..it is visually incongruous to see a band of four or five musicians supposedly producing the music played by a group as large as Cecil Scott’s 15 piece orchestra. It is even stranger to see a solo on trumpet while hearing a trombone on soundtrack. But if the synchronization is way off, the musicians in the band, three of whom have been identified, are not without interest.
Playing in a style that would soon be associated with Louis Jordan, Skeets Tolbert and his Gentlemen of Rhythm recorded forty titles for Decca Records between March 1, 1939 and July 25, 1942. With not a single standard among the forty records, Tolbert’s band was clearly recording for the jukebox trade.
The Pat Flowers SOUNDIES, while on the surface just another series produced by William Forest Crouch and Filmcraft in the post war period, has long challenged my “comfort level” where SOUNDIES production is concerned.
By the early 1970s Guarnieri, now a highly respected jazz veteran, was still recording on occasion, and was a favorite at “jazz parties” and festivals. But he was perhaps “paying the rent” through a long-standing gig at Tail O’ the Cock Restaurant, both in Los Angeles and in the San Fernando Valley.
While drummer Buddy Christian provided important background information about the films, it was not until October 22, 2000 that a conversation with bassist Emil Powell finally allowed all of the puzzle pieces to be put firmly in place.
In September 1942 it was decided to pull the remaining Krupa soundtrack from the shelf and to develop a dance SOUNDIE around the recording. The soundtrack features a blistering solo by Eldridge, and an outing on clarinet by Sam Musiker.
Like so many of the early competitors of SOUNDIES , this amusement devise quietly passes away, with little evidence of its existence. In this case, however, at least ten film shorts made for the original Telo-View Portable Theater are extant, leading to the next part of the Telo-View story.
Bergen was not a great ventriloquist, per se — that is, he never really perfected the art of speaking without moving his lips. Perhaps the move from the vaudeville stage to radio, as strange as the concept of a ventriloquist on radio may seem, was the best career move that Bergen could have made.
As one might expect, the story is presented on screen in a Biblical setting, with the cast members dressed in costumes from the period. More than half of the film focuses closely on the group as it sings and tells the Biblical tale. While the visual elements of the film are fairly straightforward, the short does descent into low comedy as slaves are frightened by the fire, followed by the “awakening” of the Golden Idol, which also flees. All in all, the visual elements work well in this SOUNDIE, and do not distract from the strong musical content.
“Nils T. Granlund landed in Hollywood to see what he could do about having the natives and tourists beat a path to the Hollywood grotto, far enough off the beaten path to obscure any thought of successful operation, He looked over the estab and decided to build a better mousetrap so they’d break down the doors. And brother, he didn’t miss by much.”
