Screen Songs

***Screen Songs*** are a series of animated cartoons produced at the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. They were revived in color in 1945. The series was formerly known as KoKo Song Car-Tunes. They were revived again on March 5, 2010.

## History

The *Screen Songs* are a continuation of the earlier Fleischer series *Song Car-Tunes* in color. They are sing-along shorts featuring the famous "bouncing ball", a sort of precursor to modern karaoke videos. They often featured popular melodies of the day. The early Song Car-Tunes were among the earliest sound films, produced two years before *The Jazz Singer*. They were largely unknown at the time because their release was limited to the chain of 36 theaters operated by The Red Seal Pictures Company, which was equipped with the early Lee DeForest Phonofilm sound reproduction equipment. The Red Seal theater chain—formed by the Fleischers, DeForest, Edwin Miles Fadiman, and Hugo Riesenfeld—went from the East Coast to Columbus, Ohio.

Between May 1924 and September 1926, the Fleischers released 36 *Song Car-Tunes* series, with 19 using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process. The films included *Oh Mabel*, *Come Take a Trip in My Airship*, *Darling Nelly Gray*, *Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?*, and *By the Light of the Silvery Moon*. Beginning with *My Old Kentucky Home* (1926), the cartoons featured the "follow the bouncing ball" gimmick, that lead the audience singing along with the film. The other 17 films in the Song Car-Tunes series were silent, designed to be shown with live music in movie theaters.

The Fleischers were ahead of the sound revolution, and just missed the actual change when Red Seal Pictures filed for bankruptcy in the fall of 1926.

## Releases after Red Seal Pictures

In 1928, the Weiss Brothers reissued through their Artclass Pictures company and other independent distributors a number of the silent "Ko-Ko Song Car-tunes" with new animation created for the beginnings, removing the original titles and opening original footage.

* *For Me and My Gal* (1926)
* *I Love to Fall Asleep* (1926)
* *In My Harem* (1926)
* *Just Try to Picture Me* (1926)
* *My Sweetie* (1926)
* *Old Pal* (1926)
* *Alexander's Ragtime Band* (1926)
* *The Sheik of Araby* (1926)
* *Annie Laurie* (1926)
* *Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning* (1926)
* *When I Lost You* (1926)
* *Margie* (1926)
* *When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'* (1926)
* *Oh! What a Pal Was Mary* (1926)
* *Everybody's Doing It* (1926)
* *Yak-A-Hula-Hick-A-Doola* (1926)
* *My Wife's Gone to the Country* (1926)
* *My Old Kentucky Home* (1926)
* *Beautiful Eyes* (1926)
* *Finiculee Finicula* (1926)
* *Micky* (1926)
* *When the Angelus Was Ringing* (1926)
* *When I Leave This World Behind* (1926)
* *Tumbledown Shack in Athlone* (1927)
* *The Rocky Road to Dublin* (1927)
* *Call Me Up Some Rainy Afternoon* (1927)
* *Oh I Wish I Was in Michigan* (1927)

## New contract with Paramount Pictures

The Fleischers signed a new contract with Paramount Pictures in late 1928. Beginning in February 1929, the song cartoons returned under a new name, *Screen Songs*, using the Western Electric sound-on-film process. The first was *The Sidewalks of New York* (*East Side, West Side*) released on 5 February 1929. In the 1930s, the shorts began to feature such musical guest stars as Lillian Roth, Ethel Merman, Cab Calloway, Rudy Vallée, The Mills Brothers, the Boswell Sisters, and others. The series, which eventually focused on many of the "Big Bands" of "The Swing Era" continued until 1938. In 1945, Famous Studios, successors to the Fleischers, revived the Screen Songs as an all animated series. The earliest Screen Song released as part of the *Noveltoons* series, *When G.I. Johnny Comes Home*, was released on February 2, 1945.

## Animation

The animation of the new *Screen Songs* is outsourced to Dong Woo Animation (for most shorts), Rough Draft Korea (for 12 shorts) and Wang Film Productions (for 6 shorts).

## Trivia

* Unlike the original *Screen Songs*, there are songs from the 1980's through early 2000's, while anthropomorphic animals and humans (both old and new) are still here.
* Like the original *Screen Songs*, the characters' art and animation style are set in the tradition of the classic Famous Studios shorts from the late 40's-early 50's. But instead of using traditional hand-colored cels, it uses digital ink and paint for animation.