Juggling in Movies

Feline Follies (1919)

[Otto Messmer; animation]

This is the first appearance of Felix the Cat, though he has not yet been given that name, and is here called Master Tom. To female cats, Master Tom is a heart-breaker; and to mice he's a head-breaker. But when Tom falls in love with Miss Kitty White, all that changes. Now, all the time he would have spent terrorizing the mouse population is instead spent primping in front of the mirror. Tom and Kitty first make love, and a great deal of noise, on a back-alley fence. Someone ends their tryst by throwing a boot. Later, they meet up by an ash can. Tom plays his banjo and Miss Kitty dances. Later, cartoon magic allows them to pluck notes from the air and turn them into go-carts. It's all fun and frolics until the mice destroy the house that an oblivious Tom is supposed to be guarding, and the lady of the house throws him out by the tail. And then poor Tom gets a worse surprise.

At 02:42, a mouse juggles 2 chicken drumsticks for 2 seconds, even more unrealistically than the common circular shower pattern.


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