Film archivist Dennis Nyback began collecting short music films to show Seattle audiences at the Rosebud Movie Palace in 1979. He fell in love with what he saw: celluloid 16mm time capsules of forgotten performers playing forgotten hits by forgotten composers. On Jan 8, 2012 at 5th Avenue Cinema, he takes off his film archivist hat and puts on his pop music historian hat to present a program inspired by Oregon Historical Society’s wonderful Oregon Rocks exhibit.

The Oregon Rocks exhibit comes down on March 4, 2012.

Before that happens, Dennis Nyback will present a supplementary program about Oregon’s first generation of pop musicians.

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When George Olsen was discovered in 1922 by Fanny Brice in Portland, his hometown, he was leading his band – George Olsen and His Music – in the Multnomah Hotel. Fanny brought him to New York. His peppy, infectious arrangements supplied the soundtrack of the Jazz Age. A huge national recording star, he also made it into the movies – on the soundtracks to some of the most lavish early musicals.

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Del Porter followed George Olsen to Broadway, appearing in Girl Crazy in 1930 and, as one of “The Foursome” in Anything Goes in 1934.  The above clip shows The Foursome (at  4:53 – 6:18) singing and playing their trademark ocarinas. Porter is the one who plays multiple instruments.

But Porter’s real contribution to American pop culture began in 1941 when Spike Jones, the drummer for Porter’s band The Feather Merchants, took over and renamed the group Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Porter remained with the City Slickers, as composer, arranger, performer and lead vocalist. Porter was from Newburg, Oregon.

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Of the three Oregon musicians Dennis Nyback will profile, Lee Morse is the most forgotten. She is also, paradoxically, the most prescient. Her sound, a unique amalgam of country and blues, was 40-50 years ahead of its time. Dennis Nyback, the first music historian to investigate Lee Morse as a jazz vocalist, will present a condensed version of the paper he presented on Morse at the 2010 Pacific Northwest History Conference. Lee Morse was born in Union County, Oregon.

Bottom line: If you want to learn about the musicians who pre-date Oregon Rocks, you can get a crash course on Jan. 8 at 2:00 PM at 5th Avenue Cinema

Come and get it!

Oregon Pop Machine is free and open to the public.

Go find out.

When you get back, here’s some movies which feature Oregon musicians:

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1. Whoopee (1930) George Olsen and His Music

Born and raised in Portland, George Olsen was discovered in 1923 and brought to Broadway where he wasted no time becoming a huge star. How huge? Whoopee, an early color film and an early sound film, was such an enormous financial gamble that Samuel Goldwyn had to make sure he had a sure fire draw on the soundtrack. His solution was a one two punch: Eddie Cantor PLUS George Olsen. It is Olsen’s band you hear all throughout Whoopee.

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2. Three Little Pigs (1933) Pinto Colvig

Pinto Colvig’s early career as a newspaper cartoonist kept getting stalled because he was prone to leaving with the circus every time it came to town. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Oregon, Pinto had his own career as an animator before going to work for Disney. He is sometimes given credit for helping write “Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?”, the song which got the country through the Great Depression. Everyone agrees that he sang it, as the voice of Practical Pig.  Like Mel Blanc, Pinto Colvig’s first identity as an artist was as a musician. He is most famous for providing the voice of Goofy.

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3. Born To Dance (1936) Del Porter

Del Porter, born and raised in Newberg, Oregon, was a singer, composer and arranger. He came to Hollywood as a member of the stupendously well behaved, ocarina playing quartet, The Foursome.   He left Hollywood as a member of Spike Jones’ musically anarchic City Slickers, whose virtuosic mashups inspired Adam Spiegel to rename himself. In the above clip, Porter is the second from the left in The Foursome behind Eleanor Powell.

I include Del Porter in this list, not because of the size of his contribution to Hollywood, because he is truly a footnote, but because of the size of Hollywood’s contribution to him. If Porter hadn’t gone to Hollywood, there would have been no City Slickers. He might have spent his entire life playing the ocarina.

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4. Gone With The Wind (1939) Louis Kaufman

Louis Kaufman’s parents were so disoriented by the prodigious gifts of their musical son that they sent him out on a six month tour of the vaudeville circuit at age ten. They came to their senses and sent him to Julliard three years later. Kaufman moved to Los Angeles because he liked the sun, and thought he would make his living teaching violin. Hollywood had other plans for him, and you can hear him now in over 400 classic Hollywood films. That’s him playing Tara’s Theme. Louis Kaufman was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.

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5. There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954) Johnnie Ray

Much to his own astonishment, which he does little to conceal, Johnnie Ray’s film debut took place alongside Mitzi Gaynor, Marilyn Monroe, Ethel Merman and Donald O’Connor. Awestruck and ill at ease, he looks exactly like what he is, a singer waiting, waiting, waiting for a chance to sing. Hollywood took note and never asked him to than play anything other than himself, ever again. Born and raised in Dallas, Oregon, Johnnie Ray crossed racial lines to embrace rhythm & blues, and in so doing paved the way to rock. A colossally original talent, Ray was deaf, and performed wearing his hearing aid.

The Soundie machine is used in this soundie as a frame to display the lyrics for the audience to sing along. In real life, this frame is where you would see the soundie itself.

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This soundie contains two rare visual referents – a Soundie machine and Mel Blanc himself. Soundies were short music films shown on a machine like a jukebox. Soundie machines were equipped with a screen, so when you put in your quarter, you both heard a song and saw it. You couldn’t make selections – you just took whatever was up next in line. The films were just that, actual 16mm films, each one spooled on its own reel. The image was projected onto a mirror inside, and reverse projected onto the screen.

Mel Blanc worked offscreen as Hollywood’s most prolific voice artist, so footage of him performing is not easy to find.