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Phoebe Snow (The Lady) On Film, On The Lackawanna, Of Course
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Author:  J3a-614 [ Fri Mar 13, 2015 7:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Phoebe Snow (The Lady) On Film, On The Lackawanna, Of Course

A most interesting bit of film, from very early in cinematic history--supposedly a parody of Lackawanna's Phoebe Snow advertising campaign, or alternately an advertising film with a bit of humor. I'll let you decide which, but one has to admit, with the music currently chosen, it's a pretty thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5W-LnzMO4w

I wonder if the film would have originally been by a ragtime tune. Ragtime wasn't always the bouncy, fast thing people today think it is;Scott Joplin was constantly advising players in the arrangement notes of his pieces not to play them too fast.

Ragtime always fast? Listen to Joplin's "Bethena," which is a beautiful little concert waltz, to get a glimpse of where ragtime could and did go.

Author:  Richard Glueck [ Fri Mar 13, 2015 8:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Phoebe Snow (The Lady) On Film, On The Lackawanna, Of Co

Very nice period film.

How would the verses have read, if Phoebe Snow was a character of the Diesel age?

"..keeping gown free from soil,
upon the road of Diesel oil."

Author:  PCook [ Fri Mar 13, 2015 9:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Phoebe Snow (The Lady) On Film, On The Lackawanna, Of Co

There are color EMD ads in several major magazines in the early 1950's that featured a modern version of Phoebe Snow with updated verses advertising diesels for General Motors.

PC

Author:  tim o'm [ Sun Mar 15, 2015 11:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Phoebe Snow (The Lady) On Film, On The Lackawanna, Of Co

In 1903, most films did not have scores to accompany them. A short film like this might have been viewed in a Nickelodeon rather than a theater. So you heard the sounds of other people watching and reacting to their movies.
I don't know what the first movie to have written sheet music to go with it was, but most movie parlors would have a pianist or organist just play a riff along to the scene. Usually very simple stuff, chase music, heroic themes, sappy homesick music, wedding march. I guess ragtime might have been played if the piano player liked it himself. In the days of silent movies, you heard what the man at the instrument felt like playing.

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