Here’s a fascinating piece of Americana.
There was a time in America when audiences would savor hand-drawn, supremely-smooth- moving animated cartoons — and even sing in the theater as they “followed the bouncing ball” that gave them the lyrics to a then-popular song.
Now, step back into the time machine (way before I was born) to see Disney-rival Max Fleischer’s short cartoon/live action “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” from 1930. It’ll be fascinating viewing for people of all ages because:
(1) It highlights the super-smooth and surrealistic animation of Fleischer who was Disney’s closest rival until his studio went under.
(2) It features Betty Boop, a cartoon character who was actually censored in the early ’30s.
(3) The musical portions feature a 22-year-old Ethel Merman. This stage legend is perhaps best known to Baby Boomers as an elderly lady belting out a song with a killer vibrato. But in this clip, you see how charming her vocals were before her voice (and style) changed.
(4) It has an ending that’s a bit shocking for a cartoon.
Just click on the You Tube arrow…and follow the bouncing ball:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Zns8wCtP0Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.