SOUNDIES: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION
A Four-Disc Collection of 200 WWII-Era Jukebox Film Shorts Showcasing American Pop Music Icons Including
Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Hoagy Carmichael, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Doris Day, Dorothy Dandridge, Merle Travis, Fats Waller, Spike Jones, and More
Newly-Restored from Archival Film Elements Preserved by the Library of Congress
"You have never seen so many joyful, happy, people as you will in Kino's Blu-ray package of Soundies: The Ultimate Collection. ...I fully recommend this set." -- DVDBeaver
Kino Lorber proudly announces that Soundies: The Ultimate Collection, a four-disc set featuring 200 short musical subjects --"Soundies" -- that entertained Americans during the World War II era, is now available to own on Blu-ray.
Originally made to be viewed on movie jukeboxes in neighborhood bars, Soundies showcased a wide range of music artists, from top headliners to up-and-coming talents, in a variety of styles from Big Band and swing to folk and country-western. The films presented in this collection capture performances by American pop-music icons including Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Hoagy Carmichael, Nat King Cole, Dorothy Dandridge, Doris Day, Duke Ellington, Spike Jones, Liberace, Gale Storm, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Merle Travis, and Fats Waller -- even Ricardo Montalban in his first screen appearance. Other films dig deep into the 1940s music scene, rediscovering performers like Vanita Smythe, Maurice Rocco, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, The Kimloo Sisters, and The Delta Rhythm Boys.
Restored from the original archival film elements preserved by the Library of Congress, this collection was curated by Susan Delson, author of Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen: One Dime at a Time.
The Blu-ray set comes packed with bonus features including an illustrated 44-page booklet with essays by Susan Delson, Ellen C. Scott and Mark Cantor; filmed introductions by series curator Susan Delson, with Ina Archer, Media Conservationist, National Museum of African American History and Culture; “Inside the Panoram,” a filmed interview with Mark Cantor, author of The Soundies: A History and Catalog of Jukebox Film Shorts of the 1940s; and “From the Vaults,” a filmed interview with Matt Barton (Curator of Recorded Sound at the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center of the Library of Congress) and Mike Mashon (Head of the Moving Image Section of the Library of Congress).