At this years silent film festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/), attendees were treated to an audience with silent cinema child star Jean Darling. Between reminiscences of her days in Hal Roach’s Our Gang series and the occasional song, Jean Darling recounted her days working in the soundies. In my ignorance, I thought she was talking about the transition to ‘talkies’, but no, the soundies were a predecessor to the Scopitone detailed by Sheena Scott on our obituaries page. Soundies were three-minute black-and-white films with an optical sound track shown on coin operated 16mm rear projection machines called Panorams that could be found in bars and cafes across the USA between 1941 and 1947 (www.1940.co.uk/history/article/soundie/soundie.htm) . After a career as a child film star, Jean Darling worked on stage, radio and television, but was also one of the singing featured artists in the soundies. Soundies would often show dancing and novelty acts, but the musical act was by by far the most popular. Although I haven’t found any Darling soundies to show, here is the Glen Miller ‘Juke Box Saturday Night Soundie’ to enjoy.
Karolina Kendall-Bush
Karolina Kendall-Bush
