Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) Winsor McCay, with an improvised score by HESPERUS

Before Mickey and Daffy, cartoons were much more than a way to keep children quiet. They were used to teach a skill such as how to use the telephone, or a moral lesson: beware the evils of drink. They sold products such as Nivea cream with cut paper actors, or told tales of love and treachery with animated beetles as main characters. And they were used as propaganda, as they are here--to demonstrate the fiendishness of the Hun. In their 'Cartoons that Shook the World' program, Tina Chancey and Steve Bloom of HESPERUS improvise accompaniments to some of the earliest and most creative animations from 1908-1926. Our sound engineer for this video was Mattias Rucht.