SCOPITONE MANIA!

I attended the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival on Saturday, and had a grand time. For those not familiar, the film festival features interesting and unusual 16mm short films. Saturday's program featured musical shorts.

The first few films almost knocked my and my friends out of our chairs. I had never seen anything like them. During intermission, I asked the organiser, Robert Emmett about them. It turns out that they are called "Scopitones." They were made for special video jukeboxes in the early 1960s. The Scopitone jukeboxes were expensive, and they never really caught on. There were only 500 of these sets made. The Scopitone videos were only made for a few years. They started in France, but made their way to America.

I bet that very few people know about these today.

Most of the videos centered around women that were curvy and easy on the eyes. The color and sound are vivid, and the dancers grin gleefully. A typical one is below. Keep in mind, these have much bigger impact on a larger screen, but the You Tubes will give you the general idea of what a Scopitone is like.



Here's a really outstanding one that's a little different:



Here's a neat one:


I hope you enjoyed these. I love them! If you want to see more on You Tube, just search under Scopitone, or click on the link.

If you want to order some Scopitones on DVD to watch at home, go to the Scopitone web site.

As I mentioned at the top, I just discovered these yesterday, and they are my new mania.