Rainy Days

Discussion in 'The Village Square' started by Doghouse Riley, Mar 28, 2023.

  1. Doghouse Riley

    Doghouse Riley Young Pine

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    This is one of them, so no gardening.


    So time for my other hobbies, among them are film noir, audio gear and my electric piano.

    This is a "cut & paste" I've just posted on an antique audio equipment message board.

    Humphrey Bogart made about forty-seven films. Some memorable, some not so.
    Among the best was Casablanca, where he played Rick, the owner of Rick's bar.
    Where he hears Dooly Wilson sing, “As Time Goes By” (the jury's out, as to whether it was he who actually played the piano).

    Among the “not so,” one might say, is this, perhaps someone had a, “Play it again Sam,” moment, maybe Bogart himself, as he is listed as co-producer, with a totally different production team.


    In 1949, he played, the owner of “Tokyo Joe's” bar, where on his return to Japan after the war, he hears, “These FoolishThings,” played on a phonograph in the bar's apartment, sung by his presumed dead wife, played by Florence Marly (she sang it).
    Sounding familiar?

    This film was recently shown on TV and as an admirer of Bogart, I found it embarrassing.

    But I discovered from where this photograph I've had for a few decades came. I've always been curious as to the make of the machine. It's obviously a real phonograph and not a prop, as later in the film you see him play a record on it.
    Anyone have any ideas?

    [​IMG]
    __________________________________


    I'd not heard the tune in years it's from 1936, so the sheet music is out of copyright, I found it on the internet downloaded it and printed it off.
    I'll learn to play it this afternoon, before I watch the tennis from Miami, on my laptop.
     
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  3. Doghouse Riley

    Doghouse Riley Young Pine

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    Of course you can get some odd looking phonographs (gramophones) in movies.
    Here's one that's about 90 years old. It has a mica diaphragm, steel needle, hollow tone arm so the sound can travel to a sound box (no amplifier). But it can play a track on an LP and it has speakers outside which can be turned on by a switch on the wall. It's being played at 78rpm.

    Terrie and the Carlas are fictitious too!



    But it is my favourite Christmas film.
     
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  4. Logan

    Logan Strong Ash

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    Is the film Casablanca with the phonograph player?
     
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  5. Doghouse Riley

    Doghouse Riley Young Pine

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    No it's in Tokyo Joe.
    Casablanca has Dooley Wilson playing "As Time Goes By," (twice) on the piano and it's used as "incidental music" throughout the film.

    Tokyo Joe has the record playing (twice) and the tune is also used as incidental music, another woman also sings it in the nightclub.

    There are a lot of deliberate similarities with the two films, even the dialogue between Bogart and Bergman and Bogart and Marly, but the latter sounds corny,
    Tokyo Joe comes off a poor second.

     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2023
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  6. Logan

    Logan Strong Ash

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    I couldn't find that one but i have found this from the 1930s
    1946443824.jpg
     
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  7. Doghouse Riley

    Doghouse Riley Young Pine

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  8. Logan

    Logan Strong Ash

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    I wonder why that's your favourite.;)
    I remember we had one in the 60s I used to play the record and let it wind down and then wind it back up, it was a big cabinet with nothing on the sides. Couldn't get radio on it.
     
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  9. Pacnorwest

    Pacnorwest Young Pine

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  10. Doghouse Riley

    Doghouse Riley Young Pine

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    There's always been an interest in vinyl, Particularly by those of an age (like me), when it was the only recorded medium.
    Like others, when reel to reel, cassettes, CDs and mp3s came along, we embraced those too, but kept playing the vinyl, we had. I like CDs, when they came out I was able to buy some jazz recordings which were now available as the vinyl versions had long been de-listed.

    This is my gear, all around fifty years old. They were made to last.



    But modern generations, have "discovered" vinyl, they think it's cool to have a record player (and there's plenty of rubbish ones being produced now.
    But vinyl is so much more expensive than CDs (CDs were so much more expensive than vinyl when they first came out, "a win, win" for the record producers). But it's still a novelty for those. I think it's a passing fad for the younger generations.

    I occasionally buy vintage vinyl 45s for my jukeboxes, but I wouldn't buy an album now, haven't bought one for thirty years. Historically, I found there were few albums where all the tracks were worth hearing. Now if I like something it's usually on YouTube and I can rip it on an mp3. The compression doesn't bother me.
    I make up iTunes playlists and use my jukebox wall boxes to select them and play them through my vintage hi-fi.

    It's my "nostalgia fix".




    As I mentioned it before, in this thread, I taught myself to play "These Foolish Things."

    https://app.box.com/s/bztwps1n7wz3xxprybb2xevquskf5far


    And today, (after I'd finished in the garden) because yesterday I saw it played on a YouTube video, I taught myself to play this.


    https://app.box.com/s/pulm7r9v7beptl3eyr740npdp22unbjn
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2023
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