Wednesday night, NPT presented the broadcast premiere Soundies: A Musical History Hosted by Michael Feinstein, a special that turned viewers on to the history of “Soundies,” short films of musicians created for Panorams in the 1940’s. Tom Wills, who owns the building that houses the Belcourt Theater in Nashville, is a collector of soundies, and though he won’t go as far as allowing himself to be called an authority, knows more than most of us about them. He also owns and maintains the Scopitone, a film jukebox and the only known working one in Nashville, that is housed in the Belcourt. Tom was kind enough to answer a few questions for us about these machines and their historical significance. You’ll want to run right over to the Belcourt after reading the interview, and you’ll definitely want to tune in to NPT-Channel 8 tonight (Friday, March 9) at 10:30 for a rebroadcast of Soundies: A Musical History Hosted by Michael Feinstein.
You’re considered one of the foremost authorities on panorams and scopitones in the country. How did you get interested in them?
First of all, you think too highly of me. I am not in any way considered a foremost authority on panorams in the country, but as the owner of one of the only scopitones in the country I suppose that shoves me into the spotlight. I bow to others, namely Scott MacGillivray who wrote The Soundies Book: A Revised and Expanded Guide (2007) who are the real experts on the panoram and soundies.
That said, I have a large collection of soundies on film, the original prints used in the panorams and reproduction prints made for the 16mm film market back by companies such as Castle Films and Official Films. I began collecting film after I got involved in a grass roots effort to save The Belcourt Theatre here in Nashville, TN. Once involved I began to realize that the world of film was stranger and wider and so much more physically present than I had supposed before I got surrounded by projection equipment and the old theatre screens. Films were not only in theatres and in our school’s growing up teaching us science. 16MM films were in every library in the country before video; there was a film running for every broadcast from your local TV station; they were in our parent’s closets in the form of home movies; and there were niche uses for film that most of us never considered, namely music video juke boxes such as the panoram and the scopitone. Most of the films that filled these machines were not destroyed. The reels were saved and the extra print runs (in the case of soundies) were bought up by companies that reproduced them and sold them for the home movie market. That these films even exist is was a revelation to me, and I have become fascinated by the legacy that they quietly left behind. Through them I am educated, entertained, and able to share the strangeness of our culture and world to those I stumble across.
Is the scopitone in the Belcourt the only one in Nashville? How old is it, and how did you acquire it?
Yes, that is true. As far as I know it is one of the few on public display in the country. Generally they need love and care to keep working, and most people just don’t even consider film a viable medium any more. The scopitone machines are not as maintenance free as your standard jukebox, since 16MM film (the type of film it plays) is a fragile medium in itself, and there are 36 individual reels in each machine. If there is a scopitone player in nashville, it is in some warehouse or someone’s basement. Who knows…there could be one in the back room of some adult store back from when they adapted them to play adult films in the 1970’s. The scopitone we have in The Belcourt Lobby is a French model imported into the United States in the early 1960s. I bought it from Dick Hack in Baltimore, Maryland, one of the last scopitone repair men in the country. I had been buying the 16MM scopitone films from him, when he offered to sell me a refurbished model. The price was right and I knew it would fit the mission and vision of The Belcourt Theatre since we are the historic non-profit center for film, music, theatre and arts in Nashville.
In the description of Soundies: A Musical History Hosted by Michael Feinstein, soundies are considered an extremely early predecessor to music videos and MTV, almost like a video jukebox. What kinds of films could be viewed on a scopitone? Where do you think scopitones fall in the timeline of films and entertainment? What is its historical significance?
Soundies have more in common with filmed musicals of the 1930s and 40s than MTV. Rock n Roll was just not there yet, and the audience had yet to be introduced to television. We only think of soundies as music videos because video has sort of replaced film in our heads as audio-visual entertainment. It is a “video” jukebox to us, but it was a motion picture jukebox to those who put the money in. The content ranged from big band music, to black jazz, to patriotic WWII numbers, to suggestive strip films, to musical comedy sketches, to country and western, and even to polka.
Scopitones were invented in France when a shutterless film movement mechanism designed by the French military was adapted in the early 1960’s to treat film gently enough to be used in the jukebox with some sense of reliability. It used a mirror that fluttered 24 frames a second instead of bringing the film to a stop 24 times a second. This way the films had less stress not only in that they just rolled straight through, but in that the mechanism did not have to grab hold of as much of it with each play, a feat that would be nearly impossible to do otherwise. The machines could hold 36 individual films this way, each on their own reel, and users could select which title they wanted to see, unlike the panoram soundies which played off one reel and gave the user no choice in what played next. The scopitones upgraded the sound quality compared to soundies, since they used magnetic sound strips instead of hissy optical tracks which had limited audio range, and the scopitone also introduced color to the film jukebox. Unfortunately the french titles and one of the US companies printed their films on Eastman filmstock, which has faded over time. But the main US scopitone film producer printed its films on Technicolor stock which is as colorfast as you can get. Thus we can see the 1960s in the same eye-poping color that former generations experienced.
Historically this was the time of rock and roll and pop music as we would recognize it in France. French rock legend Johnny Hallyday made a number of scopitones and other french pop rock and rollers joined into the fray such as Sylvie Vartan and Francoise Hardy. This was also the time of rock and roll dances, like the Twist, The Mashed Potatoes and the Hully Gully. American rock n roll influences were all over the French scopitones, and they got even more so when a company in chicago (with rumored mob connections) started importing them into the US and producing films for the US Market. Sylvie Vartan covered/ripped off american rock pop hits, covering Locomotion and turning Ray Charles’ What’d I Say, into a hot, do-you-think-that-boy-likes-me / what-does-it-take-to-find-a-good-husband number.
Scopitone machines in the US contained a hybrid of french and US titles as well as a smattering of german and UK titles, so the french covers of US Pop songs could translate well enough, as could the occasional “universal” panty shot. The US scopitones featured mostly B grade music acts, and acts that had not conquered the airwaves in pop music and focused more on bikini clad and scantily dressed women than the french titles which were had more flair in strutting their stuff. A notable exception to the B-grade musician was Leslie Gore who made a scopitone titled Wonderboy in 1966. Not only does it feature a pop act everyone recognized, but the high-school pop star wasn’t turned into a sex object. This is in contrast to the lesser known Jody Miller who covered George Jones’ The Race is On, with nearly bare bottomed women in fishnets and pony tails shaking it at the racetrack. Jody Miller also spoofed Roger Miller’s (no relation) King of the Road in her scopitone Queen of the House which featured her in a neglige rolling on a bed while dancers (the same dancers that performed in The Race Is On) gyrated. There is a Nashville connection in the form of Merle Kilgore, who made Five Card Stud in 1964.
But the scopitone is not really representative of all of 1960’s rock n roll, since the producers in the US seemed more interested in Las Vegas than Woodstock. Modern audiences might be familiar with the holodeck character Vic Fontane on StarTrek Deep Space Nine. He is played by scopitone star James Darren (Because You’re Mine), and he covers numerous scopitone title songs while playing the 1960s Las Vegas crooner who offers sage advice to the crew members on love and life. So most of the songs tend towards the late 1950s in taste, and don’t acknowledge the cutting edge rock and roll we often identify with the 1960s. But there are always exceptions. The most notable is the british scopitone by The Procol Harum, A Whiter Shade of Pale. which is definitely on the psychedelic side. (A female friend of mine accused one band member in white pants with having something stuffed in his crotch to boot.)
Are there specific resources (book, videos or internet sites) where people interested in scopitones can learn more?
Of course the best introduction to the scopitone is to experience it for yourself. Go to the Belcourt Theater 2102 Belcourt Ave. in Hillsboro Village and make sure the staff turns it on for you. Bring plenty of quarters.
Scott MacGillivray who wrote The Soundies Book: A revised and Expanded Guide (2007) includes a section on Scopitones, but there is no real authoritative book that I am aware of about the scopitone.
The best place to see a list of what films were made for the scopitone is on the web at the Scopitone Archive. And there are plenty of scopitones up for public view on youtube.