Rutherford Bartlett

Rutherford Bartlett (??? – ???) was an animator who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He was one of Hollywood's pioneer animators, having worked on the Laffographs, and went on to become one of the Eleven Elders of Whit Jolley Animation. Despite this prestigious career, little is known about the man himself. He was declared legally dead in 2018, an even considered by many to be the ending point of the "Twenty-Toons" period of Hollywood.

Personality

By all accounts, Bartlett was a quiet and studious man who mostly kept to himself. He was courteous, kind, and slightly nervous around other people. But beneath this meek and unassuming attitude lurked the heart and soul of a pervert. Bartlett managed to keep this side of himself unknown to everyone, which was perhaps the catalyst for his mysterious disappearance.

Backstory

The exact date that Bartlett arrived in Hollywood is unknown, as he never kept a diary or journal, and he does not show up on any kind of public record. Historians place it somewhere around 1918, under the assumption that Bartlett was either an observer or combatant during World War One. Several of Bartlett's recovered sketchbooks contain personal drawings depicting trench warfare and uniforms from the period, lending some weight to that theory. Some of his earliest work was illustrating posters for Sovereign Pictures productions, leading some to wonder if he was scouted personally by studio boss Octavius Banks, as he did for Whit Jolley around the same time.

After the collapse of the Laffographs in 1927, Bartlett parted ways with Jolley and was seemingly inactive in Hollywood for several years until resurfacing in 1932 to rejoin Jolley at his new studio. He provided principle character design on numerous Jolley films, earning him the nickname "King of the Princesses" for his eye for cuteness. He eventually left Jolley in 1957, unable or unwilling to refute accusations of communist sympathies. He returned in 1978, not long after the death of Whit Jolley, to work in an advisory capacity.

As time progressed, Bartlett became more and more of a recluse. By the 1980s he was rarely seen in public, and sequestered himself inside his apartment in Sunset Slums for months at a time. He was first reported missing in 1995, shortly after the Big One. Much like his arrival in Hollywood, the exact date of his disappearance is unknown. It was only discovered thanks to a regular scheduled delivery that could not be signed for: ten crates of canned beans and an equal quantity of whiskey.