Panoram

Panoram was the trademark name of a visual jukebox that played short filmed musicals (the effect being the equivalent of 1980s music videos) popular within the United States during the 1940s. The device consisted of a jukebox playing a closed-loop 16mm film reel projected onto a glass screen.

The Panoram is now best known for the vast library of short, three-minute music videos that were created for it. Called Soundies,[1] these films featured most of the great musical stars of the period, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Cab Calloway. Most of the approximately 1800 Soundies films survive and are considered a priceless archive of 1940s popular music and performers.

The Panoram was priced at $1000 per unit (more than $10,000 in 2006 dollars). It was generally seen in bars, cafes, and upscale dancing establishments where they ran as a curiosity. Following World War II, the device never recovered its previous popularity due to competition from television.

The Soundies films were printed backwards (mirror image) so that they would appear in a correct orientation when played in a Panoram machine. A Panoram was the size of a refrigerator and employed a series of mirrors to reflect the image from a projector onto a 27-inch, rear-projection, ground-glass screen in a tight, enclosed cabinet. The popular machines were first produced in 1939 by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago, Illinois, (which also made art-deco, fancy slot machines) and found their way into countless soda shops, taverns, bus and train stations, and other public places across America. The specially made 16mm films ran in a continuous loop and stopped when a notch cut at the end of each film tripped a microswitch, engaging a step-back relay. The patron could then put another dime in the machine -- there was no choice of film title, so the patron would see whatever Soundie was next in the queue. The Panoram mechanics were housed in an Art Deco, high-quality wood cabinet. With the beginning of World War II, production of the Soundies and Panoram machines was drastically reduced due to a wartime shortage of raw materials, and the Mills Panoram's 1940 success quickly faded.

In the early 1940s, bandleader Al Donahue made 7 or 8 of the first "Soundies" at Radio City Music Hall, some of which are available on YouTube.

The basic concept behind the Panoram would be revived in the early 1960s with the Scopitone.

Documentaries

Three documentaries have been produced about Soundies. Don McGlynn produced and edited "The Soundies" in 1986, hosted by Cab Calloway; the film was broadcast nationally on PBS. Dewey Russell compiled an hourlong, direct-to-video history, "Soundies: Music Video from the '40s" in 1987, narrated by Michael Sollazzo. Chris Lamson produced "Soundies: A Musical History," hosted by Michael Feinstein23 in 2007, for PBS.

References
  1. Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda, The Soundies Book: A Revised and Expanded Guide, iUniverse, 2007; ISBN 978-0595679690
  • Mills Panoram – A site for information and parts for the Panoram
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