[78-L] Fabulous Feinstein PBS series

[Cary Ginell]

Ken Bloom, the director of the show, is also the author of "The American Songbook," a wonderful coffee table sized book that details the lives and careers of just about all of the major and mid-major Tin Pan Alley songsmiths, singers, and performers. Feinstein wrote the foreword but it obviously has his mark. I've met Feinstein on several occasions, and he is as congenial and approachable as he is modest about his talents. Instead of a singer who collects, I think he's more of a collector who happens to sing. A good guy to have on our side.
 
Cary Ginell
 
> From: mbiel at mbiel.com
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:10:38 -0700
> Subject: [78-L] Fabulous Feinstein PBS series
> 
> I just got a chance to watch a re-run of this week's first installment
> of three episodes of Michael Feinstein's American Songbook and it was
> FANTASTIC. He is a collector like us -- I think he said he has 15,000
> records -- and we see him in his collection, library, transfer studio,
> warehouse, buying expositions, visiting families of departed musicians
> to gather their collections into his, etc. He also had some pointed
> things to say about Mitch Miller that would strike a chord with many in
> this group. This episode was about the classic American standards and
> how they were performed in the 40s and then in the 50s. He had been
> close to Rosemary Clooney -- performing with her in over 200 concerts --
> and when he started showing a Sing Along With Mitch he said some nice
> things about him but explained that Miller's concept was to make an
> interesting sounding record rather than make a record of the song. And
> then he discussed that many songs in the 50s were sub-standard anyway. 
> 
> 
> The other thing I loved about the program was that not only did I not
> spot any factual errors, the production was done precisely as I would
> have wanted. While the program was widescreen 16 x 9, ALL of the film
> clips were played windowboxed, not cropped. We saw the full image, and
> widescreen TVs that would be showing the program to fill their screen
> would also see the full image of the clips -- with black stripes at the
> sides like it should be. The closing credits were also properly done. 
> The changes of the credit screens came with the rhythm of the song. 
> Each screen was arranged to not block essential picture elements and be
> easily readable -- including the screen of the archival sources. The
> voice-over for the DVD sale notice was also done to fit into the song's
> rhythm and construction. I had expected to see that Feinstein was the
> producer but there was one person who was listed as producer, director,
> and editor. I suppose he was selected by Feinstein because he had good
> production taste and/or followed the rules that Feinstein must have
> made. I am sure now that he probably got as pissed off as I did with
> the production of the Vaudeville and Broadway PBS series and other such
> mishmoshes and knew how to make sure it was done PROPERLY. 
> 
> 
> Next week's episode is about the war years and you'll recognize some of
> the clips, such as the Command Performance and Jubilee promotional
> films. 
> 
> 
> Mike Biel mbiel at mbiel.com
> 
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