A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film - Hardcover

Barrios, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195088107 ISBN 13: 9780195088106

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Chronicling the early musical film years from 1926 to 1934, A Song in the Dark offers a fascinating look at these innovative films, the product of much of the major experimentation that went on during the development of sound technology. Illuminating the entire evolution of this new sound medium, Richard Barrios shows how Hollywood, seeking to outdo Broadway and vaudeville, recruited both the famous and the unknown, the newest stars and the has-beens, the geniuses and the hustlers. The results were unlike anything the world had seen or heard.
Here are the films - The Jazz Singer, The Broadway Melody, Love Me Tonight, 42nd Street - and their stars. Barrios highlights the careers of such legendary figures as Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Busby Berkeley, and Maurice Chevalier, and film newcomers like Jeanette MacDonald, Bing Crosby, and Ruby Keeler.

About this title

About the Author:

Richard Barrios is a film historian, musician, and freelance writer. He live in New York City.

Review:

"For anyone who is drawn to the American Movie Classics channel on cable, or the "Oldies" shelf at the local video store, Richard Barrios and his book will serve as a hugely well-informed and immensely authoritative...companion."--Los Angeles Times

"Fascinating and exhaustive....The general reader will find immense pleasure in the wealth of detail the author provides about those films that are long-forgotten and in most cases completely lost to the movie student."--The Stage

"With his definitive A Song in the Dark...Richard Barrios fills the gap with a zestful account of the teething problems the cinema encountered when it first found its voice and out on its dancing shoes....Informative and hugely entertaining."--The Sunday Express

"This book fills an important gap in literature on the early days of the musical film, and charts its rise in detail."--BBC Music

"Richard Barrios provides an in-depth look at Post-Depression Hollywood."--Tutti

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0195088107
• ISBN 13: 9780195088106
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512