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vintagedeluxe favorited a video
(3 months ago)
The years between 1935 and World War IIqv were the most successful in the long history of the Doughboys. By 1937 some of the best musicians in the ...
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The years between 1935 and World War IIqv were the most successful in the long history of the Doughboys. By 1937 some of the best musicians in the history of western swing had joined the band. Kenneth Pitts and Clifford Gross played fiddles. The rhythm section consisted of Dick Reinhart, guitar; Marvin (Smokey) Montgomery,qv tenor banjo; Ramon DeArman, bass; and John (Knocky) Parker, piano. Muryel Campbell played lead guitar. At various times Cecil Brower played fiddle. Almost from the beginning, the Light Crust Doughboys enjoyed a successful recording career; their records outsold those of all other fiddle bands in the Fort WorthDallas area. Their popularity on radio had much to do with their success in recording. By the 1940s the Light Crust Doughboys broadcast over 170 radio stations in the South and Southwest. There is no way of knowing how many millions of people heard their broadcasts. Though the Doughboys played good, danceable jazz,the band was basically a show band whose purpose was to entertain. Their shows took the listeners' minds off the economic problems of the thirties and added joy to their lives.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/on...
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vintagedeluxe favorited a video
(7 months ago)
FRED ASTAIRE in SMOOTH CRIMINAL
Starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Leslie Caron
Choreographed by Michael Kidd
'Smooth Criminal' by Michael Jackson
Vi...
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FRED ASTAIRE in SMOOTH CRIMINAL
Starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Leslie Caron
Choreographed by Michael Kidd
'Smooth Criminal' by Michael Jackson
Video edited by CFJ
Here's a high quality version of the video that I posted over a year ago. It was the first of my MJ trilogy videos, made on March 2008. It got about 450,000 views in 14 months.
I don't know whether MJ had ever watched this, but I wished that he would see it on YouTube and just smile... which would have been definitely my biggest pleasure.
Some things I wanted to say by this video are:
1) Fred Astaire was such a great dancer and he could dance beautifully to every type of music... even to a MJ song.
2) MJ is not an originator but such a great successor who inherits various musical legacies and creates his own style.
We must always learn the history.
And now, the next generation must go on just like him.
May you dance in peace with Astaire, MJ.
I will adore you, always.
Fred Astaire in Smooth Criminal (LQ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gB0UN...
More about Astaire's influence on MJ:
http://strongerthanparadise.blog122.f...
About films used in Smooth Criminal 2009 (This Is It, Noir version):
http://strongerthanparadise.blog122.f...
The following is the original description I wrote for the video.
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I love both Astaire and Michael Jackson. I want young people to know Astaire stuff, that is why I made this. The video features scenes from the Girl Hunt ballet in The Band Wagon (1953) starring Astaire and Cyd Charisse (those supreme legs!! The most perfect body a woman could have. So sensual, so elegant), to which MJ gave homage in his Smooth Criminal vid (also in a performance of Get Happy on the Jacksons show in the 70s as well as You Rock My World in 2001), and, as an intro, a sequence from Daddy Long Legs (1955) featuring Leslie Caron (in motion pictures, you mustn't put a coin into a jukebox in an ordinary way!).
My initial idea was using also Yolanda And The Thief (1945) where Astaire appeared with the same costume, a white suit, hat and a blue shirt, but I eventually omitted it.
Michael Kidd worked with Janet in the Alright vid in 1990, featuring Cyd Charisse (in the red dress!), the Nicholas Brothers and Cab Calloway.
If you want to see Astaire at the top of his game, watch his '30s and early '40s films.
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The other two of my MJ trilogy videos:
Origins of the Moonwalk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZcLW...
West Side Story (Somebody Call Michael mix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIWTrF...
Fred Astaire + Robert Palmer - Let's Face The Music And Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWCijZ...
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vintagedeluxe favorited a video
(8 months ago)
ORIGINS OF THE MOONWALK
Dancers (in alphabetical order):
Fred Astaire, Bill Bailey, Buck and Bubbles, Cab Calloway, Clark Brothers, Sammy Davis Jr.,...
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ORIGINS OF THE MOONWALK
Dancers (in alphabetical order):
Fred Astaire, Bill Bailey, Buck and Bubbles, Cab Calloway, Clark Brothers, Sammy Davis Jr., Daniel L. Haynes, Rubberneck Holmes, Patterson and Jackson, Eleanor Powell, Bill Robinson, Three Chefs (only the feet), Tip Tap and Toe (feat. Ray Winfield), Earl Snakehips Tucker
Video edited by CFJ
My second Michael Jackson related video. Since the first one "Fred Astaire in Smooth Criminal" seems quite well-received, I decided to make another one. This time the theme is "who devised the moonwalk?".
As some people already know, a dance move called the moonwalk (a.k.a. backslide) had been existed before it became the "moonwalk". The video features the ancient moonwalkers and other greats who possibly influenced MJ's style of dancing.
The most well-known dancer as the "orignal moonwalker" should be Bill Bailey who performed it in the film Showtime At The Apollo (1955), which was also featured in the movie Tap (1989). But actually Bill Bailey, pupil of Bill Robinson, performed the very same step as early as 1943 in the movie Cabin In The Sky, which you can see here as well as the 1955 film.
The various scenes used in the video are from 1929 to 1955 (except Sammy Davis Jr. from '65 and '67). The oldest one is from Hallelujah, featuring Daniel L. Haynes as a minister pantomiming a train at a prayer meeting. I was totally amazed by his movement when I first saw that movie.
The most influential dancer on MJ's dancing is no doubt James Brown, but you can also trace the roots and origins of his style to those greats in the first half of the 20th century.
So, the question - "who devised the moonwalk?".
My answer is "nobody". Or all the great imaginative dancers, including MJ, who made great efforts to move foward (should I say "backward" in this case?). I think the moonwalk is not a thing someone suddenly came up with one day. There must have been so many great unknown dancers other than the ones who were lucky to be recorded... In other words, Rome was not built in a day.
Amazed by the dancers in the video?
But there were many other greats. You must see The Nicholas Brothers, The Berry Brothers, The Four Step Brothers, Pops & Louis...etc, etc. If you like this vid, you better check out The Nicholas Bros in Down Argentine Way (1940) on my channel. Then, watch Stormy Weather (1943). YOU HAVEN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET.
More about the featured films and dancers in this video:
http://strongerthanparadise.blog122.f...
The other two of my MJ trilogy videos:
Fred Astaire in Smooth Criminal (HQ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKanPs...
Fred Astaire in Smooth Criminal (LQ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gB0UN...
West Side Story (Somebody Call Michael mix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIWTrF...
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vintagedeluxe favorited a video
(10 months ago)
Never underestimate a woman who can get both legs behind her head and wrap her feet around her face. (HINT: Watch past the first 45 seconds or so....
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Never underestimate a woman who can get both legs behind her head and wrap her feet around her face. (HINT: Watch past the first 45 seconds or so. Whoah!)
Solid Potato Salad? No, it's not what you get when you leave the deli container out of the fridge too long. It's a 1940s term for...something (I have no idea what. ) In this classic footage from the movie "Broadway Rhythm" (1944), the Ross sisters, Aggie, Maggie and Elmira, sing and move in ways that don't look humanly possible. Yoga anyone? Movie buffs will recognize the tune as one of the background instrumentals from "The Godfather."
It starts out looking like another kitschy 40's tune, but give it a minute. Things get wild! Now if I can just figure out what apples have to do with potato salad...
(Extra trivia: While the Ross Sisters are billed in their act as Aggie, Maggie and Elmira Ross, their real-life names were actually Vicki, Dixie and Betsy Ross.)
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vintagedeluxe favorited a video
(1 year ago)
Rare and unreleased version of 'Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself'. Slideshow of pictures from my book 'Rockabilly Underground-London 1980s' by W...
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Rare and unreleased version of 'Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself'. Slideshow of pictures from my book 'Rockabilly Underground-London 1980s' by William Jones.
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