Bosko The TalkInk Kid (1929)

Bosko explodes onto the world!!!

A character like Bosko couldn't exist today, what with the blatant use of black-faced caricaturing going on. But it is also part of our history of cinema, coming from the world of vaudeville. Although Rudolf Ising (who, along with Hugh Harman, created the character) would claim Bosko was a "Jewish" stereotype, the evidence is clear for all to see. A bit of a rip-off of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, this unreleased "pilot" short single handedly birthed Looney Tunes. Without this synchonized sound (one of, if not THE, first in history), live-action/animation spectacle (also a unique experiment of early cinema, preceeding "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (Robert Zemeckis, 1988) by decades) we simply wouldn't have the landscape we have today. Watch this immediately if only to see what two young men dared to start!
Note: There is a blatantly racist sub-text to the material but it was often common to caricaturize all individuals, regardless of ethnicity but it is a valid argument to say that African Americans got it more than most.