The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s)'s topics - tribe.net

What is your 1920s name?

inkvision — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 16:06:20 GMT

This is cute and fun...

http://www.blogthings.com/1920snamegenerator/

Mine is Isabella Mozelle.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 39 replies

"King Of Jazz" VHS conversion help....anyone?

Robowan — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:39:18 GMT

Howdy, and apologies ahead of time, as I may cross-post this. I have a good VHS copy of the fabulous 1930 film, "King Of Jazz" featuring Paul Whiteman and his cronies. Since there are no plans afoot to properly release this on DVD by anyone (that I know of), I'd like to convert my VHS tape to DVD format. Does anyone in this tribe have the capability to do this, and would you be interested in dubbing this for me? I have money, I can pay, but ideally I'd love someone to do this as a trade...and I'd even make copies for anyone interested for postage costs of shipping said DVD. I'm just tired of dragging my closeted VCR out every time I want to watch this film.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 6 replies

Miss Lee Morse...

confetta — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:03:51 GMT

Here is a list
of the songs
Miss Lee Morse
recorded in
November...

I hope you
like them as
much as I do.

~confetta

Lee Morse

Deep Wide Ocean Blues
(Lee Morse)
11-1925
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/deepwideocean.ram

Golden Dream Girl
(Lee Morse)
11-28-1924
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/GoldenDreamGirl.ram

I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight
(Walter Donaldson)
11-11-1925
New York, New York

My Sugar Babe
(Lee Morse)
11-11-1925
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/mysugarbabe.ram

Lee Morse and her Bluegrass Boys

Ain't That Too Bad?
(Endor / Ward)
11-1926
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/aintthattoobad.ram

Everybody Loves My Baby But My Baby Don't Love Nobody But Me
(Jack Palmer / Spencer Williams)
11-28-1924
New York, New York

He's My Secret Passion
(Young and Valentine)
11-26-1930 New York, New York

If You Want The Rainbow
(You Must Have Rain)
(Levant / Rose / Dixon)
11-3-1928
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/ifyouwant.ram

I Love My Baby
(My Baby Loves Me)
(Green / Warren)
11-1925
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/ilovemybaby.ram

I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight?
(Walter Donaldson)
11-11-1925
New York, New York

Jersey Walk
from "Honeymoon Lane"
(Dowling / Hanley)
11-4-1926
New York, New York

My Fate Is In Your Hands
(Fats Waller / Andy Razaf)
11-4-1929
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/myfateis.ram

The Jersey Walk
(Creamer / Dowling / Hanley)
11-1926
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/jerseywalk.ram

The Little White House
from "Honeymoon Lane"
(Dowling / Hanley)
11-4-1926
New York, New York

To Be Forgotten
(Irving Berlin)
11-4-1929
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/tobeforgotten.ram

With All My Heart
(Lee Morse)
11-4-1926
New York, New York

You're Driving Me Crazy!
(What Did I Do?)
(Walter Donaldson)
11-26-1930
New York, New York
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/youredrivingme.ram

To Learn More about Lee Morse...
Please visit:
http://www.squidoo.com/LeeMorse/

~ fettz

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 3 replies

Help with unknown artist

HappyBird — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:33:54 GMT

My friend had a friend make her a CD quite some time ago, and we don't know who does this one song. I tried figuring it out on Google, but that didn't work. Can someone tell me if they think they know who sings/wrote this song?
Likely 20's era?

Sailing, sailing, over the ocean blue
The admiral's daughter is after Davey
and his dingy too

She first saw Davey in a big parade
A show of strength that the navy made
There was subs and cruisers and all the best
But Davey's little dingy stood out from the rest

Chorus:
Ship ahoy, sailor boy
Don't you get too springy
The admiral's daughter is down by the water
She wants to ride your dingy

She built as big as a battle ship
Davey says he'd have to make two trips
Let her go ride with the other guys
His dingy's no good for a gal that size

Chorus

She's made up her mind that he must get caught
His dingy has got to sail into her port
She won't let it rust because she knows the score
Oh, you can tell she's had a dingy before

Chorus

She ruined her first mate, I understand
He wound up with his anchor dragging in the sand
Since Davey heard she's headed his way
He's got a life-preserver on his dingy night and day

Davey thinks she'll try sabbotage
So he's devised a little camofauge
Everybody says it's a real slick trick
He's got it painted red and white like a peppermint stick

Chorus

Just got a flash from the naval base
The big manuver, it just took place
She finally grabbed him by the pier
He got in too deep with his landing gear
There was quite a battle
There'll be hell to pay
Cuz he sank his dingy, singin'
"Anchor's Away"!!!

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

Fallout

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:01:27 GMT

This is a very obscure question, and most likely no one here will be able to answer me. But I've been trying to find this for at least four years!

The introduction of a game called 'Fallout', by Black Isle, features a beautiful jazz-age-style song - the title and singer of which I do not know. He's got a wonderful crisp, tenor voice.

The lyrics I can recall:

"Someday, you'll think of me / when you are all alone. / Someday, you'll sit and sigh..."

That's it. I suppose I could always play the game again. ;) The song isn't mentioned anywhere in the credits, and Black Isle has been unresponsive.

Little help?

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 7 replies

Art Deco Society of Northern California's 23rd Gatsby Picnic this Sunday Sept 9th.

endymionsfate — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:04:46 GMT

Hello all you swell Hepcats and Sinners,
I'm not affiliated with the Art Deco Society (ADS) but thought it would be a great place to post this information for those that might be interested in knowing about the era or attending this wonderful event.
http://www.artdecosociety.org/about/events/calendar.htm
more info
http://www.artdecosociety.org/about/events/Gatsby/gatsbymain.htm

Ticket's aren't cheap, but neither is this event. Oh, ticket price does not include edibles so you will have to bring your own.

See you there.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

London UK event

Canyella — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 10:13:52 GMT

Hmmm. shame i can't seem to post a flyer here... but..

*I Got Rhythm*
A celebration of 1930s Jazz

September 23, 6pm-12am at Favela Chic, London
-Vipers Dream Band
-Taina Kortelainen & Simon Selmon (swing/tap maestros)
-DJ Canyella

more info at www.myspace.com/nottaspromotions

:)

Canyella

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Amelia Earhart and Friends in the Jazz age

Laurie — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 03:04:01 GMT

As the soon to be biographer of Amelia Earhart's husband, George Palmer Putnam, I have spent the last few years steeped in this era - I love it - George Putnam who was the head of G P Putnam Son's Publishing Company knew everyone who was anyone from this period and there were just so many fascinating and cool people
Should anyone care to chat about them, I would love to as well

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 1 reply

BaSTiLLE DAy in SF!

delachaux — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:41:05 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAxPMJujsjI

2nd Annual Bastille Day Bacchanal!
UNDERGROUND FRANCO-SONIC DANCE SOIREE et
BELLE EPOQUE CABARET FEATURING:

Les Dames:
Charlotte La Belle Araignée
The Flying Fox
The Scenic Sisters
Margot Montmartre
Maître des Cérémonies:
Professor Violet!

Dansez Dansez avec
Les Maestros Super:
Monsieur Laird
Monsieur Delachaux
Monsieur Kizmiaz

La Vie en Verte avec Unkle Paul and the Green Fairy Bar!

Dress as your favorite LOVERS & LIBERTINES
from the GUILLOTINE to GODARD! French Maids, Mimes, Mods & Montmartrians, Legionnaires, Impressionists, Existentialistas, Bardot, Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril, Jerry Lewis, Jacques Cousteau, Jean Cocteau, Camus, De Sade, Deneuve, De Gaulle, Louis XVI, Anais Nin, Amelie, Marie Antoinette, Napolean, Piaf, and Pepé Le Pew!

ANON SALON
285 9th Street (@ Folsom)
SAN FRANCISCO
Presale tickets at:
www.fetelaboum.com

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Deco dress workshop - Berkeley CA 7/22

Kendra — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:11:24 GMT

The 2007 Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild Workshop Series Presents:

ONE HOUR DRESSES OF THE 1920s
Sunday, July 22, 2007
11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Location: LSI, 2015 Center Street, Berkeley, CA
http://www.gbacg.org/Current/OneHourDress.htm

Need a new dress to wear to the Art Deco Society's Gatsby Summer Afternoon or the Silent Film Festival? Join us on July 22 and make a dress in a day!

In the 1920s many books and magazine articles were dedicated to sewing a frock fast. Using period references, Bridget Bradley-Scaife will show you the fabulously simple techniques that go into making yourself a quick and beautiful 1920's dress. Students will learn how to measure, construct and personalize their frock with design elements used on dresses of the 1920's.

Each student will receive handouts and a CD. A supply list that includes suggested fabric and trim yardage will be sent to each student prior to class.

Location: Language Sciences Institute (LSI), 2015 Center Street, Berkeley, one block south of the Berkeley BART station. LSI has drink machines but no real food, bring a sack lunch or visit one of the local eateries. Free street parking or paid parking garage nearby.

Cost: $37.00 GBACG Members, $47.00 Non-Members

Deadline for Sign-up: July 13, 2007 or until full. Space is limited.
This workshop is payable via PayPal. You may also pay by check.
Please see our website ( www.gbacg.org ) for sign-up information.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

new episode - manouche

Canyella — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:07:42 GMT

Let me introduce you to my podcast - this week's episode is smoky dimly lit underground bar...check it out. Not strictly manouche but the manouche is in there. :)

http://canyella.podmatic.com

lots of love
Canyella

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Free Jazz and improvisation in Portugal, Europe

freemusic — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:02:56 GMT

Hi,
I run a pod dedicated to free improv out of Lisbon, Portugal: http://freemusic.podomatic.com
Pay me a visit!

Peace

freemusic

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 1 reply

playing 78 rpm records...if only I could

Robowan — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 14:56:04 GMT

Can some kind soul recommend a new turntable that plays 78s properly, and doesn't cost an arm and both legs? I had an older Numark DJ turntable that *would* play at 78, but the needle wasn't right. I'd even go for a vintage model, if needles still could be acquired. I've got a stack of old 78s that I really really want to hear.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 5 replies

favorite lead instrument?

Lorenzo — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 18:46:17 GMT

the great music of the era allowed for a variety of wonderful soloists to come to the fore. Are you more partial to clarinet, trumpet, sax, vibes, trombone, piano??? Comments?

Surprisingly, I can easily pick Chopin if we are talking about classical music, but when it comes to grand old jazz. . .it's harder to pick.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 14 replies

Blue Moon

thekid — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 09:58:39 GMT

you saw me standing alone,
With out a dream in my heart,
With out a love of my own....

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

I'll Get By

Max — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 07:36:31 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alnaRK2_f7A

Billie Holiday sings a lovely version of "I'll Get By As Long As I Have You" while the girl in the picture sips a cocktail and makes a few amusing gestures. I'm not sure if it's meant to be serious or a camp; but the music is splendid.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

The Devil's Cabaret (1930)

confetta — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:01:51 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGh3eqtLJ0M

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 8 replies

the jazz age in your life

amazonika — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 16:17:27 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm really curious if and how some of you bring the jazz age into your own life.

For example, I met someone once who was a really talented amateur clothing designer and sewer and made most of her own clothes. She was also a huge 1940s fan, so most of her wardrobe looked straight out of that era. She always looked really amazing in beautiful tailored suits or swing dresses, and she also did her hair and makeup appropriately. Somehow, she still managed to blend in nicely with "modern times" though...but she stood out as always looking more polished and classy than everyone else. (That style is truly timeless!)

How about you guys? Is there anything you do that helps you experience a little bit of the Jazz Age in your daily life?

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 11 replies

Free jazz movies at the Berkeley Public Library

Kurt — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:28:19 GMT

info here...

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=01-19-07&storyID=26147

http://nvr.org/lookingatjazz/

and in the monthly newsletter at http://berkeleypubliclibrary.org/

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

the classic fedora

amazonika — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:24:03 GMT

Hi all,
I'm looking for advice on purchasing a fedora.
I want to get one that is classic vintage style, along the lines of perhaps a classy yet street-wise hep cat of the 30s or 40s.
Not too upper-crust, and not too pimpin'. More along the lines of film noir detectives.

I've found a cool store that sells fedoras:
http://www.thefedorastore.com

...but there are so many choices, I'm a bit overwhelmed!

Oh, and colors! Something to go with a brown pin-stripe suit -- would it have to be brown, or is it acceptable to get away with black or grey?

I'd like to choose one as authentically stylish as possible, so any advice on proper vintage fedora etiquette would be appreciated.

And if you can suggest a better online source for purchasing one, please pass it on!

Thanks so much for any help.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 9 replies

SONGS to SING

JulieRae — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 07:47:11 GMT

I'm gather songs to record for an eclectic album - especially interested in material without or with expired copyrights.
LOVE this era of music but in need of guidance.
Any and all help APPRECIATED!

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 9 replies

Louise Brooks exhibit

thomasgladysz — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 06:52:52 GMT

"Homage to Lulu: 100 Years of Louise Brooks" (November 4, 2006 through January 5, 2007)
an exhibit at the San Francisco Public Library
Main Branch, Fourth Floor, Steve Silver Beach Blanket Babylon Music Center

"Homage to Lulu: 100 Years of Louise Brooks" celebrates the centenary of the silent film star Louise Brooks (1906 - 1985). Now considered an icon of the Jazz Age, Brooks' popularity today rivals that of her more celebrated contemporaries. On display are dozens of vintage objects - including books, magazines, sheet music, postcards,and related ephemera - which tell the story of her life and films.

Highlights include American and French photoplay editions (the movie tie-in editions of the 1920's), an editorial comic strip explaining the scandalous circumstances behind Brooks' affair with Charlie Chaplin, Brooks' inspired novels, a jumbo-size lobby card, and a full-page newspaper advertisement for "Show Girl" - the Brooks-inspired novel which became a hit stage play and the long-running comic strip "Dixie Dugan."

This exhibit - organized by Thomas Gladysz and the San Francisco-based Louise Brooks Society - coincides with many other events taking place around the San Francisco Bay Area and the world.

Related Events in the Bay Area:

"Celebrating Louise Brooks: An Evening of Rare Films"
Sunday, November 12th at 7:30 p.m.
Balboa Theater (3630 Balboa Street) in San Francisco
-- Peter Cowie, author of the just released Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever, will give a short talk after the screening of rare Louise Brooks films - some not shown in 80 years. Special guests, door prizes, give-aways, and a book signing with Peter Cowie will round out the program. This special event is co-sponsored by The Booksmith (www.booksmith.com) and the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com)

Louise Brooks Birthday Bash
Tuesday, November 14th at 7:00 p.m.
Victoria Theater (2961 16th Street) in San Francisco
-- a screening, live music, birthday cake, and festivities with the cast and crew of "Lulu" - followed by a 10 p.m. staging of of the Wedekind play done as a silent film a la Louise Brooks in "Pandora's Box" - more info at www.victoriatheatre.org/

Screening of the 1926 Louise Brooks flapper comedy, "Love 'Em and Leave 'Em"
Tuesday, November 21st at 7 p.m.
Main Library, Lower Level, Koret Auditorium (100 Larkin Street at Grove)
-- with an introduction by Thomas Gladysz, director of the Louise Brooks Society; more info at sfpl4.sfpl.org/news/exhibitions.htm

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

1930s era movie recommendation

amazonika — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:38:16 GMT

If you like contemporary films set in the jazz age, and you like naked ladies, you might like to check out "Mrs. Henderson Presents". http://imdb.com/title/tt0413015/

It's a story about an eccentric widow who buys a theater and puts on shows featuring nude women.

The story is good, the acting is good, and although I felt it could have wrapped up at a faster pace, it was totally enjoyable.

The cast includes Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins and Christopher Guest.

The whole production definitely had a Stephen Frears feel to it...so if you like his directing style, you'll like this film.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 6 replies

Cab Calloway with some psycotic super splitting tap dancers...

Jack — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 20:23:52 GMT

Dig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8yGGtVKrD8

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 4 replies

Happy Halloween

LaurieSiegel — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:55:03 GMT

Check Out this Halloween Video. Really cool!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwUvDcnqtbg

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Dig my gig: Vintage jazz radio show online anytime!

Jack — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 00:11:44 GMT

My name is Jack Blackfelt and I am a vintage jazz disc jockey for internet radio station www.eastvillageradio.com I spin jazz and pop vocals from the 20s to the 60s 10am-12noon EST every Sunday morning. An archive is for each show is available right after broadcast, so you have all week to hear it and not get up early if you don't wanna.
If you're in Manhattan, stroll on by 1st Avenue and 1st street during my show'shours and say hello...it's a storefront studio station.
Cheers, Jack B.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

another movie recommendation: The Purple Rose of Cairo

amazonika — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 16:51:49 GMT

I haven't laughed out loud at many films lately, until I rented Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo".

It's set in the 1930s, when millions of poor Americans escaped to the movie theater to forget their troubles.

The main character is obsessed with movies, rattles off any kind of movie trivia at the drop of a hat, and daydreams about movies all day long.

She finds herself jobless and unhappy in her marriage and escapes to the movies every single day. One of the characters in the film notices her in the audience and jumps off the screen! They begin a love affair, and he refuses to return to the movie. The other characters in the movie are stuck, unable to complete their scene.

The whole plot is hilarious, and there are some truly great lines. The depression-ers "feel" of the film is very authentic (although I think the speaking manner sometimes sounded a bit too modern), and each character is wonderful to watch.

I highly recommend this one!!

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

Lulu play

thomasgladysz — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 05:06:32 GMT

The New York Times just gave a glowing review to "Lulu," a Louise Brooks-inspired silent stage play which was performed at the New York International Fringe Festival. The play will next be performed at the Victoria Theater in San Francisco starting September 7th. (see www.victoriatheatre.org/) Jason Zinoman wrote in Saturday's New York Times:

"The Silent Theater Company of Chicago is dedicated to the idea that the theater doesn't need the spoken word, which it proves with panache in its first production, Lulu, an ingeniously staged version of the Louise Brooks 1929 silent film Pandora's Box.

Stylishly directed by Tonika Todorova, this dreamlike play without words is about an insatiable hedonist who leaves death in her tracks. It opens with a wild freak show - peopled by a bearded lady, a dwarf and a man on stilts - dressed and lighted in a noirishly severe black and white, like the cover of a 1920's scandal sheet burst to life. Last to enter is the knockout showgirl Lulu (Kyla Louise Webb), a good-time girl who is clearly bad news.

In the seasoned hands of Ms. Brooks - whose black bob, imitated here, may be the most famous haircut in film history - the role inspired oceans of critical drooling. Kenneth Tynan once wrote that she was "the only star actress I can imagine either being enslaved by or wanting to enslave."

The charismatic Ms. Webb, who wears a blankly innocent expression, letting her jitterbugging body do the seducing, may not bring on such dark thoughts, but her pursuit of unbridled pleasure is so persuasive that you are sure that after the show she will seduce the rest of the cast members and then break all their hearts.

Backed by the moody piano of Isaiah Robinson, this coolly stylized presentation, which could benefit from a few more tech rehearsals, communicates a remarkable amount of plot - in a few crisply designed scenes that slip back and forth between erotic and macabre.

The glamorous Lulu is a reminder of how effective the great silent performers were in their ability to cut directly to the heart of a scene, something Billy the Mime also accomplishes superbly. If you don't have the crutch of language, you need to be able to tell a story with discipline and clarity, and these wordless artists developed a vocabulary every bit as articulate as that of any playwright in the Fringe. They are particularly eloquent with comedy and horror, two areas in which the theater often lags behind film. When was the last play you saw that was really scary or made you explode in belly laughs?

Unlike talking actors, who generally shun the grand gesture as hammy, these silent performers are willing to go for the jugular. They treat their limitation in speech as an opportunity to exploit the rest of their repertory, which may be the reason that their shows seem bolder, faster and meaner than any others I saw this week. Silence, in an odd way, has liberated them."

For more about the Chicago-based Silent Theatre visit www.silenttheatre.com/. You can even watch a silent trailer of the play - with intertitles.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Radio

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:08:16 GMT

http://www.upstartradio.com/Internet%20Radio%20Broadcast.html

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Swingin' all the way to the House of Blues!

phatcatswinger — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 19:15:35 GMT

And soon, with your help... swingin' to bigger and better places!

We would like to invite everyone here to join our tribe and to join us at our gigs! We are a very high energy, 9 piece swingin' swing band and we want you to be a part of our rise to the top!

Check out our new gig with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy coming up next week! Just join our tribe and check out our post for the gig.

We really encourage everyone to read and reply with your thoughts, suggestions, questions, or just anything to our posts. We also encourage you to post your own thoughts on anything involving the Jazz, Swing, Big Band era!!

We hope to see you here:

http://tribes.tribe.net/phatcatswinger

Sincerely,

Phat Cat Swinger

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

dance ideas

aliciadenison — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 07:00:40 GMT

I've been wanting to do a 1920's belly dance for a while now. Does anyone have any ideas about costuming or music to share with me? I want to have fingerwaves and a unique 20's look. I was thinking of basing a costume on an old Mata Hari picture or something. Any suggestions on where to start my research?
-Alicia

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 3 replies

Gig trade w/ Phat Man Dee!

phatmandee — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 19:50:31 GMT

Hi!!! My name is Phat Man Dee and I am looking to trade gigs with other phabulous entertainers. Immediately I am looking to perform in NYC/ Brooklyn around July 20th. I have a show that night at Starshine Burleqsue at Ra Fi Fi in the E. Village , but would love to do something maybe the night before or after in the area or even in Philadelphia. I am a jazz singer with tendencies towards
bluegrass and comedic burlesque. I have toured with the Goddess Perlman, Candeye Kane, the Bindlestiff Family Cirkis, Circus Rediculous, and the Fat Bottomed Girls Burlesque Review. You may see my website online:
htttp://www.phatmandee.com/
and press kit:
www.sonicbids.com/phatmandee/

I would really like to make this a 2 way thing, I am based in Pittsburgh, PA (home of the Warhol Museum, Fred Rogers, Jeff Goldblum, the Goddess Perlamn, Gene Kelly. Billy Strayhorn, the most bridges of any city in America, that annoyingly catchy "Play That Funky Music White boy" song , and as well we have the largest concentration of Jews between Brooklyn and Israel) and I love to show off my hometown. If you can get me a gig to share with you in your hometown, I will find a booking for you here. As I said, I am immediately looking for something in NYC, but would love to explore more of this great nation of ours.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Footage You'd Never Thought You'd See

Lori — Wed, 24 May 2006 13:00:36 GMT

http://www.dvblog.org/movies/03_2006/django.mov

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 5 replies

Hello.

The Kidd and Tayng — Mon, 29 May 2006 15:50:08 GMT

hI I am new here.

I am about to watch Spite Marraige for the first time her in a minute... I love Buster ever so...

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

F.W. Muranu's FAUST at the Castro Theatre June 1, 2006

fidobarks — Wed, 24 May 2006 22:33:00 GMT

June 1
Faust
Th: 8p Directed by F.W. Murnau Cast: Gosta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard, William Dieterle 1926, 115 min Silent with Live Accompaniment

Live accompaniment by Gatto Marte, an acclaimed Italian eclectic quartet (violin, bassoon, piano and double-bass) founded in 1991, known for a bracing mix of jazz, neo-classical and progressive rock.

Directed by legendary filmmaker F.W. Murnau, Faust tells the story of a scholar who makes a pact to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for a return to his youth. The last and best of Murnau’s German films, this is a work of extraordinary beauty and emotional power.

Advance Tickets are available on www.ticketweb.com $20 General Admission, $16 Seniors/Students with ID

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 1 reply

11th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival at the Castro Theatre

fidobarks — Wed, 24 May 2006 22:31:46 GMT

Lots of goodies coming July 14-16, 2006
http://www.silentfilm.org/filmfestival.htm

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Rudy and Gloria, this weekend at Castro.

edwin_heaven — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 02:49:12 GMT

Who's all going this Sunday to see Valentino and Swanson in the LONG LOST 1922 silent classic BEYOND THE ROCKS?

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 6 replies

influence & power

amazonika — Fri, 19 May 2006 23:47:52 GMT

I was thinking about the most powerful and influential people in North America during the Jazz Age.

...certainly presidents.

But I keep thinking that culture and media may have been a bigger influence to shape American society during the Jazz Age. It was the first time that movies, newspapers, radio, and music really took a hold on the general populace.

Technologies such as film, recorded sound, and the rapid spread of information through new rail lines, highways (affordable automobiles!) and radio waves allowed society to define itself.

...so who or what do you think had the biggest influence in shaping American society during the Jazz age?

I'm going to vote for W.R. Hearst and his newpapers, and also for recorded sound/music.

Other ideas?

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

New flickr group: Jazz-Age in Print

inkvision — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 21:39:10 GMT

About Jazz-Age in Print

Celebrating the fabulous jazz-age illustrators and (graphic designers) and the illustrations and print design they created in the 1920s and 1930s.

Illustration and print design of the twenties through the thirties, including:
Editorial illustration, magazine and newspaper advertisement, book illustration, posters, sheet music, record cover illustration, postcards, typography and package design.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/jazzage/

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

I just wanted to thank our fabulous MODERATOR!

confetta — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 06:44:04 GMT

Thanks for putting images I have posted as your main image!!!!!!

GOSH!

WHO ELSE WILL DO THAT???????

We must have very similar tastes visually!

How Great is THAT?

Thanks a MiLLiON : )

I LOVE THIS TRIBE : )

~confetta

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

CANCELLED!!! NIPPER'S NIGHT OUT! Thursday March 9, 2006 @ 8 pm (Crooners & Songbirds) CANCELLED!!!

inkvision — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:37:35 GMT

CANCELLED!!! NIPPER'S NIGHT OUT! Thursday March 9, 2006 @ 8 pm (Crooners & Songbirds) CANCELLED!!!

Due to personal reasons, a change of venue management and facilties, etc. tonight's Crooners and Songbirds event is cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Lon Cheney Film Festival Info, plus Article

dianakaufmann — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 23:27:22 GMT

Now Playing:
The UCLA Film & Television Archive's "Lon Chaney/Tod Browning: The Unholy Two" continues screening through March 12.
The remaining Chaney films in the series are "The Black Bird," "Outside the Law," "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "West of Zanzibar," "The Road to Mandalay," "The Unholy Three" (1925 silent version) and "He Who Gets Slapped."
For more information, call (310) 206-FILM or visit www.cinema.ucla.edu.

The Most Fiendish Face in Movies
http://www.latimes.com/features/magazine/west/la-tm-chaney8feb19,0,5519170.story?coll=la-home-magazine
· Lon Chaney's power to terrify is timeless. Just ask Kenneth Turan, who takes the horror personally.

Kenneth Turan, Kenneth Turan is a Times film critic and the author of "Never Coming to a Theater Near You." He is writing a biography of Lon Chaney.
Feast your eyes, glut your soul on my accursed ugliness.

—"The Phantom of the Opera," 1925

One minute you're a fiend and the next . . . you're almost human.

—"West of Zanzibar," 1928

As an actor and a person, on-screen and on his own, Lon Chaney, the celebrated Man of a Thousand Faces, haunts my dreams, disturbs my sleep and troubles my waking moments.

Everyone knows his most famous face: the horribly disfigured Erik, the tortured, wretched Phantom of the Paris Opera. It's a face beyond nightmare, beyond imagining, one of the most terrifying images ever put on-screen, instantly recognizable on everything from rock concert posters to postage stamps. It's a face that expresses fury and despair, pleading and rage, that radiates emotions we have no names for and don't really want to know exist.

But to know that face is to know everything and nothing. For Lon Chaney was also a man of a thousand paradoxes, "the star who lived like a clerk," according to director Tod Browning, a determined loner, co-star Jackie Coogan once said, who "made Howard Hughes look like Pia Zadora." As befits a specialist not in monsters with human faces but in humans with monstrous ones, almost everything about him was an enigma, a contradiction or both.

Chaney was an important star, as big a draw as the silent era produced. In 1928 and 1929, the nation's theater owners voted him the No. 1 male box-office attraction. His "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was Universal's top-grossing film of 1923, as "The Miracle Man," his breakthrough role, had been for Paramount in 1919. When MGM announced the seriousness of his final illness in August 1930, so many people called to donate blood that the studio had to take on extra telephone operators. When he died a few days later, at age 47, every studio in Hollywood suspended work for five minutes in his honor.

He was also deeply respected by his peers. Burt Lancaster recalled one of Chaney's moments as "the most emotionally compelling scene I've ever seen an actor do." Joan Crawford, all of 23 when she co-starred with Chaney in "The Unknown," considered him "the most intense, exciting individual I'd ever met, a man mesmerized into his part." When he acted, "it was as if God were working, he had such profound concentration."

And yet one of the great Chaney paradoxes is that although his work is part of every actor's lexicon ("I want you to be big—Lon Chaney big," Stanley Kubrick told Vincent D'Onofrio during the filming of "Full Metal Jacket"), as a performer he is sui generis, without descendants, a star unlike any other before or since.

Part of the explanation for this is that Chaney achieved stardom by taking roles that are almost too strange to characterize or even talk about comfortably, let alone imagine anyone attempting today and achieving anything beyond cult or fringe status. He was not a horror star—the genre did not really exist until "Phantom" helped create it—but rather an exceptional character actor who made a habit of playing singularly unnerving individuals. It was not a boast when the trailer for "The Big City" claimed that "no one on the screen today can equal Lon Chaney for the thrill of the unusual." It was a fact—and still is.

Even putting aside the death's head Phantom and the misshapen Hunchback, Chaney's choices give pause. Versatile enough to take on two roles in the same film (one of his characters even kills the other in "Outside the Law"), the actor was a shape-shifter, capable of savagely murdering his own daughter or playing his own sweet grandmother with equal panache. He was an armless man in "The Unknown," and a double amputee in "The Penalty." Hard to miss was his predisposition for playing grotesques, seemingly villainous people who were crippled, scarred or mutilated, with the fantastically paralyzed being his specialty. It's no wonder that one of the era's catchphrases was "Don't step on that spider, it might be Lon Chaney."

Because there was no precedent for this kind of acting, Chaney's performances absolutely terrified his audiences. Moviegoers regularly fainted and stifled screams, and a London carpenter who saw Chaney as a vampire in "London After Midnight" just before murdering a housemaid and then attempting to slit his own throat claimed in court, to good effect, that a hallucination of the actor had driven him mad.

Words such as "vile," "grotesque," "macabre" and "bizarre" appear and reappear in reviews of Chaney's films. One critic said his work in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" created "a Quasimodo such as can only be imagined under the stress of a peculiarly vindictive nightmare"; Variety called it "murderous, hideous and repulsive." Reviewers were not at all sure that this was a good thing, but no one doubted the actor's effectiveness, then or now.

So where did this singular talent come from? Why did it strike such a popular chord in its day, yet leave no traces on contemporary film? This despite the fact that Chaney remains the most frightening of screen presences, someone whose films leave me so shaken that to watch them after the sun goes down is to risk, as the Phantom's inamorata Christine did, "a night of vague horrors, tortured dreams."

Answers to any Chaney questions are difficult to come by. For one thing, we don't have access to the entirety of his output, and likely never will. Biographer Michael Blake, who knows as much about the man as anyone living, says that of the 158 films Chaney made (from his one-reel debut in "Poor Jake's Demise" in 1913 to his only sound film, "The Unholy Three," in 1930), perhaps 47 or 48 survive in complete or partial form. For another, Chaney was a man who sought to hide in plain sight, who insisted that "between pictures there is no Lon Chaney."

He was a celebrity who rarely gave interviews, who disliked autographs, personal appearances and answering fan mail (he made an exception for men behind bars), and who even famously turned his back on the camera in a 1925 newsreel showcasing MGM's stars. He did not go to premieres, did not socialize with his Hollywood peers and mocked studio publicity requests for personal details by pointedly commenting, "I can just hear them saying, 'Eat Lon Chaney's favorite cereal and look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.' "

Some of this reticence can be put down to shrewd showmanship, to an actor savvy enough to realize that revealing too much of oneself was "like pulling the beard off Santa Claus." But the more one learns of Chaney's history, the more one comes to believe that this is only part of the story. For this is an actor who once boasted that he would "fix it so nobody else will write my biography after I'm gone." Even his vacation spot of choice fit this arm's-length pattern: a stone cabin (designed for him by celebrated L.A. architect Paul Williams) in a roadless section of Inyo National Forest so remote that the only way in was by pack train or on foot.

Since Chaney's private life was just that, the rare personal glimpses of him by contemporaries are revered by devotees as if they were splinters from the true cross. Biographers argue over whether there was any hidden darkness in Chaney, and use words such as "withdrawn," "secretive," "uncommunicative" and "dour." Yet as always, there is considerable evidence to the contrary as well. Though he likely was, as "Phantom" cinematographer Charles Van Enger said, "one person that you did not want to see mad," he was also something of an instinctive socialist who once refused to work overtime because it would have cheated the film's extras of one more day's pay. Young actresses he worked with, such as his "Hunchback" co-star Patsy Ruth Miller, invariably remembered him as "extremely kind, thoughtful and protective."

What emerges, on one level, is the picture of a complete professional who had little patience for studio shenanigans. When he responds to a query about "Where East Is East" co-star Lupe Velez with a curt "She's behaving herself," when he writes of Universal Studios that "I am not going to stand for any of their foolishness or stalling," it seems as if one is hearing the genuine, irascible voice of the man himself.

Yet on another level it is impossible not to see Chaney as a man who learned through a difficult life to hide both his identity and his emotions when he was off-screen. It's a classic self-protective stratagem, but it also may have helped him—perhaps even forced him—to more effectively channel his feelings when he was on camera.

Leonidas Chaney was a performer virtually since his birth, on April 1, 1883, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Both of his parents were deaf, and in the fourth grade he dropped out of school for three years to care for his bedridden mother, becoming her link to the outside world and in the process honing his impeccable pantomime skills. He was even said to have what deaf people call a "deaf face"—"you communicate everything with it," says biographer Blake, "because you don't have the ability to speak or hear."

As a young teenager Chaney was drawn to the stage, and he spent close to a decade touring the West in a series of subsistence-level musical comedy companies. He met and married the 16-year-old singer Cleva Creighton, and they had a son, Creighton Chaney (the future Lon Jr.), but soon the family resumed touring. It was a difficult, hardscrabble time that Chaney disliked talking about, except for an aside that "barnstorming had sickened me with the acting side of the profession." His son was more forthcoming, remembering that "as a last resort, Pop could always break into a dance in front of any of them old-time bars and get enough nickels and pennies to buy some food."

The marriage became troubled, but no one expected what happened next. On April 30, 1913, during Chaney's performance at the Majestic Theater in downtown Los Angeles, Cleva went into the wings and attempted suicide by swallowing a vial of bichloride of mercury. She lived, but was never able to sing again.

In a bout of fury, Chaney cut Cleva out of his life. He more than divorced her—he never saw or spoke of her again, left her all of $1 in his will and told their son that Cleva had not survived the poison. (Lon Jr. would not find out the truth until after his father died.) The actor then married a chorus girl named Hazel Hastings, herself divorced from a legless man who ran a San Francisco cigar counter, and eventually let it be believed that she was Lon Jr.'s mother. In the insular world of traveling theater, however, Cleva had caused enough of a scandal to make employment difficult for her former husband, which likely led to Chaney's decision to try his hand at the movies.

After years as a journeyman, he got his breakthrough role in 1919 with "The Miracle Man," in which he played a con artist called the Frog, famous for his ability to contort his body into ungodly postures. Only a few minutes of the film survive, but seeing Chaney crawling in twisted pain toward a faith healer called the Patriarch is still as compelling as when Exhibitors Trade Review marveled at this "ghastly deformed mass of flesh faked for the purpose of exciting pity."

It has to be said that Chaney was a perfect match for his era, a kind of genius who came out of and thrived in a society likely to appreciate what he could do. It was a time when physical aberrations were more present, before advances in medical technology and changes in public attitudes altered the natural and psychological landscape. It was also the post-Great War era, and at least one critic has suggested that Chaney's characters were "a way in which the effects and consequences of World War I—the mass mutilation of men's bodies and the return of these men to society"—could be dealt with on-screen.

Going hand in hand with this reality was a kind of unashamed sentiment, a willingness to give way to sensation, that characterized the silent film experience. Audiences were especially susceptible to Chaney's gift for playing heartbreak and horror, pathos and menace. He connected things that audiences have lost the habit of connecting—the grotesque and the tender, if you will—and his fans loved him for it.

That Chaney holds and terrifies us today bespeaks the breadth and depth of his gift. A man of palpable physical strength, he could be subtle and graceful, known to his audience by the delicate movements of his fingers and hands. Uniquely Chaney's as well was a thorough knowledge of the art of makeup. Working out of a simple fisherman's tackle box now in the collection of Los Angeles' Natural History Museum, Chaney became such a master ("It's an art," he said, "but not magic") that he wrote the entry on the subject for the 14th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. No one could figure out how he created his clouded blind eye in "The Road to Mandalay" until Michael Blake discovered that the actor had a local optician make a cosmetic version of the then-all-but-unknown contact lens, to completely cover his real eye.

Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of his desired effects, including what his son characterized as "agonies." "Sometimes it would bleed like hell," said cinematographer Charles Van Enger, referring to the wires that contorted Chaney's nose in his "Phantom" makeup. "We never stopped shooting. He would suffer with it."

Playing criminal mastermind Blizzard, "that cripple from Hell," in "The Penalty," Chaney went further still. To convincingly portray a man who'd had both legs amputated by a negligent surgeon, Chaney had his own strapped behind him, ankles close to thighs, and bound in leather stumps, adding to the illusion with clever use of oversized clothing. The pain was so intense that Chaney couldn't bear to wear the stumps for more than 10 or 20 minutes. Yet he was so absolutely believable that the film ended with a coda, now lost, of Chaney walking on his own legs to prove to audiences that he was a performer, not a real-life amputee.

While the full extent of the pain Chaney endured is open to debate, the conviction he brought to these roles is inarguable. Created not by makeup or physical contortions, his intensity came from a very deep place, pulled from those dark, forever unknown depths whose existence he refused to acknowledge.

The actor always insisted, as he did to "Hunchback" co-star Miller, that "you don't have to live the part, just act it. The point is not for you to cry; make your audience cry." But it is not possible to see Chaney in the best of his roles without believing that in his own way he did live them. Perhaps against his will and maybe even without his knowledge, Chaney was a Method actor before the term existed, someone who had an innate connection to the yearnings of his monstrous characters. "He'd say, 'Virg, make me look frightening and repulsive, but at the same time make the audience love me,' " cinematographer Virgil Miller told film historian Scott MacQueen. "He always wanted to be loved." It is the reason his work refuses to become dated, even if other aspects of his films do.

Watching Chaney can be a kind of personal exorcism. Uninterested in being merely frightening, the actor collapses the distance between the audience and the screen, between us and them, insisting that we have empathy for the horror by making us complicit with it. No one has described the complex web of emotions this man creates better than lifelong Chaney fan Ray Bradbury, interviewed in Kevin Brownlow's comprehensive documentary, "Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces":

"He was someone who acted out our psyches," Bradbury explains. "He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen." Truly, "the history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that's grotesque, that the world will turn away from."

Bradbury's words remind me that Chaney has the hold on me he does, scares me the way he does, in part because I take horror personally. I am susceptible to the genre's darkness, likely to feel overwhelmed by its power, incapable of viewing it, as many seem to, as a way to dispel the boredom of a bland world. The world is far from bland to me, and horror does not linger on the surface of my mind. It goes deep inside.

Because Chaney, too, seems to connect with his material on a profound, unspoken level, he pulls me into his world. When he is on-screen I feel, paradoxically, like both the person being scared and the person scaring others—and that is a terrifying combination. As Bradbury says, to see Chaney is to feel that one may yet become the person the world will turn away from in horror and fear.

Outlasting even Greta Garbo, Chaney resisted sound films, but he turned out to be so good in "The Unholy Three," his first talkie, that he swore to a notary that the five voices used by his character were all his. The final Chaney paradox was his death of bronchial cancer at age 47 before he could make a second. "Man of Thousand Faces," read the headline on the full-page Los Angeles Times obituary, "Takes But One To Grave." Lon Chaney is buried in a crypt in Forest Lawn in Glendale. It is unmarked.

*

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 1 reply

new introductions

amazonika — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 00:07:50 GMT

Hi everyone!
First, let me apologize for being a bit absent lately. I usually try to keep on top of spammers better, and try to get involved in more conversations, but I've been a bit out of the loop for various reasons.

Anyway...I've noticed a lot more new people here -- welcome everybody!
And it's been a long time since we introduced ourselves the first time, so I'd like to invite anyone who hasn't yet to tell us a little bit about yourself, and especially "How did you become interested in the jazz age?"

...you know, jazz-age aficionados are very interesting and unusual people! I'm really curious about some of you, and am looking forward to some cool discussions. Don't anyone be afraid to start one! :)

Here's a link to the original Introductions thread: http://jazzage.tribe.net/thread/77b530a6-c284-43f8-a8b7-4685be6cc9dd

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Check out Boulder Acoustic Society

garian — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 22:08:50 GMT

I think folks in this tribe would dig them. Official website: http://www.boulderacousticsociety.net and there is also a free download of one of their shows at http://www.thespps.org/partners.php

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

THIS THURSDAY FEB. 9th !! CROONERS & SONGBIRDS: LOVE is the SWEETEST THING!

confetta — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 05:42:28 GMT

WHAT:
CROONERS & SONGBIRDS: LOVE is the SWEETEST THING!
A Pre-Valentine Celebration of Love Songs from the 20's & 30's

Crooners & Songbirds is a monthly cabaret focusing on
vocal jazz, blues and popular music from the '20s and '30s.
This third installment will feature songs of love, longing and more featuring,
The Dimestore Dandy, Sara Klotz de Aguilar, Enzo Garcia and Tippy Canoe.
http://crooners.tribe.net

WHEN:
Thursday February 9th, 2006, 8 pm

WHERE:
Wilde Oscar's
1900 Folsom @ 15th St.
San Francisco, CA
(415) 621-7145

MUSICIANS BIOS:

* The Dimestore Dandy aka Rick Quisol *
Having mastered a full repertoire of cheerful tunes, Rick Quisol a.k.a. The Dimestore Dandy of The Frisky Frolics (vocals, kazoo and ukulele) offers a unique opportunity to travel back to an era when the harsh realities of the Depression were temporarily softened by snappy tunes, droll lyrics and the occasional ferocious kazoo solo.
www.angelfire.com/jazz/friskyfrolics
www.eastbayexpress.com/issues...ic.html

* Sara Klotz De Aguilar *
Influences include the early recordings of Billie Holiday/Teddy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington, Annette Hanshaw, and Ruth Etting - scratchy old 78s, big band, Dixieland, old-time music and all the jazz greats of the Art Deco era.
www.gigmasters.com/swing/SaraSwingtime/

* Enzo Garcia *
Enzo Garcia has been a professionally performing musician for 10 years. He is a singer and a songwriter who accompanies his voice with guitar, accordion, 5-string banjo and harmonica.
www.enzogarcia.com/

* Tippy Canoe *
Songbird and uke-slinger, Tippy Canoe, is on a mission to bring sincere uplift in a severely down- slanted era.
www.tippycanoe.net/

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Confetta aka Ann furlight@comcast.net

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Happy New Year, Cats!

silverstream — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 07:19:26 GMT

Bettty Boop. Louiis Armstrong....the Original Spike Jones...Django...yeah, people had somthin' warmand hot to keep tehm going during hard times...during good times!
Well, things can only get better is my "motto!...and i'm a Blues Woman, myself!
Taught 6 Saasy chicks the Charleston (by avid request!) on new Years day!
Jsut sayin' hey...and Hope you All have a Happy and Swing-Swing-Swingin' New year!
Recommended Winter reading : Really the Blues by Mezz Mezzerow
"Naked at the Feast...The Biography of Josephine Baker by Lynn Haney

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

New tribe for SF tin-pan-alley hotcha band

inkvision — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 07:34:56 GMT

Amazed that The Frisky Frolics didn't already have a tribe, I started one!

Hope those of you who already know this great 20s-30s (and earlier) era group will join, as well as SF Bay area jazz lovers who are interested in being introduced to great live local music!!

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

Fifty Million Frenchman

Sun, 11 Dec 2005 02:10:18 GMT

With the Tide of Censorship inundating Tribe lately, I thought these lyrics to one of Sophie's songs fits in well:

They say the French are naughty
They say the French are bad
They all declare that over there, the French are going mad.
They have a reputation of being very gay
I just got back from Paris, and I just want to say:
When they go parley-vee and parley-vou,
This for me, zat for you,
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
When they go Ohh la la la la la la la
On the bully boulevard
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
They shake-a the hand
They shake-a the feet
They roll ze eyes and kiss cafe right on the street
Even though the Irish and the Dutch
Say it don't amount to much
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.

All of our fashions come from gay Par-ee
And if they come above the knee
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
And if they give the world a new design
To prove a lady has a spine
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
They shorten them here,
They shorten them there,
And if her name is Teddy, they make Teddy bare.
If they prefer to see their women dressed
With more or less of less and less,
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
When they put on a show, and it's a hit
No one tries to censor it
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
And when a book is selling at it's best
It isn't stopped; it's not suppressed.
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
Whenever they're dry
For brandy or rye,
To get it, they don't gave to give up their right eye.
And when we brag about our liberty
And they laugh at you and you and you and me
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.

In Viva la France
They're full of romance
You'll find policemen with embroidery on their pants.
And when they start to sing the Marseillaise
They sing it forty different ways
Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 1 reply

THIS THURSDAY Dec. 8 - Crooners and Songbirds at Wilde Oscar's in SF

confetta — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 20:06:44 GMT

Thurs. December 8th 2005 @ 8 PM

CROONERS & SONGBIRDS:
A Night of Songs from the Beginning of The Modern Era

Wilde Oscar's
1900 Folsom St.
San Francisco
415-621-7145

8pm

Cost: FREE

Megan Lynch, The Lacking in Vaudeville Sobriquette
www.myspace.com/meganlynch

Kelly McCubbin, The Uke Apocalypse www.ukeapocalypse.com

Rick Quisol, The Dimestore Dandy
www.angelfire.com/jazz/friskyfrolics/

Come enjoy the piquant plunkings of the "jumping flea" (that's the
ukulele to those of you with the bowl haircuts) as our trio of
troubadours trill songs conceived in the crib of the 20th century.

***************************
***************************

This will be the first installment of Thursday night cabaret spotlights focusing on vocal jazz, blues and popular music from the '20s and '30s. Fans of Tin Pan Alley, The Great White Way and Storyville should beat a path to Wilde Oscar's door and let them know how you like your bread buttered (and yer FISH Battered)!

More Crooners & Songbirds!

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 3 replies

Seeking Sheet Music for "In a Great Big Way"

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:40:37 GMT

The song is called "In a Great Big Way" from "Hello Daddy," and it was written by Dorothy Fields / Jimmy McHugh.

I've been searching for it everywhere but cannot find sheet music, a MIDI file, anything. Any ideas? I have Janet Klein's recording of it, but I'm looking to perform it, so I need the accompanying music.

Any ideas, suggestions greatly appreciated.

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

Jazz Age Music Venue!

confetta — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 17:06:31 GMT

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 4 replies

Django's "Nuages" lyrics/vocal recording, anyone?

Ariela — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 22:28:45 GMT

I heard from SF band Gaucho's guitarist that there's words to his famoso song. Any leads appreciated!!
thanks,
Ariela

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Authentic period film?

Sweet Bunny — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 18:04:44 GMT

Maybe I'm just a stickler for this sort of thing, but I find it so annoying (or just cheap) when a film is suppose to take place in the 20's or 30's, but it totally has modern sensibilities. For example: modern style makeup, hair, language. Besides the Merchant/Ivory films there are few that really seem realistic. "Chicago", give me a break. Same with "The Cat's Meow" (or maybe it was lame for other reasons). Does anyone have any recomendations?

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 11 replies

A website you all may like

Burks — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 17:00:32 GMT

Please check out my new website, dedicated to the art of the pin-up. If you like pinup art, please go to

www.pin-upartonline.com

New paintings will be added on as I finish them, and they will soon be for sale, so keep checking up as the exhibited artwork on this site will change constantly. Feel free to contact me with questions, comments or if you are interested in buying. Enjoy!

Thanks
Aaron

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Jazz Age Session this Sunday @ Amnesia, SF: Crosspost

solcrawford — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 21:37:22 GMT

The Jazz Age Session continues this Sunday and every first Sunday at Amnesia. Come down for the best and only period jazz session in SF, where two fresh-faced combos will blow full live sets of 20’s-40’s hot jazz that will get you toes tapping and all the vamps flapping. Don’t miss this unique evening of song and dance where traditional tunes get a new lease on life and hot footers get to hoof it up all night long!

WITNESS some of the bay area’s best musicians letting it rip and opening up the bandstand for session musicians to make the music anew before your eyes.

BE MOVED by the irresistible rhythms of our two jumpin’ house bands until you find yourself swinging and strutting on the dance floor.

GET HAPPY with “Pass the Hat” introductory Swing dance lessons at 10:00 pm with Michael, dance instructor from Tuesday Night Jump! (www,TuesdayNightJump.com).

Come down and watch us breathe life into these bygone delights – all for a vintage price - $5!!!!! Hotcha!

Featuring:
Scott Larson’s Red Light Abatements letting the good time roll on with traditional jazz tunes and a “hot fives” style set up. These boys will transport you to the steamy basement club of your dreams with their brassy takes on such luminaries of the Jazz Age as Bix Biederbecke and Louis Armstrong.

&

Tin Cup Serenade - Swinging combo with a western croon
“Hopeful Songs of Tragedy, Tragic Songs of Hope...Nestled between the idioms of old time jazz, blues, and western swing, the Tin Cup Serenade croon, thump, and blow a sound that is loose, free, and fun to dance to.“

********This is going to be a night so full on song and dance that we’re starting it off early – the trad jazz begins at 8:30!********

Busters and Broads encouraged to wear their Sunday Jazz Age Best!

What!?
The Jazz Age Session with
Scott Larson’s Red Light Abatements
Tin Cup Serenade
Jam session at each set + dancing
Intro Swing Lessons at 10:00 pm

Where!?
Amnesia
853 Valencia @ 20th

When!?
This Sunday, November 6nd & every first Sunday
***8:30 pm** sharp

How Much?
Only $5 – jazz jam musicians free

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Have you Joined the CROONERS & SONGBIRDS TRIBE YET?

confetta — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:21:33 GMT

Can I invite you?

The CROONERS & SONGBIRDS TRIBE is a perfect compliment to The Jazz Age Tribe : )

It does not JUST focus on Crooners & Songbirds...

but early jazz and blues, hot jazz, sweet jazz, literature and art of the Jazz Age and more ; )

Crooners & Songbirds is full of interesting and intelligent people and YOU are INVITED!

http://crooners.tribe.net/

Crooners & Songbirds

croon    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (krn)
v. crooned, croon·ing, croons
v. intr.

1. To hum or sing softly.
2. To sing popular songs in a soft, sentimental manner.
3. Scots. To roar or bellow... more

croon    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (krn)
v. crooned, croon·ing, croons
v. intr.

1. To hum or sing softly.
2. To sing popular songs in a soft, sentimental manner.
3. Scots. To roar or bellow.

v. tr.

To sing softly or in a humming way: crooning a lullaby.
n.

A soft singing or humming.

song·bird    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (sôngbûrd, sng-)
n.

A bird, especially one of the suborder Oscines of passerine birds, having a melodious song or call.

songbird

n : any bird having a musical call [syn: songster]

This is a tribe for people who love music. Crooners & Songbirds. Although "crooning" refers to a particular time and style...discussions about other "styles" and "times" are also encouraged - including (but not limited to) hot jazz, sweet jazz, early blues, dance bands, snynchopatin' rhythms, early swing and anything you would like to bring to the table!

Russ Columbo, Whispering Jack Smith, Lee Morse, AL Bowlly, Gene Austin, Greta Keller, Sophie Tucker, Marlene Dietrich, Josephine Baker, Helen Morgan, Rudy Vallee, Mildred Bailey, Bessie Smith, Libby Holman, Tiny Tim, Ethel Waters, Hoagy Carmichael, Bing Crosby, The Boswell Sisters, to name just a few...

I Love Dancing - Josèphine Baker
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/baker/ilovedancing.ram

Charleston Charlie - Marion Harris (9-29-1924)
LISTEN:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/harris/charlestoncharlie.ram

yrs.
~confetta

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 1 reply

Movie Memorabilia Help

wildcatkur — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 01:42:48 GMT

Hi. I have recently come into a huge amount of old movie memorabilia. My husband's grandfather was a movie buff - to the point that when he died, the University of Michigan bought the majority of it for $10,000,000. We are currently cleaning out the basement and have billions of stills (some autographed), posters, signs, magazines, books, press kits, and all kinds of other stuff - all of it relating to movies from the 1910's-1960's.

Much of the stuff has been picked through by the university, and much more has been left in the basement and been somewhat damaged, but there are still literally ROOMS full of this stuff. I know I have at least one autographed Clara Bow - who signed it from the living room of the house we are cleaning out.

Just wondering where to begin. We have done some cataloging of the press kits and posters, but not much after that due to the fact that we have, like, lives and stuff. Any suggestions? Any institutions or societies I should get in contct with?

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 2 replies

Frisky Frolics, The Paper Dolls, The Scenic Sisters this Sunday @ Amnesia

solcrawford — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:03:56 GMT

ADORE!

That is a word that that in my humble opinion, dear reader, has fallen into sad disuse. Do you remember what it’s like? That moonstruck sentiment that induces in one a starry eyed state of near innocent appreciation; wrapping one’s surrounding spheres of sensation in a soft focus lens and swelling the ol thumpity thump to thrice its size. Forget your calcified urbane orientation for a night, come to Amnesia this Sunday, and surrender to complete and total adoration (and delight) of two wonderful musical anomalies and one pair of feisty footed sisters that our fair city is lucky to hold within its flimsy bounds. Ah, adoration!

First join us early for a screening of Alejandro Adams 2004 Documentary: “The Frisky Frolics: No Kitsch Intended”. A loving portrait of the anachronistic tin pan alley troupe, this film is described as “A Musical. A Comedy. A Documentary. No Matter what you call it this is the feel good movie of the year.”

Then prepare yourself for a hot to trot jazz era evening of acts that, taking a cue from the 20’s and 30’s will demonstrate that even today the cure for the modern condition can lie in a strutting rhythm, a sweet melody sung sincerely, hot tap dancing, and snappy duds :

The Paper Dolls: Velveeta voiced ukulele vixens, The Paper Dolls, will strut, strum and plunk their way into that place in your heart you thought had died when Pee Wee Herman fell from grace. The hot three-part harmonies delight your ears while their charming frames wear a fashionable feast for your eyes. Don’t miss their spectacular debut of a new “dummy” act!

The Scenic Sisters are the cutest little buttons ever to be unfastened. We’re excited for them to grace out dancefloor with their tap dancing scene stealing glamour!

The Frisky Frolics are everyone’s favorite good time fellas. This delightful combo of dapper chaps, voted Best band for the New Depression by the SFBG, is headed up by the uke slinging Rick Quisol, the original Dimestore Dandy with a canzoo attitude, These tin pan alley troubadours are guaranteed to bring a grin to even the sourest of pusses playing hotcha tunes that lifted many a spirit through the dusty days of the 20’s and 30’s.

Put on your best duds and clear your dance cards! The champagne will flow this night!

What!?
Frisky Frolics
The Paper Dolls
The Scenic Sisters
Screening of the Frisky Frolics Documentary @ 8 pm

When!?
This Sunday, the 16th
Film @ 8 pm
Music at 9 pm

Where!?
Amnesia
853 Valencia @ 20th, SF

How Much!?
Only $5!

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Jazz Age Session this Sunday @ Amnesia, SF: Crosspost

solcrawford — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 19:29:17 GMT

The Jazz Age Session continues this Sunday and every first Sunday at Amnesia. Come down for the best and only period jazz session in SF, where two fresh-faced combos will blow full live sets of 20’s-40’s hot jazz that will get you toes tapping and all the vamps flapping. Don’t miss this unique evening of song and dance where traditional tunes get a new lease on life and hot footers get to hoof it up all night long!

WITNESS some of the bay area’s best musicians letting it rip and opening up the bandstand for session musicians to make the music anew before your eyes.

BE MOVED by the irresistible rhythms of our two jumpin’ house bands until you find yourself swinging and strutting on the dance floor.

GET HAPPY with “Pass the Hat” introductory Swing dance lessons at 10:00 pm with Michael, dance instructor from Tuesday Night Jump! (www,TuesdayNightJump.com).

Come down and watch us breathe life into these bygone delights – all for a vintage price - $5!!!!! Hotcha!

Featuring:
Scott Larson’s Red Light Abatements letting the good time roll on with traditional jazz tunes and a “hot fives” style set up. These boys will transport you to the steamy basement club of your dreams with their brassy takes on such luminaries of the Jazz Age as Bix Biederbecke and Louis Armstrong.

&

Tin Cup Serenade - Swinging combo with a western croon
“Hopeful Songs of Tragedy, Tragic Songs of Hope...Nestled between the idioms of old time jazz, blues, and western swing, the Tin Cup Serenade croon, thump, and blow a sound that is loose, free, and fun to dance to.“

********This is going to be a night so full on song and dance that we’re starting it off early – the trad jazz begins at 8:30!********

Busters and Broads encouraged to wear their Sunday Jazz Age Best!

What!?
The Jazz Age Session with
Scott Larson’s Red Light Abatements
Tin Cup Serenade
Jam session at each set + dancing
Intro Swing Lessons at 10:00 pm

Where!?
Amnesia
853 Valencia @ 20th

When!?
This Sunday, October 2nd & every first Sunday
***8:30 pm** sharp

How Much?
Only $5 – jazz jam musicians free

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

there an ether leak in here?

magnathree — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 04:03:47 GMT

trixie smith - the worlds jazz crazy and so am i

http://magnathree.com/mp3/The%20World's%20Jazz%20Crazy%20and%20So%20Am%20I%20-%20Trixie%20Smith.mp3

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies

Jazz age triple bill at 12 Galaxies Sept 23rd

nicolemaron — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 08:21:20 GMT

..ok not strictly such, but each of the bands has major influences from our favorite era. Save the date!

Rosin Coven - http://www.rosincoven.com/
From my own tribe review of them: "Imagine a séance in a post-WWII Montmarte cabaret, held by apache dancers and calling forth the spirits of Edith Piaf and Bugs Bunny, Eric Satie and Doris Day, Sun Ra and Kurt Weil, to get them to bake a birthday cake in a kitchen run by Charles Mingus, and you might get the tiniest glimpse into the nature of Pagan Lounge, the musical genre pioneered by this incontestably talented collection of magical beings."

Zegnotronic Rocket Society - http://www.angelfire.com/jazz/zrs/
Delf-described as follows: "After kidnapping Sauguet, Auric, Poulenc, Cocteau, and Django Reinhardt, the ZRS have retreated to the outer edges of the galaxy.... Through ingeneous manipulation and torture devices and many baguettes - ZRS learned the musical secrets of Parisian swing in the 1930's..."

Barbez - http://barbez.com/first.html
From their website: "Barbez takes shape in a sunstruck phantasm; Kurt Weill swims the length of a still pond, underwater The Residents are refurbishing their home, Erik Satie descends from above to lie in the grass and sip seltzer. Shapes emerge from flowering trees and a Dionysian wedding dance ensues. Provoked by such musics as French musette, Argentine tango, post-war classical and pre-MTV punk, Barbez wrings these disparate worlds to form anew in the band's own soundscape."

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 1 reply

BE BOP?? BOOP-BOOP-A-DOOP!! : )

confetta — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 04:37:34 GMT

On a LIGHTER NOTE:

HELEN KANE and that
Boop-Poop-a-doop !!

Helen Kane was the obvious model for
the Betty Boop cartoons, even if the
judge did rule against her - she sued the
creators of the cartoon series and the
case was in the court system for some-
thing like two years!!

Helen Kane aka Betty Boop Collection
www.angelfire.com/retro2/vi...er06/HelenKane.htm

Kane, Helen

(b 1904; d September 1966) Baby-doll singer, famous as the ‘boop-boop-a-doop’ girl. Her little-girlish voice with its Bronx accent was stolen by the creators of cartoon character Betty Boop. She appeared in a Marx Brothers revue; put forward by conductor Paul Ash, she sang ‘That’s My Weakness Now’ (by Bud Green and Sam H. Stept) in show A Night In Spain ’27; the show flopped after 22 performances but Kane was a hit, signed for a week at the Paramount that stretched to six weeks, then to a recording contract with Victor.

In the musical show Good Boy ’28 she sang ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You’ (by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar); she allegedly disliked the song and had to be talked into it by impresario Oscar Hammerstein, then threw in the phrase ‘boop-boop-a-doop’ which made her famous. On her first two recordings the music director was Nat Shilkret, on the rest Leonard Joy. Her technical skills, timing, enunciation and intonation, were very good, but nearly all the 22 songs she recorded 1928-30 were meant to sound like flapper novelties (‘Is There Anything Wrong In That?’ was meant to be suggestive). An exception was Rodgers & Hart’s ‘If I Knew You Better’. It was a good attempt at a ballad, and one of the last records she made; maybe she was tired of being typed as a ninny.

Inevitable she went to Hollywood, and appeared in Paramount pictures Nothing But The Truth, Sweetie, Pointed Heels, Dangerous Nan McGrew (played the lead and recorded the title song), Heads Up, Flying High, Young Men Of Manhattan and Paramount On Parade, all 1929-30.

Max and Dave Fleischer’s Talkatoon series in 1930 featured Betty Boop, who had big eyes, a very short skirt and was considered salacious for the time; the voiceover was done by Ann Rothschild or Mae Questal (experts disagree). Kane sued the Fleischers for stealing her stuff, but the lawyers won, convincing the court that Kane has stolen her ‘boop-boop-a-doop’ from a black singer, Baby Esther. Her career faded with the Great Depression; she appeared in flop show Shady Lady ’33 but made no more films. In 1950 she recorded a track for the 18-year-old Debbie Reynolds to mime in film Three Little Words, a film biopic of Kalmar and Ruby. She died of cancer a few hours after seeing the film on TV.

***************************
Betty Boop Sound Bites:
***************************

"Made of pen and ink...
www.everwonder.com/david/be...oop/sound/swtbety.wav

"Don't Take My Boop--s-Doo Away:
www.everwonder.com/david/be...oop/sound/boopaway.wav

"Come Inside Big Boy"
www.everwonder.com/david/be...oop/sound/boopcmin.wav

"A saxophone can go..."
www.everwonder.com/david/be...oop/sound/boopsax.wav

"..those house cleaning blues..."
www.everwonder.com/david/be...oop/sound/boopblue.wav

"Ain't she cute...sweet Betty..."
www.everwonder.com/david/be...oop/sound/bbcute.wav

Arpents verts nous voiciiiiiiiiiiii!
www.maggiore.net/greenacre...unds/gaFrench.wav

***************************

LISTEN:

DANGEROUS NAN McGREW
From the film "Dangerous Nan McGrew" (1930)
Helen Kane - 1930

www.angelfire.com/retro2/vi...er06/Music/HelenKaneDangerousNanMcGrew.wav

Hotcha, Chacha, Vo-doe-de-oh,
And Boop-oop Poop-oop-a-doop.
Tootin', shootin', high-falutin',
I make you loop the loop.

I'm from the great North West.
I'm dif'rent from the rest.
Stand up, stand up, throw your hands up,
I shoot pants and vest.

Oh, I've been a bad girl all my life.
I pick my teeth with a carving knife,
And I make a widow of a wife.
'Cause I'm dangerous Nan McGrew.

Why, I slapped Jack Dempsey in the face
And I make barbed wire look like lace
And I throw myself right out of place
'Cause I'm dangerous Nan McGrew.

And I eat dynamite
And I blow up in spite
I shoot everything in sight
Beware! Boom boom! Take Care! Poo poo!

With one breath, I sink a boat
And if anybody gets my goat
I cut myself a piece of throat
'Cause I'm dangerous Nan McGrew.

Why, bullets, they bounce right off my chest
And I sleep on a hornet's nest
Why, I'm the gal sends show men west
'Cause I'm dangerous Nan McGrew.

Why, lions tremble when I frown
When that great big Zeppelin came to town,
Remember? I'm the one that held it down
Because I'm dangerous Nan McGrew.

I like destroying pelf
I shoot bottles off the shelf
I'm so bad I scare myself.
Take care! Boom boom! Beware! Poo poo!

Why, I pull a train right off the tracks
And for perfume, I use shellac
When mad dogs bite, I bite 'em back
Grrrr! 'Cause I'm dangerous Nan McGrew!

I Want To Be Bad
www.angelfire.com/retro2/vi...er06/Music/HelenKaneIWantToBeBad.wav

That's My Weakness Now
www.angelfire.com/retro2/vi...er06/Music/HelenKaneThatsMyWeaknessNow.wav

Get Out And Get Under The Moon
www.angelfire.com/retro2/vi...er06/Music/HelenKaneGetOutAndGetUnderTheMoon.wav

Don't Be Like That
www.angelfire.com/retro2/vi...er06/Music/HelenKaneDontBeLikeThat.wav

LISTEN TO THEM ALL !!!
www.angelfire.com/retro2/vi...er06/HelenKane.htm

Vo-Dee-oh-Do!
ThaT's ALL!

~confetta
http://people.tribe.net/confetta

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 1 reply

jazz age cars . . .

magnathree — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 06:08:34 GMT

the "jazz age" cars dont start till page 2 but
its worth stating at the beginning . . .
http://www.findthebesthere.com/classics1.htm
Whats yer favorite?
I think the most beautiful cars of the jazz age (Dusenburgs)
were made here in indiana . . .
(Auburns , Cords and the Stutz Bearcat were too)
http://www.acdmuseum.org/

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 7 replies

What is Bebop? (a series of quotes)

inkvision — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 03:28:36 GMT

“Bebop is a music of revolt: a revolt against big bands, arrangers, vertical harmonies, soggy rhythms, non-playing orchestra leaders, Tin Pan Alley—against commercialized music in general.”
— critic Ross Russell, 1948

Bebop players “like to wear berets, goatees and green-tinted horn-rimmed glasses, and talk about their ‘interesting new sounds,’” while their “rapid-fire, scattershot talk has about the same pace and content as their music.”
"How Deaf Can You Get?" Time (May 17, 1948)

“How to use notes differently. That’s it. Just how to use notes differently.”
—bebop pianist Thelonius Monk, c. 1965

“What bebop amounts to: hot jazz overheated with overdone lyrics full of bawdiness, references to narcotics and doubletalk.”
—Time, 1946

“This is the sort of bad taste and ill-advised fanaticism that has thrown innumerable impressionable young musicians out of stride.”
Review of Charlie Parker, Downbeat (April 22, 1946)

“[Bebop musicians] want to carve everyone else because they’re full of malice, and all they want to do is show you up, and any old way will do as long as it’s different from the way you played it before. So you get all them weird chords which don’t mean nothing, and first people get curious about it just because it’s new, but soon they get tired of it because it’s really no good and you got no melody to remember and no beat to dance to. So they’re all poor again and nobody is working, and that’s what that modern malice done for you.”
—Louis Armstrong, 1948

“I don’t want you playing that Chinese music in my band!”
—Cab Calloway, c. 1955

“Everytime a cop hits a Negro with his Billy club, that old club says, ‘BOP! BOP!…BE-BOP!…MOP!…BOP!…That’s what Bop is. Them young colored kids who started it, they know what bop is.”
—Langston Hughes, 1949

“We didn’t go out and make speeches or say, ‘Let’s play eight bars of protest.’ We just played our music and let it go at that. The music proclaimed our identity; it make every statement we truly wanted to make.”
—bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, 1979

(from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/Songs/question3.html)

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 3 replies

Harold Lloyd

fidobarks — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 19:33:31 GMT

I work at the Castro Theatre. WE just had a Harold Lloyd festival which was great. I had the rare opportunity to DJ to one of the films because the organist didnt have time to locate score or put anything together. Did a mix for "Why Worry?" which turned out really good. Used a lot of 1930s latin stuff, Francisco Canaro, Gino del Signore...and other stuff as well, Connie Boswell singing The Carioca, and used Yma Sumac for the battle scene at the end. Also used some Whispering Jack Smith ditties for opening and closing scenes.

Upcoming Dueling Divas: Joan vs. Bette series should really be a blast. Film Noir lovers will enjoy "Mildred Pierce", "Possessed", "The Letter"....tons of other classics..."Now Voyager" "The Women", "All About Eve", Strat-Jacket"....special Midnight screenings of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and "Mommie Dearest". Hope yuoall can make it!

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 4 replies

Eddie Cantor

fidobarks — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 19:24:18 GMT

Just saw Sharon McKnight perform at Cherery House Labor Day party. She sang a 1923 song by Eddie Cantor but cant remember the name...something like "I likes'em dumb" or something like that. Anybody know the actual name of song, and if its was recored? on cd?

posted in The Jazz Age (1920s-1940s) - 0 replies