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Cast: Yvonne DiCarlo
Running Time: 3 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
Yvonne DiCarlo, (TV's Lily Munster) was quite a good singer dancer, as this short proves. Lamp of Memory is a nice little song, with a latin beat, Dicarlo falls asleep and dreams of dancing with a beautiful latin man and soon wakes up.
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Cast: Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Dandridge
Running Time: 3 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
Hoagy Carmichael is remembered today as one of America's great composers of popular songs. Several of his tunes, like "Star Dust" ,"Georgia on My Mind", "Up The Lazy River", "Lazybones", "Skylark" and "Heart and Soul" have become standards which are still widely performed. Dorothy Dandridge toured America with sister and mother, performing in Baptist churches before Los Angeles put her on the screen. Among her film roles were a southern schoolteacher in Bright Road (1953) and the title roles in Carmen Jones (1954) and Otto Preminger's production of Porgy and Bess (1959).
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Cast: Gene Krupa, Roy Eldridge, Anita O' Day
Running Time: 3 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
One of the finest singers to emerge from the swing era, Anita O'Day at her prime was a masterful scat singer and a true improviser whose interpretations of standards uplifted and altered even the most familiar songs. After struggling through dance marathons and discovering that she could sing, O'Day picked up valuable experience performing with Max Miller's group in Chicago. Her big break was hooking with the Gene Krupa Orchestra.
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Cast: The Mel-Tones
Running Time: 3 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
Late 1940s soundie featuring the vocal group The Mel-Tones, consisting of three males and two females. This soundie proves that bad lip synching to songs did not start with MTV. Pretty good, if rather straight, rendition of the classic song. However, it does beg the question-- why is it being sung in a faux college dorm room?
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Cast: Zarek and Zorina
Running Time: 3 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
Buy a bride through the mail! Male Order is probably one of the most sexist soundies ever made as we see a man "ordering" five women to a co-worker. (They arrive in boxes). Their head and legs pop out and do a little dance which is surely a new low in female objectivity. He soon removes all the boxes though, all the girls are wearing shirts and short shorts. After dancing with all of them, he selects one, and to have all the others sent back, boxes and all.
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Running Time: 2 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
Short skirts and lacy undergarments!
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Cast: Cab Calloway
Running Time: 4 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
Cab Calloway -- the legendary "Hi De Ho" man -- was a energetic showman, gifted singer, talented actor and trendsetting fashion plate. A truly "larger than life" figure in American pop culture, immortalized in cartoons and caricatures, Calloway also led one of the greatest bands of the Swing Era. Cab's scat singing, dancing, comedic personality and flashy elegance had made him a star and a million-selling recording artist.
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Running Time: 3 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
An amazing short by an "orchestra" of vibraphone players. Some viewers have noted that this film seems to be a mirror image of how things are supposed to be. This is because original Soundie films were printed backwards so that they could appear correct when played in the Panoram machine. Dig that crazy bass player!
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Cast: Noble Sissle Orchestra with Mabel Lee
Running Time: 3 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
Noble Sissle was one of the nation's premier composers and bandleaders, particularly in the early days of American popular song and theater. In the thirties, Sissle put together a successful orchestra. Later in life, Sissle became involved in the Negro Actor's Guild which he helped found, serving as its first president.
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Cast: Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians
Running Time: 2 mins.
Vault: SOUNDIES
Patriotic montage of scenes accompanying performance of U.S. national anthem as performed by Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians.
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