The Soundies: A History and Catalog of Jukebox Film Shorts of the 1940s

by Mark Cantor

Overview

The 1940s saw a brief audacious experiment in mass entertainment: a jukebox with a screen. Patrons could insert a dime, then listen to and watch such popular entertainers as Nat "King" Cole, Gene Krupa, Cab Calloway or Les Paul. A number of companies offered these tuneful delights, but the most successful was the Mills Novelty Company and its three-minute musical shorts called Soundies.

This book is a complete filmography of 1,880 Soundies: the musicians heard and seen on screen, recording and filming dates, arrangers, soloists, dancers, entertainment trade reviews and more. Additional filmographies cover more than 80 subjects produced by other companies. There are 125 photos taken on film sets, along with advertising images and production documents. More than 75 interviews narrate the firsthand experiences and recollections of Soundies directors and participants. Forty years before MTV, the Soundies were there for those who loved the popular music of the 1940s. This was truly "music for the eyes."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476683133
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	05/01/2023
Pages:	893
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.79(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark Cantor is a Los Angeles-based musicologist, historian and archivist of jazz and popular music on film. He is the curator of the Celluloid Improvisations Music Film Archive, perhaps the largest privately held collection of musical performance on 16mm film worldwide. For more information, please visit the author’s website at www.jazz-on-film.com.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Forewords by Leonard Maltin and Will Friedwald
Preface
Introduction
Part One: History and Development
 1. The Soundies Experience
 2. Soundies Fundamentals
 3. Early Antecedents—A Brief History
 4. Research and Development
 5. Just Shy of Making It
 6. Techniprocess and Featurettes
 7. The Mills Novelty Company, the Soundies Distributing Corporation of America and the Mills Panoram
 8. The Production Process
 9. The Production Companies
10. The Interviews
Part Two: The Soundies Inventory
The Catalog
Soundies Miniature Revue (X reissues)
The Soundies Performers and Session Descriptions
Part Three: Conclusions
Part Four: Other Inventories
Appendices
Recording Sessions
Production Number and Company Identifications
Release Dates
Sideline Extras
Bibliography
Index
Techniprocess Index
Featurettes Index
Narrative Index

Editorial Reviews

It’s an intriguing concept: an oversized, seven-foot-tall jukebox with a 22-by-17-inch screen positioned at eye level. In the 1940s, customers at a bar or restaurant could put in a dime and watch and listen to three-minute musical films called ‘soundies.’ Musicologist Cantor provides interviews with former performers and a technical history of the making and marketing of soundies....For 10 cents, twice the cost of a regular jukebox, people could watch celebrities, such as Nat King Cole, Gene Krupa, Cab Calloway, and Les Paul perform, and see stars such as Alan Ladd, Doris Day, Gloria Grahame, and Cyd Charisse make their first screen appearances....[This is] a detailed catalogue of 1,880 soundies, their production and casting notes, and more.”—Library Journal

From the Publisher