Max Fleischer and the
STEPHEN FOSTER SONGBOOK
STEPHEN FOSTER    (MUSICAL SHORT)   1933
Stephen Foster was a pioneer of pop music, and he is known as "the Father of American Music". His pop hit Oh, Suzanna sold over 100,000 copies of sheet music - more than 20 times the sales of any American song before that. Foster wrote more than 200 songs, mostly written in the 1850's, long before recorded music. Most of his songs were written for pre-Civil War minstrel shows - a popular (and overtly racist) form of entertainment at the time, which featured "blackface" performances. Many of his well-known songs had the lyrics sanitized long ago. The original lyrics ridden with racial slurs were a reflection of a period in America where the country was literally split on slavery. In more recent years, Foster has had his name stripped from numerous school names, and statues of him have been removed in some places. While some of his lyrics were derogatory and clearly racist, Foster also wrote songs that were sympathetic to enslaved blacks. My Old Kentucky Home was written as an anti-slavery song - in his autobiography, abolitionist Fredrick Douglas commended Foster's song for its sympathetic tone and anti-slavery principles. While many of Foster's popular songs are based in the south, he had never spent time there - except once, on his 1852 honeymoon. He lived most of his life in Pennsylvania. He died in 1864 when he was 37 years old, and many of his songs remain popular today, after over 150 years. In 1848 he published Oh Suzanna, in 1850 he published Camptown Races, and in 1851 he published Old Folks At Home, also known as Swanee River. In the 1926 Max Fleischer launched his first series of song cartoons - Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes, and he used several of Foster's songs as the basis for the short films. At the time, Stephen Foster's songs were very old pop standard classics that had been well-known hits for 60 or 70 years. In 200, a compilation album of Stephen Foster songs won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album.
​Amongst the Stephen Foster songs to appear in Fleischer films, are: 
MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME  (Song Car-Tunes, 1926)
OH SUZANNA  (Song Car-Tunes, 1925) silent
OLD BLACK JOE  (Song Car-Tunes, 1926)
 OLD FOLKS AT HOME  (Song Car-Tunes, 1925) silent
SWANEE RIVER  (Song Car-Tunes, 1925) silent
NELLY WAS A LADY
Biographical short on Steven Foster and the song Nelly Was a Lady
FOSTER COMPOSES "OH SUZANNA"
from the 1935 film HARMONY LANE
MUSIC OF STEVEN FOSTER
1960's DOCUMENTARY
STEVEN FOSTER SONGS
performed by the Roger Wagner Chorale
STEVEN FOSTER FAVORITES
performed by Nelson Eddy
STEVEN FOSTER SONGS
performed by Nat Shilkret Salon Group
AL JOLSEN SINGS FOSTER
STEVEN FOSTER MELEDY
Lawrence Welk Orchestra, 1961
BILLY VAUGHN
plays Steven Foster
GHOST OF STEVEN FOSTER
Squirrel Nut Zippers music video (Fleischer parody)
DISCLAIMER:  This site is for entertainment purposes only. All recordings and videos are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarships and research. "Fair Use" is a use permitted by copyright statue that might otherwise be infringing.