Warner Bros. owned Brunswick Records for several years and in the final
scene -- the "delivery" scene -- of "Public Enemy" (1931) they linger
quite a while on a Brunswick record being played by Cagney's mother,
"I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles". It uses the older label format since the
song was from around 1922.
Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Phonographs in (Early-to-Mid-Century) Film
From: "J.D. Connor" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, September 26, 2014 11:03 am
To: [log in to unmask]
Dear Kyle,
Hey Kyle,
Indeed they did. Have a look at the promotion for RKO’s first feature,
Syncopation, which featured Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians—then on
RCA-owned Victor. If Radio Pictures was the most assiduous, all the
major studios participated in the mad scramble for sonic talent in the
late twenties. Even before the advent of sound, Victor pursued such
tie-ins, as in Keaton’s Navigator where Wilfred Glenn’s Asleep in
the Deep haunts Buster (~29 minutes in). Have a look at the end of
Warners’ Baby Face, as the forerunner of Penny Serenade. The great
French films sonore have similar ties to Pathe and Tobis.
J.D. Connor
Yale University
On Sep 26, 2014, at 10:08 AM, Barnett, Dr. Kyle
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello, all:
>
> I hope you can help me with beginnings of a research project.
>
> I’m gathering examples of phonographs, gramophones, graphophones, etc. in early-to-mid-century U.S. cinema. Among my favorite examples: “Penny Serenade” (1941), an Irene Dunne/Cary Grant tear jerker, in which the playing of records frames the narrative remembrance of a romance.
>
> My question: did specific record companies have what we would now call “product placement” deals with recording companies? I would be surprised if they didn’t, particularly by the 1930s when the film, recording, and radio industries were increasingly intertwined.
>
> Any sources you can suggest — or other phonograph/film examples (I have a growing list) — would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Best,
>
> Kyle Barnett
>
> Kyle S. Barnett
> Associate Professor, Media Studies
> School of Communication
> Bellarmine University
> 2001 Newburg Road
> Louisville, KY 40205
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> https://bellarmine.academia.edu/KyleBarnett
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