[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Bio Movies

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Hey pat,

Why don't you say what you really think...

Don't hold back...

--Bob Ringwald


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "pat ladd" <pj.ladd at btinternet.com>
To: "Bob Ringwald" <robert at ringwald.com>
Cc: "jazz" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 3:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz Bio Movies


> bio movies, jazz or otherwise are like TV news Just entertainment.>>
>
> TV News, just entertainment?  What a seditious idea.  What do you expect, 
> facts?.
>
> Seriously though, it is quite obvious from the replies that people 
> approach the films from different viewpoints. From the well informed who 
> criticize the music (disgraceful, did you hear that, they played it in E 
> flat when everyone knows is written in F)  to the knowledgeable who 
> dispute the facts ( the lead tenor was born in August not September) to 
> the ( it was a beautiful love story) or (I`d like to get inside the 
> knickers of that June Allyson).
> Similarly different film goers take away different things as  the posts 
> show. Someone became a jazz enthusiast, you learned to play `DYKWIM`, 
> someone else dicovered the Glenn Miller sound. Dammit, I wanted to be Tom 
> Mix, but the film maker wants to take away money, and he is not going to 
> do that with a film of Buddy Rich cursing his sidesmen.
> Calling these films `bio`s is not fair. They do not pretend to be. Films 
> are not documentaries. It is the `Glen Miller STORY`,  the `Benny Goodman 
> STORY` etc not the GM Biography. Real life is not well ordered enough to 
> make a good story. In a film an action has to have a trigger or a 
> motivation. In real life we lurch from crisis to crisis in a pretty 
> unscripted sort of way. I am sure that if any of us sat down to write the 
> story of our lives we would pretty soon edit great chunks of it.
> When I started this thread with my observation about a great clip of Jimmy 
> Stewart and June Allyson visiting the club to see Louis and commenting 
> about seeing Teagarden, Krupa etc I was alluding to that clip, not the 
> whole film which I would rate as agreeable entertainment. Similarly in 
> `High Society`, an enjoyable film, in spite of Grace Kelly, who couldn`t 
> act her way out of a paper bag, the high spot is watching Bing and Louis 
> interact and seeing Trummy Young and Barret Deems etc `le toute ensemble`
>
> Let us just be thankful that however they distort the facts these film 
> makers made it possible for us to see and hear musicians of whom little 
> record exists except as an un named sidesman on a scratchy 78.
>
> Cheers
>
> Pat
>
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