Kay Star and Jimmy Dodd complain about the racket coming from the ceiling in this lively wartime soundie.
Soundies were a type of short subject that can be considered ancestral to the sort of music videos that play on MTV. They were meant to be played on a device called a Mills Panoram, which was a sort of video jukebox that might be found in bars in the early 1940s. You put in a dime, and got one of ten songs with performers syncing along to the recording. Mills produced an estimated ten a week for more than seven years, and there were several competitors. Major musical talent got their start performing for the system.
Dodd was an actor, singer, and even composer, who wrote the Mickey Mouse March. He died in 1964, age 54.
Soundies were a type of short subject that can be considered ancestral to the sort of music videos that play on MTV. They were meant to be played on a device called a Mills Panoram, which was a sort of video jukebox that might be found in bars in the early 1940s. You put in a dime, and got one of ten songs with performers syncing along to the recording. Mills produced an estimated ten a week for more than seven years, and there were several competitors. Major musical talent got their start performing for the system.
Dodd was an actor, singer, and even composer, who wrote the Mickey Mouse March. He died in 1964, age 54.
