The Happy Hooligan Story

It's always sobering to come across a former pop superstar who is now just an obscure trivia item. Such is the fate of comic strip idol Happy Hooligan.

Hooligan was one of the first comic strip stars to recognize the great potential of the new film medium, and his early crossover into cinema (first in live-action films, and later animation) further increased his fame.

But, as with many men before and after him, he was cast from his heights by his weakness for women.

The yellow journalism of that era ran with the story and pictures.

The scandal effectively ended his career. His strip lost syndication, and other job offers rapidly shrank to a trickle, until finally there was nothing left but the occasional guest appearances with the only friend that stuck by him during the scandal: Fatty Arbuckle.

The times moved on without him, leaving him a broken, forgotten, and pitiful Happy Hooligan - embittered by the media's treatment of him.