Here is the biography of Max Fleischer:
Max Fleischer was born in 1883 in Krakow, Austria-Hungary (now Poland) to a Jewish family. His father, Aaron Fleischer, was a tailor, and his mother, Malka "Amelia" Palasz, was a housewife. The family emigrated to the United States in 1887 and settled in New York City. Fleischer received commercial art training at the Cooper Union and formal art training at the Art Students League of New York. He also received further education at "Mechanics and Tradesman's School".
Fleischer worked as an errand boy at the newspaper "The Brooklyn Daily Eagle" before becoming a photographer, photoengraver, and staff cartoonist. He created satirical comic strips, including "Little Algie" and "S.K. Sposher, the Camera Fiend". In 1905, he left the newspaper to work as a technical illustrator for the Electro-Light Engraving Company in Boston.
Fleischer later became a catalog illustrator for the Crouse-Hinds Company and an art editor for the magazine "Popular Science". In 1914, he began working on a method to trace images from live-action films, which he patented in 1917. This allowed the production of realistic animation.
Fleischer partnered with his brother Dave Fleischer to produce the animated film series "Out of the Inkwell" (1918-1929),which featured the character Koko the Clown. The character was inspired by Dave's previous job as a clown at Coney Island. The Fleischer brothers also produced the first animated adaptations of both Popeye and Superman.
In 1924, Fleischer and partners co-founded the film company Red Seal Pictures Corporation, which owned 36 theaters on the East Coast of the United States. The company went bankrupt in 1927. Fleischer then co-founded the Fleischer Studios with his brother Dave in 1929, which produced a series of animated shorts, including "Screen Songs" and "Betty Boop".
Fleischer Studios introduced the character Popeye the Sailor in 1933, which became a huge success. The studio also produced the animated feature film "Gulliver's Travels" in 1939, which was the second American animated feature film to be produced.
However, the studio's financial struggles continued, and Paramount Pictures eventually took control of the studio. Fleischer was forced to resign, and the studio was reorganized into the Paramount subsidiary Famous Studios.
Fleischer went on to work as the head of the animation department for "The Jam Handy Organization" during World War II and later as a production manager for Brayco. He also founded the animation studio "Out of the Inkwell Films" in 1958 with his partner Hal Seeger.
Fleischer died in 1967 at the age of 89 due to "arterial sclerosis of the brain" at the Motion Picture Country House, a retirement community for film industry people.
