Editing Fleischer Studios (section)

=== The silent era ===
The Fleischer Studio was built on [[Max Fleischer]]'s novelty film series ''[[Out of the Inkwell]]'' (1918–1927). The novelty was based largely on the results of the "[[rotoscope]]", invented by Fleischer to produce realistic animation. The first ''Out of the Inkwell'' films were produced through [[Bray Productions]]. They featured Fleischer's first character, "The Clown", who later became known as [[Ko-Ko the Clown]] in 1924.

In 1921, Bray Productions ran afoul of legal issues, having contracted for more films than it could deliver to its distributor, [[Goldwyn Pictures]]. The Fleischer Brothers left and began their own studio, Out of the Inkwell Films, with [[Dave Fleischer]] as director and production supervisor, and Max as producer, at 129 East 45th Street, later to [[Studebaker Building (Manhattan)|1600 Broadway]], [[Midtown Manhattan]], [[New York City]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Out of the Inkwell Films, Incorporated |url=https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/companies/O/outoftheInkwellFilmsInc.html |website=Progressive Silent Film List |publisher=Silent Era}}</ref><ref name="fleischerstudios-inkwell">{{cite web |title=Inkwell |url=https://www.fleischerstudios.com/inkwell.html |website=Fleischer Studios |access-date=January 21, 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="bixography">{{cite web |title=1600 broadway |url=https://bixography.com/1600broadway/bix1600broadway.html |website=bixography |access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref> In 1924, animator [[Dick Huemer]] joined the studio and redesigned "The Clown" for more efficient animation. Huemer's new design and experience as an animator moved them away from their dependency on the rotoscope for fluid animation. In addition to defining the clown, Huemer established the Fleischer style with its distinctive thick and thin ink lines.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} In addition, Huemer created Ko-Ko's companion, Fitz the Dog, who would evolve into [[Bimbo (cartoon)|Bimbo]] in 1930.

Throughout the 1920s, Fleischer was one of the leading producers of animation with clever moments and numerous innovations. These innovations include the "Rotograph", an early "Aerial Image" photographic process for compositing animation with live action backgrounds. Other innovations included ''[[Song Car-Tunes|Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes]]'' and sing-along shorts (featuring the famous "[[bouncing ball (music)|bouncing ball]]"), a precursor to [[karaoke]].

In 1924, distributor Edwin Miles Fadiman and Hugo Riesenfeld formed the Red Seal Pictures Corporation. Riesenfeld was the theatrical manager of the Strand, Rivoli, and Rialto theaters on Broadway. Because the Out of the Inkwell films were a major part of the program in Riesenfeld's theaters, the Fleischers were invited to become partners. The Red Seal Company committed to an ambitious release schedule of 26 films with The Inkwell Studio as the primary supplier. The following year, Red Seal released 141 films that included documentaries, short comedy subjects, and live-action serials. Carrie of the Chorus, also known as Backstage Comedies, was one of the Red Seal series that featured Max's daughter, Ruth, in a supporting role. [[Ray Bolger]] made his screen debut in this series and dated Ruth for a short time.

Red Seal released cartoon novelty series such as ''The Animated Hair'' cartoons by cartoonist "Marcus", and ''Inklings''. ''The Animated Hair'' series resembled the on-screen hand drawing gimmick established in ''Out of the Inkwell''. In this case, "Marcus" produced high-quality ink line portraits of celebrities and political figures. Then through stop motion animation techniques, the lines and forms would break away to entertainingly re-form the portrait into another. ''Inklings'' was similar in concept to the ''Animated Hair'' films, but was more of a visual puzzle novelty using a variety of progressive scratch-off/reveal techniques and rearranged animated cutouts to change the images.

It was during this time that [[Lee de Forest]] started filming his [[Phonofilm]]s experiments featuring several of the major Broadway headliners. The Red Seal company began acquiring more theaters outside of New York and equipped them with sound equipment produced by [[Lee de Forest]], displaying "talkies" three years before the sound revolution began. Because of Max's interest in technology, Riesenfeld introduced him to de Forest. It was through this partnership that Max produced a number of the Ko-Ko Song Car-tunes as sound releases. Of the 36 song films produced between 1924 and 1927, 12 were produced as sound films beginning in 1926 with standard silent versions as well. The first sound release was ''Mother Pin a Rose on Me''. Other sound releases included ''Darling Nellie Gray'', ''Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?'', ''When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam''', ''Coming Through the Rye'', ''My Wife's Gone to the Country'', ''Margie, Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning'', ''Sweet Adeline,'' ''Old Black Joe'', ''Come Take A Trip in My Airship'', and ''By the Light of the Silvery Moon''.

Red Seal owned 56 theaters, extending as far west as Cleveland, Ohio. But after only two years of operation, Red Seal was broke. Max Fleischer sought an appointment of receiver in bankruptcy in October 1926. Just as the situation looked hopeless, Alfred Weiss offered a Paramount contact.{{snf|Pointer|2017|pp=65–70}}

The Paramount deal provided financing and distribution, but due to legal complications of the bankruptcy, the title to ''Out of the Inkwell'' was changed to ''The Inkwell Imps'' (1927–1929) and the studio was renamed Inkwell Studios. One year into the relationship, the Fleischer Brothers discovered mismanagement under Weiss and left before the end of the ''Imps'' contract. Out of the Inkwell Films, Inc. filed bankruptcy in January 1929. In March, Max formed Fleischer Studios with Dave as his partner. Operations were first set up at the Carpenter-Goldman Laboratories in Queens. With a skeleton staff, Fleischer Studios started out doing industrial films, most notably, ''[[Finding His Voice]]'', a technical demonstration film explaining Western Electric's Variable Density recording and reproduction system. Max Fleischer secured a new contract with Paramount to produce a revival of the "Bouncing Ball" song films, re-branded as ''[[Screen Songs]]'', with ''[[The Sidewalks of New York (film)|The Sidewalks of New York]]'' as the first release on February 5, 1929.