“It’s Raining Sunbeams” by Deanna Durbin. And oh how “I Love to Whistle.”
October 9, 2009
October 1, 2009
Beautiful Black & White
When movies were not moving pictures, but moving paintings, moving works of art: Jeanette MacDonald sings “Vilia” in Ernst Lubitsch’s “The Merry Widow.” Gorgeous. Wow.
This scene in which Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy sing “Sweetheart” is gorgeous, too. The beginning and end, especially, look like paintings. You could stop the shot and hang a framed still up on the wall. The close-ups of Jeanette are beautiful, too.
The singing is gorgeous in the scene of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Edd performing “‘Ah Sweet Mystery Of Life.”
As I have said in the past: I don’t know if we have copyright issues with these video clips. Are they within copyright, as would be quoting someone? Are they competing with the seller of the video? Could they be considered advertisements, since without some of the videos, fewer people would know about, and therefore seek to buy, the movies? How many people here knew about Jeanette MacDonald or Deanna Durbin before I posted about them?? Some people, yes; but few, I’d imagine.
August 28, 2009
Deanna Durbin
One of America’s all-time favorite, highest-paid actresses. She’s certainly one of my favorites: she is benevolence personified and has a beautiful, operatic voice. There are a good number of video clips from her movies on the Internet that are absolutely worth watching, like the song “Perhaps” (1 min 51 sec), “The Turntable Song” (1 min 47 sec) and, in her introduction to the world — thank goodness!! — “My Heart is Singing” (3 min 39 sec). More good stuff…another day…
Image from Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans.
An Internet Movie Database short bio of Ms. Durbin says:
The girl who one day would be known as “Winnipeg’s Sweetheart” was born at Grace Hospital on December 4, 1921, as Edna Mae Durbin. In her early childhood there were no obvious signs that one day she would be a bigger box office attraction than Shirley Temple. Renamed Deanna Durbin for show business purposes, by age 14 she was the most highly paid female star in the world. Her major motion pictures were Three Smart Girls (1936), Mad About Music (1938) and That Certain Age (1938). By the time she was 18 her income was $250,000 a year. Her voice
August 27, 2009
Some Ms. Krauss
“You’re Just a Country Boy” by Alison Krauss. I absolutely love that wispy, floating, soft voice…
August 17, 2009
How a Differential Gear Works
The instructive video from the 1930s was an “Around the Corner” presentation of the Chevrolet Motor Division, General Motors Sales Corporation, and was produced by the Jam Handy Organization.
HT: Dr. Paul Hsieh.
August 14, 2009
Old Time Radio Shows and Music
Radiolovers.com – Free Old Time Radio Shows describes their Website as follows:
We offer hundreds of vintage radio shows for you to listen to online in mp3 format, all for free. Before the days of video games, shopping malls, MTV, and the Internet, families used to sit in their living room each night to listen to radio shows such as Superman, Groucho Marx, The Avenger, Gunsmoke, Sherlock Homes, and many others. When TV become popular in the 1950’s, most of these shows went off the air, but they now live on at websites such as this one and on weekly nostalgia radio broadcasts worldwide. © 2009 All Rights Reserved.
Some of the shows they have are:
Comedies: Amos & Andy | A Date with Judy | Barrel of Fun | Benny Goodman | Bob Hope Show | Blondie | Evening with George Burns | Camel Comedy | More..
Dramas: Avenger | Defense Attorney | Charlie Chan | More..
Mysteries: Boris Karloff | Cloak and Dagger | Dark Venture | More..
Variety: Al Jolson Show | Arthur Godfrey and his talent scouts | Artie Shaw | Authors Playhouse | Big Bands | Eddie Arnold Show | Ernie Ford | More..
Westerns: Hopalong Cassidy| Death Valley Days | Gene Autry | Gunsmoke | More..
SciFi/Superheros: 2000 Plus | Batman | Buck Rogers | More..
© 2009 All Rights Reserved.
July 27, 2009
July 22, 2009
Eleanor Powell Dancing in A Western
She does the Western Rope Dance in “I Dood It,” a 1943 MGM movie directed by Vincente Minnelli, that is… (The movie is not a Western…just the song…)
This dance number is amazing. I highly recommend it. It is fun, joyful, entertaining, and tightly, carefully choreographed. What they can do with ropes and lassos…wow…
July 4, 2009
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
June 16, 2009
The Golden Age of Children’s Records
They have some good stuff over at Kiddie Records Weekly. They say:
Kiddie Records Weekly began in 2005 as a one year project devoted to the golden age of children’s records. This period spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties and produced a wealth of all-time classics. Many of these recordings were extravagant Hollywood productions on major record labels and featured big time celebrities and composers.
Over the years, these forgotten treasures slipped off the radar and it became our mission to give them a new lease on life by sharing them with today’s generation of online listeners. Each week throughout the year we’ll add a new recording. We took a break in 2008, returning in 2009 for one final year.
So whether you are hearing these records for the first time or reuniting with a childhood favorite from long ago, we hope you take great pleasure in your trip down memory lane!
Check it out! Good for sheer enjoyment, good for adding meaning to a study of American history!
HT: Thanks HG!
