Movies
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Kyser’s band appeared in several motion pictures, usually as themselves, beginning with the successful That’s Right You’re Wrong (1939) and You'll Find Out (1940). Some of the films built a plot around the band. Around the World (1943) fictionalized the band's international tours of military camps, and Swing Fever of 1943 supposed that Kyser was blessed with a hypnotic eye. In Carolina Blues (1944), Kyser has to replace his lead singer (Carroll) who has run off to get married. Caught in a jam, he reluctantly hires the daughter of a powerful defense plant owner, played by Ann Miller. Two of the band’s best-known performance appearances were in 1943 when they appeared in the wartime films Stage Door Canteen and Thousands Cheer, both of which were produced to boost the morale of troops and their families.
Kyser also appeared as a light comedian; he acted with (and was billed above) John Barrymore in John Barrymore's final film Playmates (1941). Kyser is the dupe in a scam where Barrymore pretends to teach him how to act in Shakespearean drama. Kyser’s personal performing style was enthusiastic and comical. Unlike most bandleaders of the time, Kyser danced and sang with his band, as illustrated during the group’s performance of “I Dug a Ditch” in Thousands Cheer and other film appearances.
After the war, Kyser’s band continued to record hit records, including two featuring Jane Russell as vocalist. It’s All Up to You features vocals by Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore, although Kyser's participation in this recording is disputed, record label showing Axel Stordahl as conductor. Kyser had intended to retire following the end of the war, but performance and recording contracts kept him in show business for another half decade. During this time, Kyser made a cameo appearance in a Batman comic book. Kyser was first to introduce the new sonic audio process called the 'sonovox', a singing electronic voice triggered by music. The Sonovox would be used by Jingle Companies such as PAMS and JAM Creative Productions, and said jingles would be used in heavy rotation by rock radio stations like WABC, WMEX, WXYZ, KONO, WKDA, WHTZ, to name a few.
Read more about this topic: Kay Kyser
Famous quotes containing the word movies:
“It’s the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it. Everybody has their own America, and then they have the pieces of a fantasy America that they think is out there but they can’t see.”
—Andy Warhol (1928–1987)
“I asked her if she wanted to go to the movies that night. She laughed again and told me that she felt like seeing a Fernandel movie. When we got dressed, she seemed very surprised to see me wearing a black tie and asked me if I was in mourning. I told her that my mother was dead. Since she asked me since when, I answered, “Since yesterday”.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Commercial jazz, soap opera, pulp fiction, comic strips, the movies set the images, mannerisms, standards, and aims of the urban masses. In one way or another, everyone is equal before these cultural machines; like technology itself, the mass media are nearly universal in their incidence and appeal. They are a kind of common denominator, a kind of scheme for pre-scheduled, mass emotions.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–62)