Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat)

## Early Life (1894-1902)

Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) was born in December 24, 1894 in Winona, Minnesota to a family of great privilege his father Shannon B. Peterson was a wealthy property owner who owned a Concurrent estate which granted him the right to unrestricted access to the property and a right to an accounting of profits which are made from the property, Shannon B, Peterson independently encumbered his co-owner's own share in the property by taking out a mortgage on that share. His mother Alexis B, Peterson worked as a lady's maid and waited on the lady of the house and helped with her make-up, hairdressing, clothing, jewelry and shoes.

Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) had an older sister named Maxine D. Peterson who was born in 1890. Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) attended Goodview Elementary in the Independent School District 861 in Winona, Minnesota and was a below average student but gained an early interest in art. Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) attended the Winona Middle School in the Independent School District 861 in Winona, Minnesota where he became Increasingly interested in drawing various types of artwork and gained notable interested among his piers who sometimes praised him for his unique artwork and among his teachers, Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) had shared his artwork with his parents who had supported him in pursing a possible career in art. Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) attended Winona Senior High the Independent School District 861 in Wonona, Minnesita in August of 1909 where he began pursing a possible career in the art field and gained notable attention in his school for his impressive artwork, Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) graduated from Winona Senior High in June of 1913.

## Start of Animation Career

Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) enrolled in Winona State University in his home city of Winona, Minnesota in 1913 and there he began pursuing a career in the art field and began to draw some very detailed artwork one in which Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) had drawn a garden the drawing showed a lawn mower on the grass and drawings of two people holding a letter which had helped to ensure Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) to get a professional art degree in the art field, Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) graduated from Winona State University in 1916 with a professional art degree and he was ready to kick start his career.

On March of 1917, Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) was discovered by a colleage that was working for Paramount Pictures and Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) traveled to Hollywood, California where he agreed to sign a contract with Paramount Pictures and started a career in animation as opposed to a career in art. Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) had began to work with some of his fellow colleages and came up with the idea to create a cartoon short which he described at the time as a place of unknown origins and which turned out to be a complete failure for them and Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) had tried coming up with some other ideas for possible cartoon shorts when he came upon the idea to draw a cat which he had though about naming it simply Felix but his colleage convinced Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) to name the cartoon Felix the Cat and he took the suggestion and titled the cartoon short series Felix the Cat, Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) and his other colleages had began by animating the first cartoon short in the Felix the Cat series and they tried coming up with unique ideas for the first cartoon short, One of the colleages began coming up with a possible plot for the first cartoon short and developed the story line which Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) had described as brilliant and very unique, Ryan C. Peterson (Felix the Cat) began animation his first cartoon short and titled it Feline Follies with his other colleage helping to produce the first cartoon short in the Felix the Cat series. The Felix the Cat series went on to release 169 silent cartoons and 15 sound cartoons, for a total of 184 cartoons.