Cute meets landmark: Felix

Today seemed perfect for a little dose of cute. That's a cute black kitten, huh? Cute cute cute. And remarkably like the historic Felix the Cat sign that adorns a car dealership at Figueroa and Jefferson, south of downtown LA. We did some digging, and here "historic" means "put up around 1958." But the Felix the Cat cartoon character is older, dating back to 1919 or earlier, depending on what you read. The guy who owned the car dealership was named Felix, and was buddies with the guy who owned the studio back in New Jersey that first created Felix the Cat; somehow Felix the car guy started using Felix the Cat for his car dealership back in 1923. The studio owner didn't actually draw the cartoons, he just took the credit from the guys that did, so the Felix lineage is a bit murky. The most interesting this we found out about Felix the Cat is that back in New York, the first TV broadcasts -- in 1928 -- started with the cameras pointed at a Felix standing on a little rotating platform, instead of a test pattern. Cute.

Photos by Beth Loft (kitty) and Payton Chung (Felix) via Flickr