Otto Messmer was a lucky man.

Messmer at his desk at Douglas Leigh Organization. Courtesy Doris Messmer.

True, he never received screen credit on the more than 150 Felix the Cat cartoon shorts he directed during the 1920s. Producer Pat Sullivan saw that only his name accompanied Felix's on the screen.

It is also true that Messmer never received a cent of the lucrative royalties generated from licensing the Cat's image to an international array of merchandisers; along with accolades from Felix fans around the world, Sullivan also happily accepted all the licensing loot.

And it is true that Messmer never owned the copyright to the famed cartoon Cat he created in 1919 and to whom he gave a distinctive personality that profoundly inspired the character animators who followed, including Walt Disney. A deathbed promise from Sullivan that ownership of the character would pass from him to Messmer proved untrue.

Messmer (left) discussed with Don Leigh a storyboard for a giant animated electric sign. Courtesy Doris Messmer.

Yet, Messmer considered himself a lucky man. A shy artist, he often stated that he felt fortunate to work all day at his drawing board as a "salaried man," shielded by Sullivan from the high pressure, aggressive domain of film business deals and product promotion. Messmer's gift lay in dreaming up brilliant visual gags and imaginative stories for Felix, and gently (but authoritatively) supervising the small team of animators who assisted him in making one film every two weeks. If forfeiture of fame and riches was the price to be paid for enjoying a decade of intensely personal creative expression, Messmer considered it to be more than a fair exchange.

When the Felix studio died with Pat Sullivan in 1933, Messmer unhappily wandered Felix-less to other cartoon studios. In 1936, the Van Buren Studio acquired rights from Sullivan's heirs to make three sound-and-Technicolor Felix shorts. Messmer was asked to direct but he wriggled out of the assignment.