New Era Films Ltd

(1922-1953?)

In an article for the Documentary News Letter (January 1941) Mary Field, editor of British Instructional Productions' Secrets of Nature documentary series, wrote:

The first three "Secrets" were made. But, as every one in the film business knows, it is one thing to make a film and another to find a distributor for it. All Wardour Street turned down the "Secrets" as the sort of thing the public don't want to see. The "Secrets" started their career as a flop and a flop they remained until, in 1922, New Era Films was started to market another flop, Bruce Woolfe's Armageddon, the first of all war films, which again the existing renters could not fancy. Under Gordon (now Sir Gordon) Craig the New Era company was started to distribute both unwanted features and unwanted shorts, and they were distributed to some purpose.

This is a rather simplified account — Field had not been there at the time, only joining British Instructional in late 1925. Gordon Craig joined the board of the Regent Film Company, a distributor, in 1922 and it was this company that distributed the first two sets of six Secrets of Nature films. Craig launched New Era Films in 1923 to release Armageddon and the company took over releasing the now profit-making Secrets of Nature series.

In Jun 1922 Pathé began importing the American Felix the Cat cartoons, showing them as the closing item in its Eve and Everybody's Film Review, the more lightweight complement to the Pathé Pictorial newsreel. Felix was a big hit with the British public, and UK animators switched from trying to find a British Mutt and Jeff to seeking an animal character to rival Pat Sullivan's cat.

The obvious alternative to a cat being a dog it was to canine characters that they turned, with Joe Noble teaming up with Dudley Buxton to make The Adventures of Pongo the Pup, a series commissioned by Pathé to replace Felix when the US distributor changed. Pongo was very similar in design to Felix and performed in a similar manner. The series also adopted the 'consecutive-sequence-of-drawings' method of animation used in America rather than the animation of cut-out drawings that Buxton had previously used.

But Britain already had a very popular cartoon dog — G E Studdy's Bonzo, who appeared in a full page cartoon panel in the weekly magazine The Sketch. Back in 1912 the panel had featured some canine situations under the title Studdy's Dog Studies, and in 1921 the editor, Bruce Ingram, urged Studdy to do more dog cartoons. They proved popular enough for The Sketch to publish a collection, The Studdy Dogs Portfolio, the following May. The series continued and over time the various dogs featured coalesced into one particular round-faced puppy. On the 8th November 1922 This Week's Studdy was subtitled Bonzo's Latest and the text below read "A large number of readers have shown themselves curious as to the name of the famous Studdy dog. To satisfy them we announce that his name is 'Bonzo'." The name was Ingram's choice — Studdy did not care for it much, apparently.

Bonzo's popularity soared, and merchandising followed. By 1923 Study's cartoons were being syndicated in America and Europe, Bonzo storybooks and soft toys were in the shops and Bonzo references were shoehorned into two current West End productions, the musical comedy Battling Butler, where Jack Buchanan sings "Battling Bonzo" to a stuffed toy, and the musical revue From Dover Street to Dixie, where Studdy provided a design for the safety curtain illustrating Bonzo en route from England to America. [Despite the claim on several sites, I have found no evidence so far that either show actually featured George Atterbury, the actor who made a career of playing Bonzo in pantomime starting with Aladdin in 1930.]

Given his subsequent credit as producer, I presume it was the animator William A Ward who approached New Era with the idea of an animated series featuring Bonzo. It seems likely that he had already discussed the idea with Studdy, and was looking to New Era Films for a distribution deal. New Era were enthusiastic about the project and offered to act as production company, employing and housing the animaton staff.

With Ward as producer they advertised for artists. In his memoirs cartoonist Brian White recalls:

In 1924 I heard a British film company wanted a man to assist in drawing animated cartoons. I applied for the job and found that I was to make thousands of drawings to assist Mr George E. Studdy to bring his famous dog, Bonzo, to life upon the screen. I accepted and came to be a member of William Ward’s team of animators.

This was White's first experience of animation and the same was the case with most of the other recruits. He continues:

After one week’s trial we started work in earnest. All told there were 11 animators of whom four were women. I remember M. York who I believe had done similar work previously; and Marjorie [Bull] who married James Drawbell, the editor and writer.

White also mentions Kevin Moran (enviably ambidextrous — when one hand got tired he could switch to drawing with the other), [H] McCready (who taught White to whirl a lasso — "I think he had pretensions of being a cowboy") and the cameraman, Pat Tobin. Denis Gifford gives the additional names Percy Vigar (wrongly given as Percy "Vigas"), A I Matheson (wrongly given as "M" Matheson), E G Castell (wrongly given as "S" G Castell) and Charles de Mornay, but does not mention his source. It is possible they were taken from a page of autographs owned by White. Along with White himself this totals 9, leaving 2 recruits unnamed. These would seem be the other two women.

Marjorie Bull married James Drawbell on 21 August 1924. White remembers her under her maiden name, so they must have worked together long enough before her marriage for that to have stuck — I suggest at least a month. On 27 June 1925 Marjorie and James sailed from Southampton on a three week return trip to New York. While this was probably a business trip for James, it may also have doubled as a delayed honeymoon. It is a very flimsy basis for speculation, but it might suggest that the production schedule for the Bonzo series ran from early June 1924 to early June 1925, an average of two weeks per episode.

White goes on:

Animation, timing and photographing was a very simple operation which was just as well as we were learning a new trade. The animation was on paper while the backgrounds were mainly transparent celluloid sheets and in those days it was celluloid. I have seen many a sheet go up in flames more than once when the ink (to which we used to add a little sugar to make it take) was being hastily dried rather too near a 100 watt bulb under the animating desk.

The first film was completed by the end of September 1924, and given a trade showing on 14 October. New Era Films pronoted the series in the trade magazines. The full-page ad in the issue of Kinematograph Weekly for 9 October 1924, framed by 13 Bonzo vignettes by Studdy, announces:

New Era Films Ltd. take great pride in presenting BONZO to the Trade. An introduction to this screamingly funny little chap and his creator Mr. G. E. Studdy would be superfluous as their names are world famous, but in their screen partnership it will be recognised at once that they have achieved a great deal more than the important fact that they have added very considerably to the gaiety of the world.

To date it has not been found possible to produce animated cartoons in this country on a technical level with those emanating from the United States, but in BONZO it will be found that a completely new standard in this highly technical work has been established which will be accepted as the world's pattern.

The drawings in themselves are a work of art, and animation never before attempted has been produced to perfection. The scenarios too, which are the work of Mr. Studdy, are the essence of comedy, and the character is without doubt the most humorous and lovable little fellow the screen has ever known.

On 10 November 1924 New Era premiered Zeebrugge (a documentary about the British Naval attempt to seal the German u-boat fleet in its base in Belgium towards the end of WWI, produced by British Instructional Films) in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary at the Marble Arch Pavilion cinema. The Bonzo cartoon was included in the programme.

The cartoon would not go on general release until January 1925, by which time enough films should have been completed to permit a fortnightly release schedule. Thus the 26 films would run from January to December. If this was the plan, it seems it did not quite work out. According to Denis Gifford the first film was not released until 26 January, and the second was released on 23 February, four weeks later. From thereon the films were released fortnightly. This meant that only 24 films were released in 1925, the last being on 28 December. This would leave two films outstanding, but Gifford does not list any Bonzo releases for 1926.

Ward's team of animators had begun work housed in New Era's premises at 26-7 D'Arblay Street in Soho, just off Wardour Street. This was only a temporary arrangement, however. To quote White again:

After a time the Animation Unit moved to Holland Park, almost opposite the Tube station, where we had more room and a garden in which to relax.

This area had been popular with late-Victorian artists so it may have been a former artist's studio.

It is difficult to gauge George Studdy's degree of involvement with the studio. Initially he would have worked with Ward to establish scenarios, and drawn sketches of the various scenes, showing Bonzo's poses at various points. The fidelity of the animation drawings to Studdy's style is indicative of him having supplied abundant model line drawings. The demands of his illustrative work would seem to preclude his involvement in the actual animation, and the move away from canine behaviour to generic animated character situations in the scenarios suggests Studdy's reduced involvement. After a while the director Adrian Brunel, noted at the time for his short comedy burlesques, was brought in to work on scenarios.

But Studdy does appear to have remained involved. As Brian White relates, when the series was completed most of the staff dispersed. But:

Studdy, Ward, the camera man Pat Tobin and myself remained for a while as both Studdy and Ward each had hopes of starting a series of their own. Nothing came of it despite the Sunday Express devoting the best part of their film page to Ward’s proposed new series of cartoon films.

New Era declined to produce any further animated films. Despite the popularity of Bonzo the returns, from both domestic and foreign distribution, were presumably insufficient to warrant continuing with animated productions.

Gordon Craig was knighted in 1929 and with the arrival of sound he moved on from New Era Films to become Managing Director of the new sound newsreel, British Movietone News.

New Era Films and its subsiduaries New Era National Pictures, Ltd and New Era Productions, Ltd continued to distribute and produce live-action films throughout the 1930s, but by 1935 it had run up enough debt with the film processing laboratories for them to threaten to force the company into liquidation. It appears that the company's assets were sold off and it was shelved. Some later productions are credited to the company but this may just have been for tax purposes.

Filmography (Bonzo Cartoons)

The first 5 Bonzo films were released without individual titles, although they acquired titles when released abroad or in home-movie formats. The titles of another 5 of the series are known, but not their series number: these titles are given at the end of the list but belong to unnamed episodes in the list. Titles marked with an asterisk may not be the original titles.

[NB: Gifford tentatively gives No 20 as Bonzo the Traveller, but this title is actually a compilation of Booster Bonzo and Polar Bonzo edited as part of a set of 9.5mm home movie releases in 1935.]

Other known titles

Links to Other Sites

Brian White Archive George E. Studdy & New Era Films 1924: Animator Brian White's account of his time working at New Era Films.

BFI Player Bonzo: Video of the first Bonzo film.

BFI Player Bonzo No. 5: Video of the fifth Bonzo film.

YouTube Bonzo in Tanked: US release of Bonzo in the Army, transferred with added soundtrack by Tom Stathes.

YouTube Bonzo the Pup in Dog-Gone: US super-8 cutdown from Zoo-Ology or Bonzo at the Zoo.

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