Roy Smeck: Wizard of the Strings
On Cinema • 27m
Directed by Peter Friedman • Documentary • With Roy Smeck, Gene Autry, Arthur Tracy, Mel Bay • 1984 • 27 minutes
In 1926, Warner Brothers premiered the first sync-sound film ever made. It featured a largely unknown vaudeville performer named Roy Smeck. The film showcased Roy’s virtuosity on the guitar, the ukulele, and the banjo, and it made him a major national star overnight, with appearances in many other films, his name on guitars and sheet music, and ultimately he became a major influence on American pop culture, popularizing these instruments as never before. This Academy Award—nominated short includes archival footage of Roy in the 1920’s and 1930’s, his farewell performance at the age of 82, and testimonials from Gene Autry, Arthur (Pennies from Heaven) Tracy, Mel Bay and others.
Up Next in On Cinema
-
A Bit of Scarlet
Directed by Andrea Weiss • Documentary • With Ian McKellen • 1996 • 74 minutes
Billed as 'a kind of post-modern queer soap opera for Britain', Andrea Weiss' documentary tells a sharp story. She evaluates the way gay and lesbian people have been depicted in mainstream British film and television....
-
Hal (a film about Hal Ashby)
Directed by Amy Scott • Documentary • With Hal Ashby, Norman Jewison, Haskell Wexler • 2018 • 90 minutes
Although Hal Ashby directed a remarkable string of acclaimed, widely admired classics throughout the 1970s—HAROLD AND MAUDE, THE LAST DETAIL, SHAMPOO, COMING HOME, BEING THERE—he is often ove...
-
Marcel Ophuls and Jean-Luc Godard
Directed by Frederic Choffat and Vincent Lowy • Documentary • With Marcel Ophuls, Jean-Luc Godard • 2010 • 44 minutes
In 2009, in a small theater in Geneva, Switzerland, the film directors Marcel Ophuls and Jean-Luc Godard met for an unusual, surprisngly intimate and sometimes contentious dialog...
