A married couple who have a song-and-dance act in vaudeville are in trouble. Their struggling act is going nowhere, they're almost broke and they have to do something to get them back on top or they'll really be in trouble. They decide to put their young son in the act in hopes of attracting some new attention. The boy turns out to be a major talent, audiences love him and the act is on its way to the top. That's when an organization whose purpose is to stop children from performing on stage shows up, and they're dead set on breaking up the act.
The prophetic jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, who today is seen as one of the most important innovators in jazz, was obsessed with his radical music and by the thought that people one day would understand it. In 1962 he recorded his first album in Sweden. Eight years later he was found dead in New York's East River, aged 34. (TCM)
5 Years in a LIVEtime is the second home video release by Dream Theater. The video contains a mix of concert footage, promotional video clips, and behind-the-scenes and interview footage from the five years in between the release of their previous home video, Images and Words: Live in Tokyo, and this video
Rhythm and Blues Revue is a plotless variety show, one of several compiled for theatrical exhibition from the made-for-television short films produced by Snader and Studio Telescriptions, with newly-filmed host segments by Willie Bryant. Originally 86 minutes, the "short" version available on public domain collections and websites is missing a reel
The goings on of a few members of a radio show's audience is the premise for this feature film derived from the popular ABC radio show of the 1940s. This film features Tom Breneman, the radio show's host, as well as Bonita Granville, Beulah Bondi, Zasu Pitts, Billie Burke and Hedda Hopper. Musical performances are provided by Nat King Cole and the King Cole Trio, along with Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
Joan Terry, from Kansas City, comes to New York to get a job on the stage. But until she finds an opportunity, she stays at a boarding house where other talent is also waiting. To get a better chance, the people there decide to build a talent pool, where the person with the most chances for a job gets the full support, trying to get jobs for the others there too - and Joan is chosen to do that. But this is not so easy when her fiance is trying to keep her away from the stage...
Filmed during the Australian leg of their massive world tour, Superstars And Canonballs takes you to the heart, soul, and nerve-centre of one of the world's most popular and successful bands… and includes, exclusive to video, the never-before-seen, full length documentary "Parallel Lives". In this intimate video journal, Darren and Daniel give unprecedented access to our cameras, allowing us to follow them on stage and behind the scenes… What is revealed is surprisingly frank insight into the minds and experiences of two very talented individuals. For the very first time, Darren and Daniel talk candidly about their unique creative-collaboration, friendship and life on the road. Accompanying this sensational documentary is the entire 90 minute live Affirmation concert. Filmed in spectacular widescreen during their hometown Brisbane concert, a staggering eleven cameras bring to life the excitement and frenzy of the real concert experience.
Lee Ritenour is one of the world's most renowned jazz guitarists. Initially performing and recording as a sideman with the likes of The Mamas And The Papas, Tony Bennett, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd and Dizzy Gillespie, since 1976 he has been a major solo artist with over 30 albums to his credit. Overtime was filmed in high definition in Enterprise Studios, Burbank in front of a small audience and is a career retrospective of this extraordinary guitarist in which he is accompanied by some of his many collaborators down the years. The concert is split into four distinct sections. The program starts with acoustic jazz and then moves into Brazilian music, followed by Lee's early fusion music and concludes with a set of his most popular tracks from more recent albums. Interviews with the participants are interspersed between the live performances.
Having fallen out with his girlfriend Dolorès, Juanito leaves for Mexico, where he becomes a famous matador.There he meets a Viennese singer, Fanny Miller, who falls for him so much so that she intercepts the letters Dolorès keeps on sending him. In desperation, Dolorès devotes all her time and efforts to dance and she becomes the celebrated dancer Estrellita. After a series of misunderstandings and ups and downs, the sun of Andalusia will finally reunite the two lovebirds.
This real-life documentary explores the passionate & energetic presence of renowned Italian violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (she moved to the Unites States at the age of eight to study at The Curtis Institute of Music and later studied with Dorothy DeLay at The Julliard School.) The film focuses on her professional life, starting in 1981, when she burst onto the classical music scene as the youngest (at 17) recipient ever of the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition.
On September 19, 1973, the musician and heir to a million-dollar fortune died under the influence of drugs and alcohol near his favourite place - the Joshua Tree National Monument in the Californian desert. As the founder of the Flying Burrito Brothers, a member of the hit-making, legendary Byrds, an important influence on the Rolling Stones and the man who catapulted Emmylou Harris to fame, Gram Parsons made music history in only a few years. Friends, contemporaries and devotees of Gram Parsons talk about the importance of his work and the bizarre circumstances of his early death. Rare footage of his performances shows why Gram Parsons has become a legend. Interviewees include Gram's wife Gretchen, his sister and his daughter, Keith Richards, Emmylou Harris, Chris Hillman and "Road Manager" Phil Kaufman.
The story takes place at a summer theater in the Berkshire Mountains, where heroine Joan Barry (Carol Bruce) is staging a Broadway-bound musical comedy. Only one problem: two guest stars are shot and killed on two successive evenings, right in front of the audience. Hoping to solve the mystery, detective William Demarest demands that everyone -- actors and theatergoers alike -- return the following weekend to restage the show. But with no major performer willing to assume the fatal guest-star slot, Joan is forced to hire the Three Jolly Jesters (Al, Harry and Jimmy Ritz), Manhattan washroom attendants with showbiz aspirations.
Through a pictoric play, this movie tells the story about the painter Eduardo Miranda who, one night, while he was lokking to a gipsy group that was dancing, discovers a beautifull girl called Carmen. Dazzled by her beauty he decides to paint a picture. This causes roumours in the neighborhood, and it also arouses the jealousy of his wife.
Beijing Bubbles is a portrait of the punk and rock scene in Beijing, which as a subculture is barely recognized there. Center stage of the film takes not only the music, but first of all the attitude to life of the young musicians who deny consumerism and pressure to perform well. The Berlin filmmakers Susanne Messmer and George Lindt go on a ramble through the musical underground of Beijing and thereby meet people, who give them naturally and spontaneously an up-front insight in their daily live. Kind of a video diary it gives insight in a counter culture hardly anyone would assume in an authoritarian state like the People's Republic of China.
A new Broadway show starring Gary Blake shamelessly lampoons the rich Carraway family. To get her own back, daughter Mimi sets out to ensnare Blake, but the courtship is soon for real, to the annoyance of his co-star, hoofing chanteuese Mona Merrick.
Katharine Hilliard, mousy dean of a stuffy music school, meets and is insulted by swing band leader Barry Clayton on a train. To "show" him she takes a friend's advice, removes her glasses, and puts on a designer gown. Naturally, she becomes gorgeous. Soon, both Barry and crooner Jimmy Hale are after her, and she finds herself in the midst of triangles and misunderstandings.