1930 Playlist

I put together this playlist for 1930. If I figure out how to upload the audio, I'll do so.

01 - Ring Dem Bells - Duke Ellington

02 - Happy Days Are Here Again - Ben Selvin Orchestra
This song was first recorded by Leo Reisman weeks after the 1929 stockmarket crash. This recording would be the biggest hit of 1930 and would become a hopeful anthem for recovery from the Great Depression. It would be used as a campaign song for FDR in 1932.

03 - Three Little Words - The Rhythm Boys with the Duke Ellington Orchestra
This is nice. The Rhythm Boys were the vocalists from Paul Whiteman's orchestra and included a not-yet-famous Bing Crosby. Here they are singing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the earliest recorded Ellington/Crosby collaboration. Considering how prolific and prone to collaboration these two were I was surprised that I can only find a couple other recordings of them together (St. Louis Blues in 1932, and several tracks from a radio show broadcast May 29, 1941).



04 - China Boy - Red Nichols

05 - Georgia On My Mind - Hoagy Carmichael
06 - Stardust - Isham Jones
Both of these songs were written by Hoagy Carmichael. This is the first hit version of Stardust which would become a jazz standard.

07 - Oh, Lady Be Good - Red Nichols
A nice dixieland rendition of the Gershwin classic.

08 - Puttin' on the Ritz - Jan Garber
I like to think this is what the Mos Eisley Cantina Band's version of this Irving Berlin classic would sound like.

09 - Exactly Like You - Louis Armstrong

10 - The Count - Bennie Moten
I don't actually know if this song's title is a reference to the band's piano player, William James Basie.

11 - Happy Feet - Paul Whiteman with The Rhythm Boys

12 - I Got Rhythm - Red Nichols

13 - What Is This Thing Called Love - Leo Reisman

14 - Jungle Nights in Harlem - Ellington, Duke

15 - Tiger Rag - Louis Armstrong
16 - Bessie Couldn't Help It - Louis Armstrong

17 - After You've Gone - Red Nichols
Red Nighols' orchestra again. This time with a different vocalist - Wingy Manone I think.

18 - Mood Indigo - Duke Ellington

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On Deck for 1930

These are the movies in my queue this month:


All Quiet on the Western Front - It's a consensus "film of the year". It won the Best Picture Oscar. It's the highest rated and the most popular film from 1930 on IMDb and the only film from that year in the IMDb 250. It was also the first film from 1930 to be inducted into the National Film Registry, and the only film from that year to be listed on the original AFI 100 years, 100 movies list.

Hell's Angels - This was, at the time, the most expensive movie ever made. The many trials of it's production were well documented in The Aviator. Another WWI fighter pilot movie from 1930 that I would like to see is The Dawn Patrol, but it is not available on DVD.

City Girl - I have never been disappointed by a Murnau movie.

Blue Angel
Morocco - I couldn't decide between these two von Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations. Blue Angel is a classic and is more highly-rated and popular, but Morocco is in the National Film Registry, and it's, well, gayer.



Blood of a Poet - I've already seen this Jean Cocteau movie (loved it), but I need a refresher since I'll be seeing the other two films in his Orphic trilogy - Orpheus (1950) and Testament of Orpheus (1960) - later this year (in May and June respectively).

Monte Carlo - I'm a sucker for musicals, even though I wasn't exactly blown away by any of the early talkie musicals I saw last year (Applause, Broadway Melody, or Hallelujah!). Maybe the Lubitsch touch will help.

Animal Crackers - The Marx Brothers' classic.

and if time permits:

L'âge d'or - Before I saw Un chien andalou last year, I had never seen a Luis Buñuel film. I thought the 1928 adaptation, Fall of the House of Usher, where he was the writer and assistant director to Jean Epstein, was fantastic, but I was ultimately disappoint by Un chien andalou. I want to give Buñuel another look, but my expectations are lower this time.

Earth - I've enjoyed a lot of Soviet cinema from this era; Man With a Movie Camera rates as one of my all-time favorite films. The only reason why this film is so low on the list is that I've seen Dovzhenko's Arsenal two years ago and was underwhelmed by it. But this one is considered his best, so I'm curious.

Douglas Fairbanks Does Parkour

This is awesome:



This is my favorite movie scene from 1920, It's from The Mark of Zorro. Douglas Fairbanks does parkour.

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On Deck for 1920

The movies I've added to my Netflix queue this month:


The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - 1920 was the first great year for horror films. I've seen all three (this one and the next two on the list), they're all excellent, and I'm looking forward to rewatching them. This one is easily the most popular (and my personal favorite) film of 1920.

The Golem - James Whale credits this film as an influence on his classic 1931 version of Frankenstein. The stylistic similarities are undeniable.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - I originally saw this in Boulder at Chautauqua's great silent film series. John Barrymore's hamminess is way over the top in this one, but it's still a fun film worth re-watching.

The Mark of Zorro - I've already seen this one once before, too. It's one of Fairbanks' best films. Doug buckles with more swash than usual in this film.

The Last of the Mohicans - This film is in the National Film Registry, and I try to watch as many NFR films as I can.

One Week
Neighbors - Two shorts from Buster Keaton, my favorite silent comedy actor. One Week is also in the NFR.

High and Dizzy - Harold Lloyd also made the excellent comedy short Number, Please? this year which I've seen several times. I haven't seen this one yet.

The Parson's Widow - I was impressed with Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer when I watched his Passion of Joan of Arc a couple of years ago. So I'm interested in seeing this, his earliest film available on Netflix.

Anna Boleyn - Last year's The Doll was unexpectedly good, so I decided to see this early Ernst Lubitsch film as well.

The Penalty - I was also pleasantly surprised by last year's Lon Chaney thriller Victory, so I decided to add this film to the list.

These are the films I will definitely see this month, but I always add a few additional titles to the list just in case I have time to watch more. These two films are on the cusp:

Way Down East - I added this melodrama directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish to the list because it is popular and highly rated on IMDb, but I was really disappointed by last year's Griffith/Gish film, Broken Blossoms, so I added it to the bottom of the list.

Why Change Your Wife? - I added this morality play directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gloria Swanson to the list because it is popular and highly rated on IMDb, but I was really disappointed by last year's DeMille/Swanson film, Male and Female, so I added it to the bottom of the list.

Not on DVD

Within Our Gates - I saw this film on a DVD back in 2003 (and wrote a small, negative, review of it here), but that DVD is now out of print. I didn't particularly care for the film when I saw it, but then I noticed it was on the National Film Registry, and I wanted to give it a second viewing.

Movie Highlights of 1959

My favorite movies I saw this month:

Sleeping Beauty

Black Orpheus

Suddenly Last Summer

Ben Hur

Anatomy of a Murder

Compulsion

Our Man in Havana

Pillow Talk

The Mouse That Roared

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Movie Highlights of 1949

9 Great movies from 1949:

The Heiress

The Third Man

Kind Hearts and Coronets

On The Town

All The Kings Men

White Heat

The Set-Up

Thieves' Highway

Pinky

Radio Highlights of 1939

I discovered that The Internet Archive has lots of Old Time Radio programs that are in public domain. Here are some of the highlights I found from 1939:

The Aldrich Family

A sitcom.



Arch Obler's Plays

A Twilight-Zone-like anthology drama specializing in horror and other unusual stories.



Captain Midnight

Captain Midnight was an adventure serial intended for kids. This is the first 15 minute installment of a story arc called "The Perada Treasure". You can listen to the other 58 installments at the Internet Archive.



Complete Broadcast Day

Radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C. recorded it's complete broadcast day on September 21, 1939. The Internet Archive has all 16 hours. Here's a few highlights:



Chapter 1 - President Roosevelt's address to Congress
Chapter 2 - Major League Baseball: Cleveland Indians at the Washington Senators
Chapter 3 - "Ask It Basket" quiz show
Chapter 4 - Ten O'Clock News
Chapter 5 - Louis Prima

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