Wonderland Burlesque's Down The Rabbit Hole: Bosko, Part 1 of 8

Wonderland Burlesque's

Down The Rabbit Hole:

Bosko

Part 1 of 8

Down The Rabbit Hole merely places a spotlight on something slightly unusual that's caught my interest. With the help of Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites, I gather information and learn something new.

Today, we learn all about animators Harman and Ising's classic cartoon character, Bosko!

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From Wikipedia:

Bosko is an animated cartoon character created by animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. Bosko was the first recurring character in Leon Schlesinger's cartoon series and was the star of thirty-nine Looney Tunes shorts released by Warner Bros. He was voiced by Carman Maxwell, Bernard B. Brown, Johnny Murray, and Philip Hurlic during the 1920s and 1930s and once by Don Messick during the 1990s.

In 1927, Harman and Ising worked 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 recent success of talkies in the motion picture industry - in particular, The Jazz Singer (1927). They began thinking about making a sound cartoon with Bosko in 1928 even prior to their departure from Walt Disney. The character was registered as a 'Negro boy' under the name of Bosko.

After Disney, they worked for a year at Universal on the second season of their Oswald The Rabbit series, and then, in 1929, released their first independent short, Bosko, The Talk-Ink Kid. The purpose of the first short was to demonstrate the teams' ability to coordinate sound with animation. This was a landmark in animation history for being the first cartoon to predominantly feature synchronized speech, setting them "apart from early Disney sound cartoons because it emphasized not music but dialogue". Marketed to various possible outlets, Leon Schlesinger eventually offered them a contract to produce a series of cartoons for Warner Bros. The original short was not seen by the general public until 70 years later - thanks to Cartoon Network.

In his book, Of Mice and Magic, Leonard Maltin states that this early version of Bosko... "was in fact a cartoon-ized version of a young black boy... he spoke in a Southern Negro dialect... in subsequent films this characterization was eschewed, or perhaps forgotten. This could be called sloppiness on the part of Harman and Ising, but it also indicates the uncertain nature of the character itself."

Bosko became the star vehicle for Warner Bros. new Looney Tunes cartoon series. In the early cartoons, he wore long pants and a derby hat, and was frequently in the company of a girlfriend named Honey, a dog named Bruno, Honey's humanized cat named Wilbur and an antagonistic goat. 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.

For the most part, Harman and Ising never called attention to Bosko's racial status, and stayed clear of negative stereotypes involving dice and watermelon - concentrating instead on positive portrayals with Bosko as a spunky and resourceful boy. Bosko's adventures and behavior were heavily influenced by vaudeville, the most popular entertainment of the time. While today some of Bosko's antics may be considered offensive, such portrayals were commonplace at the time of the cartoon's original release. In the later Looney Tunes shorts in which Bosko appeared, his 'accent' disappeared altogether - consequently, his race became more ambiguous.

Bosko would go on to star in thirty-nine musical films (one of which was not released). These were the early days of sound cartoons, and audiences were enthralled simply to see characters talking and moving in step with the music. The shorts are similar to those Disney was producing at the time. The main difference? Budget - Harman and Ising had a budget of $6K, while Disney typically spent $10K per short. This caused Harman and Ising to reuse footage much more frequently than Disney. However, Warner Bros. provided access to a large musical library with all the popular tunes of the day, lavish orchestras and sound recording equipment and staff free of charge.

In 1933, Harman and Ising broke with Warner Bros. over budget disputes. The pair had been careful to secure all rights to the Bosko character and took him with them at the time of their departure. They landed at MGM, however, Bosko, as the public knew him, only lasted for two cartoons. Reintroduced as a more humanized boy with a wild imagination, this new character was Bosko in name only. The new Bosko was poorly-received and lasted seven cartoons before being permanently retired. MGM then fired Harman and Ising due to cost overruns on the films they produced.

When Warner Bros. began marketing Looney Toons to television, Bosko was part of that package. Bosko cartoons were also shown on Nickelodeon from 1988-1992. The character appeared in a 1990 episode of the television series Tiny Toon Adventures titled Fields of Honey, a portrait in the 1996 film Space Jam, this time in his original form, and, in his original form, in the Animaniacs cartoon The Girl with the Googily Goop, in which he is seen parking his car. Another modern appearance was a Futurama opening in Sinkin' in the Bathtub, where he runs off a cliff from the car with Honey in it.

Warner Bros. held the rights to all Bosko cartoons, including those at MGM. However, subsequently, a number of them are now in the public domain. 

Here are the first six cartoons! 

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#1 - The Talk Ink Kid

(1929)

#2 - Sinkin' in the Bathtub

(1930)

#3 - Congo Jazz

(1930)

#4 - Hold Anything

(1930)

#5 - The Booze Hangs High

(1930)

#6 - Box Car Blues

(1930)

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(More to come!)