Soundies: The Ultimate Collection (Blu-ray)

Soundies have been called the music videos of the 1940s, but that doesnt begin to describe their cultural importance. Its true that they feature a remarkable range of talent, from big-band luminaries like Duke Ellington and Count Basie to then-emerging stars like Doris Day and Ricardo Montalban, and lesser-known artists of the American nightclub circuit. But Soundies are also a rich, largely overlooked chronicle of American popular culture during and just after World War II. Produced for coin-operated jukeboxes in neighborhood bars and taverns, Soundies have an uncanny way of revealing what Americans were thinking about topics that werent discussed openly, from sexuality to ethnicity and race. Curated by Susan Delson, author of Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen: One Dime at a Time, this four-disc collection presents a diverse sampling of 200 shortsjazz, country-western, folk, and the boogie woogie roots of rock n rollnewly restored from 35mm and 16mm material