Bimbo was initially inspired by animation director Dick Huemer's work on
Mutt and Jeff, who, when working on the
Out of the Inkwell series, decided to give protagonist
Koko the Clown a canine companion. Bimbo has the distinction of being the first known cartoon character in history to ever have fully animated dialogue, as seen in the 1926 short
My Old Kentucky Home, where a prototypical Bimbo says
"Follow the ball and join in, everybody!" Bimbo later became the
protagonist and star of Fleischer's
Talkartoons series, positioned as a rival to
Disney's Mickey Mouse, making his first named appearance as Bimbo in
Hot Dog (1930), though Bimbo's design would not become standardized until around 1931. The name Bimbo was chosen because in the 1920s the word was mostly associated with men who liked to fight. He starred in several famous cartoon shorts of the 1930s, most notably
Swing You Sinners!,
Minnie the Moocher and ''
Bimbo's Initiation''. Bimbo became a less prominent character after his girlfriend Betty Boop gained unexpected stardom and popularity with fans, with the
Talkartoons cartoon retooled to give her top billing as the
Betty Boop series in 1932. After
Hays Code censorship rules began to strictly get enforced in 1934, Bimbo disappeared from future Fleischer cartoons of the era, due to the implications of an
anthropomorphic dog dating a human girlfriend being considered too risqué. ==Revival==