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Koko The Clown
Koko the Clown is an animated character created by Max Fleischer. He first appeared as the main protagonist in ''Out of the Inkwell'' (1918-1929), a major animated series of the silent era. Throughout the series, he goes on many adventures with his canine companion “Fitz the Dog”, who would later evolve into Bimbo in the Betty Boop cartoons. History The character originated when Max Fleischer invented the rotoscope, a device that allowed for animation to be more lifelike by tracing motion picture footage of human movement. The use of the clown character came after two previous tests and a search for an original character. Fleischer filmed his brother Dave in a clown costume. After tracing the film footage amounting to some 2,500 drawings and a year's work, the character that would eventually become Koko the Clown was born, although he did not have a name until 1924. "The Clown"'s appearance owes much to The Yama Yama Man. Dave's clown costume was clearly inspired by one worn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 25, 1972) was an American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Born in Kraków, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios, which he co-founded with his younger brother Dave. He brought such comic characters as Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen, and was responsible for several technological innovations, including the rotoscope, the " follow the bouncing ball" technique pioneered in the ''Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes'' films, and the "stereoptical process". Film director Richard Fleischer was his son. Early life Majer Fleischer was born July 19, 1883, to a Jewish family in Kraków, (then part of Austria-Hungary: Austrian Partition). He was the second of six children of a tailor from Dąbrowa Tarnowska, Aaron Fleischer, who later chang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bessie McCoy
Bessie McCoy (1888 – August 16, 1931) was an Irish-American Vaudeville star best known for her 1908 hit song and dance routine "The Yama Yama Man", for which she became known as "The Yama Yama Girl". Her husband was the war correspondent Richard Harding Davis Richard Harding Davis (April 18, 1864 – April 11, 1916) was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish–American War, the Second Boer War, and the First .... McCoy was born in Ireland as Elizabeth Genevieve McEvoy. Her mother and father were a vaudeville act known as McCoy and McEvoy, they were Irish clog dancers. Bessie, along with her sister, entered stage in their teens as chorus girls. She appeared in a number of Broadway musicals and made a breakthrough in the play "The Echo". She was given the "Yama Yama Man" song in the 1908 revue ''Three Twins''. She became famous for her lazy, husky singing while performing unusual a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Age Of American Animation
The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the late 1960s, where theatrical animated shorts began losing popularity to the newer medium of television animation, produced on cheaper budgets and in a more limited animation style by companies such as Hanna-Barbera, UPA, Jay Ward Productions, and DePatie-Freleng. Many popular characters emerged from this period, including Disney's' '' Mickey Mouse'', ''Minnie Mouse'', '' Donald Duck'', '' Daisy Duck'', '' Goofy'', and ''Pluto''; Warner Bros.' ''Bugs Bunny'', ''Daffy Duck'', '' Porky Pig'', ''Tweety'', and '' Sylvester''; MGM's ''Tom and Jerry'' and ''Droopy''; Fleischer Studios' '' Betty Boop''; ''Felix the Cat''; Walter Lantz's ''Woody Woodpecker''; Terrytoons' ''Mighty Mouse''; UPA's '' Mr. Magoo''; and Jay Ward Productions' ''Rocky and Bullwinkle''. Feature-length animation began during this period, most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animation In The United States During The Silent Era
Animated films in the United States date back to at least 1906 when Vitagraph released ''Humorous Phases of Funny Faces''.Jeff Lenburg 1991 The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons Although early animations were rudimentary, they rapidly became more sophisticated with such classics as ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' in 1914, Felix the Cat, and Koko the Clown. Originally a novelty, some early animated silents depicted magic acts or were strongly influenced by the comic strip. Later, they were distributed along with newsreels. Early animation films, like their live-action silent cousins, would come with a musical score to be played by an organist or even an orchestra in larger theatres. History British-American filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was possibly the first to use animation techniques in the US for film versions of his "lightning artist" routine. ''The Enchanted Drawing'' (1900) utilized the stop trick to make drawings appear to change magically. In ''Humorous Phases of Funny Faces'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Car-Tunes
'' Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes'', ''Song Car-Tunes'', or (some sources erroneously say) ''Sound Car-Tunes'', is a series of short three-minute animated films produced by Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer between May 1924 and September 1927, pioneering the use of the " Follow the Bouncing Ball" device used to lead audiences in theater sing-alongs. The ''Song Car-Tunes'' also pioneered the application of sound film to animation. History 47 ''Song Car-tunes'' were produced and released between 1924 and 1927. The first, ''Come Take a Trip on My Airship'', was released March 9, 1924. Beginning in 1925, an estimated 16 ''Song Car-tunes'' were produced using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process developed by Lee DeForest beginning with ''Come Take a Trip on My Airship''. The remaining 31 titles were released silent, designed to be played with live music in theaters. The Fleischer brothers partnered with DeForest, Edwin Miles Fadiman, and Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld to form Red Seal Pictures Corporation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Seeger
Harold Seeger (May 16, 1917 – March 13, 2005) was an American animated cartoon producer and director who owned his own studio the Hal Seeger Studio (Hal Seeger Productions). He is most famous as the creator of the 1960s animated series '' Batfink'', '' Milton the Monster'' and ''Fearless Fly''. During the 1930s and 1940s he was also active as a comics writer and artist, most famously for the ''Betty Boop'' comic strip and '' Leave It to Binky''. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York, Seeger began working as an animator for Fleischer Studios in the early 1940s. His credits included "A Kick in Time" for the ''Color Classics'' series and a sequence for the feature film ''Mr. Bug Goes to Town''. During the later part of the 1940s, he worked as a screenwriter for a series of movies featuring well known Black performers, including the 1947 Cab Calloway musical '' Hi-De-Ho'' and two films featuring Dusty Fletcher and Moms Mabley, '' Killer Diller'' and ''Boarding House Blues''". In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Famous Studios
Famous Studios (renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956) was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized control of the aforementioned studio after the departure of its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1942.Maltin, Leonard (1980, rev. 1987). ''Of Mice and Magic''. New York: Plume. Pg. 311 The studio's productions included three series started by the Fleischers—''Popeye the Sailor'', ''Superman'', and ''Screen Songs''—as well as '' Little Audrey'', ''Little Lulu'', ''Casper the Friendly Ghost'', ''Honey Halfwitch'', '' Herman and Katnip'', '' Baby Huey'', and the anthology '' Noveltoons'' series. The ''Famous'' name was previously used by Famous Players Film Company, one of several companies which in 1912 became Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, the company which founded Paramount Pictures. Paramount's music publishing branch, which held th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Screen Songs
''Screen Songs'', formerly known as KoKo Song Car-Tunes, are a series of animated cartoons produced at the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. Paramount brought back the sing-along cartoons in 1945, now in color, and released them regularly through 1951. Two of Paramount's one-shot cartoons quietly revived the format later: ''Candy Cabaret'' (1954) and ''Hobo's Holiday'' (1963). History The ''Screen Songs'' are a continuation of the earlier Fleischer series ''Song Car-Tunes'' in color. They are sing-along shorts featuring the famous "bouncing ball", a sort of precursor to modern karaoke videos. They often featured popular melodies of the day. The early Song Car-Tunes were among the earliest sound films, produced two years before ''The Jazz Singer''. They were largely unknown at the time because their release was limited to the chain of 36 theaters operated by The Red Seal Pictures Company, which was equipped with the early Lee DeForest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ha! Ha! Ha! (1934 Cartoon)
''Ha! Ha! Ha!'' is a 1934 Fleischer Studio animated short film starring Betty Boop, and featuring Koko the Clown. Plot Max Fleischer draws Betty, then leaves her for the night in the studio at 5:00 pm. Koko escapes from the inkwell and helps himself to a candy bar left behind by Max. He starts to eat some of it. But, he soon gets a toothache. Betty tries to perform some amateur dentistry on Koko, by trying to yank the bad tooth out while dancing. After this fails, she attempts to calm him down but uses too much laughing gas, causing Betty and Koko to laugh hysterically. The laughing gas spreads the room, making a cuckoo clock and a typewriter laugh hysterically. The laughing gas then goes out the window and spreads into town. Both people and inanimate objects begin laughing hysterically, including a mailbox, a parking meter, a bridge, cars, and gravestones. The short ends when Betty and Koko get back in the inkwell and it begins laughing, before panting. Production notes Thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutt And Jeff
''Mutt and Jeff'' was a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept of a newspaper strip featuring recurring characters in multiple panels on a six-day-a-week schedule had previously been pioneered through the short-lived '' A. Piker Clerk'' by Clare Briggs, but it was ''Mutt and Jeff'' as the first successful daily comic strip that staked out the direction of the future trend. ''Mutt and Jeff'' remained in syndication until 1983, employing the talents of several cartoonists, chiefly Al Smith who drew the strip for nearly fifty years. The series eventually became a comic book, initially published by All-American Publications and later published by DC Comics, Dell Comics and Harvey Comics. Later it was also published as cartoons, films, pop culture merchandise and reprints. Syndicated success Harry Conway "Bud" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Huemer
Richard Huemer (January 2, 1898 – November 30, 1979) was an American animator in the Golden Age of Animation. Career While as an artist-illustrator living in the Bronx, New York City, Huemer first began his career in animation at the Raoul Barré cartoon studio in 1916. He joined the Fleischer Studio in 1923 where he developed the Koko the Clown character. He redesigned the "Clown" for more efficient animation production and moved the Fleischer's away from their dependency upon the Rotoscope for fluid animation. Huemer created Ko-Ko's canine companion, Fitz. Most importantly, Huemer set the drawing style that gave the series its distinctive look. Later he moved to Hollywood and worked as an animator and director for the Charles Mintz studio creating the character Scrappy. He subsequently moved to the Disney Studio, where he remained for the duration of his career, except for a three-year hiatus from 1948–51 when he pioneered animated TV commercials and created with Paul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
