The Soundies Book

Soundies were the granddaddies of music videos: single-song musical movies that played in special jukeboxes during the 1940s. Some of the biggest musical stars (and stars of the future) appeared in these films: Louis Armstrong Spike Jones Liberace Fats Waller Stan Kenton Cab Calloway and many others. Thanks to Soundies hundreds of unique musical performances were photographed for posterity. These mini-musicals were originally nothing more than a ten-cent novelty. Today to film and music fans they're a priceless part of history.</p>Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda authors of the landmark resource book <I>The Soundies Distributing Corporation of America</I> now offer this revised and expanded guide to the Soundies musicals. This all-new book picks up where the original left off: more than 1800 titles are classified by performer title and date-many with new individual annotations and all with new cross-references for easy reading and consultation. There is also a historical account of the prolific Soundies production companies a look at Soundies' many competitors and descendants (including telescriptions and Scopitones) a checklist of the dozens of Soundies home-movie editions and a listing of alternate titles to help collectors identify the films more easily. All in one handy volume: <I>The Soundies Book</I>.</p>