Musical Treasures 2006-02-??
Various, Various, Various
Set 1
Compilation by fredgermany, illegitimate German stepson of "Dr. Demento", Feb 2006
In My Merry Oldsmobile
In My Merry Oldsmobile (1932)
Surprisingly licentious advertising cartoon produced by the Fleischer brothers.
Producer: Fleischer Studios
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W, 6 minutes, 28 seconds
This Fleischer Studios sing-along cartoon contains a surprising amount of immodest imagery. Lovely "Lucille" is menaced by a mustachioed villain/voyeur but then is rescued by her pint-sized true love. Since both suitors own Oldsmobiles, there doesn't seem to be much of a point. Watch for the candy cane-licking sequence. "You can go as far as you like with me in my merry Oldsmobile...."
Reviewer: Kieran Kenney - 5 out of 5 stars - February 12, 2004
Subject: You WILL submit to my sexual desires, you silly cartoon woman!
The makers of the wonderfully strange Betty Boop cartoons, the Fleischer brothers, bring us this even weirder Merrie Mellodie piece. Gotta love then the mustacheoed villain pulls out a stick of pepperment and the girl keeps licking it. Phallic images, sexual tension, voyeurism, talking pictures and women who wear layers upon layers (upon layers upon even more layers) of clothes. Only the Fleischers could bring it together and put it in one movie, and do it in under ten minutes, AND make it work. A brilliant movie, uproarious and sexually provocative (if not sexy).
Reviewer: Jog - 5 out of 5 stars - June 19, 2004
Subject: Let's all sing!
Men of innovation, the Fleischers had been creating short 'follow the bouncing ball' sing-along films since the mid-1920's, and the series would continue until 1938, well after Betty Boop and Popeye had become screen superstars. It seems natural that you'd go to such a source of creativity for some effective advertising production, but perhaps Olds Motor Works had not quite anticipated the level of zaniness on display here. Rampant voyeurism and suggestive candy consumption are the order of the day, aided and abetted by the Fleischer system of ad-libbing. Note that most of the dialogue in the early portion of the film is spoken without the characters' lips moving. That's because the voices were recorded AFTER the animation was completed, and improvisation was encouraged (Jack Mercer was a master of this style as Popeye). The Fleischer cartoons hold up very well today; the styles would change, but energy was uniform throughout their studio's work, and their enthusiasm is easy to sense.
Reviewer: jersey1657 - 4 out of 5 stars - March 10, 2005
Subject: The lips and words do match
I'd heard about this film but only as a promo done by Billy Murray. I hadn't known about the rest of it. It may be licentious but I do think the lady does quite a job of protecting her virtue.
Billy Murray does the bouncing ball sequence. His career in recording lasted until 1943 when he had to retire due to heart trouble. He'd recorded the song "In My Merry Oldmobile" in 1905.
More at: http://www.archive.org/details/InMyMerr1932
02) Betty Boop: Bamboo Isle (1932)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, black and white, 8 minutes 07 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
feat. THE ROYAL SAMOANS
Reviewer: Spotcat - 5 out of 5 stars - April 6, 2005
Subject: Hey! I Know That Guy!
I have to give this cartoon 5 stars because my father-in-law, Lowellan LeDoux is in it as a member to the Royal Samoans.
He can be seen on the far right, first row playing the guitar. It is also his tenor voice that is used when Bimbo sings
Lowellan had a long show business career. He had his own radio program in Chicago for a number of years and played with Polynesian themed groups in Chicago, Miami, and New York.
The cartoon dancing scenes were rotoscoped. People were filmed dancing then the cartoonist traced over the film, frame by frame, to create the cartoon.
Thanks for archiving this odd piece of entertainment.
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_bamboo_isle
03) Betty Boop: I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You (1932)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, black and white, 7 minutes, 9 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
feat. Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra
Reviewer: sbrager - 4 out of 5 stars - September 24, 2005
Subject: Greatness, Indeed
Three tunes by Louis Armstrong and his orchestra - "High Society", "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You", and a bit of "Chinatown".
It brings pleasure to the ears as well as the eyes.
Stan
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_ill_be_glad_when_youre_dead
04) Betty Boop: Minnie The Moocher (1932)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, b/w, 7 minutes 46 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
feat. Cab Calloway & His Orchestra
Reviewer: toefinder - 5 out of 5 stars - September 18, 2005
Subject: Callaway and Fleischer
They must have had an incredible amount of fun making this cartoon. Minnie gets caught up with a pot headed coke sniffin junkie who teaches her how to "kick the gong" ( mainline heroin ) . Later she meets up with a pimp, the king of Sweden, who gives her somethin she was needin' (a sad reality of the day for a number of young ladies in a different world around the other side of the tracks). This played on saturday morning cartoons all over america on the major networks. The suburban housewives of the time would have had coronariies had they understood it. This follows in the tradition of telling kids scarey stories about murders and birds plucking out their eyes, etc. that has always been so popular in anglo culture and prominent in lullabies and nursery rhymes.
Cab Calloway has a topnotch band and the kids are the winners here. They get a glimpse into a culture totally taboo and get to hear some of the finest jazzmen alive. Although they would not realize it for another twenty years. All in all the short had a good message for the kids to boot. Careful about running away there are dangers out there...This is one of the greatest popcultural works of all time. Thanks to the archives for making it available.
Reviewer: tondelayo - 5 out of 5 stars - August 31, 2005
Subject: Great Stuff from The Great Depression
Wonderful music, inventive animation, a wild and weird cartoon. Highly recommended!
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_minnie_the_moocher
05) Betty Boop: The Old Man Of The Mountain (1933)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, black and white, 6 minutes 52 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
feat. Cab Calloway & His Orchestra
Reviewer: sbrager - 5 out of 5 stars - September 24, 2005
Subject: Old Man Of The Mountain
Another wonderful and imaginative cartoon. The music is by Cab Calloway and this cartoon features 2 tunes by Cab "Old Man Of The Mountain" and "The Scat Song".
The Fleisher organization cartoons of this period remain the gold standard of cartoons.
Stan
Reviewer: Little Nemo - 5 out of 5 stars - April 12, 2005
Subject: Skid-de-diddley-boom
Great. Has anyone else noticed that the 'jazz' Betty Boops are much better than the 'classical' ones?
Cab Calloway is great, the beat is infectious, and Betty is so sexy that fish want her and trees fondle her ass.
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_old_man_of_the_mountain
06) Betty Boop: Snow White (1933)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, black and white, 7 minutes 04 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Memorable rendition of "St James Infirmary" by Cab Calloway
Reviewer: judeblack, bbc - 5 out of 5 stars - May 16, 2005
Subject: Who needs Disney??!
We've got Betty, Koko, Bimbo, enough surrealism to satisfy Salvadore Dali and best of all, we have the great Cab Calloway! I joined this website just so I could hear Cab Calloway and I don't understand why he isn't as highly praised as Ellington and Armstrong. Don't let Cab go, bless him! Scat sing his praises or better yet, recommend this site to all your friends and relations.
Reviewer: Valpy - 5 out of 5 stars - September 6, 2005
Subject: St James Infirmary Blues
I've read of two conflicting reports of the song's origins.
One says that the song originates from an 18th century English ballad "The Unfortunate Rake". About a person dying of syphilis on the stairs of St. James Hospital ("As I lay dying on the stairs of St. James Hospital"). SOURCE: http://robwalker.net/html_docs/letterthirteen.html
The other says that Cab Calloway's wailing rendition of St. James Infirmary adds a dark and sinister undercurrent to the old Snow White story, a juxtaposition especially of interest because the song is supposed to be about a girl who died of a cocaine overdose, and "snow" is another name for cocaine. Leslie Cabarga has suggested that the Fleischers were unaware of the significance of this and the other songs that Cab performed for Betty Boop cartoons, but the cave imagery suggests that the animator, at least, knew what was going on. SOURCE: http://www.heptune.com/snowwhit.html
Valpy
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_snow_white
07) Betty Boop: Musical Mountaineers (1939)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, b/w, 6 minutes 09 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Betty gets caught up in the McCoy vs. Hatfields feud... featuring "hillbilly" music... ;-)
Reviewer: Little Nemo - 5 out of 5 stars - January 25, 2006
Subject: great
I think it's hilarious, and one of the better post-code Bettys.
Reviewer: Tamlin - 2 out of 5 stars - July 31, 2005
Subject: The girl can't help it
This was one of the later Betty Boops and as most fans know she was the victim of the efforts to "clean up" films. The hillbillies and their Senators didn't like the tight dresses, didn't like the flirtatious winks, didn't like lewd, amoral jazz music and especially didn't like white women doing duets with darkies. So Betty here is a businesswoman and the later cartoons pleased no one.
I can imagine what Dave Fliescher actually thought of the yokels that were putting him out of business, but in the interest of not offending children I'll refrain from doing so.
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_snow_white
08) Soundie - Chime Bells (1943)
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w, 2 minutes 27 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
"Rosalie Allie yodels to her sailor boyfriend who is overseas during the war."
Reviewer: jsr - 3 out of 5 stars - February 4, 2004
Subject: Our last yodel goodbye
A young woman yodels her man to war. Really quite charming. Newfound potential in goodbye scenes!
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/SoundieQ
This is actually yodeler ROSALIE ALLEN (with an unidentified male partner):
"Rosalie Allen was born Julie Marlene Bedra on June 27, 1924. Allen grew up the daughter of a Polish immigrant chiropractor in a large, poor Pennsylvania family. Inspired by the singing cowboys of the 1930s, she taught herself to sing and play her brother's guitar, then began working on the radio in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and later performed on Denver Darling's Swing Billies pseudo-western radio show in New York City.
Allen's first hit came in 1946 with RCA Victor with a yodeling update of Patsy Montana's "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart." Allen's final hits paired her with yodeler Elton Britt. Their first single, "Beyond the Sunset," hit number seven in 1950. They also recorded "The Yodel Blues" and "Quicksilver."
In 1944, she took up a job as a disc jockey. Her half-hour program, Prairie Stars on WOV in New York, was so popular that Country Music magazine named her the most famous country music personality in Manhattan. She stayed with the show until rock music bumped her off the air in 1956. In the 1960s, she ran a country western record shop called Rosalie Allen's Hillbilly Music Center in New York City. Allen retired to Alabama to raise a family.
In 1999, her work in radio was recognized and she was the first woman inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame. After a brief battle with congestive heart failure, Allen passed away on September 24, 2003."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalie_Allen
09) Southern Highlanders (1947)
Residents of the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee and their culture.
Producer: Transfilm Productions (for Ford Motor Company)
Audio/Visual: sound, color, 15 minutes 43 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Not a lot of musical content (some shape-note church-singing and some dancing), still an interesting document of Appalachian culture in the 1940s...
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/Southern1947
FOLLOWED BY ONE OF THE ODDEST ITEMS at archive.org
10) Personal Hygiene (two parts combined into one) (1950)
Producer: U.S. Army (Training Film T.F. 8-1665)
Audio/Visual: soundd, black and white, 32 minutes, 16 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Military training drama showing how the residents of a barracks convince a sloppy soldier to clean up his act. With many folk songs on cleanliness.
Reviewer: Spuzz - 5 out of 5 stars - February 17, 2004
Subject: What are you gonna with a stinky assed soldier?
Frequently amazing and mouth droppingly stupid movie which tells the journey of Homer (!) dirty soldier, who raises the ire of his company by stinking so much. Instead of a giant talking bar of soap to help him come around to his senses, his company tries to. But Homer is not the learning type, the only thing he cares about is his music. So the company decides to teach homer cleanliness by SINGING FOLK SONGS!!! My god, if this is not the craziest concept in a film, I'd like to show me it. The soldiers frequently burst out into song, as if it were MGM in the 1950's that it stretches into the bizarre and comical. Songs like 'What are you going to do with a dirty soldier?' 'Blisters On Your Feet' and most espcially 'Come a fly-yi-yippee-i-yay' (about diseased flies). Also features bizarre homoeroticism (Homer is this close to getting raped in the shower lol) and strange humor. OBVIOUSLY not your straight laced army training film, this is about as far fetched a film you're going to find here.. And how can I NOT give it 5 stars and a MUST SEE reccomendation on this site??
Reviewer: DrAwkward - 5 out of 5 stars - April 10, 2004
Subject: Fresh & Clean
This film has it all: great songs (about showering regularly), a message (keep clean, brush your teeth and more subtly, wipe your ass), a love triangle, a story of triumph over adversity (Homer conquers his ignorance and squalor?well, maybe just his squalor), square dancing, dopey gags, homoeroticism?it's impossible to imagine that *Personal Hygiene* was not completely successful at getting our troops to feel great about staying clean. In fact, I got so excited that I stopped it in the middle of the first half and gargled with mouthwash. This is the sort of film you have to share with others just to prove you're not making stuff up! Sublimely absurd.
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/Personal1950 and http://www.archive.org/details/Personal1950_2
AS A CODA:
11) Satchmo Swings In Congo, 1960/10/31 (1960)
Louis Armstrong arrives in Congo, plays trumpet (partial newsreel)
Production Company: Universal Studios
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w, 46 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Reviewer: Wilford B. Wolf - 4 out of 5 stars - April 4, 2005
Subject: Ol' Dippermouth
Brief newsreel clip of Louis Armstrong's historic African tour. Unforunately, Louis's trumpet playing is missing, we do see him arrive in a Congolese stadium carried by a litter and surrounded by an armed guard. There is also a brief clip of Louis playing on stage. Given the tensions of October 1960 (just after the U-2 incident, covered elsewhere in this collection), it is hardly surprising that Radio Moscow's reaction is given equal weight to the by then passe jazz lingo.
In My Merry Oldsmobile
In My Merry Oldsmobile (1932)
Surprisingly licentious advertising cartoon produced by the Fleischer brothers.
Producer: Fleischer Studios
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W, 6 minutes, 28 seconds
This Fleischer Studios sing-along cartoon contains a surprising amount of immodest imagery. Lovely "Lucille" is menaced by a mustachioed villain/voyeur but then is rescued by her pint-sized true love. Since both suitors own Oldsmobiles, there doesn't seem to be much of a point. Watch for the candy cane-licking sequence. "You can go as far as you like with me in my merry Oldsmobile...."
Reviewer: Kieran Kenney - 5 out of 5 stars - February 12, 2004
Subject: You WILL submit to my sexual desires, you silly cartoon woman!
The makers of the wonderfully strange Betty Boop cartoons, the Fleischer brothers, bring us this even weirder Merrie Mellodie piece. Gotta love then the mustacheoed villain pulls out a stick of pepperment and the girl keeps licking it. Phallic images, sexual tension, voyeurism, talking pictures and women who wear layers upon layers (upon layers upon even more layers) of clothes. Only the Fleischers could bring it together and put it in one movie, and do it in under ten minutes, AND make it work. A brilliant movie, uproarious and sexually provocative (if not sexy).
Reviewer: Jog - 5 out of 5 stars - June 19, 2004
Subject: Let's all sing!
Men of innovation, the Fleischers had been creating short 'follow the bouncing ball' sing-along films since the mid-1920's, and the series would continue until 1938, well after Betty Boop and Popeye had become screen superstars. It seems natural that you'd go to such a source of creativity for some effective advertising production, but perhaps Olds Motor Works had not quite anticipated the level of zaniness on display here. Rampant voyeurism and suggestive candy consumption are the order of the day, aided and abetted by the Fleischer system of ad-libbing. Note that most of the dialogue in the early portion of the film is spoken without the characters' lips moving. That's because the voices were recorded AFTER the animation was completed, and improvisation was encouraged (Jack Mercer was a master of this style as Popeye). The Fleischer cartoons hold up very well today; the styles would change, but energy was uniform throughout their studio's work, and their enthusiasm is easy to sense.
Reviewer: jersey1657 - 4 out of 5 stars - March 10, 2005
Subject: The lips and words do match
I'd heard about this film but only as a promo done by Billy Murray. I hadn't known about the rest of it. It may be licentious but I do think the lady does quite a job of protecting her virtue.
Billy Murray does the bouncing ball sequence. His career in recording lasted until 1943 when he had to retire due to heart trouble. He'd recorded the song "In My Merry Oldmobile" in 1905.
More at: http://www.archive.org/details/InMyMerr1932
02) Betty Boop: Bamboo Isle (1932)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, black and white, 8 minutes 07 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
feat. THE ROYAL SAMOANS
Reviewer: Spotcat - 5 out of 5 stars - April 6, 2005
Subject: Hey! I Know That Guy!
I have to give this cartoon 5 stars because my father-in-law, Lowellan LeDoux is in it as a member to the Royal Samoans.
He can be seen on the far right, first row playing the guitar. It is also his tenor voice that is used when Bimbo sings
Lowellan had a long show business career. He had his own radio program in Chicago for a number of years and played with Polynesian themed groups in Chicago, Miami, and New York.
The cartoon dancing scenes were rotoscoped. People were filmed dancing then the cartoonist traced over the film, frame by frame, to create the cartoon.
Thanks for archiving this odd piece of entertainment.
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_bamboo_isle
03) Betty Boop: I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You (1932)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, black and white, 7 minutes, 9 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
feat. Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra
Reviewer: sbrager - 4 out of 5 stars - September 24, 2005
Subject: Greatness, Indeed
Three tunes by Louis Armstrong and his orchestra - "High Society", "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You", and a bit of "Chinatown".
It brings pleasure to the ears as well as the eyes.
Stan
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_ill_be_glad_when_youre_dead
04) Betty Boop: Minnie The Moocher (1932)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, b/w, 7 minutes 46 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
feat. Cab Calloway & His Orchestra
Reviewer: toefinder - 5 out of 5 stars - September 18, 2005
Subject: Callaway and Fleischer
They must have had an incredible amount of fun making this cartoon. Minnie gets caught up with a pot headed coke sniffin junkie who teaches her how to "kick the gong" ( mainline heroin ) . Later she meets up with a pimp, the king of Sweden, who gives her somethin she was needin' (a sad reality of the day for a number of young ladies in a different world around the other side of the tracks). This played on saturday morning cartoons all over america on the major networks. The suburban housewives of the time would have had coronariies had they understood it. This follows in the tradition of telling kids scarey stories about murders and birds plucking out their eyes, etc. that has always been so popular in anglo culture and prominent in lullabies and nursery rhymes.
Cab Calloway has a topnotch band and the kids are the winners here. They get a glimpse into a culture totally taboo and get to hear some of the finest jazzmen alive. Although they would not realize it for another twenty years. All in all the short had a good message for the kids to boot. Careful about running away there are dangers out there...This is one of the greatest popcultural works of all time. Thanks to the archives for making it available.
Reviewer: tondelayo - 5 out of 5 stars - August 31, 2005
Subject: Great Stuff from The Great Depression
Wonderful music, inventive animation, a wild and weird cartoon. Highly recommended!
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_minnie_the_moocher
05) Betty Boop: The Old Man Of The Mountain (1933)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, black and white, 6 minutes 52 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
feat. Cab Calloway & His Orchestra
Reviewer: sbrager - 5 out of 5 stars - September 24, 2005
Subject: Old Man Of The Mountain
Another wonderful and imaginative cartoon. The music is by Cab Calloway and this cartoon features 2 tunes by Cab "Old Man Of The Mountain" and "The Scat Song".
The Fleisher organization cartoons of this period remain the gold standard of cartoons.
Stan
Reviewer: Little Nemo - 5 out of 5 stars - April 12, 2005
Subject: Skid-de-diddley-boom
Great. Has anyone else noticed that the 'jazz' Betty Boops are much better than the 'classical' ones?
Cab Calloway is great, the beat is infectious, and Betty is so sexy that fish want her and trees fondle her ass.
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_old_man_of_the_mountain
06) Betty Boop: Snow White (1933)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, black and white, 7 minutes 04 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Memorable rendition of "St James Infirmary" by Cab Calloway
Reviewer: judeblack, bbc - 5 out of 5 stars - May 16, 2005
Subject: Who needs Disney??!
We've got Betty, Koko, Bimbo, enough surrealism to satisfy Salvadore Dali and best of all, we have the great Cab Calloway! I joined this website just so I could hear Cab Calloway and I don't understand why he isn't as highly praised as Ellington and Armstrong. Don't let Cab go, bless him! Scat sing his praises or better yet, recommend this site to all your friends and relations.
Reviewer: Valpy - 5 out of 5 stars - September 6, 2005
Subject: St James Infirmary Blues
I've read of two conflicting reports of the song's origins.
One says that the song originates from an 18th century English ballad "The Unfortunate Rake". About a person dying of syphilis on the stairs of St. James Hospital ("As I lay dying on the stairs of St. James Hospital"). SOURCE: http://robwalker.net/html_docs/letterthirteen.html
The other says that Cab Calloway's wailing rendition of St. James Infirmary adds a dark and sinister undercurrent to the old Snow White story, a juxtaposition especially of interest because the song is supposed to be about a girl who died of a cocaine overdose, and "snow" is another name for cocaine. Leslie Cabarga has suggested that the Fleischers were unaware of the significance of this and the other songs that Cab performed for Betty Boop cartoons, but the cave imagery suggests that the animator, at least, knew what was going on. SOURCE: http://www.heptune.com/snowwhit.html
Valpy
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_snow_white
07) Betty Boop: Musical Mountaineers (1939)
Producer: Max Fleischer
Audio/Visual: sound, b/w, 6 minutes 09 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Betty gets caught up in the McCoy vs. Hatfields feud... featuring "hillbilly" music... ;-)
Reviewer: Little Nemo - 5 out of 5 stars - January 25, 2006
Subject: great
I think it's hilarious, and one of the better post-code Bettys.
Reviewer: Tamlin - 2 out of 5 stars - July 31, 2005
Subject: The girl can't help it
This was one of the later Betty Boops and as most fans know she was the victim of the efforts to "clean up" films. The hillbillies and their Senators didn't like the tight dresses, didn't like the flirtatious winks, didn't like lewd, amoral jazz music and especially didn't like white women doing duets with darkies. So Betty here is a businesswoman and the later cartoons pleased no one.
I can imagine what Dave Fliescher actually thought of the yokels that were putting him out of business, but in the interest of not offending children I'll refrain from doing so.
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_snow_white
08) Soundie - Chime Bells (1943)
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w, 2 minutes 27 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
"Rosalie Allie yodels to her sailor boyfriend who is overseas during the war."
Reviewer: jsr - 3 out of 5 stars - February 4, 2004
Subject: Our last yodel goodbye
A young woman yodels her man to war. Really quite charming. Newfound potential in goodbye scenes!
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/SoundieQ
This is actually yodeler ROSALIE ALLEN (with an unidentified male partner):
"Rosalie Allen was born Julie Marlene Bedra on June 27, 1924. Allen grew up the daughter of a Polish immigrant chiropractor in a large, poor Pennsylvania family. Inspired by the singing cowboys of the 1930s, she taught herself to sing and play her brother's guitar, then began working on the radio in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and later performed on Denver Darling's Swing Billies pseudo-western radio show in New York City.
Allen's first hit came in 1946 with RCA Victor with a yodeling update of Patsy Montana's "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart." Allen's final hits paired her with yodeler Elton Britt. Their first single, "Beyond the Sunset," hit number seven in 1950. They also recorded "The Yodel Blues" and "Quicksilver."
In 1944, she took up a job as a disc jockey. Her half-hour program, Prairie Stars on WOV in New York, was so popular that Country Music magazine named her the most famous country music personality in Manhattan. She stayed with the show until rock music bumped her off the air in 1956. In the 1960s, she ran a country western record shop called Rosalie Allen's Hillbilly Music Center in New York City. Allen retired to Alabama to raise a family.
In 1999, her work in radio was recognized and she was the first woman inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame. After a brief battle with congestive heart failure, Allen passed away on September 24, 2003."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalie_Allen
09) Southern Highlanders (1947)
Residents of the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee and their culture.
Producer: Transfilm Productions (for Ford Motor Company)
Audio/Visual: sound, color, 15 minutes 43 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Not a lot of musical content (some shape-note church-singing and some dancing), still an interesting document of Appalachian culture in the 1940s...
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/Southern1947
FOLLOWED BY ONE OF THE ODDEST ITEMS at archive.org
10) Personal Hygiene (two parts combined into one) (1950)
Producer: U.S. Army (Training Film T.F. 8-1665)
Audio/Visual: soundd, black and white, 32 minutes, 16 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Military training drama showing how the residents of a barracks convince a sloppy soldier to clean up his act. With many folk songs on cleanliness.
Reviewer: Spuzz - 5 out of 5 stars - February 17, 2004
Subject: What are you gonna with a stinky assed soldier?
Frequently amazing and mouth droppingly stupid movie which tells the journey of Homer (!) dirty soldier, who raises the ire of his company by stinking so much. Instead of a giant talking bar of soap to help him come around to his senses, his company tries to. But Homer is not the learning type, the only thing he cares about is his music. So the company decides to teach homer cleanliness by SINGING FOLK SONGS!!! My god, if this is not the craziest concept in a film, I'd like to show me it. The soldiers frequently burst out into song, as if it were MGM in the 1950's that it stretches into the bizarre and comical. Songs like 'What are you going to do with a dirty soldier?' 'Blisters On Your Feet' and most espcially 'Come a fly-yi-yippee-i-yay' (about diseased flies). Also features bizarre homoeroticism (Homer is this close to getting raped in the shower lol) and strange humor. OBVIOUSLY not your straight laced army training film, this is about as far fetched a film you're going to find here.. And how can I NOT give it 5 stars and a MUST SEE reccomendation on this site??
Reviewer: DrAwkward - 5 out of 5 stars - April 10, 2004
Subject: Fresh & Clean
This film has it all: great songs (about showering regularly), a message (keep clean, brush your teeth and more subtly, wipe your ass), a love triangle, a story of triumph over adversity (Homer conquers his ignorance and squalor?well, maybe just his squalor), square dancing, dopey gags, homoeroticism?it's impossible to imagine that *Personal Hygiene* was not completely successful at getting our troops to feel great about staying clean. In fact, I got so excited that I stopped it in the middle of the first half and gargled with mouthwash. This is the sort of film you have to share with others just to prove you're not making stuff up! Sublimely absurd.
More (including screenshots) at http://www.archive.org/details/Personal1950 and http://www.archive.org/details/Personal1950_2
AS A CODA:
11) Satchmo Swings In Congo, 1960/10/31 (1960)
Louis Armstrong arrives in Congo, plays trumpet (partial newsreel)
Production Company: Universal Studios
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w, 46 seconds
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Reviewer: Wilford B. Wolf - 4 out of 5 stars - April 4, 2005
Subject: Ol' Dippermouth
Brief newsreel clip of Louis Armstrong's historic African tour. Unforunately, Louis's trumpet playing is missing, we do see him arrive in a Congolese stadium carried by a litter and surrounded by an armed guard. There is also a brief clip of Louis playing on stage. Given the tensions of October 1960 (just after the U-2 incident, covered elsewhere in this collection), it is hardly surprising that Radio Moscow's reaction is given equal weight to the by then passe jazz lingo.
Set 2
Set 3
Comment
Sources
| SHNID | Date | Venue | City | State | Archive Identifier |
|---|
Created At
Sat Feb 18 2006 00:10:43 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Updated At
Mon Feb 13 2006 11:42:23 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
No users own this performance