Koko the Clown was an animated

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 character created by animation pioneer Max Fleischer

Max Fleischer

Max Fleischer was an American animator. He was a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios...

. The character originated when Max Fleischer invented the rotoscope

Rotoscope

Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator...

, a device that allowed for animation to be more lifelike by tracing motion picture footage of human movement. To test out his new invention Fleischer photographed his brother Dave

Dave Fleischer

David "Dave" Fleischer was an American animator film director and film producer, best known as a co-owner of Fleischer Studios with his two older brothers Max Fleischer and Lou Fleischer...

 in a clown costume. After tracing the film footage amounting to some 2,500 drawings and a year's work, Koko the Clown was born. Using this device, Max Fleischer was able to secure a contract with the John R. Bray Studios, and in 1919 they began Out of the Inkwell

Out of the Inkwell

Out of the Inkwell was a major animated series of the silent era produced by Max Fleischer from 1918 to 1929.The series was the result of three short experimental films that Max Fleischer independently produced in the period of 1914-1916 to demonstrate his invention, the Rotoscope, which was a...

as an entry in each monthly in the Bray Pictograph Screen Magazine released through Paramount (1919–1920), and later Goldwyn (1921). Aside from the novelty of the rotoscope, this series offered a combination of live-action and animation centered on Max Fleischer as the creative cartoonist and lord over the clown. The clown would often slip from Max's eye and go on an adventure, or sort of pull a prank on his creator. Fleischer himself wrote, produced, co-animated and directed all the early shorts

At first the character had no name and was known simply as "The Clown," or "Fleischer's Clown." The series was very popular and in 1921, Max and Dave Fleischer formed their own studio, Out of the Inkwell Films, Inc. Their films were distributed through the States Rights method through Warner Brothers, Winkler Pictures, Standard, and finally The Red Seal Pictures Corporation. The "Clown" was named Ko-Ko in 1923 when Dick Huemer

Dick Huemer

Dick Huemer was an animator in the Golden Age of Animation.- Career :...

 came to the studio as their Animation Supervisor, and it was at this time that the canine companion, Fitz

Fitz

Fitz forms a prefix to patronymic surnames of Anglo-Norman origin. This usage derives from the Norman fiz / filz, prononciation: /fits/ Fitz forms a prefix to patronymic surnames of Anglo-Norman origin. This usage derives from the Norman fiz / filz, prononciation: /fits/ Fitz forms a prefix to...

 was created to share the mischief. Huemer also redesigned the "Clown," and set the drawing style that made the series famous. The illustration at the heading is an example by Huemer.

In the films produced from 1924 to 1927, the clown's name was hyphenated, "Ko-Ko." The hyphen was dropped due to legal issues associated with the new association with Paramount beginning in mid 1927 following the bankruptcy of The Red Seal Pictures Corporation. "Out of the Inkwell" was also retitled for Paramount as "The Inkwell Imps" and continued until July, 1929, ending with "Chemical Koko,". "The Inkwell Imps" series was replaced by Flesicher's new sound series, "Talkartoons

Talkartoons

Talkartoons is the name of a series of 42 animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1932.-History:For the Fleischer brothers, the transition to sound was relatively easy...

".

Throughout the 1920s, the Fleischer studio proved to be one of the top producers of animation with clever humor and numerous innovations. In 1924, Fleischer decided to go a step further and introduce a new series called Ko-Ko Song Car-tunes, sing-along shorts (featuring "The Famous Bouncing Ball

Bouncing ball

The bouncing ball is a device used in video recordings to visually indicate the rhythm of a song, helping audiences to sing along with live or prerecorded music...

"). These early cartoons were actually the first films ever to use soundtracks (two years before The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer (1927 film)

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system,...

and three years before Steamboat Willie

Steamboat Willie

Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, and as his girlfriend Minnie, but the characters...

). These sound shorts received limited distribution through the 36 theaters owned by The Red Seal company, which became defunct shortly before the sound era officially began. While the last KOKO films were being produced, the Fleischers returned to producing sound cartoons with a revival of the song films named Screen Songs

Screen Songs

Screen Songs is the name of a series of animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. They were revived by Famous Studios in 1945 starting with the Noveltoon Old MacDonald Had a Farm....

, which were released to theaters starting in February, 1929. Throughout this transitional period, the Fleischer Studio continued to produce a number of innovative and advanced films between 1929 and 1933.

In 1931, Koko was taken out of retirement and became a regular in the new Fleischer Talkartoons

Talkartoons

Talkartoons is the name of a series of 42 animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1932.-History:For the Fleischer brothers, the transition to sound was relatively easy...

series with costars, Betty Boop

Betty Boop

Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...

 and Bimbo

Bimbo (Fleischer)

Bimbo is a fictional character, a cartoon dog created by Fleischer Studios. He first appeared in the Out of the Inkwell series and was originally named Fitz....

. Koko's last theatrical appearance was in the "Betty Boop" cartoon, "Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha! (1934 cartoon)

Ha! Ha! Ha! is a 1934 Fleischer Studio animated short film starring Betty Boop, and featuring Koko the Clown.-Synopsis:Max Fleischer draws Betty, then leaves her for the night in the studio. Koko escapes from the inkwell and helps himself to a candy bar left behind by Max. He soon gets a terrible...

" (1934), a remake of an "Out of the Inkwell silent, "The Cure" (1924). Koko's first color appearance was a cameo in "Toys Will Be Toys," (1949), one of the revived "Screen Songs" series produced by Famous Studios

Famous Studios

Famous Studios was the animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount acquired the aforementioned studio and ousted its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1941...

. The colorized version of Koko also made a cameo appearance in the ending scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...

.

In 1958, Max Fleischer set out to revive Out of the Inkwell for television, and a series of 100 color episodes were produced in 1960–1961 by Hal Seeger

Hal Seeger

Harold "Hal" Seeger was an animated cartoon producer and director who owned his own studio the Hal Seeger Studio ....

 using the voice talents of Larry Storch

Larry Storch

Lawrence Samuel "Larry" Storch is an American actor best known for his comic television roles, including voice-over work for top cartoon shows, including Mr...

.