Screen Songs
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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.
History
The Screen Songs are a continuation of the Fleischer Ko-Ko Song Cartunes from the silent era. They are sing-along shorts (featuring "The Famous Bouncing Ball"), a sort of precursor to music videos. They often featured popular melodies of the day. The early Ko-Ko Song Cartunes were among the earliest sound films, years before The Jazz Singer. They attracted little interest at the time though, in part because only a few theaters were then equipped with electronic speakers.The studio used Lee De Forest's methods to produce over a dozen early cartoons with synchronized sound tracks, including, Come Take a Trip in My Airship, Darling Nelly Gray, My Old Kentucky Home, and In the Good Old Summer Time.
After obtaining distribution from Paramount and making the transition into the sound period, the Fleischers revived the Song Cartunes, under the name Screen Songs. The first was The Sidewalks of New York, released on February 5, 1929. Throughout the 1930s, the shorts began featuring such musical guest stars as Rudy Vallee, the Mills Brothers, the Boswell Sisters, and others. By 1938, however, it was decided to discontinue the series.
In 1945, Famous Studios, successors to the Fleischers, revived the Screen Song series in color. The live action portions were not used in the new series. The earliest color Screen Songs were part of the Noveltoon series.
All Screen Songs made prior to mid-1950 were sold to U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. in 1956 for television syndication. These shorts have changed hands in the decades since due to a series of corporate acquisitions involving what would eventually become the revived Republic Pictures, and the 2006 corporate split of Viacom into two separate companies. Today the theatrical rights to the Screen Songs are once again owned by Paramount (via Republic, who has yet to announce any sort of home video/theatrical reissue), while the television rights are the responsibility of CBS Paramount Television. However, some Screen Songs are public domain, and available on public domain cartoon DVDs.
References
- Cabarga, Leslie (1988): The Fleischer Story. Da Capo Press.
- Maltin, Leonard (1987): Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. Penguin Books.
See also
External links
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