Bosko was the first Looney Tunes star. Although he is unknown to most audiences, he is, in all fairness, an important character in the history of cartoons.
He was created in 1927 by two men who were veterans at Disney, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. Originally, they intended to show Walt Disney their new creation, but failed to do so when film producer Charles Mintz hired away the Disney animators away for himself, Harman and Ising included. The two men still had their character, and left Mintz to distribute their character.
Harman and Ising took the animators of Mintz to work for Leon Schlesinger, who was aiming to sell cartoons to Warner Bros. They created a short subject known as Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid (1929) to show Schlesinger the new character. The response was a signing to make cartoons with Bosko.
Bosko's design was based off of black-faced performers, specifically entertainer Al Jolson. The label as a black boy was denied by Rudolf Ising in later years, saying that the character was "an inkspot kind of thing."
Bosko
Bosko appeared in 39 musical films, with little plots, a wealth of music (provided by Frank Marsales), and unique characters, like his girlfriend, the Minnie Mouse-like Honey, and his dog, a Pluto doppelganger named Bruno. He was voiced by Carman "Max" Maxwell and Johnny Murray.
The final Looney Tunes short to feature the charcacter was Bosko's Picture Show (1933) where Bosko presents movies to an audience, the final one featuring honey being captured by a villain. Notably, he says "That dirty thug!" to the villain, athough most people believes he says the well-known slang word (I wouldn't dare type it).
That same year, budget disputes with Leon Schlesinger sent Harman and Ising to the Van Beuren Studio, and later the MGM studio where Bosko would occasionally appear in the Happy Harmonies series. It was at this time that the career of the character ended.
The transition to color could've pertained to the fact that Harman and Ising had given him a new look in 1935. For the final three years of his career, he and Honey were realistic, racial African-American stereotypes. They had lost their personality and love for music, and their shorts recieved negative reception. Both characters were retired in 1938.
The characters' "new look"
60 years after the first Looney Tunes short, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, made its debut, Bosko and Honey made a comeback. They appeared in a 1990 episode of Tiny Toon Adventures named Fields of Honey. I'd describe the plot if I could, but you need to see it for yourself! Notably, Bosko and Honey were retconned as dogs for this episode.
Tiny Toons Adventures - Fields of Honey - S1Ep30 by waji28
Bosko also made cameos in Animaniacs and Space Jam.
That's all, folks!
