Popeye Meets Sinbad The Sailor

This encore from a 2010 post is one of the great, mid-1930s, color Popeye cartoons from Fleischer Studios featuring a story line based on the Tales of a Thousand and One Arabian Nights.  From 1936 and the Internet Archive, here is Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor.

Sunrise Serenade: My Baby Likes To Bebop

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "My Baby Likes To Bebop" by Ella Fitzgerald.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Spaceship Designs From The Time Before Spaceships

Just because something does not yet exist, that does not mean one cannot imagine what it would be like.  io9 posted an article on artists interpretations (with examples) of what form space ships might take well before we humans boldly went where no man has gone before.  Featured here is a 1938 Buck Rogers comic. 

Sunrise Serenade: Ring Dem Bells

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "Ring Dem Bells" by Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Playlist For August 28, 2013

The playlist for the August 28, 2013 broadcast of the Swing Shift Shuffle has been added to the playlist filing cabinet.  

Robot Tanks Of World War II

"Drones" may be the newest military, law enforcement and even civilian craze, but they have been around for a while.  Paleofuture noted that science fiction writer Hugo Gernsback predicted manned flame tanks in the mid-1930s, but revised his prediction by the mid-1940s to make the tanks unmanned robots controlled by radio waves.  The Germans actually deployed small radio controlled tanks to act as land torpedoes. 

Sunrise Serenade: Bumble Bee Stomp

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "Bumble Bee Stomp" by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Swing At The Hop

The Red Hot Lindy Hop lesson and session continues this Friday night at the Rumba Room.  Free lesson at 7:00 p.m.  Free admission before 7:00, and $5 cover at the door afterwards.  Lesson by Phil and Bethany with music by Bethany.  Dress like you are going out!

Rumba Room

303 South Main

Memphis, TN 38103

The Tiger Rag lessons and guided practice sessions are in full swing at the Madison Dance Studio in Minglewood Plaza, 1555 Madison Ave Memphis, TN 38104.  Learn more and register here. 

Sunrise Serenade: Tamburitza Boogie

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "Tamburitza Boogie" by Louis Jordan.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Help Save An American Institution With Project Drive-In

In 1933, a man named Richard Hollingshead opened the first "Automobile Movie Theater" in Camden, New Jersey, and the American Drive-In was born.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Unfortunately, history may be all that remains without your help.  As the Hemmings blog recently posted, by the 1950's, over 4,000 drive-in screens existed.  Now, there are only 368.  Those that survived have fought off television, multiplexes and the internet, but now face their most serious and imminent challenge:  digital projection.  In less than three months, a majority of American drive-in theaters will face closure because the motion picture industry will stop distributing movies on film, and distribute only digital copies. 

A digital projector costs about $85,000 per screen, and is beyond the means of many drive-in theater operators, some of whom are small, family operations.  Without digital projectors, however, those screens will go forever dark.  Project Drive-In is attempting to save this classic piece of American culture.  Honda will donate five digital projectors to the drive-ins that get the most votes at the Project Drive-In website.  So go to  Project Drive-In and cast your vote for your favorite drive-in.  There is also more information on how you can help, even if it is just going to a drive-in this summer.

For those of you in the Memphis area, you will be relieved to know that the venerable Malco Summer Drive-In has already converted to digital projection.  As a result, you are free to vote for another worthy drive-in that needs your help. 

Sunrise Serenade: Clarinade

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "Clarinade" by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra.  Enjoy the video from YouTube. 

Small Fry

With school back in session, this encore posting from 2010 seems appropriate.  Taking its title and background music from the song of the same name, this cartoon features a fish that does not want to school.  From the Internet Archive, Fleischer Studio's 1939 animated short, Small Fry.

Sunrise Serenade: Mairzy Doats

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "Mairzy Doats" by the Merry Macs.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Captain Midnight

Adding to the number of "Captains" in comics is Captain Midnight, and his sidekick, Ichabod ("Icky") Mudd.  In this 1947 issue, posted on Four Color Shadows, the interplanetary explorer lands on a planet where scientists can turn all "good" people green, all "evil" people purple, and can conjure up any being from the past, including Christopher Columbus, Julius Ceasar, Cain and even Satan.  Wait, what?  Your heard right.  Purple bad guys steal the molecular projector, and call up more bad guys, including one horned devil who "needs no introduction" and keeps saying "I know everything." 

Sunrise Serenade: Goosey Gander

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "Goosey Gander" by Woody Herman and His Orchestra.  Enjoy the video from YouTube.

Playlist For August 21, 2013

The playlist for the August 21, 2013 broadcast of the Swing Shift Shuffle has been added to the playlist filing cabinet.  

Kitchen Of The Future!

In an interesting twist, rather than musing on the over zealous predictions about life in the future that now seem prevalent in the 1940's, Paleofuture posted an article that featured a 1940's parody of 1940's predictions of the future.  Behold, the Kitchen of Tomorrow, complete with fully automatic kitchen control cockpit and streamlined baby pod! 

Sunrise Serenade: It's A Great World After All

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "It's A Great World After All" by Don Redman and His Orchestra.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

The Lindy Hops On

The Red Hot Lindy Hop lesson and session continues this Friday night at the Rumba Room.  Free lesson at 7:00 p.m.  Free admission before 7:00, and $5 cover at the door afterwards.  Lesson by Matt and Jasmine with music by DJ Kimmie.  Dress like you are going out!

Rumba Room

303 South Main

Memphis, TN 38103

The Tiger Rag lessons and guided practice sessions are in full swing at the Madison Dance Studio in Minglewood Plaza, 1555 Madison Ave Memphis, TN 38104.  Learn more and register here. 

Sunrise Serenade: Sweet Sue, Just You

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "Sweet Sue, Just You" by Artie Shaw and his Orchestra.  Click on the song title for a sample from emusic.  You can find the album page here.

P-40 Warhawk Cockpit 360

The Air & Space Magazine site has a "Cockpit 360" feature that features complete panoramic photos from the cockpits of several aircraft in Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum collection, including one of my favorites, the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, made famous by the American Volunteer Group (AVG) in China, also known as "Flying Tigers."  To coincide with The Discovery Channel's "Shark Week," ASM also has an article on the use of the shark design in aircraft nose art, which began well before the Flying Tigers. 

Sunrise Serenade: Barnyard Boogie

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "Barnyard Boogie" by Louis Jordan.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line.

All's Fair At The Fair

For some reason, I've been seeing a lot about the 1930's World's Fairs in Chicago (1934) and New York (1939) recently.  Thus, it seemed appropriate to post this encore from 2010.  A rural couple visit the 1939 World's Fair.  From Fleischer Studios and the Internet Archive, here is All's Fair At The Fair.

Sunrise Serenade: The Dipsy Doodle

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "The Dipsy Doodle" by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra with Edythe Wright on vocals.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Just A Story

"Just A Story" was, according to Four Color Shadows, an anthology series that featured a different story in every issue of Comic Cavalcade.  In this first installment, a scientist invents a time machine, inadvertently activates it, and winds up falling in love with Joan of Arc.  Noting that the pair did not live happily ever after is hardly a spoiler. 

Sunrise Serenade: The Song Is Ended

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "The Song Is Ended" by Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers.  Enjoy the video from YouTube. 

Playlist For August 14, 2013

The playlist for the August 14, 2013 broadcast of the Swing Shift Shuffle has been added to the playlist filing cabinet.  

How To Make Friends By Telephone

When I got my first office job back in [CENSORED], proper telephone etiquette was still a topic of employee orientation.  This booklet, How To Make Friends By Telephone, posted on Retronaut, contains many of the same recommendations, even though it was published many decades before my experience as a young lad.  Although the title suggests the purpose of the book was to advise telephone users about social calls, the contents indicate the intended audience was business users.

Sunrise Serenade: Safe, Sane And Single

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "Safe, Sane And Single" by Louis Jordan.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Live Music At The Lindy Hop And More Music Saturday

The Red Hot Lindy Hop lesson and session continues this Friday night at the Rumba Room with live music by Davy Ray and the Moon Crickets.  Free lesson at 7:00 p.m.  Free admission before 7:00, and $7 cover at the door afterwards.  Lesson by Kirk and Erin.  Dress like you are going out!

Rumba Room

303 South Main

Memphis, TN 38103

You can also check out Jeremy Shrader's Hot Memphis Four Saturday night at as part of Epicenter at the Madison Dance Studio in Minglewood Plaza, 1555 Madison Ave Memphis, TN 38104.  Free with Epicenter registration, and $10 for a dance only pass. 

The Tiger Rag lessons and guided practice sessions are in full swing at the Madison Dance Studio.  Learn more and register here. 

Sunrise Serenade: Wham (Re Bop Boom Bam)

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "Wham (Re Bop Boom Bam)" by Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line.

Depression Era Predictions of Home Shopping And "Like" Buttons

According to an article in the February 1935 issue of Radio Craft magazine, discussed on Paleofuture, television of the future would combine Skype, Facebook, the Home Shopping Channel and print capability.  These sets would allow you to interact with the subjects on the screen, provide feedback about the programming (think "Like" button), purchase memorabilia like an autographed photograph, and print same in the comfort of your living room. 

Sunrise Serenade: Five Guys Named Moe

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "Five Guys Named Moe" by Louis Jordan and His Typani Five.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Superman: The Mad Scientist

In this encore from a 2009 post, the Man of Steel faces a diabolical scientist.  From the Internet Archive, here is the 1941 animated short, The Mad Scientist.

Sunrise Serenade: Saturday Night Fish Fry

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "Saturday Night Fish Fry" by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Terry & The Pirates: The Dragon Lady

Terry & the Pirates was a popular newspaper comic that became a comic book.  It also became a movie serial, which I have watched.  Despite being the titled character, Terry was not really the hero, but more of a (slightly annoying - in the serial anyway) kid.  His friend, Pat Ryan, was the man of action type.  Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine posted this edition from the late 1940's. 

Sunrise Serenade: Sepia Panorama

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "Sepia Panorama" by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line.

Playlist For August 7, 2013

WEVL was off the air from about 11:00 p.m. last night until just before 8:00 p.m. tonight due to technical difficulties.  As a result, although I prepared and played a show (so the engineer could use the signal check the equipment), only a few minutes of the August 7, 2013 Swing Shift Shuffle were actually broadcast.  Regardless, the playlist for that show has been added to the playlist filing cabinet.  

Dietrich Out On The Town

I do not know the occasion of this photograph posted on Film Noir Photos, the subjects of which include Delores DelRio, Douglas Fairbanks and Basil Rathbone, as well as Marlene Dietrich; but judging by their attire, I'm guessing a fancy dress party. 

Sunrise Serenade: Dinah

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "Dinah" by the Benny Goodman Quartet.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

School Days Lindy Hop And Live Music Next Week

The Red Hot Lindy Hop lesson and session continues this Friday night at the Rumba Room.  Free lesson at 7:00 p.m.  Free admission before 7:00, and $5 cover at the door afterwards.  Lesson by Jaredan and Becky with music by Jaredan.  Dress like you are going out!

Rumba Room

303 South Main

Memphis, TN 38103

Next week:  Live music from Davy Ray and the Moon Crickets.

The Tiger Rag lessons and guided practice sessions are in full swing at the Madison Dance Studio in Minglewood Plaza, 1555 Madison Ave Memphis, TN 38104.  Learn more and register here. 

Sunrise Serenade: Stormy Weather

Today's Sunrise Serenade was "Stormy Weather" by Lena Horne.  Enjoy the video from YouTube.

Futureliners On Film

In 1940, GM began its "Parade of Progress," a cross country tour exhibiting new cars and technology.  The stages for and main attractions of this roadshow were twelve specially designed GM buses christened the "Futurliners."  Their sides would open up to reveal the latest gadgets.  World War II halted the parade, but it recommenced in the 1950's.  Of the twelve Futurliners, around nine are known to exist in various conditions.  One sold for $4,000,000 at auction in 2006.  The Hemmings blog posted this GM promotional film featuring the Futurliners in their 1941 configuration.

Sunrise Serenade: School Days

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "School Days" by Louis Jordan.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line. 

Betty Boop With Henry, The Funniest Living American

In this 1935 animated short, everyone's favorite Boo-boo-be-doop girl, Betty Boop, teams up with Henry, "The Funniest Living American."  Apparently, Henry was a well-known newspaper comic strip character at the time.  In this cartoon, Henry agrees to keep an eye on Betty's pet shop while she is out, in exchange for a puppy.  Some things go wrong, of course, but he helps Betty fix everything, and she gives him the pup.  From the Internet Archive, here is Betty Boop With Henry. 

Sunrise Serenade: King Porter Stomp

This morning's Sunrise Serenade was "King Porter Stomp" by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line.

Inferno: The Flame Breather

The Inferno's superpower was (as the post title suggests) the ability to breathe fire, which he only used twice, on the same page, in this 1941 comic posted on Four Color Shadows.  Even then, it was hardly an "inferno," since he just used the flames to melt some handcuffs. 

Sunrise Serenade: Old Mother Hubbard

Although it may be a bit late, today's Sunrise Serenade was "Old Mother Hubbard" by Ella Fitzgerald.  Click on the song title to listen courtesy of Jazz On Line.