Soundies: The Ultimate Collection Blu-ray - Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Doris Day @KinoLorber
Added 2023-07-20 21:14:04 +0000 UTCBONUS CAPTURES:
Soundies: The Ultimate Collection Blu-ray - Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Doris Day @KinoLorber
OUR REVIEW:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film11/blu-ray_review_175/soundies_the_ultimate_collection_blu-ray.htm
Soundies have been called the music videos of the 1940s, but that doesn’t begin to describe their cultural importance. It’s true that they feature a remarkable range of talent, from big-band luminaries like Duke Ellington and Count Basie to then-emerging stars like Doris Day and Ricardo Montalban, and lesser-known artists of the American nightclub circuit. But Soundies are also a rich, largely overlooked chronicle of American popular culture during and just after World War II. Produced for coin-operated jukeboxes in neighborhood bars and taverns, Soundies have an uncanny way of revealing what Americans were thinking about topics that weren’t discussed openly, from sexuality to ethnicity and race. Curated by Susan Delson, author of Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen: One Dime at a Time, this four-disc collection presents a diverse sampling of 200 shorts—jazz, country-western, folk, and the boogie woogie roots of rock ’n’ roll—newly restored from 35mm and 16mm materials preserved by the Library of Congress and other archives. Never have so many Soundies been celebrated in one collection, or presented with such care: thematically organized, accompanied by on-screen introductions and a booklet of essays, photos, and credits.
***
You have never seen so many joyful, happy, people as you will in Kino's Blu-ray package of Soundies: The Ultimate Collection. These "Soundies" were all produced between 1940 and 1948 and you wouldn't be the first to identify them as "precursors to MTV". These shorts - typically 3-minutes - were accessible using "Panorams" - a 16mm, rear projection, coin-operated Jukebox - containing eight Soundies films - a hardware way ahead of its time. They could be found in high-end restaurants, bars and nightclubs. More than 1,800 Soundies mini-musicals were produced and these 200 would be wonderful to show at parties. It is non-stop fun. Some African-American artists had less opportunity to perform in mainstream cinema and Soundies are a terrific avenue to see some unjustly neglected talent perform. I'm not a big fan of this era's modern times (2020's) and I have always wished I had lived in the 40's and 50's. I loved watching these "Soundies" so much - it really helped me forget how messed up the world is. Perhaps the closest thing I could compare them to today are "Flash Mobs" that I have seen where organized people assemble suddenly in a public place to, usually, perform a musical and/or dance number - spreading joy. I fully recommend this set.
