Dorothy Dandridge – Cow Cow Boogie
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Fantastic, all vacuum tubes and 78rpm lacquer recording(has to done in ONE take). “Pro” sound didn’t exist yet, it was the child to “pro radio”….both of my parents were only a year old at this time.
Very nice performance. I wonder if they rehearsed the gunshots. The guy looks like he never fired those cannons before.
Htos1av-
These are “soundies, mainly released in the early 1940’s, by the “Soundies Distributing Corporation of America.”
We recognize them as “music-videos” today.
Unlike other film-shorts, these were exclusively distributed via “movie jukeboxes” in bars & restaurants, known as “Panarams,” and not in movie-theaters. Down sampled, so to speak, from 35mm prints to 16mm and put onto an endless loop and back projected in the Panaram.
Fortunately, thousands were made, and packages were later distributed to Television in the early 1950’s.
Many are available at Youtube and the UCLA film school maintains a massive collection.
https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/collections/soundies
Thelma White and Her All-Girl Orchestra
“Shoo Shoo, Ya Mama” (January, 1946)
https://youtu.be/_GeXOJJVOU8
(2:36)
(Bonus points for knowing who Thelma White [1910-2005] is…)