whole scene was printed off and reshot. however, for the sake of economy animated action often takes place on a static photograph, with the sequence of photos being filmed only when there is relevant live-action. Also, in a shot where Snooks pushes Snippy round on a homemade roundabout the first rotation of the roundabout is repeated as a cycle to extend the scene. The film ends with Snippy calling out (via a speech balloon) from the grating he has hidden behind, "Ta ta Snooks, see you next week" – which would suggest that this was intended to be a series.

The question is: just when was this film made? If was actually made in 1925 then it would seem likely to have been shot at Barker's home in Hendon, with his elder son George as Snooks. It would suggest an attempt to move away from advertisements into the field of entertainment shorts. George would be four in December 1925. In June 1926 Doris took the boys back to Australia. On the other hand, was it shot in 1921, before he came to London? If it was shot on Barker's return to Australia then its lack of sophistication (and sound!) would have made it look very old-fashioned.

Although initially successful Adlets was soon facing competition from other companies being set up to exploit the advertising market. Adlets and Cinads were soon failing to return sufficient profits and in 1927 Barker resigned from the Board of Directors. He appears to have carried on animating, but eventually the studio folded and he returned to Australia.

During the thirties the family lived in Neutral Bay, Warringah, a suburb of Sydney, where Barker continued to work as an artist.

With the outbreak of WWII Barker, aged 53, re-enlisted with the Australian Army in March 1940 and served on the home front until June 1943.

David Crothers Barker died in Sydney on 6 May 1946, aged 59.

Filmography

Links to Other Sites

Pikitia Press: David C. Barker: biography.

Australian Screen: Snippy is an Artful Dodger. Short film, intended as one of a series, made by David Parker around 1925.

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