Soundies: A Musical History Hosted by Michael Feinstein (2007) on Netflix
NR20071h 16mDocumentary
Three-minute films run in nightclubs and restaurants for a dime on the Panoram, a movie jukebox. Big band, jazz and swing performers appear in these Soundies, which begin in 1941.
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Trailer
Plot summary
The first Soundies reach the public in 1941, before television and music videos exist. Each short runs about three minutes in black and white, and its performers come from big band, jazz and swing. Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Cab Calloway appear, along with Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, the Mills Brothers, Les Paul and Fats Waller. A dime operates the Panoram, a jukebox that shows the films in bars, dance halls and eating places around the country. Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Dorothy Dandridge and Liberace are among those whose careers the shorts help along. They survive as a record of music, social history and popular culture in a period when war, race relations and new technology meet.
Cast
- Michael Feinsteinas Self - Host
- Mark Cantoras Self - Soundies Historian
- Van Alexanderas Self - Soundies Performer
- Delilah Jacksonas Self - Cultural Historian
- Dan Morgensternas Self - Director, Institute of Jazz Studies
