Thread by @null66913

Soundies: A thread

Soundies were musical films produced in the USA in the 40s. They were short films containing only songs, dances or orchestra performances. They were shown on a coin-operated machine, a kind of jukebox, that you could find in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, and other public spaces.

The films, about three minutes long, were assembled on reels with several performances projected on a loop. Some soundies were later reused as filler between television programmes because they were like a short music video.

As the intention was to reach a broad audience, the range of musical genres was extremely varied, from country to swing, jazz, gospel, folk, and even opera.

Some of them included women in swimming costumes or other mildly erotic sequences to attract sailors on leave. One senator threatened to investigate the production and distribution companies because he thought that soundies were lewd and shouldn't be screened in decent places.

Although some conservative politicians tried to ban them, they were not porn neither low-budget films with second-rate performers. Soundies were a launching pad for dancers, actors, musicians, and singers like Cyd Charisse, Doris Day, Ricardo Montalbán, and Louis Armstrong.

One very important thing is that, during the few years that the soundies were in vogue, they were one of the few media in which racialized artists were free to produce their own films.

The first soundies were shot in 1940, but they were not distributed until the following year, when the projection machine, called Panoram, was better and could be used in public spaces.

A Panoram was around $600 (almost $12,000 today) and, despite the high price, in just three years there were over 10,000 Panorams throughout the USA.

Although more than 1,800 soundies were produced and distributed in that short space of time, by 1946 the number of Panoram had dropped to only 2,000, presumably due to wartime restrictions.

The soundies were shot in 35mm and distributed in 16mm so that they could be seen on the Panoram, which had a design similar to a jukebox with a tv screen. It was a complex device, with a rear-projection system built with mirrors and a 45x50cm screen.

Due to the technological limitations of the time, all the performers were lip-synching to a recording—in some cases, the lip-synching was really bad.

Anyway, from my point of view, the most curious thing is that the soundies were similar to most 80s-present music videos: absurd plots, scantily clad showgirls, weird sets, and crazy costumes and choreographies.

You can find a lot of these films if you search "soundies" in YouTube.