# When did cinemas stop having sing-alongs?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 23, 2023, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454 "2023-05-23T02:59:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/1 "2023-05-23T02:59:30Z")
When I was little, my parents would take me to the cinema. We’re watching _Hud_ (1963), and there was just a sing-along in the theatre; ‘Follow the bouncing ball’ style. I’ve never experienced sing-alongs in a movie theatre. (Nor cartoons and newsreels, for that matter.) But apparently in 1963, sing-alongs were still a thing. When did they stop?
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/2 "2023-05-23T03:14:05Z")
I don’t know personally, but a bit of googling led me to the following:
> **[Song Car-Tunes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_Car-Tunes)**
>
> Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes, Song Car-Tunes, or (some sources erroneously say) Sound Car-Tunes, is a series of short three-minute animated 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 also pioneered the application of sound film to animation.
> 47 Song Car-tunes were produced and released between 1924 and 1927. The first, Come Take a Tri...
> **[Screen Songs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_Songs)**
>
> Screen Songs (formerly known as KoKo Song Car-Tunes) are a series of animated cartoons produced at the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. Paramount brought back the sing-along cartoons in 1945, now in color, and released them regularly through 1951. Two of Paramount's one-shot cartoons quietly revived the format later: Candy Cabaret (1954) and Hobo's Holiday (1963).
> The Screen Songs are a continuation of the earlier Fleischer series Song Car-Tunes in c...
> [@](#):
>
> Paramount brought back the sing-along cartoons in 1945, now in color, and released them regularly through 1951. Two of Paramount’s one-shot cartoons quietly revived the format later: _Candy Cabaret_ (1954) and _Hobo’s Holiday_ (1963).
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/3 "2023-05-23T03:25:39Z")
Well, around a decade ago there was _The Oogieloves in The Big Balloon Adventure_.
> **[‘The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure’: Yeah, I saw it.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/the-oogieloves-in-the-big-balloon-adventure-yeah-i-saw-it/2012/09/05/783f5dbc-f78a-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_blog.html)**
>
> This is what it’s like to sit through all 83 minutes of one of the biggest movie bombs in history.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/4 "2023-05-23T03:32:33Z")
So the singalong happened within the movie Hud? (I’ve never seen it).
If the movie was supposed to be contemporary to 1963 or so, then I would say that was a very late instance of the practice, possibly because the movie theater was out in the sticks (I assume) and way behind the times. Maybe the theater owner had a bunch of these singalong films and he just kept showing them over and over, just to pad out his programs. Maybe because his audiences liked them.
When I was growing up in the late 50’s my family went to the movies every Friday night, to 2nd or 3rd run houses where we would see a double feature plus cartoon (no newsreels, I don’t think). If singalongs were still going on then (in Portland, Oregon) those are the theaters where they might have been – but I don’t every remember seeing or singing along to one. I was between 8 and 11 years old so I think I would remember.
I found a [YouTube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAwW9lPDtKk) with some useful information, one piece of which is that the Fleischer Studio, which made most of the bouncing ball singalong films, stopped producing them in 1953. After that the phenomenon moved to radio and then especially to TV with Sing Along with Mitch (Mitch Miller, that is), which I do remember on TV in the early 60’s.
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### Author:  [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/5 "2023-05-23T04:50:47Z")
Coming attractions, a cartoon, and a newsreel usually preceded first-run movies for us in the mid 60s. The newsreels were gone by the 70s, and the cartoons by the 90s, but i don’t remember ever seeing a singalong. Today we get ads, and sometimes a quiz, along with coming attractions.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/6 "2023-05-23T05:23:02Z")
I think singalongs must have been considered quaint and old fashioned by the time one was incorporated into _The Great Race_ (1965). The entire film was mostly an homage to films made decades earlier.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC65GEJpJQw)
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### Author:  [@Deflagration](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deflagration)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/7 "2023-05-23T07:38:43Z")
They are rare but still happen. You may get them for _The Lion King_ or _Grease_, and certainly _Rocky Horror_
But not _John Wick_🙂
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/8 "2023-05-23T13:04:11Z")
I’ve never heard of a sing-a-long short in a movie theater until this thread.
Going to movies in mainstream theaters in suburban SoCal as a little kid in the early-mid 1960s we often had advertising shorts and maybe a short cartoon before the main feature. The cartoon would only be run if the main feature was totally kid fare, not a grown-up movie. I knew then from my parents what newsreels were but never actually saw one.
Like @Roderick_Femm I remember “Sing along with Mitch”, but as something on TV, not in theaters.
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### Author:  [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/9 "2023-05-23T13:04:15Z")
> [@Deflagration](#):
>
> They are rare but still happen. You may get them for _The Lion King_ or _Grease_, and certainly _Rocky Horror_
>
> But not _John Wick_
My thought on seeing the title of this thread - when did cinema sing-along stop happening? When you could buy a home DVD of _Rocky Horror Picture Show._
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### Author:  [@NinthAcolyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinthAcolyte)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/10 "2023-05-23T13:14:17Z")
That is one of my two or three all-time favorite movies! I have a picture of Professor Fate and Leslie glaring at eachother in front of the Eiffel Tower… Signed by both Jack Lemmon _and_ Tony Curtis.
And as to the OP, sing-alongs still happen infrequently but regularly. They often do them in the summer for kiddie matinees, and they’ll also do them for big musical hits like _Moana_ or _Frozen._
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/11 "2023-05-23T14:00:26Z")
> [@NinthAcolyte](#):
>
> And as to the OP, sing-alongs still happen infrequently but regularly. They often do them in the summer for kiddie matinees, and they’ll also do them for big musical hits like _Moana_ or _Frozen._
That sounds like the audience singing along _to the feature film_, which is something different from what I assumed the OP was talking about.
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### Author:  [@NinthAcolyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinthAcolyte)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/12 "2023-05-23T14:07:12Z")
I’m not sure I see the distinction - the _Frozen_ sing-along I went to had the lyrics on-screen with the “bouncing ball” and everything.
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### Author:  [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/13 "2023-05-23T14:07:43Z")
There’s a theatre in Chicago that occasionally does sing-along nights for adult movies like Sound of Music or Grease. (No, not THOSE kind of adult movies!)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/14 "2023-05-23T15:11:06Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> That sounds like the audience singing along _to the feature film_, which is something different from what I assumed the OP was talking about.
That is correct.
> [@NinthAcolyte](#):
>
> I’m not sure I see the distinction - the _Frozen_ sing-along I went to had the lyrics on-screen with the “bouncing ball” and everything.
It does sound like you’re talking about singing along to a feature film. What I’m asking about is the sing-along shorts (one song) that were shown _before_ the feature film.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/15 "2023-05-23T16:03:38Z")
I’m a little confused about the OP. The point of view seems to be jumping around.
Are you @Johnny_L.A saying that within the movie _Hud_ that you recently watched they depicted a 1963 movie theater where the audience of that movie was seeing / doing a short sing-along before that movie-in-a-movie main feature, or are you saying that when you went to see _Hud_ as a first run feature film 60 years ago there was a sing-along short shown in the theater with you there in person?
I suspect the former, but can’t rule out the latter from the words as written.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/16 "2023-05-23T16:15:58Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Are you @Johnny_L.A saying that within the movie _Hud_ that you recently watched they depicted a 1963 movie theater where the audience of that movie was seeing / doing a short sing-along before that movie-in-a-movie main feature
This. The scene takes place in a theatre, and the audience is following the bouncing ball and singing along to what’s on the screen.
Sorry about the confusion. I always use ‘we’re’ in the present tense (we are) and never in the past tense (we were), so it didn’t occur to me that there would be any confusion. To clarify: When I was little (San Diego) we’d go out to see the occasional movie, and I never experienced a sing-along (or newsreel, or cartoon). The closest thing was the National Anthem at NAS Miramar (or earlier, at the base in Yokosuka). So when we watched _Hud_ the other night, I wondered when sing-alongs before the feature stopped being done.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/17 "2023-05-23T16:42:22Z")
The board’s being cranky about posting videos, but here’s a link to what I think was the short in _Hud_
[[Bouncing Ball Cartoon - Oh My Darlin' Clementine - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBuSZgij8vs)]([https://Miners](https://Miners) Forty Niners)
It’s from 1951.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/18 "2023-05-23T18:41:55Z")
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBuSZgij8vs)
See if that works.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/19 "2023-05-23T20:29:30Z")
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2023, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-cinemas-stop-having-sing-alongs/984454/20 "2023-05-23T20:36:12Z")
Sound of Music sing-a-longs, while more popular in the ‘90’s, are still [apparently](https://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/things-to-do/sing-a-long-sound-of-music-1) a [thing](https://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/things-to-do/sing-a-long-sound-of-music-1). And an excuse to dress in costume.
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