Blu-ray Disc, Videorecording, Projected Medium, Visual Materials

Soundies : the ultimate collection / directed by Josef Berne [and others].

[New York] : Kino Classics, [2023]

4 videodiscs (600 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in.

digital

optical

video file

Blu-ray

Soundies has 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 has an uncanny way of revealing what Americans were thinking about topics that weren't discussed openly, from sexuality to ethnicity and race. This four-disc collection presents a diverse sampling of 200 shorts, jazz, country-western, folk, and the boogie woogie roots of rock 'n' roll.

Rating: Not rated.

Popular music -- 1941-1950.

Rock music -- To 1961.

Music videos.

Popular music.

Rock music.

Filmed performances.

Nonfiction films.

Berne, Josef, film director.

Basie, Count, 1904-1984, performer.

Calloway, Cab, 1907-1994, performer.

Carmichael, Hoagy, 1899-1981, performer.

Cole, Nat King, 1919-1965, performer.

Kino Classics (Firm), publisher.

Title from sell sheet.

Bonus features: filmed introductions by series curator Susan Delson, with Ina Archer, Media Conservationist, National Museum of African American History and Culture; Inside the panorma: a filmed interview with Mark Cantor, author of The soundies, a history and catalog of jukebox film shorts of the 1940s; From the vaults: a filmed interview with Matt Barton and Mike Mashon.

Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Hoagie Carmichael, Nat King Cole, Dorothy Dandridge, Doris Day, Duke Ellington, Ricardo Montalban, Spike Jones, Vanita Smythe, Gale Storm, Merle Travis, Fats Waller.

Blu-ray; requires Blu-ray player.

K26230

1375392020

2

0

2

1025869

2

2

BLU 782.42164 Soundies