From the "Learn Something New Every Day " Department (#17, 443)
Ladies and Gentleman, I give you the famous Vaudevillians:
Gus Visser and his Singing Duck!
Actually, due to a recent contract negotiation the Duck gets top billing.
But this isn't just a film scrap. From this site I learn that:
While, at first glance, just a bizarre oddity of the early sound era, this film clip is of actual historical note. It was made by Theodore Case in 1925 as a proof-of-concept for the sound-on-film process he was shopping around an all-silent Hollywood--a process that would eventually lead to the birth of the talkie in 1929's The Jazz Singer
Labels: Angst, Celebration, Creative Aquisitions Dept., Funny, General, Google, Heroes, Memory, money, panoptica, Random, Responsibility, the art of the blog
posted by Metro @ 12:40 pm
8 Comments:
Interesting. I guess somebody had to do it first. No wonder the duck got top billing.
Sehr interessant - das war schreklich, but at least it seems that no human was hurt in the making of this Filum
Where did his accent come from ?
wv dingous
@silverstar
Actually Visser was precisely the sort of reedy tenor who could make a living doing novelty songs in Vaudevlle. Ironically, many of them and the theatres where they found gainful employment, were sidelined by the talkies.
@G Eagle Esq
Yes, these days I'm sure PETA would have come down on the producers like a ton of rectangular building things.
I tried to find Mr. Visser's origins, but it's clear his status in (the after-) life has actually had a boost from the video hitting YouTube. After just one day this post in my little known-only-to-the-cognoscenti blog is on page three at Google.
Congratulations - a well-merited wider audience
Vee avait your prochaines triomphes
This has nothing to do with your post (which, in my flu-state, is befuddling), but I can't find your email, nor is it listed on your site anywhere.
Recently, I was hired by a school to do some storytelling. In selecting what stories I would tell, I realized that I had ghost story in which I made you the protagonist.
I recorded the show, so I need to edit the clips before I post them on my storyblog (http://shorteningtheroad.blogspot.com/). I wasn't planning on using your ghost story until October, but if you're interested, I can make available to you so you can have a listen, or even make the track available to your readers.
Whaddya think?
@Hobbes:
I dropped a comment on your blog ... Well one of them--you sure do have a number of 'em. Send me a message at metro61 at gmail--Looking forward to conversing with you.
And honoured to make my way into your story.
Magister Metrovius
Salve
I dinnae ken how to say it more felicitously that Her Grace La Raincoastaire :
"Quite so. Тя прави yer доноснича"
I wonder about the Duck - presumably she made some Gourmet happy
Vale
G E
wv dinsom
Are the Greeks infiltrating your WV
@G Eagle:
Mais 'Er Grace avais raison!
And I think it's the Chermans:
"Villy wass pished, und dinsome!"
However, I suspect they're Italian East Chermans: WV = "fiastasi"
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