Down Memory Lane...Again, via Sound Of Music!

Picture courtesy: Pixie

We watched this movie, 'Sound of music', a 1965 movie, again, yesterday when my nieces came home! We keep watching this movie, Gods Must Be Crazy II and some other movies which are not serious ones but very interesting, often! We can continue chatting while watching these movies! All the songs in this movie are beautiful and we can keep on hearing them again and again, like we do at home, now!

I had already done a post on one song from this movie, though the scene was not from the movie, but was very interesting, here, it is!

I am posting a song from this movie, in which they show a puppet show, titled 'The lonely Goatherd'. More than the song, I loved the way the puppets 'acted' with expression! I loved their huge moving eyes and the dance, superb! Watch every frame keenly...very very interesting! I got the lyrics of the song too, here!





These types of puppets are called Marionettes. Wikipedia says, 'Marionettes are sometimes referred to as "puppets", but the term "marionettes" is more precise, distinguishing them from other forms of puppetry, such as finger, glove, rod and shadow puppetry.' In normal puppet, the eyes do not move, just the hands, legs etc. move. The faces will turn, that is all.

Bil Baird and Cora Baird are the puppeteers in this movie. Their biography says, 'Bil Baird and his wife, Cora Baird, the driving forces behind the Bil & Cora Baird Puppets, were pioneer entertainers in U.S. TV, when commercial television in the States was taking its first baby steps. Much of what early viewers could view on that seven-inch screen, with its eerie, whitish glow in a darkened room where a family gathered round to watch in wonder, had come from radio. But the Bairds' medium - their marionettes - was strictly visual, and the audience was regaled. You can know more interesting information about marionettes in the wikipedia link for Marionettes, given in the above paragraph.

In the 1950s, Bil Baird and Cora Eisenberg presented a great number of marionette shows for television, and were also responsible for the Lonely Goatherd, from the classic film, The Sound of Music. Bil Baird also wrote a classic book on his work . In Australia, a program called Mr.Squiggle, using a marionette central character of the same name, ran for just over 40 years (1959–1999).

Now, watch the video again and again and tell me how you feel!

Sound Of Music On A Railway Platform

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When my children were small, we were in Bangalore. Whenever a good children's movie or Disney movie was released, I used to take my two sons (the children were around 2 and 4 year olds), to watch these movies. Most of these types of movies were released in Rex theatre, which was/is in Cantonment (the children's movies were tax free too, in those days!). From Majestic Bus Terminus, we used to go by Double Decker Bus (the children always preferred to sit on the upper level of the bus. Most of the time, it was empty and these two would run here and there and peep out to watch the miniature vehicles from the window and I can still hear their laughter (the year must have been around 1980-81). Don't get shocked - I used to buy each, a bunch of raw groundnut plants - and eat the seeds all the way to the theatre. The plants were always clean as far as I remember. My children had always been healthy and I don't remember them falling sick after eating the raw nuts. I don't think I will let anybody else, whether they are children or adults, to buy these things and eat without washing, now!

We had seen 'Snow white', 'Jungle Book', Charlie Chaplin movies, 'Sound of Music' and many other movies in that theatre. We used to have cakes and ice creams in the 'Nilgiris shop' at the ground floor of the theatre or next door, I don't remember exactly and come back home by auto. We enjoyed those days...which will never come back! When my friend sent me this video, I remembered those happy days and wanted to share them with you!

Now read this and watch the video. I noticed that some readers are not able to open the videos and so I am giving the URL too.

All the dancers and onlookers are looking so happy, here!

More than 200 dancers were performing their version of "Do Re Mi", in
the Central Station of Antwerp. with just 2 rehearsals they created
this amazing stunt! Those 4 fantastic minutes started on the 23rd of March
2009, at 08:00 AM. It is a promotion stunt for a Belgian television
program, where they are looking for someone to play the leading role,
in the musical of "The Sound of Music".

My whole family will go down memory lane, while watching this video...hey sons, have a look! Thank you for the happy memories!

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