{{short description|American cartoonist and comedian}} {{about||the baseball talent scout|Charles P. Bowers|the American civil engineer|Charles E. Bowers}}{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox artist | name = Charles Bowers | image = Harvard Theatre Collection - Charles Bowers TCS 1.3351 (cropped).jpg | birth_place = Cresco, Iowa, U.S. | birth_name = Charles R. Bowers | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1946|11|24|1887|6|7}} | birth_date = June 6, 1887 | death_place = Paterson, New Jersey, U.S. }} '''Charles R. Bowers''' (June 6, 1887 – November 24, 1946)<ref name="buffalo">{{cite news |title=Charles Bowers, Pioneer in Animated Cartoons, Dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-news-obituary-for-charles-r/127540052/ |work=The Buffalo News |date=November 27, 1946 |page=20|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> was an American cartoonist and film director during the silent film and early "talkie" era. He was forgotten for decades and his name was notably absent from most histories of the Silent Era, although his work was enthusiastically reviewed by André Breton and a number of his contemporaries. As his surviving films have an inventiveness and surrealism which give them a freshness appealing to modern audiences, after his rediscovery his work has sometimes been placed in the "top tier" of silent film accomplishments (along with those of, for example, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd). In comic style, he probably modelled himself after both Harry Langdon and Buster Keaton and was known to the French as "''Bricolo''."

==Biography== thumb|thumbtime=13:00|''It's a Bird'' (1930), a comedy film with animation and live action The son of Dr. Charles E. Bowers and his wife, Mary I. Bowers, Charles Raymond Bowers was born in Cresco, Iowa. His early career was as a cartoonist on the ''Mutt and Jeff'' series of cartoons for the Barré Studio. <ref name="Mutt">{{Cite book |last=Lenburg |first=Jeff |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816038312 |title=The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons |date=1999 |publisher=Checkmark Books |isbn=0-8160-3831-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816038312/page/37 37]-39 |url-access=registration |accessdate=16 May 2020}}</ref> By the late 1920s, he was starring in his own series of slapstick comedies for R-C Pictures and Educational Pictures. His slapstick comedies, a few of which have survived, are an amazing mixture of live action and animation created with the "Bowers Process". Complex Rube Goldberg gadgets also appear in many of his comedies. Two notable films include ''Now You Tell One'' with a memorable scene of elephants marching into the U.S. Capitol, and ''There It Is'', a surreal mystery involving the Fuzz-Faced Phantom and MacGregor, a housefly detective. He made a few sound films such as ''It's a Bird'' and ''Wild Oysters'', and wrote and illustrated children's books in his later years. For eight years during the 1930s he lived in Wayne, New Jersey, and drew cartoons for the ''Jersey Journal''. Bowers also worked for Walter Lantz Productions for a short period. After he succumbed to severe arthritis his wife started drawing them under his direction.

Following a long illness, Bowers died in 1946 in Paterson, New Jersey.<ref name="buffalo"/>

==Filmography== thumb|right|Charley Bowers His work, long forgotten, has undergone a rediscovery and revival of interest in recent years. His 15 surviving films were the subject of a 2004 two-DVD release by Image Entertainment and Lobster Films of France. Much more of his work is thought to exist in various film archives. In July 2019, Flicker Alley released a Blu-ray set of 17 of his films called "The Extraordinary World of Charley Bowers." *''The Extra Quick Lunch'' 1917, 5’34, Animation - Mutt and Jeff *''A.W.O.L.'' 1918, 5’22, Animation *''Egged On'' 1926, 24’08, Slapstick *''He Done His Best'' 1926, 23’42, Slapstick *''A Wild Roomer'' 1926, 24’27, Slapstick *''Fatal Footstep'' 1926, 22’18, Slapstick *''Now You Tell One'' 1926, 22’18, Slapstick *''Many A Slip'' 1927, 11’36 (Incomplete), Slapstick *''Nothing Doing'' 1927, 21’17, Slapstick *''There It Is'' 1928, 17’22, Slapstick *''Say Ah-h!'' 1928, 14’02 (Incomplete), Slapstick *''It's A Bird'' 1930, 14’10, Slapstick<ref>{{YouTube|Z4i15-7L0ss|title=It's A Bird}} ''Excerpt'' (1930)</ref> *''Believe It Or Don’t'' Ca 1935, 7’53, stop-motion Animation *''Pete Roleum And His Cousins'' 1939, 15’41, stop-motion Animation *''Wild Oysters'' 1940, 10’06, stop-motion Animation - Released by Paramount Pictures as a Max Fleischer Animated Antic *''A Sleepless Night'' Ca 1940, 10’59, stop-motion Animation

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Bibliography== * ''Banc-Titre'' (March 1978). pp.&nbsp;10–11. Article on Bowers's films, with short biography. (in French) * ''Funnyworld'' (October 1978). pp.&nbsp;35–36. Memories of Bowers, by animator Dick Huemer. * ''Midi-Minuit Fantastique'' (June 1967). pp.&nbsp;62–65, Article on Bowers's films and career. (in French)

==External links== *{{IMDb name|0101038|Charles R. Bowers}} *Mark Bourne's review of [http://www.dvdjournal.com/quickreviews/c/charleybowers.q.shtml Charley Bowers: The Rediscovery of an American Comic Genius] at [http://www.dvdjournal.com/index.html The DVD Journal] *[http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/11406/charles-r-bowers Charles Bowers] at Virtual History

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowers, Charles}} Category:Animators from Iowa Category:Animators from New Jersey Category:American children's book illustrators Category:People from Cresco, Iowa Category:People from Wayne, New Jersey Category:Silent film comedians Category:American stop motion animators Category:Burials at Cedar Lawn Cemetery Category:1887 births Category:1946 deaths Category:20th-century American comedians Category:20th-century American illustrators Category:Comedians from Iowa Category:Comedians from Passaic County, New Jersey Category:American male comedians Category:Artists from Passaic County, New Jersey Category:Walter Lantz Productions people