The Fleischers teamed up with sound pioneer Lee DeForest to make the first talking cartoons that even pre-dated Steamboat Willie. The theater re-ran the film while Max and Dave ran to make more. Ko-Ko the Clown jumped out of the inkwell and ran through a few hijinks before the Bouncing Ball led the song Oh Mabel.

In 1924 the first “Ko-Ko Song Car-Tune” was a big hit at New York’s Circle Theatre. A white ball on the end of a black, hand-held pointer bounces from one word to the next onscreen to help the audience sing in unison. Max had made training films during World War I in which he used a pointer to identify equipment. Magic lantern slides moved into picture palaces in the teens, but it remained for cartoon innovator Max Fleischer to reinvent the sing-along on film. The shared singing formed an emotional bond in communities through the 1940s that is fondly remembered. Even villain Charles Middleton joins right in. Everyone sings “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” as poor Mrs. Before 1900 magic lanterns projected glass song slides of lyrics, as charmingly depicted in the vaudeville scene in Mrs. Audiences have always loved a rousing group sing-along.

Music video with bouncing red ball