Wilma managed to get him a screen test at the studio. Determined to distinguish himself from the legions of Chaplin imitators, O'Malley developed the character of "Big Baby, the World's Largest Infant." Dressed in diapers and a baby bonnet and carrying an oversized milk bottle, O'Malley crawled, cried, and gurgled his way through a handful of odd but decidedly unfunny one-reelers before discarding the character due to public disinterest.

O'Malley's next character was that of "Mikey Mer-Man." Each one-reeler opened with "Mikey" washing up on shore in his "Mer-Man" costume (top hat, tails and an unwieldy rubber fish torso) and attempting to interact with the low-comedy populace of "Sea Spray, Georgia."

The series was so poorly received that it was discontinued while shooting the second film.

Shortly after, the Hercules Studio was absorbed by Pinnacle Pictures and O'Malley was teamed against his will with Binky Martin, another struggling comic. O'Malley felt that he was quite capable of carrying any picture he was in. Informed that if he refused, he would be in no more pictures, O'Malley decided to make the best of a bad situation and the team of O'Malley & Martin was forced upon the world. The year was 1926.