Soundies Jukebox Films and the Shift to Small-Screen Culture
194 pages, 6 x 9
18 figures
Paperback
Release Date:28 Jun 2018
ISBN:9780813586335
Hardcover
Release Date:28 Jun 2018
ISBN:9780813586342
Soundies Jukebox Films and the Shift to Small-Screen Culture
SERIES:
Techniques of the Moving Image
Rutgers University Press
Soundies Jukebox Films and the Shift to Small-Screen Culture is the first and only book to position what are called “Soundies” within the broader cultural and technological milieu of the 1940s. From 1940 to 1946, these musical films circulated in everyday venues, including bars, bowling alleys, train stations, hospitals, and even military bases. Viewers would pay a dime to watch them playing on the small screens of the Panoram jukebox. This book expands U.S. film history beyond both Hollywood and institutional film practices. Examining the dynamics between Soundies’ short musical films, the Panoram’s film-jukebox technology, their screening spaces and their popular discourse, Andrea J. Kelley provides an integrative approach to historic media exhibition. She situates the material conditions of Soundies’ screening sites alongside formal considerations of the films and their unique politics of representation to illuminate a formative moment in the history of the small screen.
A compelling read from beginning to end, Soundies Jukebox Films and the Shift to Small Screen Culture opens up an entirely new way to think about moving images, music and the technologies that made them part of our everyday lives.
Chronicle of Higher Education weekly book list,' by Nina C. Ayoub
[Kelley] admirably succeeds in describing the business methods, aesthetic attributes and social history of the coin-operated ‘Panoram’ machine and its black-and-white 16mm musical shorts, called Soundies.
A compelling read from beginning to end, Soundies Jukebox Films and the Shift to Small Screen Culture opens up an entirely new way to think about moving images, music and the technologies that made them part of our everyday lives.
Chronicle of Higher Education weekly book list,' by Nina C. Ayoub
[Kelley] admirably succeeds in describing the business methods, aesthetic attributes and social history of the coin-operated ‘Panoram’ machine and its black-and-white 16mm musical shorts, called Soundies.
ANDREA J. KELLEY is an assistant professor of media studies at Auburn University School of Communication and Journalism in Alabama.
Introduction: Soundies Jukebox Films
Part I Small Screen Encounters and Spatial Practices
1 The Look-Listening Machine: The Panoram Jukebox and New Screen Practices
2 The Sites of Soundies: The Dynamics of Space and Screen
3 Mobilizing Space: The Panoram goes to War
Part II Short Forms and Enduring Formations
4 Up Close and Personal: The Shifting Aesthetics of the Jukebox Short
5 “A Swing Half Breed”: Soundies’ Hybrid Identities and Raced Attractions
6 Post War Screens: Soundies on TV and the Rehash of the Film Jukebox
Conclusion: Short and Sweet: Rescaling Screen Culture
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Part I Small Screen Encounters and Spatial Practices
1 The Look-Listening Machine: The Panoram Jukebox and New Screen Practices
2 The Sites of Soundies: The Dynamics of Space and Screen
3 Mobilizing Space: The Panoram goes to War
Part II Short Forms and Enduring Formations
4 Up Close and Personal: The Shifting Aesthetics of the Jukebox Short
5 “A Swing Half Breed”: Soundies’ Hybrid Identities and Raced Attractions
6 Post War Screens: Soundies on TV and the Rehash of the Film Jukebox
Conclusion: Short and Sweet: Rescaling Screen Culture
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
