REET, PETITE, AND GONE
Preshow Entertainment = THE TAMI SHOW
I knew only a little about this video. And we didn't get to see a whole lot of it. So I looked it up on IMDB. The Tami Show was meant to be an awards show to assist in music education. But instead, it became a music program. Shot in 1964 in Santa Monica, The Tami Show (which somehow stands for "Teenage Music International"), had the most amazing roster and trivial facts. Rather than name them, I'll just cut and post from a guy's review on IMDB: http://imdb.com/title/tt0058631/usercomments
"Turn on my VCR, same one I've had for years. James Brown on TAMI Show, same tape I've had for years." - From "When the World is Going Down You Make The Best of What's Still Around", The Police (1980).
(SHOCKING FACT: This song is now 22 years old; however, when it was released, THE TAMI SHOW was only 16 years old.)
April's Random Movie was REET, PETITE, AND GONE.
Okay, here's a coincidence. We went from the pre-selected TAMI SHOW, a performance piece from the '60s, to this offering, a performance piece from the '40s.
This all black swing-musical from 1947 was just an excuse to showcase the great Louis Jordan. Thin on plot (with all the constructs of a daytime soap opera on FOX), this movie had to be the PURPLE RAIN of its time. I'd say half of its 67 minutes was performance, and the rest a plot that Lucy Ricardo might have hatched. That said, it was no-lose viewing. The performances were amazing ("Let the Good Times Roll", "Dig Those Gams, Sam", "Ain't That Just Like A Woman", "That Chick's Too Young To Fry"), and we even sang along with Louis on a call & response song about green grass growing all around a hole in the ground with some roots and a tree and a limb and a nest and an egg and a bird and feathers), and the acting so bad, Joel Hodgson would have passed on this movie deeming it "too easy."
A few highlights? Well, after an hour, the screen lights up with "Please Pardon Us As We Switch Reels." And hep/hip dialogue (something) like, "Let that be a lesson to us" ----> "Well, that's a lesson I'm not learning!" I wish I could remember what REET means. I think it's hipster for "real neat."
The lesson I learned from many of the supporting players? If you smile a lot, and look like you're having a lot of fun, you don't have to have talent.
So we made jokes, and sang, and had fun.
Tags: random movie club, reet, petite, and gone, the tami show, louis jordan
