Tyrell Davis was a character actor in Hollywood during the 1930s, a time when great censorship came to bear upon film, including animation. The homosexual was considered a sever deviant and the image of any homosexual was to be portrayed as deviant and psychically ill, morally corrupt and/or completely laughable. Davies took on the laughable and ridiculous path, creating a flaming “Pansy” replete with make-up, highly coiffed hair, limp wrist and everything “effeminate.” His appearance in my film “Happy & Gay” is a symbol and marker for how lesbians and gays were portrayed. He’s also chosen especially because he made a regular appearance in Ub Iwerk’s studio cartoons. Take a look at this one, in which this leaping sequence is lifted from, and says everything about the negative portrayal in animation. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn_mgSi_JXg)
