Before Ken there was AAP, which syndicated old Looney Tunes and Popeyes for TV (boomer kids would recognize their lower-case "aap" logo tacked onto each toon). AAP put out B&W Looney Tunes and the occasional live-action short before Ken appeared to get the franchise. Their boxes were slicker, but sometimes suggested they never saw the film inside (several Kens had this same weird issue).

The biggest brand was Castle Films, mostly but not entirely Universal titles. Monsters, Abbott and Costello, and Woody Woodpecker dominated; they also carried random newsreel and documentary stuff plus such oddities as Ub Iwerks cartoons and a few Paramount highlights (from the backlog Universal owned). In our family the favorite was "The Great Chase", which was distilled from W.C. Fields's "The Bank Dick".

Disney had a smaller but classy array of cartoons and excerpts from features, most available in both color and B&W. Nifty thing about the Disney animated reels is that they usually didn't have — or need — any kid of subtitles.

Columbia's line was eccentric, but you could get Harryhausen's "Jason and the Argonauts" and "Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" in four reels each. They also offered a six-reel silent version of the wartime "Batman" serial. The biggest line was one-reel versions of Three Stooges shorts.

The super-duper discovery was Blackhawk Films, which offered COMPLETE silent shorts and features (and their monthly catalog offered goodies from other companies as well). The one I could count on to amuse cynical peers was "Double Whoopee", a sure-fire Laurel and Hardy two-reeler set in a ritzy hotel.

For music, I'd stack LPs on the record changer and hope for the best.