Winsor McCay Day celebrated Tuesday in Spring Lake

Thu, Jun 11, 2009

SPRING LAKE — Film animation pioneer Winsor McCay will be receiving recognition posthumously next week from his hometown of Spring Lake and the state.

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Tuesday's Winsor McCay Day, part of the annual Spring Lake Heritage Festival, will honor the famed cartoonist and animator who was born here in 1867. Several activities are planned for the day at Spring Lake District Library, 123 E. Exchange St.

In addition, the Michigan Historical Center will conduct a formal state historical marker dedication at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to honor McCay. It will be the first of five historical markers to be erected along the old West Michigan Pike (U.S. 31) by the state office.

The marker dedicated Tuesday will be on the north side of Exchange Street, between Spring Lake Township Hall and Spring Lake District Library.

"Winsor McCay is one of the many little-known Michiganians who have had a lasting impact on our state and our nation," said Michigan Historical Center Director Sandra Clark. "His pioneering work in animation is part of our state's historic and modern leadership in the field of design."

The state historical center has been collaborating with Beachtowns Inc., a coalition of visitor bureaus in southwest Michigan that includes the Grand Haven Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, to install the markers along the old highway.

The effort began three years ago when the State Historic Preservation Office researched the development of the resort industry in southwest Michigan and conducted a survey of existing tourism-related historic sites along the West Michigan Pike, which ran from New Buffalo north to Mackinaw City.

"We are delighted that the Michigan Historical Center and Beachtowns convention and visitors bureaus partnered to strengthen the region's heritage tourism product that has given Spring Lake the opportunity to celebrate this story," Clark said.

McCay's young talent was first recognized when he drew a picture of a Spring Lake fire that destroyed his family home. He etched the scene in the frost of a window pane at a neighbor's house.

After the steamer Alpena sank in Lake Michigan, McCay fashioned a likeness on a Union School chalkboard. Union School once stood between the current Spring Lake Township Hall and Spring Lake District Library. A photographer reportedly took photos of McCay's early drawings and sold them as prints.

Walt Disney said he borrowed techniques from McCay, who died in 1934 and is buried in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Each year at the Annie Awards — the animation world's Oscars — the Winsor McCay Award is presented to the person considered tops in that field.

Winsor is best known for his fictional characters "Gertie the Dinosaur" and "Nemo," a little boy with a wild imagination.

Mark Miller, chairman of the Spring Lake Heritage Festival and a local Winsor McCay committee, said he's been waiting for this day.

"Every community looks for that certain thing that really helps it stand out," Miller said. "Winsor McCay is just that. He grew up here. He's famous to this day. When he drew the SS Alpena sinking on the Union School chalkboard, that really kicked off his career. That ship sank in Lake Michigan in 1880."

Miller said the Michigan Historical Center found the McCay connection so fascinating that they sped up the historical marker dedication.

"They bumped it up so we could have it here for Winsor McCay Day," he said.

Future plans for the vacant land between the library and Township Hall includes a McCay cartoon character playground equipment and child-friendly dinosaur tracks in honor of "Gertie."

Miller said Tuesday's day-long events are an appropriate tribute to a man who meant so much to animation.

"He is world famous — Walt Disney studied his work," Miller said. "We plan to continue Winsor McCay Day and have monuments of Winsor and some of his characters around the village."

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Winsor McCay Day schedule

All events are at Spring Lake District Library, 123 E. Exchange St., on Tuesday, June 16.

* McCay Day Party with Aaron Zenz, 10:30 a.m.

* Cartooning with Collier: Kevin Collier demonstrates McCay's work, 2 p.m.

* Winsor's Whimsical Creations: movie featuring McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur," 7 p.m.

* Historical marker dedication, 6:30 p.m.

* Winsor McCay: Inventor of Animation Speech, by Ray Pointer, 7 p.m.