Saturday, April 28, 2012

THE STRIP (1951) Mickey Rooney Monica Lewis Louis Armstrong Barney Bigard Jack Teagarden




I watched this movie yesterday on Turner Classic Movies. I had forgotten how good the music is in this picture. Starting with Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden. Plus Earl Fatha Hines and Barney Bigard. Extra added attraction is Monica Lewis.
 Some nice scenes of LA in 1951.
Monica Lewis is one of the song birds of that era that are little known now but were very big back then. I first learned of her when I found out the Japanese Record collectors are crazy for certain female vocalists of that era.  The original LPs of these women are highly sought after by collectors of  vinyl.  I once found a whole collection of these female vocalists in an estate sale of a former disc jockey from back in the day. They were not radio station copies that had been played. They were his private collection. And they were stored in nice wooden cabinets out of the daylight so not even the covers were faded in the slightest. The vinyl was perfect and they all looked unplayed.
   Several book dealers who buy records had passed them up because they had never heard of the white female songbirds from the 1940s and 1950s. And the estate sale guy wanted 3 dollars a piece and they thought that was too high a price. Little did they know.
I bought all the collectible vinyl LPs and the Japanese buyers loved them. One told me "Such nice perfect condition". Just what they are looking for.
If I can find photos of a few of the covers I will add pictures. I think they like the album covers of these beautiful women just like they like the original records on vinyl.
The above is a Japanese CD reissue of the original cover art and the music from that LP also.