WE CANNOT THANK the folks over at Turner Classic Movies enough; for their great public service in telecasting all of those old one and two reel short subjects. The various running times of the movies make it an impossible task to keep a channel, such as this one on a strict starting time schedule.
THE ANSWER TO this problem is having 'in-betweener' programming; that will even out the time tables out and filling in the odd time. Previews, interviews and related announcements are responsible for a lion's share of the job; with the remainder of it being occupied by short subjects.
WHILE THE GENERAL PUBLIC is well aware of many silents (Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Snub Pollard and the Keystone,; as well as the sound two-reelers, featuring the likes of Lautrel & Hardy, Our Gang and the Three Stooges; there are volumes of titles that seldom, if ever see the light of day. Due to the needs of TCM, the viewers are being re-introduced to series such as Pete Smith Specialities, Robert Benchley, Joe McDoakes; as well as Treaveloguies and Sports specialties.
THE ONE SHOT musical specialty reel is another category of which there are hundreds of prime examples available. One such short is today's featured film, SWING CAT'S JAMBORREE (Warner Bros./Vitaphone, 1938.
WITH THE VARIOUS recordings being familiar to the public in their time, the musical short gives face and personality to their voices. With this addition of the visual dimension (in this pre-television age)proved to be and advertiser's dream. Afterall, the shorts gave a boost to the record sales; while, the opposite effect was true, rendering the films of particular singers and bands much more desirable for film bookings.
SWING CAT'S JAMBOREE gives us only 9 minutes of the music of Louis Prima and his orchestra. Mr. Prima is probably not very well known today, probably best known as being the vice of King Louie in Walt Disney's THE JUNGLE BOOK (); that being released some 50 years ago! But there is a lot more of a career to learn about and this little movie is a good place to start.
TO SAY THAT this is dated is an obvious truism; for, it is by its very nature bound to be so. In the same way as a Bob Hope monologue dates very quickly, so does this, which is designed to be a sort of celluloid newspaper feature section.
BEYOND THE OBVIOUS musical theme, this sort of short is designed to be a sort of Historical record of the particular and peculiar customs and habits of a particular period. As a sort of motion picture 'snap-shot', it succeeds most admirably.
THE ANSWER TO this problem is having 'in-betweener' programming; that will even out the time tables out and filling in the odd time. Previews, interviews and related announcements are responsible for a lion's share of the job; with the remainder of it being occupied by short subjects.
WHILE THE GENERAL PUBLIC is well aware of many silents (Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Snub Pollard and the Keystone,; as well as the sound two-reelers, featuring the likes of Lautrel & Hardy, Our Gang and the Three Stooges; there are volumes of titles that seldom, if ever see the light of day. Due to the needs of TCM, the viewers are being re-introduced to series such as Pete Smith Specialities, Robert Benchley, Joe McDoakes; as well as Treaveloguies and Sports specialties.
THE ONE SHOT musical specialty reel is another category of which there are hundreds of prime examples available. One such short is today's featured film, SWING CAT'S JAMBORREE (Warner Bros./Vitaphone, 1938.
WITH THE VARIOUS recordings being familiar to the public in their time, the musical short gives face and personality to their voices. With this addition of the visual dimension (in this pre-television age)proved to be and advertiser's dream. Afterall, the shorts gave a boost to the record sales; while, the opposite effect was true, rendering the films of particular singers and bands much more desirable for film bookings.
SWING CAT'S JAMBOREE gives us only 9 minutes of the music of Louis Prima and his orchestra. Mr. Prima is probably not very well known today, probably best known as being the vice of King Louie in Walt Disney's THE JUNGLE BOOK (); that being released some 50 years ago! But there is a lot more of a career to learn about and this little movie is a good place to start.
TO SAY THAT this is dated is an obvious truism; for, it is by its very nature bound to be so. In the same way as a Bob Hope monologue dates very quickly, so does this, which is designed to be a sort of celluloid newspaper feature section.
BEYOND THE OBVIOUS musical theme, this sort of short is designed to be a sort of Historical record of the particular and peculiar customs and habits of a particular period. As a sort of motion picture 'snap-shot', it succeeds most admirably.