Cine Skob(1942–c.1960)

Cine Skob was named after its inventor, the renowned cartoonist Josep Escobar – his work was simply signed “Escobar” – who was born in Barcelona in 1908. The Cine Skob projector was a hand-cranked device that projected perforated opaque paper prints. It became widely used as a toy projector in Spain, during the 1950s.

Escobar built his prototype using Meccano parts and the subsequent commercially available projector was manufactured by Marcelo Fernández at Industria Street, in Barcelona (Mallol, 1992: p. 200; MNACTEC, n.d.). Created in 1942, the patent was filed in 1943 (Artigas, 2021: p. 70). The patent description differs slightly from the actual manufactured projector and paper prints.

The projector had a metal body, finished in grey. It had a wooden base, a wooden cap (over the lamphouse), and the crank was finished with wood. Its distinctive trademark was printed in red above the lens, on the front of the projector body. The original model seems to have been available in green at a later date (Artigas, 2021: p. 71).

The paper-print reels were typically marketed at 20m (65.62 ft) and 30m (98.43 ft) lengths, containing a total of either 1,000, or 1,400, drawings [frames] (Quirino, 2018: p. 92), however, the film Los Pastorcillos del Belén (The Little Shepherds of Bethlehem) (c. 1950) was 40m (131.23 ft)  long, and contained 2,000 drawings. Films came in rolls and were housed in small, labelled cardboard boxes.

Some of the paper prints included popular characters from the long-running Spanish comic books TBO (1917–98) and Pulgarcito (1921–87): Carpanta (by Escobar), Zipi y Zape (by Escobar), Eustaquio Morcillón and Babali (by Joaquim Buigas & Benejam) and La Familia Pepe (by Juan García Iranzo). Other prints included popular stories and folktales (Aladdin, Snow White, The Tortoise and the Hare, among others). Two Cine Skob titles were released as unfinished prints so that children could draw their own frames, completing them for themselves. And two were released as series, in multiple parts. All paper prints were designed and drawn by Escobar himself (Artigas, 2021: pp. 70–1).

Cine Skob released a series of small 16-page booklets that included the stories of some of their films. They were illustrated by Escobar and were wrapped in five-color covers. Cinema tickets were also provided to be used at home screenings. All Cine Skob adverts were drawn by Escobar too (Soldevilla, 2014: p. 61).

Escobar’s full name was Josep Escobar i Saliente (José Escobar Saliente). He played an important role in the field of animation and became well-known as a cartoonist. He published his first drawings as a teenager, and in 1934, with the assistance of the photographer Josep Bosch, he completed a B/W amateur animated short film: La Rateta que Escombrava l´Escaleta (The Little Rat that Swept the Stairs/The Vain Little Mouse), inked by his sister, Teresa Escobar. It was unfortunately lost during the Spanish Civil War (Candel, 1993: p. 74).

Escobar worked at most of the animation studios of the time (Hispano Grafic Films, CEIDA, Dibujos Animados Chamartín, Baguñà Hermanos, and Estela Films) and some of the animated series he worked on in the 1940s were based around his creations: Civilón (a friendly bull), Zapirón (an adventurous cat), Pituco (a precocious baby). He also directed animated commercials (Pagès, 2019: pp. 180–2). He worked as technical director on the animated feature Érase Una Vez… (Once Upon a Time…) (1950), an adaptation of Perrault’s Cinderella that was co-directed by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer and was filmed in the Spanish color process Cinefotocolor.

The prolific and versatile Escobar was also a playwright and actor. His play Assaig General (“General Essay”) opened in 1957 (with him playing onstage) and was widely performed. His distance-learning animation course became very popular too.

Escobar was also involved in the creation of Cine Stuk, a plastic toy projector that launched in 1952, which employed a translucent paper strip, with a single perforation between frames. Three patents were filed for Cine Stuk in the 1960s, twice under the name of Escobar’s eldest son, Carles Escobar Roura (Artigas, 2021: p. 73).

Josep Escobar invented three other devices (unrelated to cinema) under the Skob name: Petaca Skob (a tobacco container), Chapó Skob (a billiards game) and Bolos Skob (bowling pins).