Another find via Reddit: a database covering popular music in movies and television from the 1920s to 1981. It’s called Lights, Camera Backbeat. From the About page: “LCB starts at the beginning of synchronised sound and film with early Vitaphone and Phonofilm musical shorts in the 1920’s and continues up to the birth of MTV in 1981. The 1980’s launched a new era in music on film with a massive increase in music videos produced for TV use as well as home video product on VCR and Betamax. Prior to 1981 there were often only limited chances to see major pop music performers on TV and in the cinema, particularly if you lived outside the USA.” I did a couple of quick searches; the database did not contain Paul Anka’s performances in GIRLS TOWN and did not contain Mamie Van Doren’s songs from UNTAMED YOUTH. So lots of results, but nowhere near complete.
1950s
“Open Memory Box”: An Online Archive with 415 Hours of Life in the GDR Captured on 8mm Films (IRTG Diversity)
It’s not often I include an event invitation in ResearchBuzz, but this archive looks fantastic. From IRTG Diversity: “Open Memory Box”: An Online Archive with 415 Hours of Life in the GDR Captured on 8mm Films. “Stretching the limits of new media technologies, this interactive archive builds on 415 hours of private films made by 149 East German families between 1947 and 1990. Initiated in 2013 by the Swedish-German film produce Alberto Herskovits and the Canadian professor of political science Laurence McFalls, the project has drawn on the skills of over thirty employees to collect, digitize, view and tag 2283 films contributed to the project. The result is a unique treasure chest for historians, artists, educators and the interested public.” When Germany was split into east and west, the eastern part was known as GDR ( German Democratic Republic).
DigitalNC: DigitalNC adds 700+ issues of Raleigh’s Carolinian newspaper
DigitalNC: DigitalNC adds 700+ issues of Raleigh’s Carolinian newspaper. “Issues of The Carolinian from 1945 to 1959 are now available on DigitalNC, after recently being transferred from a microfilm format to a digital one. This newspaper is still in print and based in Raleigh, North Carolina, where it shares news among its predominantly African American audience.”
Evening Express: Digital archive of traditional Scottish music to be created
Evening Express: Digital archive of traditional Scottish music to be created. “The British Library’s Unlocking Our Sound Heritage is a major £18.8 million sound preservation and access project which has seen the formation of the first ever network of 10 sound preservation centres, including one at the National Library of Scotland. The project, which received a £9.5 million National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, is looking to digitally preserve music made in Aberdeenshire from as early as the 1940s up to the 1980s.”
DigitalNC: Twenty years of The Chowan Herald are now available on DigitalNC
DigitalNC: Twenty years of The Chowan Herald are now available on DigitalNC. “Twenty years worth of The Chowan Herald has recently been transferred to a digital format from a microfilm one, and these issues are now available on DigitalNC. These new additions cover Edenton’s news from 1934 until 1956 and cover all manner of Chowan County news. This paper is made available thanks to our new partner Shepard-Pruden Memorial Library.”
The American Legion: Discover Legion history with more than 50 years of digitized newsletters
The American Legion: Discover Legion history with more than 50 years of digitized newsletters. “The American Legion Library & Museum works to encourage membership growth and public support of the Legion by providing access to key documents that tell the national organization’s continuing story. In our most recent initiative, the Library & Museum has completed the digitization of more than 50 years of American Legion national newsletters. These newsletters cover a timeframe, 1950-2000, that complements previously digitized material.”
The Center for the Performing Arts: NEA grant to fund media preservation project
The Center for the Performing Arts: NEA grant to fund media preservation project. “A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts will enable the Great American Songbook Foundation to digitize historic radio recordings featuring The Music Man creator Meredith Willson and make them available online for scholars worldwide. The recordings document Willson’s early career in the 1940s and ’50s, when he was a host and music director for several national radio shows, conducting ensembles like the San Francisco Symphony and talking with Hollywood and Broadway stars including Walter Pidgeon, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Frank Loesser and Dick Powell.”
