RELEASED 6.4.2009
Mae West, Marlene Dietrich and More
Over the past forty plus years British film director Tony Palmer has established himself as one of the country’s foremost director’s of documentary and factual based films. One of Tony Palmers first successes was the film All My Loving which was released in 1968. Some seven years later Tony had the idea, encouraged by John Lennon to document the history of popular music. The result was the groundbreaking and award winning series of films made for television under the title “All You Need Is Love” The full series of films was released in 2008 to great critical and commercial acclaim. Volume five tackles the subject of Vaudeville and its very English equivalent Music Hall. Music Hall, as a description, means exactly what it says. A hall, usually at the back of a tavern or pub, in which music was performed by local entertainers for financial gain. It is thus the earliest example of a popular music industry. In a sense, through all its manifestations, music hall or vaudeville or variety has remained true to this original description. Thus, the film begins and ends in Las Vegas (with Judy Garland), a palace of varieties to end all palaces of variety. En route, we travel via London’s Palace Theatre, the Palladium and the Windmill.