Felix The Cat Kept On Walking

Felix The Cat Kept On Walking is a 1925 cartoon short released by Educational Pictures, featuring Felix the Cat. The black-and-white silent short (under ten minutes) was released on December 27, 1925. The producer is Pat Sullivan and the director is Otto Messmer.
In the short, Felix the Cat is thrown out of the house for walking on the piano keys, meets a poetaster and reads one of his poems, which inspires Felix to look for riches beyond the horizon. He walks to Britain (on the backs of fishes), is chased by the police, is kicked to Egypt by a soccer player, then walks back home to America where he encounters the poetaster and swats him beyond the horizon for his perceived bum steer. The short, as typical of cartoons of the time, features various impossible events and situations, and surreal sight gags.
Song
Earlier, in 1923, a comic novelty song titled "Felix Kept On Walking" was written by Hubert W. David (music) and Ed E. Bryant (lyrics). That song describes Felix having various fantastical escapades (Being swallowed by a whale, skinned alive by cannibals, and so forth), none related to the 1925 cartoon. Most verses start with "Felix kept on walking, kept on walking still." Whether or not Sullivan and Mesmer took their cartoon's title from the song may be now lost to history. "Felix keeps on walking" was briefly a minor catchphrase, probably inspired by the song rather than the cartoon.<ref name=Partridge/>
"Felix Kept On Walking" was recorded in the 1920s by Clarkson Rose, the Jack Hylton Orchestra, the Original Capitol Orchestra, the Savoy Havana Band, the Two Gilberts, the Pigmy Orchestra, Harry Faye, George Berry, Eric Smart, Ena Baga, Joe Loss and his Orchestra (as part of a medley), Reginald Dixon (also as part of a medley), Stanley Kirkby, and others. A version by The Big Ben Banjo Band (with the Michael Sammes Singers) was recorded and released much later, in 1964. A revival band, Nicholas D. Ball's Savoy Havana Band, has in included the song in its repertoire in the 21st century, playing it at the Whitley Bay Jazz Festival in 2022 for instance.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu