Vintage Cartoons. . . And "Vintage Movies"

The character of Bobby Bumps debuted in 1917 in a short film titled "Bobby Bumps Puts a Beanery on the Bum" produced by Bray Studios. Bobby Bumps was portrayed as a mischievous young boy who often found himself in humorous and adventurous situations.

The success of Bobby Bumps led to a series of animated shorts featuring the character, which were popular during the silent film era. These cartoons were typically short in length, ranging from a few minutes to around ten minutes, and were shown in movie theaters as part of newsreels or before feature films.

The animation process for Bobby Bumps cartoons was labor-intensive and time-consuming by today's standards. Animators would draw each frame of the animation by hand on individual sheets of transparent celluloid, known as cels, which were then photographed one frame at a time to create the illusion of movement. Hurd's invention of cel animation made this process more efficient by allowing animators to reuse background elements and animate characters separately, reducing the need to redraw entire scenes for each frame.

Despite the limitations of early animation technology, Bobby Bumps cartoons were beloved by audiences for their humor and charm. The character became one of the most popular animated figures of the 1910s and paved the way for the development of animated cartoons as a form of entertainment.

Over time, as animation techniques evolved and sound technology was introduced to film, silent cartoons like Bobby Bumps fell out of favor, replaced by animated films with synchronized sound and dialogue. However, Bobby Bumps remains an important figure in the history of animation, remembered for his contributions to the medium and the pioneering work of his creator, Earl Hurd.