Exotica
Martin Denny: "Quiet Village" from Webley Edwards' "Hawaii Calls"- 1950's
Here's a rare clip of Martin Denny and his group playing their most popular tune, "Quiet Village", on Webley Edwards "Hawaii Calls."
Martin Denny was an American piano-player and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing well into his 80s, he toured the world popularizing his brand of lounge music which included exotic percussion, imaginative rearrangements of popular songs, and original songs that celebrated Tiki culture.
His combo spawned two successful offshoots: Julius Wechter (of Baja Marimba Band fame) and exotica vibist Arthur Lyman.
Hawaii Calls was a radio program that ran from 1935 through 1975 that featured live Hawaiian music. It was broadcast each week, usually from the courtyard of the Moana Hotel on Waikiki Beach but occasionally from other locations, and hosted by Webley Edwards for almost the entire run. The first show reached the West Coast of the continental United States through shortwave radio. At its height, it was heard on over 750 stations around the world. However, when it went off the air in 1975, only 10 stations were airing the show. Because of its positive portrayal of Hawaii, the show received a subsidy for many years—first from the government of the Territory of Hawaii, and then from the State of Hawaii. The termination of the subsidy was one of the reasons that the show went off the air.
ShareThisRuss Meyer: Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens trailer - 1979
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979) is a satirical sexploitation film starring Kitten Natividad and Ann Marie with a cameo by Uschi Digard. It was directed by American motion picture director Russ Meyer, and written by Roger Ebert and Meyer.
Russ Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American motion picture director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, actor and photographer.
Meyer is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful low-budget sexploitation films that featured campy humor, sly satire and voluptuous women.
ShareThisRuss Meyer: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! trailer - 1965
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is a 1965 exploitation film directed by Russ Meyer, who also wrote the script with Jack Moran. It stars Tura Satana, Haji, and Lori Williams.
The film features gratuitous violence, sexuality, provocative gender roles, and campy dialogue. It is one of Meyer's more boldly titled and unflinchingly exploitative films, yet unlike most of his movies, it contains virtually no nudity.
The film was shot in the extreme western parts of the Mojave Desert. However, some of the scenes appear to have been filmed farther east, near Baker, CA. The last scenes in the film were made west of California City, and the rail line running between Mojave, CA and Trona, CA is clearly evident.
Three thrill-seeking go-go dancers — Billie (Lori Williams), Rosie (Haji), and their leader, Varla (Tura Satana) — encounter a young couple in the desert while drag racing. After killing the boyfriend (Ray Barlow) with her bare hands, Varla drugs, binds, gags and kidnaps his girlfriend, Linda (Susan Bernard). On a desolate highway, the four stop at a gas station, where they see an old man (Stuart Lancaster) and his muscular, dimwitted son, Vegetable (Dennis Busch).
ShareThisA Jazz Etude - 1930's
Serendipitously Surreal!
In this serendipitously surreal short "A Jazz Etude," tap dance extrordinaire Billy Burt dances up a storm in top hat, tuxedo tail and cane.
Is he floating?
And that screwy soundtrack ... a mishmash of 'Flight of the Bumblebee,' ragtime fills, and 1930's jazz cliches, is remeniscent of Carl Stalling or Raymond Scott.
Still, I doubt they ever arranged any composition to include a single piano accompanied by 4 double-basses and tap dancer.
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The composer of this piece Lothar Perl was perhaps the best German composer of novelty piano music of all time. Unfortunately, he had to flee the Nazis during World War II and moved to America, where he found steady work as a studio musician and film composer, but unfortunately apparently never composed any more of the delightful, pensive, and masterful piano miniatures that (I think) had helped make his career in Germany, and certainly are his main legacy today.
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