Soundies

Soundies are three-minute American musical movies, produced between 1940 and 1947, each displaying a song, dance, and/or band or orchestral number. Produced professionally on 35mm black-and-white film, like theatrical motion pictures, they were printed in the more portable and economical 16mm gauge.

The movies were shown in a type of coin-operated "movie jukebox" named the Panoram, manufactured by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago. Each Panoram housed a 16mm RCA movie projector, with eight Soundies movies threaded in an endless-loop arrangement. A system of mirrors flashed the image from the lower half of the cabinet onto a front-facing screen in the top half. Each movie cost 10 cents to play, and there was no choice of song; the patron saw whatever movie was next in the queue. Panorams could be found in public amusement centers, nightclubs, taverns, restaurants, and factory lounges, and the movies were changed weekly. The completed Soundies were generally made available within a few weeks of their filming, by the Soundies Distributing Corporation of America.

Several production companies filmed the Soundies shorts in New York, Hollywood, and Chicago: James Roosevelt's Globe Productions (1940–41), Cinemasters (1940–41), Minoco Productions (owned by Mills Novelty, 1941–43),[1][2] RCM Productions (1941–46), LOL Productions (1943), Glamourettes (1943), Filmcraft Productions (1943–46), and Alexander Productions (1946). The performers would record the music in advance, and mime to the soundtrack during filming.

The movie-jukebox idea developed several imitations and variations of the technical design; the most successful of these imitators were the Techniprocess company (managed by Rudy Vallee) and the Featurettes company, which used original novelty songs and usually unknown talent (17-year-old Gwen Verdon appears in a couple of the Featurettes, as "Gwen Verdun"). As Soundies quickly gained most of the market for jukebox movies, the other companies disbanded, and some sold their movies to the Soundies concern.

Musical genres

Soundies emphasized variety from the very beginning: the first three bandleaders who contracted for Soundies were the boogie-woogie specialist Will Bradley, the established popular music maestro Vincent Lopez, and the Hawaiian singer-leader Ray Kinney.[3] Soundies displayed all genres of music, from classical to big-band swing, and from hillbilly novelties to patriotic songs. Jimmy Dorsey, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Louis Jordan, Spike Jones, Stan Kenton, Kay Starr, Johnnie Johnston, Les Brown, The Hoosier Hot Shots, Charlie Spivak, Martha Tilton, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, Sally Rand, Nick Lucas, Gene Krupa, Anita O'Day, Jimmie Dodd, Merle Travis, and Lawrence Welk were a few of the Soundies actors. Many famous actors of the future made appearances in Soundies at the beginning of their careers, including Ricardo Montalban, Liberace, Doris Day, Gloria Grahame, Cyd Charisse, Alan Ladd, Gwen Verdon, Marilyn Maxwell and Yvonne DeCarlo. Two other singers Gale Storm and Dorothy Dandridge.

Many nightclub and recording artists also made Soundies, including Frances Faye, Gloria Parker, Hildegarde, Charles Magnante, Milton DeLugg, and Gus Van. More than 1800 Soundies mini-musicals were made, many of which have been released on home video.[4]

Beginning in 1941, Soundies experimented with expanding its format, and filmed comedy Soundies with Our Gang actor Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Broadway comic Willie Howard, dialect comedians Smith and Dale, Harry Langdon, and The Keystone Kops. Most of these movies were non-musical, and were not as well received as the musical Soundies. Soundies abandoned the comedy-sketch idea, but continued to produce filmed versions of comic novelty songs. They were regularly described and reviewed in the entertainment and music trade publications, such as Billboard.

Chronology

The Soundies were a great success during its first year, making millions of dollars (in dimes). In the days before television, the concept of seeing as well as hearing musical artists was very attractive. However, during World War II the federal government restricted the use of rubber and precious metals. This meant that Mills Novelty could no longer build and sell Panoram machines, and had to confine its activities to keeping the existing projectors supplied with movies. The Soundies Distributing Corporation of America remained active until 1947. With commercial television developing rapidly, the Soundies machines and movies became obsolete. The library of 1,800 Soundies movies was sold to home-movie companies Castle Films and Official Films, then to syndicated television, and ultimately to home video (via England's Charly Records).

Legacy

Presently Soundies are known for preserving rare performances of African-American artists who had fewer opportunities to perform in movies. Artists such as The Ink Spots, Fats Waller,[1] Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Dorothy Dandridge, Big Joe Turner, Billy Eckstine, Count Basie, The Mills Brothers, Herb Jeffries, Cab Calloway, Meade Lux Lewis, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and Stepin Fetchit all made Soundies (some of which were excerpted from longer theatrical movies).

Scopitones

In 1958, the Soundies concept was revived by the French company Cameca as Scopitone. Similar to Soundies, Scopitones are short music movies designed to be played on a specially designed coin-operated jukebox, but with new technical improvements: color and high-fidelity sound. Scopitones were printed on color 16mm film with magnetic sound instead of Soundies' optical sound.

By the mid-1960s, Scopitone jukeboxes had been spread across England and the United States. Many well-known American and French popular music acts of the 1960s made Scopitone movies such as The Exciters, Brigitte Bardot, Debbie Reynolds, Vic Damone, Dalida, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Procol Harum, Neil Sedaka, Serge Gainsbourg, Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Vartan, Brook Benton, Ray Anthony, Gale Garnett, Sacha Distel, Buddy Greco, Tommy James & the Shondells, Della Reese, Bobby Rydell, Petula Clark, Bobby Vee, Lou Christie, The Shadows, Jody Miller, Kay Starr, Dionne Warwick, Jane Morgan, Nancy Sinatra, Françoise Hardy, and Julie London. The Scopitone was popular until the end of the decade.

Further reading
Development of the music video
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gollark: With data caps and 5G I will be very excited to burn through all my data in five seconds.
gollark: Do any phones at all actually support it though?

References
  1. "Honeysuckle Rose" sung by Fats Waller in a 1941 Minoco Production Soundie (video)
  2. Ain't Misbehavin' (soundie with Fats Waller) on IMDb
  3. Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda, The Soundies Book: A Revised and Expanded Guide, 2007.
  4. Anthony Slide, New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry Chicago & London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998 1-57958-056-4 p.191
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