Unknown Artist: Polka Song | Soundie (1940s) ist ein Vintage Music-Titel im Archiv von frai.tv. Soundies waren rund dreiminütige Musikfilme, produziert 1940–1947 für münzbetriebene Panoram-Jukeboxen — die Musikvideos vor dem Fernsehen. Jazz, Swing und Big-Band-Auftritte der Ära.
Die Fassung wurde von remAIke.IT mit KI auf 8K (4K UHD) hochskaliert und restauriert — schärfer und klarer als die üblichen Online-Versionen. Kostenlos in voller Länge auf YouTube oder im Kontext der Reihe auf frai.tv.
Soundies were three-minute American musical films produced from 1940 to 1947 for the Mills Novelty Company's coin-operated "Panoram" jukebox, a 16mm rear-projection machine that played eight shorts for a dime in bars, diners, nightclubs and military bases. Over 1,850 titles were made by a series of affiliated companies (Globe, Cinemasters, Minoco, RCM, Filmcraft and others) and copyrighted/distributed by the Soundies Distributing Corporation of America, which issued a fresh reel weekly. Filmed in Hollywood, New York City and Chicago, they showcased Big Band, jazz and swing stars such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Louis Jordan, Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, and helped launch Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Liberace and Dorothy Dandridge. Widely regarded as the historic precursor of the modern music video, most surviving Soundies form a priceless archive of 1940s American popular music.
Produktion / Production: United States — primarily three production hubs: Hollywood, California (RCM Productions); New York City (Minoco Productions and the Mills/Fritz Pollard office, with numbers shot on a Bronx sound stage — the former Edison studio on Decatur Avenue — and rehearsed at Suntan Studios in Harlem); and Chicago, Illinois (Mills Novelty Company's own facility, est. 1942). Distributor: Soundies Distributing Corporation of America (subsidiary of Mills Novelty Company, Chicago)..