Before there was MTV, there were Scopitone players. Video jukeboxes invented France, scopitone players spurred the production of what can only be called pre-video music videos that ranged from fairly straightfoward concert-style clips to full realized mini-movies. My favorite on this particular haphazard collection is Joi Lansing's "Web of Love." Can't place her? Lansing is the bleached-blond in the doomed convertible in the opening shot of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil... the one who says "I've got this ticking... I've got this ticking noise in my head" right before the car explodes in a ball of flame. Lansing was also a nightclub singer, scene maker and favorite icon of James Ellroy, the suicide blond to end all suicide blonds. And this is the scopitone clip that started me thinking about her:
It doesn't get better!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
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1 comment:
This is absolutely brilliant! Never heard of these before. Quite fascinating and informative for all those people who think music videos somehow emerged full blown in 1981.
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