Special Monkey Magic

Special Monkey Magic

Featuring Jiminy, the Organ Grinder’s Monkey and the Carousel Cartoon Company of Chicago

In October 1934, during the very worst of the Great Depression, Jiminy, the ever-inquisitive, always impulsive, and incredibly funny Organ Grinder’s monkey died.

He died because the company that his three creators had founded to give Jiminy fun things to get into had failed. The Carousel Cartoon Company of Chicago was no more.

To say that a cartoon character died may not be accurate. To die means that you once were alive. Some would argue that Jiminy was just some India ink lines on a sheet of transparent celluloid. He did not have blood or lungs or a heart. He only did what his animators made him do. He had no will of his own. Alec, Hugh, and Charles would strongly disagree. Jiminy may have not had a heart or lungs or blood, but Jiminy most definitely had a will of his own. He had strong opinions, strong preferences, and equally intense dislikes.

Jiminy was easy to draw. Once a gag had been created, it was easy to place him into it. All of his creators reported that Jiminy “practically drew himself.” In twenty or thirty minutes, they would have a couple hundred cels, three or four seconds of hand-drawn animation. Amazing speed!

On the other hand, drawing the organ grinder man was always tedious. He often had to be done multiple times to avoid making him look too mean. They tried him with his handlebar moustache and without it. They gave him curly hair, then no hair. They made him plump and then skinny. Stood him with one leg forward, then erect. They tried to make him dance, but he would not do it.

The gag that worked the best was the one where jiminy is first the monkey with a cup in his hand collecting coins from the bystanders, then POOF! He becomes the organ grinder, and the man becomes the one forlornly collecting coins in a cup.

The gag worked so well they decided to make it a feature in every Jiminy cartoon. Sometimes, they did it more than once, giving Jiminy different expressions each time. The audiences loved the gag. It was a fan favorite.

Of course, the Jiminy cartoons had other gags. Jiminy would sneak into a very posh, up-scale department store and then bounce around putting on the wigs from the various mannequins, eventually having six or seven on his head. He went to a doctor’s office and then chased the nurses around, holding a gigantic syringe. He rode horses in the Kentucky Derby, winning the race while hiding under the saddle.

He was so easy to draw! He made every gag funny. Comedy was easy for him.

That Jiminy was so easy to draw confirmed what Alec often claimed. He denied that the animators had created him. No! He would say that the artist brought the character to life, like a midwife brings a baby from its mother into life. He argued that jiminy had his own anima, which in Latin meant soul or essence of being. The artist gives the ink lines an anima, their essence of being. But, the artist did not create the character. Jiminy was always there, just waiting for his anima.

~Listen ~