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Bosko is an animated
cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of imag ...
character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
created by
animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games ...
s Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. Bosko was the first recurring character in Leon Schlesinger's
cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of imag ...
series and was the star of 39 ''
Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...
'' shorts released by Warner Bros. He was voiced by
Carman Maxwell Carman Griffin Maxwell (December 27, 1902 – September 22, 1987) was an American animator and voice actor. Maxwell was born in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and later moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He began his career at Walt Disney, where Maxwe ...
,
Johnny Murray Johnny Murray (25 February 1898 – 12 November 1954) was an Irish soccer player during the 1920s. Murray was a skilful winger who played for Ormeau, Blue Crusaders, Bohemians and Drumcondra F.C. He joined Bohs in 1921 and stayed at Dalymou ...
, and Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas during the 1920s and 1930s and once by Don Messick during the 1990s.


Creation and the first film

In 1927, Harman and Ising were still working for the Walt Disney Studios on a series of live-action/animated short subjects known as the Alice Comedies. The two animators created Bosko in 1928 to capitalize on the new " talkie" craze that was sweeping the motion picture industry. They began thinking about making a sound cartoon with Bosko in 1928 before even leaving
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
.Michael Barrier ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 155. Hugh Harman made drawings of the new character and registered it with the
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
office on January 3, 1928. The character was registered as a "
Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...
boy" under the name of Bosko. After leaving Walt Disney in early 1928, Harman and Ising went to work for Charles Mintz on Universal's second-season Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons. April 1929 found them moving on again, leaving Universal to market their new cartoon character. In May 1929, they produced a short pilot cartoon, similar to Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell cartoons, '' Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid'' that showcased their ability to animate
soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...
-synchronized speech and dancing. The short, plotless cartoon opens with
live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...
footage of Ising at a drafting table. After he draws Bosko on the page, the character springs to life, talks, sings, dances, and plays the piano. Ising returns Bosko to the inkwell, and the short ends. This short is a landmark in animation history as being the first cartoon to predominantly feature synchronized speech, though Fleischer Studios' Song Car-Tune "My Old Kentucky Home" was the first cartoon to contain animated dialogue a few years earlier. This cartoon set Harman and Ising "apart from early Disney sound cartoons because it emphasized not music but dialogue." The short was marketed to various people by Harman and Ising until Leon Schlesinger offered them a contract to produce a series of cartoons for Warner Bros. It would not be seen by a wide audience until 70 years later, in 2000, as part of
Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...
's special ''Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons'', a compilation special of rare material from the WB/Turner archives. In his book, ''Of Mice and Magic'', Leonard Maltin states that this early version of Bosko


Bosko and ''Looney Tunes''

Schlesinger saw the Harman-Ising test film and signed the animators to produce cartoons at their studio for him to sell to Warner Bros. Bosko became the star vehicle for the studio's new ''
Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...
'' cartoon series. Bosko wore long pants and a derby hat, and he had a girlfriend named Honey and a dog named Bruno. He was also sometimes accompanied by Honey's cat-like son named Wilbur and an often antagonistic goat, particularly in early cartoons. The role of Bosko was to serve as a cartoony version of Al Jolson in '' The Jazz Singer'' (1927). According to Ising, he was initially supposed to be an "inkspot sort of thing". He was not conceived as either a human or an animal, though behaving like a little boy.Lindvall, Fraser (1998), p. 125-126 According to Leonard Maltin, Bosko was a cartoonized version of a young black boy who spoke a Southern dialect of African American Vernacular English. He cites as an example a phrase from '' Bosko's Holiday'', said with an intermittent drawl: "I sho'done likes picnics." Whether admiring a dress worn by Honey or eating a sandwich (with exaggerated chewing) Bosko had a stock exclamatory reaction indicating his pleasure "Mmmm! Dat sho' is fine!" which became something of a catch phrase According to Terry Lindvall and Ben Fraser, Bosko and Honey "were the most balanced portrayals of blacks in cartoons to that point". They had the same type of formulaic coy adventures as Mickey and
Minnie Mouse Minnie Mouse is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a bow, polka-dotted dress, white bloomers, and low-heeled shoes occasional ...
. They point to ''Bosko in Person'' (1933) where Honey gives a
Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...
-style performance as an example of nonracist racial tribute to a real person. According to Tom Bertino, Harman and Ising never called attention to Bosko's racial status, and stayed clear of negative stereotypes involving dice and watermelon. Bosko instead received positive portrayals as a spunky and resourceful boy. An exception to this was a demeaning representation in '' Congo Jazz'' (1930). Bosko in a jungle setting is depicted standing between a small monkey and a gorilla. All three are depicted with virtually identical faces. The only things identifying him as human is his relative size and his clothes. From his first ''Looney Tunes'' outing, '' Sinkin' in the Bathtub'', Bosko would star in 39 musical films (one of which was not released). His cartoons are notable for their generally weak plots and their abundance of music, singing, and dancing (though there were exceptions, such as '' Bosko the Doughboy'', in 1931). These were the early days of sound cartoons, and audiences were enthralled simply to see characters talking and moving in step with the music. In terms of animation, the shorts are on-par with Disney's shorts of the same period. Harman and Ising were allowed production costs of up to $6000 per cartoon. During the same period, Disney was spending around $10,000 per cartoon.Michael Barrier ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 158. The smaller budgets forced Harman and Ising to recycle footage much more often than Disney did. In terms of music and sound recording, however, Harman and Ising had an advantage, as the Warner Bros. provided access to a large musical library with all the popular tunes of the day, lavish orchestras (like
Abe Lyman Abe Lyman (August 4, 1897 – October 23, 1957) was a popular bandleader from the 1920s to the 1940s. He made recordings, appeared in films and provided the music for numerous radio shows, including ''Your Hit Parade''. His name at birth was Abra ...
's) and sound recording equipment and staff free of charge. Disney, on the other hand, had no access to a music library and was forced to rely, for the most part, on public domain music. Vaudeville was the major entertainment of the time, and the cartoons of the era are better understood when compared to it rather than to animation of later decades. Though rudimentary by today's standards, Bosko's films were quite popular in their day and he rivaled Mickey Mouse in popularity in the early 1930s, although the Disney cartoons would eventually surge ahead in popularity on the basis of stronger plot and character development. In the later ''Looney Tunes'' shorts which Bosko appeared, his accent was gone. Consequently, his race became more ambiguous.Cohen (2004), p. 56


Bosko at MGM

In 1933, Harman and Ising broke with Warner Bros. over budget disputes with Schlesinger. Having learned from Walt Disney's experiences with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, they had carefully kept all rights to the Bosko character, and they took him with them. The two found work with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
where they launched the '' Happy Harmonies'' cartoon series. At first, Bosko appeared in his original design and some of the old animation from the ''Looney Tunes'' series was even reused in those ''Happy Harmonies'' that features Bosko. However, after only two cartoons, the character was redesigned into an identifiable black boy, similar in appearance to
Inki Inki is the lead character in an animated cartoon series of Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' short films by animator Chuck Jones. Five Inki cartoons were made between 1939 and 1950. History and description Inki, created for ...
and
Lil' Eightball Lil' Eightball is a Walter Lantz character voiced by Mel Blanc, who made his first appearance in the cartoon "The Stubborn Mule" in 1939. His final appearance was in 1939, in "A Haunting We Will Go". He is a racially offensive caricature of an A ...
, with an overactive imagination. This redesigned Bosko, whom many consider to be a different character altogether, in spite of having the same name, only starred in seven negatively-received cartoons before Harman and Ising discontinued the character. The career of the character ended for good when MGM fired Harman and Ising due to cost overruns in the films they produced. They were replaced by Fred Quimby, who later hired Harman and Ising back, though Bosko did not make any appearances in subsequent MGM subjects produced by them.Cohen (2004), p. 56 For the bulk of his cartoons at MGM, Bosko was voiced by the animator who initially voiced him,
Carman Maxwell Carman Griffin Maxwell (December 27, 1902 – September 22, 1987) was an American animator and voice actor. Maxwell was born in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and later moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He began his career at Walt Disney, where Maxwe ...
.


Bosko on television

Bosko cartoons were packaged with other Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, to be broadcast in various television markets in the 1950s. For instance, "Skipper Frank" (Frank Herman), showed Bosko, along with Buddy, on "Cartoon Carousel" his hour-long afterschool cartoon program on KTLA-TV (Channel 5) in Los Angeles. Bosko cartoons were also later aired on
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
as part of the network's Looney Tunes program beginning in 1988 and ending in 1992, when the network pulled all black and white shorts out of rotation to make room for more recent color cartoons featuring more popular Warner characters. Bosko appeared in a 1990 episode of the television series ''
Tiny Toon Adventures ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' is an American animated comedy television series that was broadcast from September 14, 1990, to December 6, 1992. It was the first collaborative effort of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation a ...
'' titled " Fields of Honey". In a parody of the then-current film '' Field of Dreams'', a mysterious voice leads
Babs Bunny The ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' animated television series features an extensive cast of characters. The show's central characters are mostly various forms of anthropomorphic animals, based on Looney Tunes characters from earlier films and shows. ...
to build a theater that shows nothing but cartoons of Bosko's girlfriend Honey, after being told about Honey (voiced by B. J. Ward) by the Acme Looniversity's mysterious vaultkeeper (voiced by Don Messick). Babs does so, and the resulting audience laughter rejuvenates the aged and ailing Honey. The laughter also rejuvenates the vaultkeeper, who is revealed to be none other than Bosko himself as well as the source of the voice. The cartoon depicts Bosko and Honey as dog-like talking animals similar to the lead characters of the later television series, '' Animaniacs'', presumably so as not to offend viewers with the original black-face characterizations. The character is also seen in a portrait in the 1996 film '' Space Jam'', this time in his original form. He also appears in his original form in the '' Animaniacs'' cartoon "The Girl with the Googily Goop", in which he is seen parking his car. He was also seen in a ''
Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years ...
'' opening in '' Sinkin' in the Bathtub'' at the part where he runs off a cliff from the car with Honey in it. The majority of the cartoons are available on VHS and DVD in the ''Uncensored Bosko'' series from Bosko Video. In 2003, Warner Home Video officially released the initial pilot film ''Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid'', as an extra on the '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1'' DVD box set. '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3'' (released in 2005) also includes the first ''Looney Tunes'' short, '' Sinkin' in the Bathtub'' (which originally introduced Bosko and Honey to audiences in 1930) as an extra. '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6'' (released in 2008) includes several Bosko films on a disc officially devoted to Bosko and other early 1930s characters. All the Bosko cartoons subject to copyright remain owned by Warner Bros., but the majority of Bosko cartoons have fallen into the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...
. WB also owns the MGM cartoons through subsidiary
Turner Entertainment Co. Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing th ...
when
Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he ...
bought the library in 1986.


Filmography


References


Sources

* *


Further reading

* Barrier, Michael (1999): ''Hollywood Cartoons''. Oxford University Press. * Maltin, Leonard (1987): ''Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons''. Penguin Books. * Schneider, Steve (1999): ''That's All Folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation''. Barnes and Noble Books. * Beck, Jerry and Friedwald, Will (1989): ''Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons''. Henry Holt and Company.


External links


Bosko
at Toonzone.net

at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on February 22, 2018. {{Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies Looney Tunes characters Fictional musicians Fictional African-American people Male characters in animation Film characters introduced in 1929 Warner Bros. cartoon characters Animated characters introduced in 1929