Thursday 30 June 2011

1905

"Girl we gotta get out of here, we gotta find a solution. I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to die here."


(L-R) Joseph Cotten, Clara Bow, Henry Fonda, Myrna Loy, Ray Milland

(Instead of trying to document everything I find during the history of cinema & music, I'm instead relying on the following links to provide a chronology, as they do a far better job than I can in summing up the relevant years. My posts will focus on anything that's taken my fancy)


It's 1905 and finally, the wheels are in motion, with plenty to mention during this sixth month post.  Lots of significant births, with actors such as Henry Fonda, Joan Crawford, Thelma Ritter, Myrna Loy, Greta Garbo, Joseph Cotten, Ray Milland, Clara Bow, Takashi Shimura, Robert Donat and Kay Francis. Directors/Producers Howard Hughes, Otto Preminger, Michael Powell and Robert Stevenson also.

Kay Francis in the pre-code comedy Jewel Robbery (1932)
(Click here for a great post on Ms. Francis)

Jules Verne passed away in March 1905. A major contributor to the earliest days of cinema, despite not working in-front or behind the camera's. His work in the sc-fi genre proved very inspirational to the film industry (especially to French pioneer Georges Méliès), and his novels continue to be popular around the world.

RYM user novocaine69 provides a fantastic list of silent movies here, from which I've obtained most of my youtube links. Again, nothing too significant, but Méliès work is the best. The Black Imp is a rather amusing short, whilst the longer Le palais des mille et une nuits suffers a little from being too long, but still has some worthwhile moments. The stunts and effects are decent, and the costumes and sets are good for their time.

The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog (Edwin S. Porter)


New York Subway


Le roi des dollars AKA The King of Dollars (Segundo de Chomón)


Rescued by Rover (Cecil M. Hepworth)


The Night Before Christmas (Edwin S. Porter)


Le diable noir AKA The Black Imp (Georges Méliès)


Le palais des mille et une nuits AKA The Palace
of a Thousand and One Nights (Georges Méliès)


Meanwhile, a small railroad town is established in the sparse Mojave Desert, NV, USA. Over the next 60 years it will grow into the gambling capital of the world, providing many milestones in the background, inspiration, and showcasing of numerous pieces of music and film.

Las Vegas 2005

Things start sounding a little more familiar (to the modern ear) in music land. The first extensive research in the field of "The Blues" was performed by Howard W. Odum, who published a large anthology of folk songs in the counties of Lafayette, Mississippi and Newton, Georgia between 1905 and 1908.

'Chick' Webb and Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup are both born during 1905, and around this time, child vaudevillian Fred Astaire begins performing with his sister on stage. Arthur Collins' hit The Preacher & The Bear becomes the first song to sell a million copies.

"Well now we're getting somewhere!" Jerry Seinfeld
"C'mon Elaine, let's take a ride. I was about to pop in some Verdi" Bob Cobb (The Maestro)
 
To my surprise, there is actually a little something to discuss of 1905's music. I can't say I'm a fan of RYM's #1 - Arthur Pryor's The Whistler and His Dog, but #2 is quite good. Billy Murray's vocal's on The Yankee Doodle Boy is the most fun so far, and the production is good considering the conditions would have been rather primitive. Hardly the definitive version, Enrico Caruso's La donna è mobile is still worthy enough, especially being one of the earliest recorded versions of the Verdi classic.


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