Song Of The Day 6/29/2013: Betty Clair - "Scopitone Party"

Scopitone Week: We close out this themed week of presentations with a peppy celebration of the Scopitone, which goes a long way to prove these things actually did exist since you can see people dancing around them. It's a shame they didn't pan out in America. I would imagine that patrons of drinking establishments had other things on their minds than stuffing quarters into a vending television to watch singers they never heard of singing French songs to them. But while the unique, sex-and-candy aesthetic of Scopitone films is a product of its time, the importance they had in the development of promotional music films, music videos, and MTV can't be ignored.

Well, actually, yeah, the Scopitone can pretty much be ignored. But it got there first. Viva le Scopitone!