It all started when...

​Max Fleischer was working as the Art Editor for Popular Science Magazine when, in 1915, he filed a patent application for a contraption he called the Rotoscope. Convinced that he could improve the jerky, jumping quality of early animated films, Max set out to create a mechanism by which animators could use live action film as a guide for their drawings, giving animated characters more fluid, life-like movement.

Once Max, working with the help of his brothers, had built the prototype for his invention (in his own living room!) they set to work creating an animated film that would demonstrate the amazing potential of Max’s invention. It was in this moment the Fleischers created their first animated character: the impish ‘little clown,’ who would eventually become known as ‘Koko.’ 

A clown is born

Max, wanting a character that would be universally understood, created a clown-like figure who communicates chiefly through pantomime, a natural choice. Not only would this eliminate the need for excessive text (this being the era of silent movies), it would also show off the potential of the Rotoscope to transform the audience's experience to its greatest advantage.   ​

Max Fleischer surrounded by Ko-kos and Ko-ko’s dog Fitz. (Fleischer Family Collection)

As it turned out, Max also had access to a wonderful clown: his younger brother Dave, who worked as a clown at Coney Island’s Steeplechase Amusement Park and even had his own clown suit! As the sons of a tailor, the Fleischer brothers had access to fabric which Dave used to create his costume. This costume bore a striking resemblance to that worn by the Yama Yama Man, a popular clown made famous by performer Bessie McCoy.

Dave's loose fitting black costume, with large pom-poms in the front, white gloves and a peaked hat, provided Max with precisely the kind of sharp, high contrast image he was looking for. It would make the tracing of the filmed images using the Rotoscope easier, and the limited color palate was well suited to black and white film.

With the Rotoscope built and Dave playing the featured role of the clown, the brothers set to work testing Max’s invention. They filmed Dave, cavorting around in his clown outfit on the roof of Max’s building, and then spent most of the following year painstakingly creating new hand-drawn images to match each frame of the original film, ultimately creating some 2,500 individual drawings. The end result: a remarkable film… that lasted only one minute, but would change the look of animation forever.

The winding road to stardom

Max took his “little clown” film around to various animation studios, trying to interest one of them in this new process of animation. Finally, in 1916, he caught the attention of film pioneer J.R. Bray who hired Max to work at his studio and - along with other assignments - make films featuring the life-like little clown. But just as Max and his little clown seemed poised for their big break, America entered World War I and Max found himself working on a series of military training films that Bray's studio had been contracted to create... and the little clown films were put on hold.
 
Max was still working at Bray when, at the end of World War I, he was able to return to his “little clown” films which he called “Out of the Inkwell.” Though the films began to make their way into theaters as early as 1919, it wasn’t until 1920 – and the development of short-cuts and modifications that made the process of Rotoscoping less labor intensive - that the little clown began to appear regularly in theaters across the country and very quickly became an enormous sensation!

By 1921, the little clown had grown so popular that Max and Dave decided it was time to go out on their own. They launched their own animation studio which they called “Out of the Inkwell, Inc.” and hired their first, and for a time their only, employee.

From Trade publication: The Moving Picture World, 9/6//1919. Courtesy Lantern

Max Fleischer explains that the clown’s smooth movements are due to the way in which he’s animated and filmed.

​“The Tantalizing Fly” (1919), above, is typical of the early "little clown" films. Audiences were amazed, not only by the life-like movements of the clown, but also by how seamlessly the films blended live action and animation. Typically, these films began with Max drawing his little clown character who, upon completion, would magically spring to life. Then, despite Max’s best efforts to contain his mischievous creation, chaos would ensue! The film would end when the clown, having thoroughly defeated or exhausted Max, would either make a hasty escape back into his inkwell—or be forcibly returned there by Max.  

The extremely rare sheet music above, circa 1923, features The New Yama Yama Clown, a reference to actress Bessie McCoy who, in 1908, starred in the Broadway show “The Three Twins,” and, dressed as a clown, performed a comical song called ‘The Yama Yama Man.” The popularity of her clown character endured through the years and her black clown outfit with three big pom poms and a conical hat surely influenced the appearance of our early Fleischer clown. The temperament of McCoy's clown, which was actually quite scary, was very different from the Fleischers' impish, but essentially charming, clown. It's clear from the cover art and the lyrics that this “Out of the Inkwell” tune was written specifically for the Fleischers' little clown.

The little clown becomes koko

​Remarkably, it wasn’t until 1923 that Max’s “little clown” finally had a name. For years he had been referred to as ‘the ‘Little Clown,’ or ‘Fleischer’s Clown,’ or at one point as the “Yama Yama Clown.” But all that changed when the Fleischers hired animator Dick Huemer. It was during this period, when Huemer was heavily involved in animating the clown, that he acquired a partner in mischief - a dog by the name of Fitz - and finally a name: Ko-Ko, or, as it sometimes later appeared, Koko. Huemer’s spirited work had its own special flavor; an observant viewer might even notice some slight shifts in Koko’s appearance in Huemer’s skilled hands. 

Ko-ko + bouncing ball = music

In the era of the silent movies, audience sing-a-longs were a very popular part of the theater-going experience. Song lyrics would be projected onto the screen using glass slides while live music was provided by a pianist or musical group. In September 1924, the Fleischers introduced an invention that would forever be known simply – and affectionately – as the “Bouncing Ball.” 

The bouncing of the ball provided the audience with a visual indication of the rhythm of the music. These films, called Ko-ko Song Car-Tunes, helped audiences sing in unison – even if they didn’t know the song - by following Koko’s instruction that everyone "join in and sing" following the Bouncing Ball.

In 1926, the Fleischers took their Bouncing Ball invention one step further by teaming up with Dr. Lee DeForest, who had invented a process by which sound could be recorded directly onto film. The resulting films, are some of the very first sound cartoons ever made. These films created such a sensation that some of the silent Ko-ko Song Car-Tunes, which had been released just a few years earlier, were re-released with sound added to them.

​Viewing these films today, one can’t help but recognize these audience-engaging, sing-a-long, musical shorts as precursors to our own modern music videos and karaoke machines. 

Advertisement from Motion Picture News Oct.- Dec 1927. Courtesy Lantern.

By 1925, when this review appeared in the Aug.- Nov. issue of Exhibitor’s Trade Review, our clown had finally been given a name! Courtesy Lantern

Watch "Tramp Tramp Tramp!"

You can't keep a good clown down

In 1929, Koko starred in Chemical Koko, his last silent film in the 1920s. With the advent of sound in film Koko – like many stars of the silent age – suddenly seemed to be a relic from a bygone age. The Fleischers had even launched a new series called Talkartoons featuring an ever-growing stable of characters including Bimbo, a smart-talking, singing dog, who not only replaced Koko’s silent dog friend Fitz, but also had adventures of his own and quickly became a star in his own right. It was in a Talkartoons film - with Bimbo in the leading role - that Betty Boop made her first appearance in 1930 and very quickly became the Studios' headliner, earning a series all her own.

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​But Koko wasn’t quite done yet. By 1931 he was back on the silver screen – and talking! Serving in a supporting role, Koko appeared in a number of films featuring Betty Boop and Bimbo. Together the adventurous trio embarked on many great journeys and got themselves into every kind of trouble imaginable, from the wilds of Africa, to dancing lessons, to toothaches. By the time Koko made his last appearance in the 1934 Betty Boop film Ha! Ha! Ha!, he had been a Fleischer star for more than fifteen years.

Fun Fact #1

Koko, along with co-stars Betty and Bimbo, appear in Snow White, one of the most famous films from ‘The Golden Age of Animation’ and one the most bizarre Fleischer films ever made. 

Koko with Bimbo and Betty in "Snow White"

This 1933 film features a remarkable example of rotoscoping in which Koko appears to channel the signature dance moves of jazz great Cab Calloway as he sings and performs St. James Infirmary.  
 
What makes this amazing feat of animation even more impressive is the fact that it was all done by one animator! While several animators were typically assigned to a single film, long time Fleischer animator Roland (‘Doc’) Crandall was offered the opportunity to animate Snow White in its entirety as a gift honoring his many contributions to the work of Fleischer Studios.

The sing-a-long films continued to feature the ‘Bouncing Ball’ after the name of the series was changed to Screen Songs in 1926.

Koko saves Betty from a fresh Ring Master in “Boop-Oop-a-Doop” (1932)

Betty, Bimbo and Koko in "Chess-Nuts" (1932)

Bimbo, Koko and Betty bounce around in "Betty Boop's May Party" (1933)

Fun Fact #2 

Since his final appearance with Fleischer Studios in 1934, Koko has made occasional guest appearances in films and on television, even starring in his own television show in the 1960s:  

From the Fleischer Family Collection

• In 1949, Koko made a short appearance in color, as a toy in the cartoon “Toys Will be Toys,” made by Famous Studios.
• In 1955, Koko was introduced to a whole new generation of fans when many of the original Koko films were re-packaged for use on TV.
• In the early 1960s former Fleischer animators Hal Seegar and Myron Waldman worked with Max to create a completely new made-for-TV ‘Out of the Inkwell’ series. One hundred episodes were made starring Koko, a new sidekick Kokonut, girlfriend Kokette, and a villain: Mean Moe. Koko’s voice was by voice artist Larry Storch.
• In 1989 Koko appeared in the made for TV cartoon special, Betty Boop’s Hollywood Mystery. Set in the 1930s, this half hour color special featured all of the old Fleischer characters, including Betty, Bimbo and Koko. Fittingly, it was done in a style that reflects the original Fleischer cel animation.