An excerpt from The Daily Heller

design history

Max Fleischer Studios was famous for Betty Boop, Bimbo, and Koko the Clown, as well as Popeyecartoons, but it was also responsible for movie singalongs, the precursor to today's dread karaoke. In between motion pictures, the house organist would play a popular song of the day and the audience would be encouraged to raise their voices high. If they didn't know the words, they would be projected onscreen from slides. But sometime between 1924 and 1925, Fleischer Studios put the words on film (see below). To further aid the audience, a ball bounced over the words and with that, the "Song Car-Tune" was born and Americans began to "follow the bouncing ball."

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