The bouncing ball is a virtual device used in motion picture films and video recordings to visually indicate the rhythm of a song, helping audiences to sing along with live or prerecorded music.
As the song's lyrics are displayed on the screen in a lower third of projected or character-generated text, an animated ball bounces across the top of the words, landing on each syllable when it is to be sung.
The bouncing ball is mainly used for English language songs in video recordings, however, in Japan, a similar device is used where the text changes color as it is sung, just like in karaoke.
The Mills Brothers appeared in three Screen Songs: "I Ain't Got Nobody" (1932), "Dinah" (1933), and "When Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba" (1933).
From 1935 to 1938, the "Screen Songs" featured the orchestras of Abe Lyman, Richard Huber, Hal Kemp, Vincent Lopez, Joe Reichman, Dick Stable, Nat Brandwynne, Hal King, Shep Fields, Gus Arnheim, Jay Freeman, Jerry Baline, Bert Block, Frank Dailey, and Jimmy Dorsey.
Meanwhile, in the United States, younger generations of children continued to be familiar with the cartoons from television rebroadcasts into the 1970s and home video collections.