Sound Car-Tunes
Encyclopedia
Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes, Song Car-Tunes, or (some sources erroneously say) Sound Car-Tunes, is a series of short three minute animation
films produced by Max Fleischer
and Dave Fleischer
between May 1924 and September 1927, pioneering the use of the "Follow the Bouncing Ball
" device used to lead audiences in theater sing-alongs. The Song Car-Tunes were also pioneer efforts in the first application of sound and animation, years before Paul Terry
's Dinner Time
(released October 1928) and Walt Disney
's Steamboat Willie
(November 1928).
sound-on-film
process developed by Lee DeForest beginning with Oh, Mabel; Mother, Pin a Rose on Me; Goodbye, My Lady Love; and Come Take a Trip on My Airship (all May and June 1924). The Fleischer brothers partnered with DeForest, Edwin Miles Fadiman, and Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld
in forming Red Seal Pictures Corporation, which owned 36 theaters on the East Coast, extending as far west as Cleveland, Ohio
.
On 15 September 1925, the Fleischers released My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
which is the first film to use the follow the bouncing ball
gimmick. In July 1926, the Fleischers released My Old Kentucky Home
, with one of the earliest attempts to synchronize animation with dialogue, as a dog in the film encourages the audience to "sing along with the bouncing ball".
In September 1926, the U.S. division of DeForest Phonofilm and Red Seal Pictures Corporation filed for bankruptcy, and the Fleischers ended their use of the Phonofilm system, releasing their last sound Song Car-Tune, By the Light of the Silvery Moon
(1927), just as the sound era
was about to begin. Within a few months, the Fleischers signed a Paramount Pictures
contract through Alfred J. Weiss. Weiss re-released some of the silent Song Car-Tunes between 1929 and 1932 with new soundtracks, new animation, and new main titles that eliminated the names of Max and Dave Fleischer.
With the sound era established, the Fleischers revived the song film series as Screen Songs
in February 1929 and continued until 1938. While Ko-Ko the Clown had been retired, the "Bouncing Ball" was retained. This new series ran a full seven minutes, with more animation than the early Song Car-Tunes, built around the theme of the featured song.
The first films in the new series used standards such as The Sidewalks of New York
(released 5 February 1929) and Old Black Joe
. The series continued with new productions of songs previously released in the earlier series, such as Daisy Bell, Good Bye, My Lady Love, Mother Pin a Rose On Me, Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning
, and Come Take a Trip in My Airship, all with new soundtracks in the RCA Photophone
system.
Many of the Screen Songs featured popular stars of stage, radio, and records such as Ethel Merman
, Rudy Vallee
, Lillian Roth
, The Mills Brothers, and the Boswell Sisters
. Starting in 1934, the Screen Songs series focused on the big bands of the "Swing Era", such as Abe Lyman
, Shep Fields
, Gus Arnheim
, Hal Kemp
, Jack Denny, Vincent Lopez
, Henry King
, Jay Freeman, Jerry Baline, Bert Block, Frank Dailey, and Jimmy Dorsey
.
The Screen Songs concept was revised in a special edition of the Technicolor
Noveltoons
series in 1945 with When G. I. Johnny Comes Home Again, and the series officially returned in 1948 with Base Brawl and continued until 1951. Paramount attempted to revive the series in 1963 after the television success of Sing Along With Mitch with the cartoon Hobo's Holiday.
The concept of the "Bouncing Ball" has become such an established cultural icon, that it has been used in television commercials to sell all sorts of products from sleeping tablets to cat food. Just before retiring in 1968, Dave Fleischer used a form of the "Bouncing Ball" for the ending of Thoroughly Modern Millie
where he shot cutout animation to "bounce" the head of Beatrice Lillie
over the lyrics to the title song.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
films produced by Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer was an American animator. He was a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios...
and Dave Fleischer
Dave Fleischer
David "Dave" Fleischer was an American animator film director and film producer, best known as a co-owner of Fleischer Studios with his two older brothers Max Fleischer and Lou Fleischer...
between May 1924 and September 1927, pioneering the use of the "Follow the Bouncing Ball
Bouncing ball
The bouncing ball is a device used in video recordings to visually indicate the rhythm of a song, helping audiences to sing along with live or prerecorded music...
" device used to lead audiences in theater sing-alongs. The Song Car-Tunes were also pioneer efforts in the first application of sound and animation, years before Paul Terry
Paul Terry (cartoonist)
Paul Houlton Terry was an American cartoonist, screenwriter, film director and one of the most prolific film producers in history...
's Dinner Time
Dinner Time
Dinner Time is an animated short subject produced and directed by Paul Terry, co-directed by John Foster, and produced at Van Beuren Studios...
(released October 1928) and Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, and as his girlfriend Minnie, but the characters...
(November 1928).
History
There were 36 titles in the Song Car-Tune series, with 19 using the PhonofilmPhonofilm
In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...
sound-on-film
Sound-on-film
Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track or digital sound track,...
process developed by Lee DeForest beginning with Oh, Mabel; Mother, Pin a Rose on Me; Goodbye, My Lady Love; and Come Take a Trip on My Airship (all May and June 1924). The Fleischer brothers partnered with DeForest, Edwin Miles Fadiman, and Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld
Hugo Riesenfeld
Hugo Riesenfeld was a Jewish Austrian-American composer. As a film director, he began to write his own orchestral compositions for silent films in 1917, and co-created modern production techniques where film scoring serves an integral part of the action...
in forming Red Seal Pictures Corporation, which owned 36 theaters on the East Coast, extending as far west as Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
.
On 15 September 1925, the Fleischers released My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean
"My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" is a traditional Scottish folk songwhich remains popular in Western culture.-History:The origin of the song is unknown, though it is often suggested that the subject of the song may be...
which is the first film to use the follow the bouncing ball
Bouncing ball
The bouncing ball is a device used in video recordings to visually indicate the rhythm of a song, helping audiences to sing along with live or prerecorded music...
gimmick. In July 1926, the Fleischers released My Old Kentucky Home
My Old Kentucky Home (film)
My Old Kentucky Home is a short animation film originally released on 13 April 1926, by Max and Dave Fleischer of Fleischer Studios as one of the Song Car-Tunes series...
, with one of the earliest attempts to synchronize animation with dialogue, as a dog in the film encourages the audience to "sing along with the bouncing ball".
In September 1926, the U.S. division of DeForest Phonofilm and Red Seal Pictures Corporation filed for bankruptcy, and the Fleischers ended their use of the Phonofilm system, releasing their last sound Song Car-Tune, By the Light of the Silvery Moon
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (song)
"By The Light of the Silvery Moon" is a popular song. The music was written by Gus Edwards, and the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1909 and first performed on stage by Lillian Lorraine. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era.The song has been used...
(1927), just as the sound era
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
was about to begin. Within a few months, the Fleischers signed a Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
contract through Alfred J. Weiss. Weiss re-released some of the silent Song Car-Tunes between 1929 and 1932 with new soundtracks, new animation, and new main titles that eliminated the names of Max and Dave Fleischer.
With the sound era established, the Fleischers revived the song film series as Screen Songs
Screen Songs
Screen Songs is the name of a series of animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. They were revived by Famous Studios in 1945 starting with the Noveltoon Old MacDonald Had a Farm....
in February 1929 and continued until 1938. While Ko-Ko the Clown had been retired, the "Bouncing Ball" was retained. This new series ran a full seven minutes, with more animation than the early Song Car-Tunes, built around the theme of the featured song.
The first films in the new series used standards such as The Sidewalks of New York
The Sidewalks of New York (cartoon)
The Sidewalks of New York are two cartoon short films made by animation pioneers Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer, both films using the 1894 song "The Sidewalks of New York"...
(released 5 February 1929) and Old Black Joe
Old Black Joe
"Old Black Joe" is a parlor song by Stephen Foster . It was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1853. Ken Emerson, author of Doo-Dah!, indicates that Foster's fictional Joe was inspired by a servant in the home of his father-in-law, Dr. McDowell of Pittsburgh...
. The series continued with new productions of songs previously released in the earlier series, such as Daisy Bell, Good Bye, My Lady Love, Mother Pin a Rose On Me, Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning
Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning
"Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" is a song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 that gives a comic perspective on military life. Berlin composed the song as an expression of protest against the indignities of Army routine shortly after being drafted into the United States Army in 1918...
, and Come Take a Trip in My Airship, all with new soundtracks in the RCA Photophone
RCA Photophone
RCA Photophone was the trade name given to one of four major competing technologies that emerged in the American film industry in the late 1920s for synchronizing electrically recorded audio to a motion picture image. RCA Photophone was a sound-on-film, "variable-area" film exposure system, in...
system.
Many of the Screen Songs featured popular stars of stage, radio, and records such as Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's...
, Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
, Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth was an American singer and actress.-Early life:Roth was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was only 6 years old when her mother took her to Educational Pictures, where she became the company's trademark, symbolized by a living statue holding a lamp of knowledge...
, The Mills Brothers, and the Boswell Sisters
Boswell Sisters
The Boswell Sisters were a close harmony singing group, consisting of sisters Martha Boswell , Connee Boswell , and Helvetia "Vet" Boswell , noted for intricate harmonies and rhythmic experimentation...
. Starting in 1934, the Screen Songs series focused on the big bands of the "Swing Era", such as Abe Lyman
Abe Lyman
Abe Lyman was a popular bandleader from the 1920s to the 1940s. He made recordings, appeared in films and provided the music for numerous radio shows, including Your Hit Parade....
, Shep Fields
Shep Fields
Shep Fields was the band leader for the "Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm" orchestra during the Big Band era of the 1930s.-Biography:...
, Gus Arnheim
Gus Arnheim
Gus Arnheim was an early popular band leader. He is noted for writing several songs with his first hit being "I Cried for You" from 1923. He was most popular in the 1920s and 1930s...
, Hal Kemp
Hal Kemp
James Harold "Hal" Kemp was a jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, composer, and arranger. He was born in Marion, Alabama and died in Madera, California following an auto accident...
, Jack Denny, Vincent Lopez
Vincent Lopez
Vincent Lopez was an American bandleader and pianist.Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917...
, Henry King
Henry King
Henry King may refer to:* Henry King , English poet, Bishop of Chichester* Henry King , Member of Parliament for County Sligo* Henry King , U.S...
, Jay Freeman, Jerry Baline, Bert Block, Frank Dailey, and Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...
.
The Screen Songs concept was revised in a special edition of the Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
Noveltoons
Noveltoons
Noveltoons was an anthology series of animated cartoons produced by Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios from 1943 to the close of the studio in 1967. Casper the Friendly Ghost, Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey, and Baby Huey all got their start from this series...
series in 1945 with When G. I. Johnny Comes Home Again, and the series officially returned in 1948 with Base Brawl and continued until 1951. Paramount attempted to revive the series in 1963 after the television success of Sing Along With Mitch with the cartoon Hobo's Holiday.
The concept of the "Bouncing Ball" has become such an established cultural icon, that it has been used in television commercials to sell all sorts of products from sleeping tablets to cat food. Just before retiring in 1968, Dave Fleischer used a form of the "Bouncing Ball" for the ending of Thoroughly Modern Millie
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Thoroughly Modern Millie is a 1967 American musical film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Julie Andrews. The screenplay by Richard Morris focuses on a naive young woman who finds herself in the midst of a series of madcap adventures when she sets her sights on marrying her wealthy boss.The...
where he shot cutout animation to "bounce" the head of Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...
over the lyrics to the title song.
Sources
- Leonard MaltinLeonard MaltinLeonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
, Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Film (1980, revised 1987) - Leslie Cabarga, The Fleischer Story (1988)
- Richard FleischerRichard Fleischer-Early life:Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer. He started in motion pictures as director of animated shorts produced by his father including entries in the Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman series.His live-action film career began in 1942 at the RKO...
, Out of the Inkwell: Max Fleischer and the Animation Revolution (2005) - Ray PointerRay PointerRaymond Pointer is a former professional association footballer and England international who played as a striker.He had a long and successful playing career, totalling over 400 league appearances whilst playing for Burnley, Bury, Coventry City, Portsmouth and Waterlooville. He won 3 England caps...
, Max Fleischer's Ko-Ko Song Car-tunes (with the Famous Bouncing Ball) DVD (2002)
List of Song Car-Tunes
- Alexander’s Ragtime BandAlexander's Ragtime Band"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is the name of a song by Irving Berlin. It was his first major hit, in 1911. There is some evidence, although inconclusive, that Berlin borrowed the melody from a draft of "A Real Slow Drag" submitted by Scott Joplin that had been submitted to a...
(1926) - Annie LaurieAnnie LaurieAnnie Laurie is an old Scottish song based on poem by William Douglas of Dumfries and Galloway. The words were modified and the tune was added by Alicia Scott in 1834/5. The song is also known as Maxwelton Braes.-William Douglas:...
(1926) (sound) - By the Light of the Silvery MoonBy the Light of the Silvery Moon (song)"By The Light of the Silvery Moon" is a popular song. The music was written by Gus Edwards, and the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1909 and first performed on stage by Lillian Lorraine. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era.The song has been used...
(1926) (sound) - Come Take a Trip in My Airship (1924)
- Coming Through the Rye (1926) (sound)
- Daisy BellDaisy Bell"Daisy Bell" is a popular song with the well-known chorus "Daisy, Daisy/Give me your answer do/I'm half crazy/all for the love of you" as well as the line "...a bicycle built for two".-History:"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892...
(1926) - Darling Nelly GrayNellie Gray"Darling Nelly Gray" is a 19th c. popular song composed by Benjamin Hanby, and as such, is a pseudo-African-American folksong. Hanby composed the song while attending Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio in 1856, in response to the plight of a runaway slave named Joseph Selby or Shelby...
(1926) (sound) - DixieDixie (song)Countless lyrical variants of "Dixie" exist, but the version attributed to Dan Emmett and its variations are the most popular. Emmett's lyrics as they were originally intended reflect the mood of the United States in the late 1850s toward growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presented the point...
(1925) - Goodbye My Lady Love (1924) (sound)
- Has Anyone Here Seen Kelly? (1926) (sound)
- In the Good Old SummertimeIn the Good Old SummertimeIn the Good Old Summertime is a 1949 musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It starred Judy Garland, Van Johnson and S.Z. Sakall.The film is a musical adaptation of the 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, and...
(1926) - MargieMargieMargie, also known at the American Journal of Poetry, is a literary journal, based in Missouri, that features the work of the nation's leading poets. The journal is dedicated to the memory of Marjorie J. Wilson . The founder and editor is Robert Nazarene. The journal sponsors several prestigious...
(1926) (sound) - Mother, Mother, Mother Pin a Rose on MeMother, Mother, Mother Pin a Rose on MeMother, Mother, Mother Pin a Rose on Me is a film, produced by Out of the Inkwell Studios, Inc. and released in June 1924, as part of the Song Car-Tunes series. Early titles in the Song Car-Tunes series were Oh Mabel, Come Take A Trip in My Airship, and Goodbye My Lady Love, all released in May...
(1926) (sound) - My Bonnie Lies Over the OceanMy Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" is a traditional Scottish folk songwhich remains popular in Western culture.-History:The origin of the song is unknown, though it is often suggested that the subject of the song may be...
(1925) - My Old Kentucky HomeMy Old Kentucky Home (film)My Old Kentucky Home is a short animation film originally released on 13 April 1926, by Max and Dave Fleischer of Fleischer Studios as one of the Song Car-Tunes series...
(1926/28) (sound re-issue) - My Wife’s Gone to the Country (1925) (sound)
- Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the MorningOh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning"Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" is a song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 that gives a comic perspective on military life. Berlin composed the song as an expression of protest against the indignities of Army routine shortly after being drafted into the United States Army in 1918...
(1926) (sound) - Oh Mabel (1924)
- Oh Suzanna (1925)
- Old Black JoeOld Black Joe"Old Black Joe" is a parlor song by Stephen Foster . It was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1853. Ken Emerson, author of Doo-Dah!, indicates that Foster's fictional Joe was inspired by a servant in the home of his father-in-law, Dr. McDowell of Pittsburgh...
(1925) (sound) - Old Pal (1925) (sound)
- Pack Up Your TroublesPack Up Your TroublesPack Up Your Troubles is a 1932 Laurel and Hardy film directed by George Marshall and Raymond McCarey, named after the World War I song "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and smile, smile, smile." It is the team's second feature-length picture....
(1925) - Sailing Sailing Over the Bounding MainSailing, Sailing"Sailing, Sailing" is a children's song about sailing on the ocean. It was written in 1880 by Godfrey Marks, a pseudonym of British organist and composer James Frederick Swift .-Lyrics:The familiar chorus is"Sailing, Sailing" "Sailing, Sailing" (also known by its first line "Sailing, sailing,...
(1925) - The Sheik of Araby (1926) (sound)
- The Sidewalks of New YorkThe Sidewalks of New York (cartoon)The Sidewalks of New York are two cartoon short films made by animation pioneers Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer, both films using the 1894 song "The Sidewalks of New York"...
(1925) (sound) - Swanee River (The Old Folks at Home) (1925)
- Sweet Adeline (1926) (sound)
- Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-Dee-Aye (1925)
- Trail of the Lonesome PineThe Trail of the Lonesome Pine (song)"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" is a popular song published in 1913, with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and music by Harry Carroll. In the song the singer expresses his love for June who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The chorus is:...
(1925) - Toot Toot Tootsie (1926)
- Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching (1925/28) (sound re-issue)
- Waiting for the Robert E. Lee (1926)
- When I Leave This World Behind (1926)
- When I Lost YouWhen I Lost You"When I Lost You" is a song with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin written in 1912 after his wife of five months, the former Dorothy Goetz, died of typhoid fever. In it he poured out the grief of his loss, the only song that he ever admitted had such a connection to his own life...
(1926) (sound) - When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam' (1926) (sound)
- Yak-A-Doola-Hick-A-Doola (1926)(sound)
External links
- List of Early Sound Films 1894-1929 at Silent Era website
- Song Car-Tunes Metronome - Windows software to display ball bouncing on lyrics as in the Song Car-Tunes - Comes with free 30 day fully featured test drive