Marlene Dietrich Plays the Musical Saw (aka the Singing Saw) to Entertain the Troops During WWII

in Film, Music | February 2nd, 2015

It’s not my favorite Mar­lene Diet­rich gem on the inter­net. No, that would be her tem­pera­men­tal screen test for The Blue Angel  (1930). But it’s still a pre­cious find. Above, we have an audio clip fea­tur­ing Diet­rich, one of the tow­er­ing movie stars of ear­ly cin­e­ma, play­ing the musi­cal saw. Andrea James writes over at Boing­Bo­ing: “Diet­rich always want­ed to be a clas­si­cal musi­cian. Since her cabaret act and film career left lit­tle time for her to do the required prac­tice, she played the musi­cal saw instead. Through­out World War II she wowed USO audi­ences with the nov­el­ty.” And that’s what we get a taste of here. In oth­er clips avail­able on Youtube, you can find Diet­rich play­ing her “singing saw,” and again play­ing the musi­cal saw on the radio, cir­ca 1945.

via

Fol­low us on Face­book, Twit­ter and Google Plus and share intel­li­gent media with your friends. Or bet­ter yet, sign up for our dai­ly email and get a dai­ly dose of Open Cul­ture in your inbox.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Ernest Hemingway’s “Love Let­ter” to His “Dear­est Kraut,” Mar­lene Diet­rich (1955)

Mar­lene Dietrich’s Tem­pera­men­tal Screen Test for The Blue Angel

101 Free Silent Films: The Great Clas­sics

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 2 ) |

Auschwitz Captured in Haunting Drone Footage (and a New Short Film by Steven Spielberg & Meryl Streep)

in History | February 1st, 2015

Drones can give us an extra­or­di­nary view of cities still in their prime — cities like Los Ange­les, New York, Lon­don, Bangkok & Mex­i­co City. They can also give us a rare glimpse of places no longer inhab­it­ed, places qui­et­ed by the unspeak­able. We’ve shown you a drone’s-eye view of Cher­nobyl. This week, it’s Auschwitz. Shot by the BBC, this sober­ing footage car­ries us over the mas­sive Nazi con­cen­tra­tion, built in South­ern Poland, where 1.1 mil­lion peo­ple died dur­ing World War II, most of them (90%) Euro­pean Jews. Many died in the gas cham­bers. Oth­ers of star­va­tion, forced labor, infec­tious dis­eases, and sadis­tic med­ical exper­i­ments.

On this web­site, you can also watch a new­ly-released short doc­u­men­tary on Auschwitz. Pro­duced by Steven Spiel­berg and nar­rat­ed by Meryl Streep, it pre­miered last week before 300 Holo­caust sur­vivors in Auschwitz, help­ing to com­mem­o­rate the 70th anniver­sary of the lib­er­a­tion of the camp.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent

How Alice Herz-Som­mer, the Old­est Holo­caust Sur­vivor, Sur­vived the Hor­rif­ic Ordeal with Music

Mem­o­ry of the Camps (1985): The Holo­caust Doc­u­men­tary that Trau­ma­tized Alfred Hitch­cock, and Remained Unseen for 40 Years

The Touch­ing Moment When Nicholas Win­ton Met the Chil­dren He Saved Dur­ing the Holo­caust

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 8 ) |

« Go Back
Quantcast