Spooney [1] Melodies was a series of live action musical short films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions for Warner Bros. Pictures. It aimed to showcase popular music at the time that Warner Bros. had the rights to in their vast music libraries. Only the first entry in the series bore the title "Spooney Melodies." The four subsequent releases bore the series title "Song'nata." [2]
As noted above, only five were made in 1930 and 1931, all of whom are lost media outside of Crying for the Carolines . It features art deco style animations combined with film of the live-action performer (in this case, organist Milton Charles). The music for the first short was arranged by Frank Marsales, who was also the composer of the music for the earliest Looney Tunes, produced at approximately the same time as "Cryin' for the Carolines."
For its time those shorts were considered to be innovative, and could be considered to be one of the earliest music videos. [3] Production on this series ceased in 1931, and it was replaced with animated short films similar in style to Schlesinger's Looney Tunes series called Merrie Melodies .
