Felix the Cat is one of the most recognisable characters in film history. This British dress fabric is just one of over two-hundred recorded items of Felix merchandise. The character was created by Otto Messner and the films produced by the studio of Pat Sullivan in New York, but the first items of merchandise appeared, unofficially, in the United Kingdom.

Felix had all the hallmarks of the vaudeville tradition; his comic pantomiming and breaking of the fourth wall gave him a distinct personality. This, coupled with the ‘magical’ possibilities of animation and a prehensile tail, resulted in international fame.

The earliest version Felix, then known as Master Tom, first appeared in the 1919 animated short Feline Follies. He is shown here delighting an audience of young children in a similar film. Although Felix was popular with children, in his earliest incarnations his pursuits of food, shelter and sex, as well as his casual attitude to death, show that he was initially pitched at an adult audience.