Wandering around the internets recently I found a really well done blog entitled
= VITAPHONE VARIETIES =
Observations On Film, Music & Imagery of the Past
ARChivers, as inveterate fans of antique recording technology (and rabid ukulele heads) will dig these pages to the infinite. There’s tons of art and fabulous sound clips to illustrate the breezy text which focuses on the early days of music in film. Much of the discussion touches on musicals long lost, the existence of which persists only in ephemera such as movie mag articles or sheet music, or on 78rpm sides. The latest post has much to say about the infamous Charleston, a dance craze so dangerous to the mind and bodies of innocent (meaning white) youth that it can only be described as the Dutty Wine of the ‘Twenties. as an aside, the old joke among dancers, Lindy-hoppers especially, was that the Charleston was a dance that black folks did to parody the stiff, spastic movements of white folks trying to dance to the new Hot Jazz! A dis that destroyed Western Civilization.
Anyhoo, when you’re tired of Avril and Paris and Tammy Faye, go check this one out.