Don Oriolo[1] is an American artist, musician, and writer best known for his work in the music publishing industry and for overseeing the Felix the Cat cartoon character after his father, co-creator Joe Oriolo, died in 1985.[2] Don Oriolo also owns and operates the Oriolo Guitar Company, a guitar, bass, and ukulele manufacture company[3][4] whose products often feature Felix and other Oriolo-designed artwork.[5] Oriolo has also authored a number of books featuring his paintings of Felix the Cat, whom he describes as his creative muse. Some of his music publishing credentials include writing Jon Bon Jovi's first charted track, as well as signing Meat Loaf[6] and Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam.[2]
Don Oriolo was born and raised in New Jersey.[citation needed] He is the son of the co-creator of cartoons Felix the Cat and Casper the Ghost, Joe Oriolo. He credits his parents with fostering his creative personality as a child.[2] Growing up as one of three children, Oriolo and his siblings drew pictures and played various musical instruments. Don's main instruments were the guitar and the piano.[7] In one interview, he remembers being six years old and sitting underneath his mother's ironing board while she ironed and listened to Frank Sinatra.[7] He credits this memory of Sinatra's music as his first mind, body, and soul connection to music, even recalling every little detail of the memory, right down to the smell of the fresh laundry, the steam from the iron, and the rhythm of the spray bottle.[7] In a 2015 interview with wsRadio, he recalls his first gig as a musician at a local VFW Hall in New Jersey at the age of 13. He says that he always thought of his time playing guitar during his mother's sewing circle meetings at the age of nine as the true first live performances of his musical career.[7] Oriolo was also a huge fan of Elvis Presley at this time, another artist he credits for his lifelong love of music.[7]
In addition to playing music as a child, Oriolo was also an avid artist, and had a strong connection with the cartoon characters his father co-created.[2] His infatuation with Felix the Cat started at a young age; it did not escape his father's notice.[2] Joe Oriolo encouraged Don's artistic and musical talents throughout his childhood and into his adult life, and eventually introduced the younger Oriolo to Winston Sharples, Joe's colleague in the animation world.[7] Sharples, who Don refers to as "Win," became Don's mentor in the entertainment and music arrangement businesses.[7]
When Joe Oriolo died in 1985,[8] the Felix franchise was left to Don, who took the iconic cartoon and successfully shepherded it into the turn of the century with numerous licensing and merchandising business ventures in various international markets.[2] Under Oriolo's watch, Felix was the number one licensed character in Japan in the late '80s and early '90s.[citation needed]
Music publishing
Oriolo began his career in the music industry as a songwriter, session/studio musician, and music arranger, before stepping into what he calls the "executive turntable" of music publishing.[2] When he was first starting out as an aspiring musician, Oriolo would skip classes at high school and ride a bus from New Jersey into New York City, with his guitar.[2] On these trips into New York, he would go to record and publishing companies to try to get meetings with any executives who would give him five minutes of their time.[2] Eventually he started to turn heads and began to sell songs and work as a studio musician and music arranger.[2] During his time as a studio musician, arranger, and composer, he worked with bands and musicians including The Chimes, The Tokens, The Paragons, The Cupids, Doctor Hook, Gloria Gaynor and many more.[7]
Having already been in the recording business as a studio musician and writer,[9] he was able to float his interest in professional management to some of the most successful record and publishing executives of the time, eventually landing a job with RSO Records, owned by Robert Stigwood Robert.[2]
Oriolo continued to have a successful career in the music publishing business, discovering and signing musicians such as Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman, and Lisa Lisa. He also wrote music and arranged and produced records for musicians including Lisa Lisa & the Cult Jam, Doctor Hook, Meco, Robert Gordon and more.[10] Oriolo is credited with writing Jon Bon Jovi's first charted single, which was a Star Wars-themed track titled "R2 D2, We Wish You a Merry Christmas."[2]
Oriolo also owned and operated his own music publishing companies, for which he received numerous ASCAP and BMI awards, as well as many gold and platinum records.[citation needed] His publishing company also owns the hit songs "Supernatural Thing," "This Time I'll Be Sweeter," (both composed by songwriters Haras Fyre and Gwen Guthrie† February 3, 1999) and "Touch Me All Night Long".[12] In 1984, Oriolo started his own record label, Personal Records, which amassed 28 charted records in just three years. He continues to work in the music industry working with musical heavy hitters like Gloria Gaynor,[13] as well as fostering the careers of budding musicians such as Bronx-based pop artist Qeuyl,[14][15][16] and Nyah Jewel, also of The Bronx.[2] He still releases albums of his own music, with the most recent being two solo albums titled When You Gotta Go, You Go, and Earthlings Unite, as well as an album from his band Felix and The Cats titled The Cat is Back.
Felix the Cat
Oriolo is widely known as "The Felix the Cat Guy."[7] When his father Joe Oriolo, co-creator of the modern day Felix, died in 1985,[8] Don took over as the CEO of the iconic cartoon franchise.[2] Upon taking control of the franchise, Don Oriolo immediately started to implement more modern licensing, merchandising, and marketing strategies for the cartoon, and sought to bring Felix into a global market.[2] Oriolo particularly focused on the Asian cartoon market, where Felix is now "especially popular."[17]
Don Oriolo is credited with writing and performing the theme song for The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, a successful TV series aired by major networks worldwide including CBS in the USA, and he holds an Executive Producer credit for the show along with Phil Roman. He created the brand for Baby Felix, including acting as a writer, style guide and overall character creation for the Baby Felix cartoon TV series. For the Felix the Cat video game, Oriolo is credited with the concept, storyline, and character design. The game also won "Best New Nintendo Game of the Year" in 1988.[citation needed] He was the writer and producer for the greatly successful Felix the Cat and Hello Kitty musical production in association with Sanrio-Japan. The show played for a rare second season in Tokyo.[citation needed]He was the editor-in-chief, publisher, artist and contributing writer for Felix Comics, the publishing company behind the Felix the Cat comic books. Oriolo also was a co-creator of the Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island TV series for Kids' WB!.
As of 2022, Oriolo has not produced or directed any Felix the Cat cartoons or movies.
Blue Arrow Farm
Blue Arrow Farm is the brainchild of Don Oriolo, a lifelong animal activist. When the overgrown, falling down farm came up for sale, he made a commitment to buy it and bring it back to its one-time glory of the winter headquarters for the Meadowlands racehorses—the difference being that his mission was to create a loving, safe environment for the horses (and every other animal for that matter) that need rescuing from ofttimes deplorable conditions. He took the endeavor on using his personal resources. Horses, alpaca, cows, sheep, goats, mules, chickens, ducks, and pigs who were tossed away, being sent to slaughter, were all rescued and given sanctuary by Oriolo and his amazing staff. He also spearheaded the biggest cat rescue of over 200 cats[20] recorded in the history of the northeast, contracting a chronic airborne illness in the process. Blue Arrow Farm is a nonprofit 501(c)(3).[21]
Collection of Oriolo's artwork books
Felix the Cat's Magical Garden of Painting and Verse: A Whimsical Collection of Felix the Cat-Inspired Paintings and Poems.[22]
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic young black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he is often considered one of the most recognized cartoon characters in history. Felix was the first fully realized animal character in the history of American film animation.
Winfield B. Mercer, professionally known as Jack Mercer, was a prolific American voice actor, animator and TV screenwriter. He is best known as the voice of cartoon characters Popeye the Sailor Man and Felix the Cat. The son of vaudeville and Broadway performers, he also performed on the vaudeville and legitimate stages.
Archy and Mehitabel are fictional characters created in 1916 by Don Marquis, a columnist for The Evening Sun newspaper in New York City. Archy, a cockroach, and Mehitabel, an alley cat, appeared in hundreds of humorous verses and short stories in Marquis's daily column, "The Sun Dial". Their exploits were first collected in the 1927 book archy and mehitabel, which remains in print today, and in two later volumes, archys life of mehitabel (1933) and archy does his part (1935). Many editions are recognized by their distinctive illustrations by George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat.
The Banana Splits is an American television variety show produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and featuring the Banana Splits, a fictional rock band composed of four costumed animal characters in red marching band hats with yellow plumes. The costumed hosts of the show are Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky.
The Mighty Hercules is an animated television series based loosely on the Greek mythology character of Heracles, under his Roman name Hercules. It debuted on television in 1963. The show ran until 1966, coinciding with the sword-and-sandal genre of films popular between 1958 and 1965. Each stand-alone episode runs 5½ minutes, and in syndication was aired either as part of a block with other cartoons, or with several episodes airing consecutively to fill 30-minute time slots.
Otto James Messmer was an American animator known for his work on the Felix the Cat cartoons and comic strip produced by the Pat Sullivan studio.
The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat is an American animated television series produced by Film Roman. The series first aired on September 16, 1995 on CBS Saturday mornings lasting for two seasons with the final episode airing on April 12, 1997. The first season consists of 13 episodes and the second and final season consists of 8 episodes.
Frederick G. Seibert is an American television producer and media proprietor. He was the first employee and creative director of MTV in 1980, and later founded Frederator Studios in 1998, as well as its spin-off companies Frederator Networks, Channel Frederator Network, and Cartoon Hangover. Having held numerous executive positions for Viacom Media Networks, he was the final president of animation studio Hanna-Barbera from 1992 to 1996. He has since co-founded Next New Networks, Bolder Media, and the production company FredFilms by 2020.
A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform.
Joseph Oriolo was an American cartoon animator, writer, director and producer, known as the co-creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost and the creator of the Felix the Cat TV series. He provided the voice of the Italian barber in Gulliver's Travels.
David Hudson DePatie was an American film and television producer who was the last and longest lived executive in charge of the original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio. He also formed DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, with Friz Freleng, Hanna-Barbera Productions and was an executive producer at Marvel Productions.
Baby Felix is a Japanese children's animated television program that follows the adventures of a young Felix the Cat and infant versions of the characters from Joe Oriolo's Felix television program from the 1950s. It is the third Felix television series. It was launched by Oriolo's son, Don Oriolo in 2000 with NHK Educational, NEC Interchannel, AEON Studios of Japan and SMEC Media & Entertainment of Taiwan. The show consists of 26 half-hour episodes. It follows in the long line of "Baby Cartoon Revivals" alongside such shows as Muppet Babies, Baby Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry Kids, and The Flintstone Kids. All 26 episodes were released in Bulgaria on 9 DVDs by A-Design. In Italy the series aired during 2008 on Rai 2. In 2010, DVDs have been released in Hungary as well.
Brent Mason is an American, Nashville, Tennessee-based recording studio guitarist and songwriter, performing primarily country music.
Meg Davis is an American singer of traditional music. She is also a songwriter, best known for her classic ballad "Captain Jack and the Mermaid". She is known primarily as a folk musician and folklorist specializing in historical ballads as well as a composer of stories and music in the same genre as Donovan and Fairport Convention.
Felix the Cat: The Movie is a 1989 animated fantasy film directed by Tibor Hernádi and based on the cartoon and comic strip character of the same name.
Adventure Cartoon Productions was a production company that created the cartoon series The Mighty Hercules in 1962. Distributed by Trans-Lux Television, the series then debuted on TV in 1963 and ran until 1966. Joe Oriolo, who produced the TV Felix the Cat series, and Roger Carlin, previously an associate of Jay Ward, were involved in the company; along with Arthur P. Brooks and the colorfully named "Big Sid" Ginsberg. The cartoons were made in New York City, and employed several veteran artists connected with Paramount Pictures and Terrytoons cartoons. The company used stock music by Winston Sharples derived from his scores for Paramount cartoons of the 1950s, also heard in many other New York-made cartoons of the time.
Felix the Cat is an American animated television series featuring the cartoon character of the same name.
Seymour Victory Reit was an American author of over 80 children's books as well as several works for adults. Reit was the creator, with cartoonist Joe Oriolo, of the character Casper the Friendly Ghost. Reit started his career working for Fleischer Studios as an animator; he also worked for Jerry Iger and Will Eisner as a cartoonist, for Laffboy as editor in 1965, and for Mad Magazine and several other publications as a humorist.
Winston Singleton Sharples was an American composer known for his work with animated short subjects, especially those created by the animation department at Paramount Pictures. In his 35-year career, Sharples scored more than 700 cartoons for Paramount and Famous Studios, and composed music for two Frank Buck films, Wild Cargo (1934) and Fang and Claw (1935).
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